Bound By The Past

DanteMy life's a tale of betrayal.I killed so many because they betrayed our cause, because they betrayed the Outfit.A hypocrite. A liar. A murderer. That's what I am.Five times I betrayed the Outfit. With my blood I made a vow to our cause, swore my life to it, promised to put the Outfit first. Above all else.Five times I chose a woman over the good of the Outfit. I betrayed my father. My vow. My men. You reap what you sow.Would my betrayals destroy everything I swore to protect?ValentinaOn our wedding day I made a vow to stand by Dante's side. In good and in bad times. To love him through it all.Growing up in the mafia, I knew the challenges in our life would be numerous. I never expected them to tear at the very base of our family, of our existence.

DanteMy life is a tale of betrayal.I killed so many because they betrayed our cause, because they betrayed the Outfit.A hypocrite. A liar. A murderer. That's what I am.Five times I betrayed the Outfit. With my blood I made a vow to our cause, swore my life to it, promised to put the Outfit first. Above all else.Five times I chose a woman over the good of the Outfit. I betrayed my father. My vow. My men. You reap what you sow.Would my betrayals destroy everything I swore to protect?ValentinaOn our wedding day I made a vow to stand by Dante's side. In good and in bad times. To love him through it all.Growing up in the mafia, I knew the challenges in our life would be numerous. I never expected them to tear at the very base of our family, of our existence.

Born in BloodSworn in Blood......isn't only the motto the Famiglia lives by. Bleeding for love is something every couple in this book has experienced. Through hardships their love morphs into something even more beautiful and resilient. A love each of them is willing to fight for.This anthology contains stories for the following couples: Aria & LucaRomero & LilianaGrowl & CaraMauro & StellaMatteo & Gianna

GrowlHe'd never had something to himself, never even dared to dream about owning something so precious. He was the unwanted bastard son who'd always had to content himself with the leftovers of others. And now they'd given him what only a few weeks ago had been out of his reach, someone he wasn't even allowed to admire from afar, one of their most prized possessions. Thrown at his feet because he was who he was, because they were certain he would break her. He was her punishment, a fate worse than death, a way to deliver the ultimate punishment to her father who had displeased them so greatly.CaraShe had always been the good girl. It didn't protect her.She didn't know his real name. People called him Growl to his face, and the Bastard behind his back. Both were names he couldn't possibly have chosen for himself. His eyes were empty, a mirror to throw back her own fear at her. He was a brutal hand of the Las Vegas Camorra.And now she was at his mercy.

Dante Cavallaro's wife died four years ago but her memory still haunts him. On the verge of becoming the youngest head in the history of the Chicago Outfit, Dante needs to remarry or risk appearing weak. Valentina is chosen for the role. She, too, lost her husband, but her first marriage has always been for show. Even after her husband's death, Valentina carries the weight of his secrets with her- to protect the honor of a dead man and herself. With her wedding to Dante, her castle of lies threatens to crash. Valentina fears the wedding night might reveal her secret, but her worries prove unfounded when Dante ignores her. Soon, her fear turns to confusion and anger. Valentina is tired of being ignored. She's determined to get Dante's attention and desire, even if she can't get his heart that still belongs to his dead wife.

Nobody expected them to fall in love.When Aria was given to Luca in marriage, people were sure he'd break her. Aria feared the worst from a man like him.A man without mercy. But somehow she gained his love.Love - a weakness a Capo like Luca shouldn't risk.When Aria betrays Luca by going behind his back for her family, she realizes too late that she might have lost what she's fought so hard to get in the first place: Luca's trust. The trust of a man who never allowed himself to trust someone unconditionally before. Can their love survive in a world of betrayal and death?

On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand? In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy—the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. Dozens of such books live on in the world’s most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection. Along the way, Rosenbloom tells the story of how her team of scientists, curators, and librarians test rumored anthropodermic books, untangling the myths around their creation and reckoning with the ethics of their custodianship. A librarian and journalist, Rosenbloom is a member of The Order of the Good Death and a cofounder of their Death Salon, a community that encourages conversations, scholarship, and art about mortality and mourning. In Dark Archives—captivating and macabre in all the right ways—she has crafted a narrative that is equal parts detective work, academic intrigue, history, and medical curiosity: a book as rare and thrilling as its subject.

Caught between two worlds, a powerful warrior must choose between impossible destinies when he meets a woman whose love will either make or break him... As the daughter of a Regent, Sasha has long known about the secret underworld of the Paladins and their work protecting her kind from the dark forces on the other side of the energy barrier. So when she is sent on her first solo investigation, on the path to becoming the first female Regent, she is determined to get the Seattle Paladins in line. Offering sanctuary to their Kalith enemies is simply unacceptable! But when she meets Larem, she is inexorably drawn to a dark and valiant warrior who is not at all what he appears to be. As the power struggle between Regents and Paladins rages on, someone starts making attacks on her life. Sasha must choose between loyalty to her own kind and the warrior she loves...with the very fate of humanity hanging in the balance.