RUTHLESS TIES

RUTHLESS TIES

Ikwuagwu Rejoice · Ongoing · 93.4k Words

594
Hot
594
Views
0
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

When love collides with revenge, the stakes are deadly.

Lilianna Genovese thought she had left the violent world of organized crime behind. But when she returns to New York for her brother’s wedding, tragedy strikes. Her family is massacred in a brutal attack by the Russian mob, leaving her and her young son as the sole survivors of her family’s legacy.

Enter Matteo Costello—the dangerous, commanding mafia heir who once stole Lilianna’s heart and doesn’t yet know he’s the father of her child. Driven by a shared thirst for vengeance, Matteo pulls Lilianna back into the shadows of the life she fled. As enemies close in and alliances crumble, Lilianna must step into the dangerous role of leading her father’s empire to protect what remains of her family.

As tension ignites between Lilianna and Matteo, their buried feelings resurface. But trust doesn’t come easily in a world drenched in blood and betrayal. Secrets threaten to tear them apart, even as their enemies draw closer. And when the Russians target Lilianna’s son, she and Matteo must decide just how far they’ll go to protect what’s theirs.

In this dark and gripping mafia romance, love is both the deadliest weapon and the only thing worth fighting for. Will Lilianna and Matteo survive the war brewing around them, or will their passion destroy them both?

Chapter 1

Coming back to New York felt like willingly stepping into a trap I’d barely escaped the first time. Even the air tasted the same—heavy, metallic, and familiar in a way that made my skin tighten. The taxi rolled to a stop in front of the cathedral, the grand stone spires stabbing into the sky like they were warning me to turn around before it was too late.

God, how I wanted to.

But this was for Silas.

My brother.

My best friend.

The one person from that world I never stopped loving.

I reached for Callum’s small hand. His fingers curled immediately around mine—warm, trusting, unaware of the storm we were walking into. He stared up at me with those large brown eyes, wide and curious.

Matteo’s eyes.

He had no idea what today meant. No understanding of the history soaked into these walls or the danger threaded through my bloodline.

To him, everything was just another adventure.

“You ready, sweetheart?” I whispered, leaning close so he wouldn’t hear the crack in my voice.

He nodded eagerly, his dark ringlets bouncing. “Are we going to see Uncle Silas now?”

I managed a smile that felt like it was made of glass. Fragile. Breakable.

“Yes, baby. After the ceremony.”

The words tasted bitter. Silas deserved joy, deserved everything good the world had to offer. But the knot in my stomach wouldn’t loosen—not with the cathedral towering above us like a monument to all the things I’d tried to forget.

I lifted my gaze to its carved stone archways, cold and imposing. Churches were supposed to be places of peace, places where hope lived.

This one felt like a tomb.

The moment we stepped inside, the world narrowed. Incense curled through the air, thick enough to choke on. Murmured conversations blended with the soft shuffle of clothing, but every voice fell to a hush as eyes turned toward us.

They recognized me.

Of course they did.

Lilianna Genovese. The daughter who disappeared. The disgrace who walked away from the family, from the power, from the blood-soaked empire my father ruled.

They didn’t dare speak to me. But they stared.

I kept my head high, gripping Callum’s hand, searching for a pew far from the front—far from the man whose shadow I spent my childhood living under.

But even from a distance, Alessio Genovese dominated the room. Broad. Dark-suited. Unyielding. He sat like a king on a throne, carved from ice and iron.

When his gaze finally collided with mine, something flickered. Surprise. Maybe even something softer. It vanished a moment later, buried beneath that familiar granite expression.

“Momma, who’s that?” Callum whispered, pointing toward the altar.

My heart lurched before I even followed his gaze.

Silas stood tall beside another man. And that man—

Matteo.

The world tilted.

He looked… exactly as I remembered and yet sharper, harder. Tall, broad-shouldered, dressed in a suit that fit him like it had been stitched into his skin. His black hair was slicked back, exposing the angles of his face—jaw cut sharp enough to draw blood, cheekbones like steel.

He wasn’t looking at me. Not yet. But my body remembered him anyway. The heat of his hands, the sound of his voice, the night we shared—and the morning I fled.

“That’s Uncle Silas,” I whispered to Callum, forcing steadiness I didn’t feel. “And… a friend.”

Callum frowned at Matteo. “He looks grumpy.”

