Our Sacred Oaths (The Mafia Royalty Series Book 1), page 1
Our Sacred Oaths
BOOK 1 IN THE MAFIA ROYALTY SERIES
ADELINA TANEVA
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by Adelina Taneva
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design by TRC Designs
Created with Vellum
Contents
Author Note
Playlist
1. Changing of the Guard
2. No Happily Ever After
3. Kolya
4. Burning Ice
5. Rules and Traditions
6. Night Time Rituals
7. The Takeover
8. Pancake and Alliances
9. Pushing Boundaries
10. A Small Taste
11. The Final Conversation
12. A Mafia Wedding
13. Just a Scratch
14. First Seed of Hope
15. Breathe With Me
16. A Powerhouse
17. In The End
18. Pushing and Goading
19. Inside the Dome
20. Unexpected Guest
21. Old Wounds
22. Long Awaited Escape
23. A Leap of Faith
24. Greedy
25. Toys Are For Confident Men Only
26. There Is Hope
27. My Little Ladybug
28. Payback
29. Never Again
30. A Priceless Gift
31. A Cold Reunion
32. The New Rules
33. High Expectations
34. Our Kind of Romance
35. The New Normal
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also by Adelina Taneva
About the Author
Dedication
For every woman who has been told she can’t do something – proving them wrong feels good, doesn’t it?
Keep doing it. Be dark, be brave, be fearless, be loud, be bold.
Author Note
Before you dive into my brand-new world, I have to give you the proper warning that there might be some topics discussed and scenes included in this book that are dark and could be distressing to some. I have done my best to approach them with the sensitivity they deserve but I ask that you decide for yourself if this book is for you.
First the fun stuff; this book includes panty melting scenes only meant for those 18 and over. Sensitive material includes mentioning and discussion of previous childhood sexual abuse and rape, off page but in no detail or flashbacks – however, the characters do bring it up in thoughts and briefly in conversations. Violent scenes of torture and murder. Mistreatment of sex workers – off page and blatant misogyny and sexism.
Having said all of that, I am so excited to welcome you into my mafia world where the women are badass warriors and their men are just as fearsome, especially when their woman is threatened. Their love is epic and my women are determined to break the walls meant to keep them in.
Now, join me on this wild ride ;)
Playlist
Nightmare by Halsey
Crossfire by Axel Rudi Pell
It’s My Life by Bon Jovi
Dangerous by Kardinal Offishall, Akon
Now Your Barbie Girl by Ava Max
Disturbia by Rihanna
Joan of Arc by Little Mix
Drunk in Love (Remix) by Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kanye West
Animals by Maroon 5
Good for You by Selena Gomez
Blow by Beyoncé
Deep Dive by Zaryah
Beggin’ by Maneskin
Listen Before I Go by Billie Eilish
In the End by Linkin Park
This Ain’t a Love Song by Bon Jovi
Surface Pressure by Jessica Darrow
I Will Find You by Harry Lightfoot, Audiomachine
Too Late for Love by Def Leppard
Teeth by 5SOS
Love Bites by Def Leppard
Dear Future Husband by Meghan Trainor
Him & I by G-Eazy, Halsey
You can listen by clicking the link below:
Spotify Playlist
CHAPTER 1
Changing of the Guard
Andrea
It’s not every day that you get to take over your family’s legacy.
It was never meant to be me, but I am a firm believer that karma is always looking out for people that could use a swift kick in the ass, and the men surrounding me have been due for decades. It does suck when just my mere existence is what causes some people to clutch their hearts as if they are having a heart attack. I make them uncomfortable, which makes me feel good.
After all I am the only girl in our family, my mother – Zeta, has long since been replaced by a new wife. And that was a few wives ago.
I have three younger brothers but since they haven’t even gone through puberty yet, Papa had no other choice but to begrudgingly pass down the mantle to me. I am aware that they are going to try and do something to undermine me, Papa is going to try and rule even though he shouldn’t be.
His only daughter.
He has never hidden the fact that I was always meant to be used as a bargaining chip, something to trade and use when money and threats weren’t enough. I have always been told that I would be an add on to contracts, looking pretty on the side, carrying the weight of the family name but never using any of the influence so I can change anything for the better. I should never have had a choice or voice to begin with.
