Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 101427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Impossible rage roared within my chest.
He turned his back to me and faced the trembling assassins.
Annoyance hit me. “As soon as you know who the traitor is, I want that information.”
“You will have it, but more important, we must also get you out of this building before Hiro finds out what is happening.”
Oh yes. . .my brother. . .
A satisfied smile crept across my face, dark and slow. As always, my Roar moved like my shadow. He didn’t just understand me, he anticipated me, cutting where I would have cut, hurting where I would have hurt.
Suddenly, gunfire blasting racked outside.
Followed by a scream and boots pounding marble.
I frowned. “When will you go?”
Reo kept his back to me. “Soon.”
“You’re to get out of here safely.”
“I will. There are several helicopters on the roof. More are enroute from Nara, Kobe, and Yokohama. All carrying men trained for war. All loyal. All willing to die for the Dragon.”
Gunfire cracked again in the distance—closer now.
I let the sounds settle and the moment breathe.
Then I spoke, “This isn’t retaliation anymore.”
Reo glanced over his shoulders and watched me.
My jaw tightened. “This is war. I want everyone at the safe spot by dawn, and then we trigger the bombs.”
“We planned to unleash the bombs days later.”
“And then my father attacked.”
“I understand, but there is no clear confirmation that this was the Fox.”
“Yet, I see my father’s fingerprints all over this.”
Reo nodded. “Then we will put Plan A into action tonight.”
“Yes, but first interrogate these fucking bastards. Get me names. Get me fucking details. Get me blood. Then, get to the safe spot so we can set off the bombs.”
“I will.”
“This morning, Tokyo will wake up to the Dragon’s fire.”
Reo nodded. “And the Fox won’t know what bled through him until he’s already drowning.”
I let Reo’s promise settle in my bones.
Gunfire cracked again—closer this time. Muffled screams echoed up the stairwell. The air had shifted. The building itself braced.
We were almost out of time.
I took the present from Satoshi and headed off.
My Eyes followed.
Reo said some words of encouragement, but I barely heard them, because everything inside me was already moving ahead of my body—rushing toward her scent, her voice, her softness, her heart.
Chapter two
Power at My Feet
Nyomi
The scent hit me before the sound did—blood, fresh and bitter, riding the heat that clung to Kenji’s skin.
Then came his footsteps, bare against the marble.
I stayed seated, though my fingers tightened around the arms of the queening throne. The leather under my palms felt slick now, not from sweat but from the static of fear and awe colliding inside me.
And then he walked in.
Kenji Sato.
Shirtless.
Torso a living canvas of dark ink and hard muscle.
No shoes.
No words.
Just blood drying on his hands and eyes full of fury.
And call me crazy, but it was absolutely magnificent to behold.
Shit. He is still pissed. I’m glad he isn’t mad at me.
Yet, to my surprise, he held a gift in one hand. It was a long box wrapped in thick, matte black paper with a single pink bow on top.
The contrast was almost disorienting.
Violence clung to his sculpted body, but the present appeared delicate.
It made my chest ache. Because only a man like him could carry both violence and kindness in the same breath, and make both feel like seduction.
Entering further into the room, his chest rose and fell with controlled breaths, though everything about his face said uncontrolled rage.
His jaw clenched. His mouth was firm. His hair was slightly damp, like he’d run bloody hands through the strands.
But it wasn’t just him that entered. He’d brought that menacing dragon-shadow too.
I blinked.
That shadow stretched behind him along the marble floor and up the walls—massive, serpentine. The shape of it shifted as he moved. A dragon. Formed of smoke and menace. It slithered in his wake, with eyes that weren’t quite visible, but somehow. . .still watching.
It didn’t roar.
It just coiled behind him like a warning.
I blinked again, and then it was gone.
I’m losing it.
I put my view back on Kenji.
He didn’t even glance at me.
He simply walked to the center of the space, where his shirt had been discarded on the floor during our earlier game of power and lust. He picked it up with one hand, shook out the folds, and slid his arms into the sleeves like he was arming himself.
What is going to happen now?
His movements were slow.
Intentional.
Each button he fastened was the click of a chamber loading.
And then. . .the door opened again behind him.
Two men stepped inside.
Who is this?
They moved in absolute silence—tall, unreadable, carved with muscle. They didn’t enter fully, just flanked either side of the door.
I didn’t know their names or titles, but I knew power when I saw it.
They didn’t look at me, but their presence was enough.
My gaze went to the tattoos near the corner of their eyes.