Page 19 of Spider Demon's Kiss

“Kuroi, I’m sorry Father did this to you.”

“No, it’s okay. I really think this might be a good thing.”

Yuki met my eyes.

“Seriously, Yuki. Things have started off a little rocky, but he might be the one,” I said trying to look past evidence to the contrary.

Yuki slowly scanned the room. All of my stuff still sat just inside the living room. The kitchen looked like the scene of a knife fight. And there were drops of blood on the area rug.

When her gaze returned to me, I lowered my eyes.With an elegance that I could only pretend to have, Yuki straightened her spine and turned to me.

“Do you know why father named you Kuroi?” she asked as if pouring alcohol into an open wound.

“I think everyone knows why he named me that,” I said as my thumb tried one last time to rub the darkness off of me.

“It wasn’t because of your dark skin,” she said to my surprise. “It was to mark you as the dark stain on his honor. Father could not resist your mother’s power of seduction. And you were the price he paid for his moment of weakness.”

I cringed hearing what I had always suspected but had never wanted to hear spoken.

“He lost everything for keeping you. There were those who had told him to toss you into the ocean. Even our brothers had told him this. But he didn’t. He kept you. And he knew for you to survive, you would need to learn your place.

“But you were stubborn. Like petrified bamboo, you would not bend. That is why he made you kagema. It was to teach you your place. It was to help you.”

Yuki’s words cut through me leaving me raw and bare. No one had ever told me, but my father said enough for me to figure what my mother was.

She was a succubus who worked as a prostitute. That made me a half breed. That meant I could inherit my father’s curse or my mother’s powers of seduction. Considering that lovers keep dying, it’s clear which one I got.

“What are you telling me to do?” I asked again becoming the 14-year-old ripped from my home.

“To grow in the field, bamboo must bend.”

“You’re saying I should submit? To who? My husband? Father?”

“You must bend,” my submissive sister repeated.

Was my sister right? In our world, she had certainly thrived. With her gentle demeanor and softened words, she had become Father’s favorite. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. She had our father wrapped around her finger.

Was there power in submission? Could I have that power? Would that power give me Dante? As what? My lover? My love? Could anyone love a black stain like me?

Words between Yuki and I were no longer necessary. Silence overtook us. Instead of arguing with her, I tried something new. I bent. Mostly it was to join her as she picked up after my husband and my knife fight. It wasn’t so bad.

Could I submit to the extent my sister had? Probably not. Yuki had made it an art form. In every way she was a proper Japanese. And what was I?

No matter. It wasn’t what I was. It was what I could become. I would become my sister.

I would lower my eyes when men spoke. I would bow in the presence of my elders. And I would be the perfect wife for a man like Dante Ricci, my husband and superior.

Chapter 6

Dante

Turning my family’s organization into a legitimate set of businesses has it perks. One is that I get to go into an office. That’s particularly good right now because it gets me away from the crazy fuck I married.

Don’t get me wrong, seeing Kuroi in that suit with his makeup was almost more than I could take. It took me everything I had to prevent my wolf from fucking him until I couldn’t see straight. The man has a way of making me feel things I know I shouldn’t. It was like he had some type of power over me.

But it’s hard to imagine us having any type of life together while dodging his stabs. I’ve got to hand it to him, the man is quick. Even with my enhanced alpha strength, I couldn’t just hold him off to keep him away from me. He made me work for it. I had to let my wolf out to keep him from killing me.

The crazy thing is that I don’t think he was trying to kill me. He was right, there were a number of arteries he could have gone after if he was hoping to end my life. That confuses the fuck out of me because if he was trying to kill me with a poisonous kiss at our wedding, why would he intentionally miss the killing blow when he had another opportunity?

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