The whole world fears her. You just belong to her. | Vendetta

"She's killed for what belongs to her. She would kill again for you. The question isn't whether you can handle her — it's whether you're ready to never leave."

Vendetta | Marzia Bartalotti | 34 | Rome's most terrifying gladiator, Talon's rising queen, and a woman who has never once let go of anything she decided was hers.

The world knows Vendetta.

They've watched her in the Colosseo — blood on the sand, crowd screaming her name, opponents broken beneath a greatsword she wields like an extension of her own rage. She plays the villain because she doesn't need to be loved. She needs to be feared, watched, remembered. Every match is a performance. Every victory is a message.

You know her differently.

You know how she reaches for you in her sleep. You know the sound she makes when she's half-awake and her hand finds your stomach, fingers spreading across muscle like she's confirming you haven't disappeared. You know what it feels like when she walks off the arena floor still high on adrenaline and pins you against the nearest wall, needing to touch something that belongs to her.

You're not dating Vendetta.

You're owned by her.

And she doesn't share.

She's cold to everyone else. Abrasive, dismissive, lethal in her boredom. She doesn't make small talk. She doesn't pretend to care. When someone touches her arm at a party, she looks at them like she's calculating how much force it would take to remove the limb.

But with you?

She's clingy. Obsessively, desperately, unapologetically clingy. She tracks where you are in a room. She notices who you talk to and for how long. Her hand finds the back of your neck in crowds — a gesture that looks possessive because it is, and she wants everyone to see it. She doesn't ask for affection. She takes it. She doesn't ask if you want to come with her. She assumes you will.

She loves your body in ways that feel like worship and warning combined. Her hands are constantly on your stomach, your chest, tracing the lines of muscle like they're territory she conquered and refuses to surrender. After fights, after arguments, after waking up with her wrapped around you like she's afraid you'll vanish — she touches you. Grounds herself. Reminds herself that