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Chapter One

Some species mate for life—ducks, swans, and Valentinos just to name a few. I’m supposed to fall into the latter. I’ve seen it, grown up surrounded by it.Love.That soul-crushing, all-consuming love that has you living entirely for a person other than yourself. I don’t think that is ever going to be in the cards for me, though.

For that to happen, you have to be attracted to someone. You have to feel something other than… well, nothing. I’ve never felt that. I love my family, my parents, my brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins, and of course my grandparents. I love them fiercely, andtheyare who I live for. They are what keep me going, get me through the motions of day-to-day life.

The thing is, I’m constantly bored. Everything is so repetitive. Everyone around me is so fake. Including me. People think they know me, but they don’t. Your teenage years are supposed to be the best of your life, or so my mother would have me believe. She enjoyed being young and free—although she also knew she loved my father since she was six years old.

Like I said, Valentinos mate for life. And me, I’m Aurora Valentino. I’m many things, though. A mafia princess, my father’s pride and joy, and my mother’s mini me… at least in the looks department. Unfortunately, I did not inherit her bubbly, outgoing personality. Not that anyone would know that because, again, I’m fake.

I’m good at pretending to be who people want me to be, or who they expect me to be. Until I can’t pretend any longer and I explode. That only happens occasionally, and my family blows that off as me beingAurora. Literally, they have turned my name into a verb. Because in our family, nothing is crazy unless I’m the one doing it.

My father named me after a Disney princess. He said I was born asleep. Calm, quiet, and the most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes on. He took one look at me and thought of Sleeping Beauty. Hence the name. My mom says it was the calm before the storm, seeing as I made up for that lack of noise later on.

In my defense, I also have two older brothers and a bucket-load of cousins even I have trouble keeping up with. My mom is an only child. Just her and my grandfather. But my dad is one offour. My nonno says he was trying to birth an army, but Nonna wasn’t having it after the twins—my dad’s youngest brothers.

I think Nonno has his army now, though. Between his kids, grandchildren, and all the extended family around the globe. My nonna is Australian. She moved to New York to work as a teacher when she was young. Met my nonno and, well,mated for life.

I have the kind of family a lot of people envy. They’re loving, fiercely protective, and loyal to the bone. It comes with the mafia blood that runs through our veins. And I love them. All of them. Including the two idiots I’m currently sending death glares to.

Dante and Orlando. My cousins are younger than I am, but they never got that message. No, they think it’s their sole purpose in life to follow me around and make sure I don’t do anything stupid. If you were to ask them, they’d say they’re protecting me and simply following orders from their fathers, those same twins I mentioned, which has Dante and Orlando looking more like brothers than cousins.

Orlando is a rockstar, a legit billboard-reaching rockstar. He inherited his talent from his mother. My Zio Katy is America’s sweetheart.

But Dante is a different breed. He’s a child prodigy. A genius, brains he inherited from both of his parents. The kid is practically a walking Wikipedia. I’m not sure there’s a lot he doesn’t know or can’t find out.

Right now, though, those two are pains in my ass. They weren’t supposed to be at this party. I came here to be alone. Which is probably a strange concept. I mean, who goes to a party to be alone? Me. Because as many people as there are here, they don’t see me. And if they do, they pretend not to.

People tend to keep a wide berth around me. Over the years, I’ve made sure to incite not only fear but the idea that I could strike at any moment. Unlike Dante and Orlando, when I snap,it’s not something I’ll do to you in public. No, it’ll be private. Between you and me. I don’t need an audience, but the rumors that go around about me are enough to have everyone looking at me differently.

I watch my cousins become the life of the party, every dipshit here wanting to get into their good graces. They put us Valentinos on a throne and the very few people we let close are part of theroyal court, as the students at school like to call it.

It’s no secret what our family does. Although we’re also not stupid. The rumors are never confirmed. They might know we’re mafia, and we might act the part. But this is America, and we’re all innocent until proven guilty. Fortunately for us, no one has ever been found guilty of anything.

It helps that my dad is the country’s best defense attorney and my Zio Livvy is the second best. They’ll probably end up having to defend me one day—I have no doubt about that.

Everyone in my family has a talent or a skill they excel at. The only thing I excel at is fooling people into believing I’m normal when I’m anything but. I don’t have the same feelings other kids my age seem to have. That’s part of the reason I got dressed up and came to this party tonight. To see if I felt… anything.

I watch everyone around me. Humping and grinding on each other. Some couples look like they’re doing a lot more than just grinding. And still I feel… nothing. No arousal. No flutters in my heart or stomach. Just nothing. I know what’s supposed to happen. I should be turned on, wet. I should feel something downstairs that makes me want to lose all inhibitions and climb another human like a flagpole.

And that’s my current problem. I’ve never been aroused. Ever. I’ve been around beautiful people, both male and female, but I can’t seem to get it up, so to speak, for either sex. It’s not for lack of trying either. I’ve had both guys and girls show interest in me.

“Did you come to a party to mope?” Dante leans on the wall next to where I’m standing.

“No, I came here to find some poor soul and fuck the life out of him.” I smirk when my cousin cringes.

“You do that, and I’ll be sure to kill him before either of you reaches the finale,” he snarls like a rabid dog.

“Challenge accepted.” My smile widens as I tip the top of my beer at him. I don’t particularly like beer, but it’s the only bottled drink here and I’m too smart to take a drink someone else has mixed.

“That wasn’t a fucking challenge, Aurora,” he says.

“Scared you’ll lose?” I raise a brow at him.

“Not at all. How exactly do you expect to seduce some fucker when I’m right next to you, being the ultimate cockblock?” Dante laughs.

I school my features. My cousin might be the smart one in the family, but when it comes to manipulation, no one does it better than I do. “Is that the new girl? Josie. Who invited her? I didn’t think she had any friends,” I say while looking in the direction I clocked the object of my cousin’s obsession five minutes ago.

As predicted, Dante pushes off the wall. “Don’t move,” he tells me. Or tries to order me.