A quiet laugh escaped me. “He’s just serious, baby. Some grown-ups are.”

Before I could gather myself, music swelled—deep, echoing organ chords that bounced off the cathedral walls. The bride began her slow walk down the aisle. A tall, elegant Russian woman. Beautiful, yes, but there was something in her steps that felt… scripted. Too precise. Too controlled.

Silas smiled softly—one of those rare, precious smiles he saved for the people he truly cared for. It made my heart ache. He deserved happiness. He deserved peace.

And yet…

Something felt wrong.

The vows began, and Callum shifted restlessly beside me. I reached into my bag and handed him a toy car, grateful for the distraction. My attention drifted again—pulled like a magnet to the front.

Matteo wasn’t watching the bride.

He wasn’t watching Silas.

His eyes were scanning the room, cold and calculating, the eyes of a man always two breaths from violence. The tension in his jaw was sharp enough to cut glass.

A shiver crawled up my spine.

Something was about to happen. I felt it.

And then it did.

The bride moved too quickly.

Her bouquet dipped.

Metal glinted.

Time cracked open.

“No!” I screamed, instinct taking over as I threw myself over Callum.

The gunshot detonated through the cathedral—loud enough to shake the stained glass. Silas jerked as the bullet tore into him, crimson splattering across his white suit like a grotesque flower blooming.

Another shot.

My father staggered, eyes wide, shock etched across his face before he crumpled.

Chaos erupted—screams, gasps, bodies diving for cover.

“Momma?” Callum whimpered, buried against my chest.

“It’s okay, baby,” I lied, clutching him so tight my arms shook. “I’ve got you. Stay down.”

Movement cut through the violence—precise, lethal.

Matteo.

He surged forward like a storm unleashed, pulling a gun from his jacket with a speed I barely registered. His shots were clean, controlled. The bride fell first, her body collapsing in a boneless heap, bouquet scattering petals across the marble.

But more men flooded the aisles—armed, ruthless, shouting in Russian.

The world narrowed to survival.

I grabbed Callum and ran.

“Lilianna!” Matteo’s voice carved through the chaos—sharp, commanding, unmistakably furious.

I turned. Our eyes locked.

For a split second, everything stopped.

He was covered in blood—some his, most not. His movements were honed violence, every shot placed with chilling precision.

He wasn’t just dangerous.

He was born from danger.

“Stay low!” he barked, cutting down another attacker before sprinting toward us.

Callum whimpered, clinging to my neck. I ducked behind a pew, shielding him as Matteo tore through the remaining distance and grabbed my arm—strong, firm, grounding.

“I’ve got you,” he growled.

And God help me, I believed him.

We sprinted down a side aisle as Matteo shot a man who dared step in our way. My legs burned, lungs screaming, but Matteo didn’t slow—didn’t let me slow.

We burst through the side doors into blinding daylight. Cool air hit my face like a slap. Matteo guided—no, pushed—us toward a waiting car.

“In!” he snapped.

I climbed inside, pulling Callum with me. Matteo slammed the door and rounded to the front.

“Drive.”

The car lurched forward, tires screeching.

Only then did I realize I was shaking uncontrollably.

My brother was dead.

My father was dead.

And I was back in the world I had clawed my way out of.

“Are you hurt?” Matteo’s voice came low, rough, softer than I expected. His eyes scanned me, dark and intense.

“I—I don’t know,” I whispered, staring blindly at my trembling hands.

“You’re safe now.”

Safe.

The word felt foreign. Empty. Meaningless.

“Who were they?” I asked, voice hollow.

“Russians,” he said tightly. “They’ve been pushing for months. This was their message.”

A message.

My family’s blood spilled as punctuation.

“What do they want?”

“Control,” Matteo answered simply. “And they’ll kill anyone who stands in their way.”

My throat tightened. “They killed my brother. My father. They took everything.”

A muscle in Matteo’s jaw ticked. “I know.”

There was something deadly calm in his voice, something that made my skin prickle.

“And they’ll pay for it.”

He wasn’t making a promise.

He was issuing a sentence.

Callum’s small voice broke through the storm. “Momma… I’m scared.”

I pressed a kiss to his forehead, holding him as tightly as I dared. “I know, baby. But I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Matteo looked at us then—really looked. His gaze lingered on Callum, and for a flicker of a moment, something raw, something knowing, crossed his face.