I don’t blame him, it’s the way things are in our world. There is no one you can fully trust and there is nothing that you know for certain, except for the fact that power is the greatest thing in the world.
I’m not sure that I fully subscribe to that theory but it is what I have been taught since an early age and to an extent I have to uphold his values until no one has a hold on me. Time needs to pass before I can start changing the way things work at their core. My only goal should have been to be a wife; I should strive for nothing but physical perfection. But, all of the leaders, the men have failed to notice a very important detail.
I am a determined woman with a plan and I might not be a man but I have spent my whole life watching them silently, staying in the shadows as I try and soak in everything around me. They have no idea that everything they know, I know how to do silently in a way they are never going to see coming.
I want to make things closer knit and personal, I want to eliminate the people who I have no contact with and yet they are somehow crucial to the whole organisation. My ideas have always been seen as something only the weak want, but what better control is there than knowing everything about the people who I have to command.
“This is the worst thing that is ever going to happen to this family; you are letting a little girl be the head of this family.” I hear the shouting before I even open the doors, Sergio’s voice carries no matter where he is. I also love addressing him by his first name, he always takes offence and it’s the little pleasures in life, like watching his head not explode as he fights the urge to shoot me.
“We have been over this Sergio, this is only temporary until my sons are old enough to take over.” Papa replies and even though he is on the list as being one of the worst fathers in the world, my heart still skips a beat when I think about the heart attack that he suffered just a few weeks ago after the shooting.
“Your sons are not even in their teens, we cannot have nearly a decade of a matriarchy.” Alfonso spits out and he is another one of them old bastards than cannot wrap his head around the fact that a woman is doing anything other cook and birth his fucking children; I’m not even sure how many children are part of his clan now.
I just know that they are all going to turn out to be pieces of shit like him.
Too bad that I have to see them and work with them all the time. But I, Andrea Moretti, have something way better than a pair of balls, I have a uterus which can withstand way more than they can ever imagine, and I don’t make my pain somebody else’s problem.
“She is not going to be ruling on her own, Nikolai is on his way.” Papa replies and I had thought that there were few things left in the world that could take me by surprise.
I was expecting to be married off soon, for the same reason all of the men in that room are panicking; but I was not expecting to be married to him.
Ever since I was a little girl I was terrified of his family; but it was only when I was 11 did I truly learn about the kinds of monsters that I am surrounded by. And the worst thing is that I never realised until a little while ago what his father did to me was wrong, but I had no other option but to stay quiet.
“You’re colluding with the Russians?” Sergio yells and bangs on the table. I wait for a couple more moments, trying to soak in every bit of information they are willing to leak out. They know I am coming, this whole meeting is about me taking over, making history and yet they want to stay stuck in the past, while revealing their weaknesses.
They don’t even stop to think about what I could overhear and how I could use that information. I have never even been a thought in their heads; it is going to make their demise all the more sweeter.
“We are expanding, not colluding.” Papa s
“So you’re going to be sending your little girl to Siberia so she can birth some more Russian bastards? How are you not worried about diluting our blood cheaply like this?” Armando adds, he is Sergei’s oldest son, some kind of distant cousin of mine; it is terrifying to think about how he was an option for a husband.
“They are not going to be Russian bastards, they are going to carry on the Moretti blood in the one country and network which has never been infiltrated.” Papa is short and to the point, his tone makes it clear that anyone who doesn’t understand the benefits of this is stupid.
“She is still going to be fucking those assholes and then birthing their heirs.” That voice I do not recognise but through the murmuring happening in the room, I know that everyone agrees. I think it is time that I make myself known so I try to hide my deep breath from my bodyguards and open the door.
“I’m not surprised to see that you have all forgotten who raised you.” I meet Papa’s gaze, the sight of him in his wheelchair still as shocking no matter how many times I see him. “It surely wasn’t you that raised your children, it was your wives and nannies. Even if my children are half Russian, I am always going to be their mother and I can bring them up to be everything you are not.”
“She is going to fucking ruin our whole family.” Someone mutters under their breath and I don’t have to look in his direction to know that it is Armando who has never been shy about speaking up about how much he hates when I speak my mind. I just find it funny how he always has to mutter under his breath, he is never direct like I am unless he has a gun in his hand.
