Bound to the Cartel

Bound to the Cartel

Libi Seen · Completed · 57.9k Words

1.1k
Hot
2k
Views
3
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Valentina has spent her entire life learning how to disappear.

Growing up in Tepito, she knows that surviving means staying invisible—keeping her head down, finishing her studies, and dreaming of a future far away from Mexico City, where her family might finally be safe. She never wanted power, danger, or attention. She only wanted out.

Everything shatters the night her cousin Paloma’s secret pulls her into the ruthless world of the Cruz cartel.

After witnessing an internal betrayal, Paloma becomes a liability. A girl is murdered to send a message. And Valentina, cornered by fear and desperation, makes a single reckless choice that seals her fate—stealing cartel merchandise in a failed attempt to survive.

There are no second chances in this world.

Now trapped inside a violent criminal organization where trust is a myth and mistakes are paid in blood, Valentina comes face to face with the most dangerous man in the cartel. A man who does not forgive. Who does not forget. Who does not release what belongs to him.

Survival is no longer about escape.

It is about submission, power, and the devastating cost of being claimed by the enemy.

And Valentina is about to learn that in the cartel’s world, temptation is never harmless—and loving the wrong man can be deadlier than any bullet.

Chapter 1

Tepito, Mexico

VALENTINA

I grew up walking these narrow streets, between cracked houses and graffiti-covered walls that tell stories no one bothers to erase. The air smells of fried food, dust, and smoke. Entire families survive packed into tiny rooms, waiting for life to offer something better—knowing deep down it probably won’t.

I live with my Aunt Carmen and my grandmother. I always have.

Ever since, violence took my parents from me.

A shootout.

They weren’t involved in anything. They didn’t sell, didn’t buy, didn’t owe favors.

What used to be simple poverty is now open danger. Drug trafficking no longer hides. People I grew up with walk the streets armed, seduced by fast money and a false sense of power. I want to leave.

For now, I work at a fast-food restaurant. My shift ends late. Too late.

After one in the morning, I finally leave. I smell like grease, exhaustion, and frustration. This job weighs on me, but someone has to keep the house going.

This won’t be forever, I tell myself.

Instead of going straight home, something pushes me to look for Paloma. My cousin. I’ve never visited her workplace—our schedules never match. But tonight… I need to see her.

She works in Roma Norte.

At Casa Ramba.

I take the bus and sit close to the driver. Two drunk men shout from the back. I keep my body tense. In this city, danger doesn’t announce itself.

When I get off in Roma Norte, a chill runs down my spine.

Everything here shines—restaurants, terraces, laughter. I check my watch.

Almost two in the morning. “Hey, miss!” a male voice shouts.

A group of men smoke and play cards at the bus stop. Lookouts. I don’t look at them. I walk faster.

I turn the corner and see it.

Casa Ramba.

A massive guard watches me.

“I’m looking for Paloma. She’s my cousin.”

He hesitates, then lets me in.

The moment I cross the door, I understand.

This isn’t a bar.

It’s a nightclub.

Red lights. Heavy bass. Sweaty bodies moving without shame. On a couch, a girl lines up white powder with a card. Laughter. Shouting.

Panic crawls up my throat.

Upstairs, in the private area, the air is thick—smoke and alcohol. Nearly naked women drift between men like decorations.

Then I see her.

Paloma.

She’s sitting on a man’s lap, moving sensually against him. His hands grip her hips.

When he lifts his head, his dark eyes lock onto mine.

Cold spreads through me.

“Paloma…” I whisper, touching her shoulder.

She turns, pleasure vanishing from her face in an instant.

“Valentina? What are you doing here?”

The man frowns.

“Who the hell is she?”

“Rubén, she’s—”

Rubén.

The scorpion tattoo on his neck confirms everything.

“Get out,” he says coldly. “I don’t want you here anymore.”

Paloma drags me out of the club with too much force, dodging tables, curious stares, and guards who pretend not to see anything. The music cuts off abruptly when we step outside, like someone closing a wound too fast.

“Are you crazy?” she snaps as soon as we’re out. “What are you doing here, Valentina? Did you get lost or what?”

I try to speak, but she doesn’t let me. She yanks the car door open and gets in. I follow. She drives off without looking back.

“Explain,” I say tensely. “Since when do you work there?”

She grips the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turn white.

“You had no right to come,” she spits. “No right to see me like that.”

“Like what?” I answer. “Sitting on a drug dealer’s lap?”

She slams the brakes at a traffic light.

“Don’t talk about what you don’t understand!” she yells. “You know nothing about my life.”

“I know enough to know that man is dangerous.”

She turns to me. Her eyes burn with anger… and something deeper, more fragile.

“I love him,” she says without breathing. “Happy? I love him.”

