Page 37 of Secrets & Sake

“I knew it,” she whispers, and I bristle at her words.

“Knew what?”

She takes a drag on her cigarette and blows out smoke. “You know, this whole denial thing you’ve got going on is really something. It’s almost admirable how stubborn you are.”

I snatch her cigarette and suck on it, ignoring her growl. “I’m not denying shit.”

She bats her eyelashes. “So, you do admit he’s your fated mate?”

Ren thinks Hiro is my mate? No. No. “He isn’t my mate.” I whirl around to face her, needing her to understand this. “He’s not.”

But it would explain a lot. Like how all it took was a look into those chocolate-brown eyes, and he’d burrowed himself into my brain. How his scent soothes the wolf’s primal rage. How furious I become whenever he’s even slightly threatened.

No. Fuck. No.

“Raiden,” Ren begins gently, but I pull out of her reach.

“That mate bullshit isn’t real.”

Maybe when I was a kid, I believed that the red string of fate brought two destined souls together. It was like a fairy tale to me whenever my mom told me the story of how she and my dad met.

“I saw him, and I just knew that from that moment on, the sun would rise and set with him. He became my whole world. A light in the dark. I knew there’d never be anyone else for me.”

Bile rises in my throat. She’d looked so happy, so in love. Life was hard back then, but I’d thought that as long as we were a family, everything would be okay. My parents loved each other, and I loved them.

Until my father tore the red string of fate from his finger and severed his connection to my mother. And then, everything had fallen apart.

If I concentrate… really focus… there’s a tightness around my pinky finger. A tugging at my skin. Something warm glowing around my finger like candlelight. Normally, people can see it right away. The red string of fate materializes the moment we’re close to someone we’re meant to be with.

I closed my heart and mind to fate’s influence when I was a kid. But If I wanted to, I could reveal the thread around my own finger. If I wanted, I could follow where it leads and see who it leads me to.

But I don’t want to. I don’t care. Fate, destiny, mates… none of this shit matters. Fated mates or not, love never lasts. It’s a lesson I learned a long time ago when my father tore apart our family and broke my mother’s heart.

I don’t know what Hiro and I are. I’m not ready to examine it. That shit is going in a box where I store all the other things I don’t let myself brood on. Like severed red threads. A little bronze coin, pressed into my hand.

I promised myself if I ever found my fated mate, I’d reject them with everything I had.

And yet here I am, risking Namikawa’s punishment for a man I’ve only recently met.

I’m spared from arguing with her when the doors to the club open. A guy I recognize as one of Takada’s boys walks in. He’s an ugly fucker, dressed in all white with a yellow dress shirt, a bald head, and a goatee. One of the men who attacked Hiro. Goro Takahashi. He and his brother are going to pay for putting their hands on Hiro.

Ren wrinkles her nose. “That’s him, but it doesn’t look like his brother is with him. What’s the plan?”

“He’s got a thing for guys. I’ll talk to him, get him to follow me outside. You sneak up and get the drop on him.”

She frowns. “Shouldn’t we be stealthier about this?”

“He won’t see your face if you come up from behind.”

“But he’ll identify you, idiot! He’ll report you.”

I shrug. “If he cries to Takada, let him. I’m not Takada’s property anymore. Maybe this’ll finally teach him not to fuck with me.” Or to touch what’s mine.

Snubbing out Ren’s cig and ignoring her grumbles, I pop a few buttons on my shirt to expose my chest and cross the room. My eyes lock with Takahashi’s, and the lust in his eyes makes my stomach clench.

Still, I sit with him and have a few drinks. Let him touch my thigh even if I want to bite his hand off. I even return his touches until I can feel how hard he is.

“Want to follow me outside?” I ask.

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