It can consume and take. It can be a wild fire of emotions. But with Dante it’s safe. It’s freedom. It’s being able to be who I am 100% of the time without fear. It’s the feeling of coming home to a place that actually feels like home.

It’s everything.

38DANTE

My wedding day.

Today I would marry Ilaria, the woman who I had fallen in love with already. Tonight we would be together in a way I had been thinking about since the first time I saw her.

My mafia principessa about to become my queen.

I missed her.

Last night, after our rehearsal dinner, she had been taken to her fathers house with all her friends.

Traditions were important, though we had been living together for a few weeks already we needed that night before with our friends and our families before we joined together.

But all I wanted was her.

“Are you ready to be a married man?” Enzo jokes as he adjusted his bowtie.

Ilaria had demanded formal wear for everyone, having laid out my outfit for me like the control freak that she was. A small box on top of it was a gift she had gotten for me.

A gold chain with ‘22’ our wedding date.

Ilaria liked to mark me with gifts, and I loved to be marked by her. There was something about the way her fingers would stroke my watch or how she would touch me when she picked out my clothes. Her pride was in me and how I looked. It mattered to me now that I looked the part of her husband.

Wanting to be a certain way for Ilaria had surprised me. I hadn’t expected to fall in love with the person I was arranged to. But with Ilaria it had happened.

“We need to head down. The girls are already on the way here.”

Francesco walked into the room, looking at me up and down like he was double checking that nothing bad had happened to me.

He was skeptical of marriage because he hadn’t been gifted with parents and a life like I had been. His idea of marriage was akin to what people would think a prison sentence was. That was why he didn’t do relationships or anything serious. He couldn’t handle the disappointment he had seen over and over again as a child.

Maybe seeing Ilaria and I happy would give him hope. Or maybe her blonde friend would make him realize how monogamous relationships weren’t as tiresome as he expected them to be.

“I’m ready to go down.”

It’s embarrassing that I didn’t know what to expect as I entered the church. Ilaria had been planning the wedding with my mother, never really checking in with my input because she had realized how stressed I was opening up the Inferno. She had tried to get me involved with a  few things: cake tasting and asking about what I wanted to give as gifts. But the wedding had been mostly planned by her.

Seeing the church covered in red roses, traditional and glamorous made sense. It reminded me of her. The classic beauty in it.

Ilaria and I hadn’t shied away from tradition.

We hadn’t fought for the freedom that other people our age were doing as families changed, as the world changed. Both of us liked the idea of pleasing our parents. We had seen happiness in them and it made it easy to trust their decisions. We knew we would be happy.

I’d do anything to make her happy.

Shifting after shaking hands with the priest I turned towards the door, knowing that my wife would be walking towards me at any minute. When I walked out of this church I was going to be a married man.

The head of my own family.

A step closer to being the Don.

Today would change the rest of my life.

Madeline was the first bridesmaid to be walked down the aisle with my cousin Gio on her arm. He had been paired with her because Enzo had made a stink about walking with Tessa, who came down the aisle next with my guard on her arm.

Behind them came Sammie with her future husband Alejandro on her arm. My other guard had been kicked out of the wedding party when the new Cartel boss had made it clear that his fiancée would not be walking with another man.

And finally there was Becca and Francesco, both of them scowling like being together was the worst thing in the world.

Francesco glared at her several times, annoyed by the high slight of the black silk gown and the generous amount of cleavage that Becca had displayed. Probably done just to get under his skin.

He didn’t part like he was supposed to, instead he helped her up the step to stand beside where my wife would be. He was giving her a look that Becca smiled so widely at, my cousin blinked half a dozen times as if he realized she could ignore him without caring. Pissing him off even more as he stormed to stand beside me.

“I don’t know why you’re getting married. Seems like it’s a sure way to get your balls cut off.” Franceseco muttered, still sending daggers over to Becca who wasn’t even looking in his direction but her hand raises and she makes a scissor motion that he scowls at, looking away from her.

I was sure they were going to end up in bed together by the end of the night.

The bridal march starts.

Everyone standing as I take in a deep breath, realizing that Ilaria was about to walk out and we would be getting married, bound together for a lifetime.

The doors to the church opened and I felt the way my heart thundered in my chest as I watched her standing at the end of the aisle, wanting to rush towards her and hold her in my arms. She was too beautiful to be around all these people. I needed to be selfish and have her all to myself.

“I stand corrected.” Francesco’s comment made me want to stab him and I was thankful when Alejandro punched him in the ribs, getting an oof from the way that the air rushed from his lungs. A snort from Becca made him glare around me.

It was like we had kids already.

Ilaria was wearing a long sleeve gown, the sleeves a thin lace covered in sparkles, the top tight and cut low with a mesh panel that didn’t let anyone see what was mine.

Of course my princess was in a ballgown, her long veil covering her with a tiara on her head. She looked the part of the Italian Mafia Princess. But she was about to be a queen.

“Dante.”

Her fathers voice was ringing in my ears but I was already reaching for Ilaria, flipping the veil because I needed to see her face.

The soft smile on her face as I reached out cupping her cheek, watching her hand off her flowers to Becca as she turned her attention to me, all smiles as she leaned into my palm.

“Hey.”

“Hey, principessa.” She stepped forwards, suddenly seeming to realize that her father was still on her arm,.

“Papa.”