Recognition.

But he said nothing.

He looked away, jaw clenched.

The city blurred past the windows—cold buildings, gray streets, shadows too familiar. And it hit me, bone-deep and undeniable.

My old life had found me again.

The life I thought I escaped.

The one I swore would never touch my child.

But I wasn’t alone anymore.

For better or worse… Matteo was here.

And together, we were going to drown the world that dared take my family.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Omega Bound

Omega Bound

2m Views · Completed · 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
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

2.6m Views · Ongoing · Harper Rivers
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother.

"What is wrong with me?

Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?

It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.

He’s my boyfirend’s brother.

This is Tyler’s family.

I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.

**

As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.

Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.

When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.

I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.

**

I hate girls like her.

Entitled.

Delicate.

And still—

Still.

The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.

Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.

I shouldn’t care.

I don’t care.

It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.

It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.

I’m not here to rescue anyone.

Especially not her.

Especially not someone like her.

She’s not my problem.

And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.

But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
How Not To Fall For A Dragon

How Not To Fall For A Dragon

264.2k Views · Completed · Kit Bryan
I never applied to the Academy for Magical Beings and Creatures.

Which is why it was more than a little confusing when a letter arrived with my name already printed on a schedule, a dorm waiting, and classes picked out as if someone knew me better than I knew myself. Everyone knows the Academy, it’s where witches sharpen their spells, shifters master their forms, and every kind of magical creature learns to control their gifts.

Everyone except me.

I don’t even know what I am. No shifting, no magic tricks, nothing. Just a girl surrounded by people who can fly, conjure fire, or heal with a touch. So I sit through classes pretending I belong, and I listen hard for any clue that might tell me what’s hidden in my blood.

The only person more curious than me is Blake Nyvas, tall, golden-eyed, and very much a Dragon. People whisper that he’s dangerous, warn me to keep my distance. But Blake seems determined to solve the mystery of me, and somehow I trust him more than anyone else.

Maybe it’s reckless. Maybe it’s dangerous.

But when everyone else looks at me like I don’t belong, Blake looks at me like I’m a riddle worth solving.
Alpha Nicholas's Little Mate

Alpha Nicholas's Little Mate

1.2m Views · Ongoing · Becky j
"Mate is here!"
What? No—wait… oh Moon Goddess, no.
Please tell me you're joking, Lex.
But she's not. I can feel her excitement bubbling under my skin, while all I feel is dread.
We turn the corner, and the scent hits me like a punch to the chest—cinnamon and something impossibly warm. My eyes scan the room until they land on him. Tall. Commanding. Beautiful.
And then, just as quickly… he sees me.
His expression twists.
"Fuck no."
He turns—and runs.
My mate sees me and runs.
Bonnie has spent her entire life being broken down and abused by the people closest to her including her very own twin sister. Alongside her best friend Lilly who also lives a life of hell, they plan to run away while attending the biggest ball of the year while it's being hosted by another pack, only things don't quite go to plan leaving both girls feeling lost and unsure about their futures.
Alpha Nicholas is 28, mateless, and has no plans to change that. It's his turn to host the annual Blue Moon Ball this year and the last thing he expects is to find his mate. What he expects even less is for his mate to be 10 years younger than him and how his body reacts to her. While he tries to refuse to acknowledge that he has met his mate his world is turned upside down after guards catch two she-wolves running through his lands.
Once they are brought to him he finds himself once again facing his mate and discovers that she's hiding secrets that will make him want to kill more than one person.
Can he overcome his feelings towards having a mate and one that is so much younger than him? Will his mate want him after already feeling the sting of his unofficial rejection? Can they both work on letting go of the past and moving forward together or will fate have different plans and keep them apart?
Goddess Of The Underworld

Goddess Of The Underworld

762.8k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Left at a pack border with a name and a stubborn heartbeat, Envy grows into the sharpest kind of survivor, an orphaned warrior who knows how to hold a line and keep moving. Love isn’t in the plan…until four alpha wolves with playboy reputations and inconveniently soft hands decide the girl who won’t bow is the only queen they’ll ever take. Their mate. The one they have waited for. Xavier, Haiden, Levi, and Noah are gorgeous, lethal, and anything but perfect and Envy isn’t either. She’s changing. First into hell hound, Layah at her heels and fire in her veins. Then into what the realm has been waiting for, a Goddess of the Underworld, dragging her mates down to hell with her.

