Until The World Bleeds Color

Raven Moreno Weddings are supposed to start with vows. Mine started with silence. No "I do." No promises. Just a man who looked at me like I was already his. Kairus didn't let the priest speak. Didn't let tradition breathe between us. "I don't want lies," he said. Not in front of a priest. Not from me. Not even from himself. He said his own vow, short and cold. Then he slid the ring onto my finger. No question. No choice. And just like that—I was his wife. I didn't speak. I couldn't. Because somewhere deep down, I knew… this wasn't the kind of story where love saves you. This was the kind that cages you. --- It started three weeks ago. I was still fighting underground matches for rent money and broken pride. Blood on my knuckles. Bruises on my ribs. And then I came home. My brother—my only family—was slumped on the couch. Still. Too still. He didn't die with a smile. He didn't say goodbye. He just… left. And in his place, he left me something else. An envelope. My name on it. Inside was a letter. My brother's last words. A debt I didn't create. And a name that made my blood run cold. Kairus Vasiliev Russian mafia. The kind of man they don't talk about in daylight. The kind of man you don't say no to. I didn't go looking for him. But he found me. --- "Marry me," he said two nights ago. Just like that. No emotion. No hesitation. I asked, "And if I do? " "The debt dies with your name," he said. He didn't smile. Didn't blink. Just stared at me like he already owned every breath I hadn't taken yet. I signed the contract with a shaking hand. Not because I was afraid of him. But because part of me knew— I was already his long before I said yes. --- Now, as I stand beside him in a wedding dress I didn't choose, I can't feel my hands. His fingers are cold around mine. His presence—quiet, lethal, inescapable. He didn't kiss me like a husband. He kissed me like a hunter marking his prey. Hasn't touched me like a husband should. But the way he looks at me? And maybe that's the part I should fear most. Because men like him don't fall in love. They hunt. They mark. They possess. And tonight, I'm not a bride. I'm a debt paid in full. A possession wrapped in silk. A woman with no escape. But I'll find one. Even if it breaks me. Even if it destroyed me.