“I am going to fix this whole family, Armando; something you haven’t been able to do even in the decade you have been in charge in Trento.” I snap at him, not letting too much venom coat my words but just enough. I learned a long time ago that it does not matter how or what I say, the fact that my mouth is open for anything other than sucking or fucking is unacceptable to half of the men in the room.
I think half may be me being a little too generous and optimistic, but I’m trying to be polite.
“Andrea, you’re not in charge yet.” Papa interrupts and undermines me, not for the first time. I don’t break his gaze, even though he wants me to submit and apologise; I have nothing to apologise for.
“I have been in charge since you stepped down, there is no point in acting as if we do not live in the same world. It is your choice whether you decide to act like children or men. Accept that I am now your leader and I know what I am doing.” I scan the room, not lingering on anyone for too long but making sure that I stand up for myself, even if it makes no difference.
“Watch your tongue little girl.” Mateo snaps; good old uncle Mateo.
My mother’s brother, the whole reason that she married Papa was so that her family could join with Papa and once everything was stable, she was tossed to the side and exchanged. I mean last I heard she was living in the south of France, exactly where she wants to be and no matter how much time passes, I cannot understand how that is the kind of life she has been striving for.
“Why would I do that Mateo?” I ask, tilting my head in disrespect as I address him by his name and not his title. They can call me every name under the sun and expect no retaliation, they are so used to the way things have been that they have missed the way that the whole world has changed.
“You need to learn to respect your elders. I still don’t understand how my sister could have brought up such a failure for a daughter.” He snarls at me, looking ridiculous but that has never stopped a man before.
“That’s the thing; she wasn’t the one who brought me up. In fact, I haven’t seen my mother dearest in over a year now since you bought her that new house.” I smile as though there are no scars to hide and the absence of my mother doesn’t make it hard to breathe sometimes.
Those who say that they have moved on from being hurt by a parent are simply lying. Those kinds of scars are with you for life, and they infect themselves from the inside, before escaping to the outside. They never heal and you just have to try and learn to live with them, to somehow fool everyone around you that you have turned that pain into your strength.
If I had let pain rule my life, dictate my dreams and existence, I would have had no chance from the beginning. The only women that win in this game called life are those who fight to break the mould; we are conspired against and tripped even before the start line. It is naive to assume that only hard work is going to get you where you want to be.
“On second thought, I pity Nikolai for having to put up with you for the rest of his life.” Armando decided to cut back in. “But at least he gets to have the fun of breaking you in.”
“There is no man yet to be born or alive that can break me; a woman does not break, she grows stronger and each time she becomes the thing you fear most: a mirror of your worst actions. Your true equal, who can punish you for all of the pain you have caused and deserve.”
“Look at you becoming all philosophical, such a feminist.” He pitches his voice higher, looking like an idiot but the whole room erupts with laughter nonetheless.
“Being a feminist is not going to stop me from using a blunt knife to cut off your tongue and feed it to your family for dinner.” I lean against the table, staring him straight in the eyes. He doesn’t want to show it but he has seen me grow up, he knows what I can do with a gun or a knife, and with my bare hands.
The guilt might eat me up from the inside out but I will always do what needs to be done. I know that given a single chance, they would not hesitate to do the exact same, if not worse to me. There is no room for guilt of a conscience in my world.
“That is enough!” Shouts Papa and even I know that I have said enough, I have pushed my luck to the edge today already and the actual meeting has yet to begin.
“Andrea, sit down and stop acting like a child.” He scolds me as if I am still five years old trying to win his affection, chasing after him. I grind my teeth so I don’t say anything more. I was not acting like a child. I am just a woman trying to make it in this man’s world.
It is about time that this little corner was ruled by a woman, a woman who knows what she is doing. I swear if there is nothing else I am going to achieve in this life, is that they are going to respect me, and long after I am dead, my legacy is going to be greater than that of any man.
They have no idea what I have planned for them and no amount of pressure is going to crack me.
CHAPTER 2
No Happily Ever After
Andrea
The day has finally come.
No more than 24 hours have passed but it feels like an entire lifetime. I don’t get to mourn the woman I could have been.
Today I meet him.
The man my life was promised to, the man whose face looks exactly like the one in my nightmares. He hasn’t done anything to me… yet, but I am not holding out any hope that he is going to be the love of my life and we are going to live out our lives happily ever after ruling over the 2 biggest organisations in the world.