When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
Falling For The Biker: The Vice President's Girl

Falling For The Biker: The Vice President's Girl

283.5k Views · Completed · Lily S.W
"Do you feel that, Wren? That pull between us?"
His eyes darken, flicking to my mouth.
"It's wrong. Your brother would slit my throat for just standing this close. But tell me, little bird" his breath ghosts my skin, "are you trembling because you hate me… or because you've wanted this just as much as I have?"
Wren thought she'd buried the chaos of New Orleans for good—the clubs, the blood-soaked loyalties, the men who lived and died by their kuttes. Seattle gave her everything she ever wanted: freedom, love, a future.
But one betrayal shatters it all.
Dragged home by tragedy, Wren finds herself under the watchful eye of Ezra Jax—the Raven Reapers MC's vice president and her brother's best friend. He's infuriating, dangerous, and far too tempting for a man she should never touch.
And the deeper Wren is pulled back into his world, the more she realizes nothing about her past—or about Ezra—is what she believed.
In the chaos of gang wars, mounting debts, and old betrayals, he becomes the one constant. The more she fights him, the harder she falls. And the more he pushes her away, the more lethal his pull becomes.
Because in this world, love isn't sweet.
It's brutal. Bloody.
And it's bound to break them both.
When loyalty is everything and love can cost your life, will Wren risk her heart on the one man she was never meant to love?
A pack of their own

A pack of their own

1.9m 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 mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

827.7k 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 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?
Let Them Kneel

Let Them Kneel

221.7k Views · Ongoing · My Fantasy Stories
Kaelani spent her life believing she was wolfless.
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.

But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.

Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.

When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.

For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.

Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.

But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.

And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.

Especially him.

She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.

Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
The Human Among  Wolves

The Human Among Wolves

704.2k Views · Ongoing · ZWrites
"You actually thought I cared about you?" His smirk was sharp, almost cruel.
My stomach twisted, but he wasn’t finished.
"You're just a pathetic little human," Zayn said, his words deliberate, each one hitting like a slap. "Spreading your legs for the first guy who bothers to notice you."
Heat rushed to my face, burning with humiliation. My chest ached — not from his words alone, but from the sick realization that I had trusted him. That I had let myself believe he was different.
I was so, so stupid.
——————————————————
When eigteen-year-old Aurora Wells moves to a sleepy town with her parents, the last thing she expects is to be enrolled in a secret academy for werewolves.
Moonbound Academy is no ordinary school. It's here young Lycans, Betas and Alphas train in shifting, elemental magic, and ancient pack laws. But Aurora? She's just...human. a mistake. The new receptionist forgot to check her species - and now she's surrounded by predators who sense she doesn't belong.
Determined to stay under the radar, Aurora plans to survive the year unnoticed. But when she catches the attention of Zayn, a brooding and infuriatingly powerful Lycan prince, her life gets a lot more complicated. Zayn already has a mate. He already has enemies. And he definitely doesn't want anything to do with a clueless human.
But secrets run deeper than bloodlines at Moonbound. as Aurora unravels the truth about the academy - and herself - she begins to question everything she thought she knew.
Including the reason she was brought here at all.
Enemies will rise. Loyalties will shift. And the girl with no place in their world...might be the key to saving it.
Invisible To Her Bully

Invisible To Her Bully

530.1k Views · Ongoing · sunsationaldee
Unlike her twin brother, Jackson, Jessa struggled with her weight and very few friends. Jackson was an athlete and the epitome of popularity, while Jessa felt invisible. Noah was the quintessential “It” guy at school—charismatic, well-liked, and undeniably handsome. To make matters worse, he was Jackson’s best friend and Jessa’s biggest bully. During their senior year, Jessa decides it was time for her to gain some self-confidence, find her true beauty and not be the invisible twin. As Jessa transformed, she begins to catch the eye of everyone around her, especially Noah. Noah, initially blinded by his perception of Jessa as merely Jackson’s sister, started to see her in a new light. How did she become the captivating woman invading his thoughts? When did she become the object of his fantasies? Join Jessa on her journey from being the class joke to a confident, desirable young woman, surprising even Noah as she reveals the incredible person she has always been inside.