The word hits my chest like a punch.

“Paloma—” I start, but she cuts me off.

“He takes care of me,” she continues, her voice cracking. “He gives me things. He gets me out of this hell.”

She shoots me a look full of contempt.

“Not like you, who thinks studying will save you from everything.”

I don’t answer. Because if I do, I’ll say things that can’t be taken back.

We finish the drive in silence.

When we reach the building, she parks without turning off the engine. I look at her one last time.

“That man is going to destroy your life,” I say softly. “And when he does, he won’t care how much you loved him.”

She laughs without humor.

“What do you know?” she snaps. “You’ve never been in love. You live in your little bubble, outside reality.”

“The real world isn’t easy or perfect. And if being the mistress of a powerful man bothers you so much… then forget we’re cousins and get lost.”

Her jaw trembles, but she doesn’t look at me.

I get out of the car and slam the door shut. Paloma doesn’t react. The engine stays on for a few seconds, then the car pulls away without her looking back. I remain there, breathing with difficulty, my chest tight, my hands trembling.

The night feels different after the argument. Roma Norte is still alive around me, clean, indifferent. I start walking home with my head down, telling myself I didn’t do anything wrong, that I was only worried about her.

The sound of an engine makes me look up.

A black SUV moves slowly down the street. It isn’t an ordinary vehicle. It’s large, imposing, the kind that doesn’t go unnoticed. It slows as it passes beside me.

The rear window is down.

Inside, through the smoke, I see him.

Rubén.

He’s leaning back in the seat, smoking calmly, watching the street as if it belongs to him. The light inside the car illuminates his face and neck just enough for the scorpion tattoo to be clearly visible.

Our eyes meet.

He doesn’t smile. He only watches me.

The window rises slowly, and the SUV drives away.

I stand there, my heart pounding, understanding something far too late.

That man isn’t just a bad influence on my cousin.

He is danger.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

King of the Underworld

King of the Underworld

114.1k Views · Completed · RJ Kane
In my life as a waitress, I, Sephie - an ordinary person - endured the icy glares and insults of customers while trying to earn a living. I believed that this would be my fate forever.

However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”

But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”


Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.

She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.
Cursed Fates

Cursed Fates

1.6k Views · Ongoing · Taylor Ashcraft
Charlotte Sinclair was murdered at the hands of her abusive boyfriend. After dying, she wakes up in the body of another. She pieces together information from her first day as Aribella Voss, realizing that she's been reincarnated into a book she knew all too well. The only problem: She was fated to die in this story as well. She sets out on a mission to ensure that doesn't happen, but when she begins changing important parts of the story, she also changes the plot of the story she knew. Without the upper hand, Aribella no longer has idea what lies in her future.
Tempted By The Enemy

Tempted By The Enemy

4k Views · Completed · rituparna darolia
Twenty-two-year-old Alyssa Van Every is in a dilemma. Her close friend, Sienna, is marrying billionaire, Lucas Donnelly who, along with his brothers, happens to be her older brother, Alex's sworn enemy.
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.
The Dark Witch & The Alpha Book 2

The Dark Witch & The Alpha Book 2

1.1k Views · Ongoing · Kassy Rae Wall
Pythia comes from a long line of dark witches, she killed her mother for her reckless behavior and becomes the queen of the dark witches and teamed up with the Great White Witch and the vampire queen to fight in the battle to keep the balance in all the different worlds, she meets her mate, Tye in the great battle. Tye is the great white witches brother and a alpha. Together they will embark on a battle to correct the elders and take a step forward to peace among the dark witches, the road is long especially when they find out Pythias true royalty line. When realms collide and the moon goddess has to step in and not only aid because of the new found threat but to tell the secrets she has helped keep hidden for many years, Pythia is forced to train harder, work harder and plan for the absolute unexpected but, as she learns her true powers she starts to realize that she can handle anything that may threaten her and her family.
The vampire queen (Ambrosia) and Pythia will become close and discover the true origins of their pasts. They rely on each other when their mates are not around. New family is discovered and it is time they all come together to face one of the toughest moments in the dark witches history.
After One Night with the Alpha

After One Night with the Alpha

541.3k Views · Completed · Sansa
One Night. One Mistake. One Lifetime of Consequences.

I thought I was waiting for love. Instead, I got fucked by a beast.

My world was supposed to bloom at the Moonshade Bay Full Moon Festival—champagne buzzing in my veins, a hotel room booked for Jason and me to finally cross that line after two years. I’d slipped into lacy lingerie, left the door unlocked, and lay on the bed, heart pounding with nervous excitement.

But the man who climbed into my bed wasn’t Jason.

In the pitch-black room, drowned in a heady, spicy scent that made my head spin, I felt hands—urgent, scorching—searing my skin. His thick, pulsing cock pressed against my dripping cunt, and before I could gasp, he thrust hard, tearing through my innocence with ruthless force. Pain burned, my walls clenching as I clawed at his iron shoulders, stifling sobs. Wet, slick sounds echoed with every brutal stroke, his body unrelenting until he shuddered, spilling hot and deep inside me.

"That was amazing, Jason," I managed to say.

"Who the fuck is Jason?"

My blood turned to ice. Light slashed across his face—Brad Rayne, Alpha of Moonshade Pack, a werewolf, not my boyfriend. Horror choked me as I realized what I’d done.

I ran away for my life!

But weeks later, I woke up pregnant with his heir!

They say my heterochromatic eyes mark me as a rare true mate. But I’m no wolf. I’m just Elle, a nobody from the human district, now trapped in Brad's world.

Brad’s cold gaze pins me: “You carry my blood. You’re mine.”

There is no other choice for me but to chose this cage. My body also betrays me, craving the beast who ruined me.

WARNING: Mature Readers Only
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

946.7k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!
The Alpha King's Human Mate

The Alpha King's Human Mate

469.9k Views · Completed · HC Dolores
“You must understand something, little mate,” Griffin said, and his face softened,

“I have waited nine years for you. That’s nearly a decade since I’ve felt this emptiness inside me. Part of me began to wonder if you didn’t exist or you’d already died. And then I found you, right inside my own home.” 

He used one of his hands to stroke my cheek and tingles erupted everywhere. 

“I’ve spent enough time without you and I will not let anything else keep us apart. Not other wolves, not my drunken father who’s barely holding himself together the past twenty years, not your family  – and not even you.”


Clark Bellevue has spent her entire life as the only human in the wolf pack - literally. Eighteen years ago, Clark was the accidental result of a brief affair between one of the most powerful Alphas in the world and a human woman. Despite living with her father and her werewolf half-siblings, Clark has never felt like she really belonged in the werewolf world. But right as Clark plans to leave the werewolf world behind for good, her life gets flipped upside down by her mate: the next Alpha King, Griffin Bardot. Griffin has been waiting years for the chance to meet his mate, and he's not about to let her go anytime soon. It doesn't matter how far Clark tries to run from her destiny or her mate - Griffin intends to keep her, no matter what he has to do or who stands in his way.
Omega Bound

Omega Bound

2.6m Views · Ongoing · Veronica White
Ayla Frost is a beautiful, rare omega. Kidnapped, tortured, and trafficked to rogue clans and corrupt alphas to do with as they pleased.  Kept alive in her cage, broken and abandoned by her wolf, she becomes mute and has given up on hope for a better life until one explosion changes everything. 

Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life. 

Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)

A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)

6.2k Views · Ongoing · ADB_Stories
Isolde’s life was full of love and joy. She was set to be High priestess of the makkari, but everything changed in a single night when she lost everything at the hands of someone she thought she could trust.

For centuries, she has been on the run, helping the supernatural community under the cloak of anonymity while she works to clear her name and save the very people after her from destruction.

Enemies are closing in, but an unexpected complication befalls her when she realises she’s been fated to someone who wants her species exterminated. After all, an evil chance seldom comes alone.

A Queen Among Darkness is the 4th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.

Books in the series in order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation Coming Soon)
A pack of their own

A pack of their own

2.1m Views · Completed · dragonsbain22
Being the middle Child ignored and neglected, rejected by family and injured, She receives her wolf early and realizes she is a new type of hybrid but doesn't know how to control her power, she leaves her pack with her best friend and grandmother to go to her grandfather's clan to learn what she is and how to handle her power and then with her fated mate, her best friend and her fated mate little brother and grandmother start their own pack.
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

2m Views · Ongoing · Jaylee
Soft hot lips find the shell of my ear and he whispers, "You think I don't want you?" He pushes his hips forward, grinding into the back of my ass and I groan. "Really?" He chuckles.

"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."

I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.

Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.

"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."


New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.

Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates

When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.

But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
Kaged In

Kaged In

3.1k Views · Completed · BurntAsh3s
Kage enters the foster system in New York at the age of five. The reality of his life seems bleaker each day as his circumstances worsen, and he becomes closed-off, cold and distrusting of others. When he gets adopted at the age of sixteen, his belief in humanity has withered. Kage doesn't live, he exists, day by day. He has lost all hope, and he doesn't dare to dream of something better. Alexander Hawthorne gives him a new lease on life, a family and most importantly, hope. Kage has his own past trauma to deal with and he carries that burden with him when he gets drafted into the NHL. Hockey is his life, his passion and the only thing that is a constant form of happiness.
Follow Kage's journey as he tries to heal, falls in love and faces his inner turmoil.