Page 8 of Spider Demon's Kiss

Yuki didn’t respond. What could she say? Instead, I spoke.

“And when is this meant to happen?”

“Tonight.”

“Tonight?” I coughed in shock. “He really wants this man dead, doesn’t he?”

Yuki’s eyes met the ground. I laughed. My father was marrying me off to a straight wolf shifter. Why would my husband-to-be agree to this? Does he even know I’m a man?

What happens when he finds out? And am I supposed to go without sex until one of us dies? If I get my needs met elsewhere, will he eat me?

His name was Dante, wasn’t it? He was certainly the hot one in that family. Chiseled body, icy eyes, and ink from neck to wrist. I wouldn’t mind him treating me like his bitch in one way. I wonder how long it would take him to remember I have a dick.

Pulling off my jacket, I headed to the closet.

“What are you doing?”

Turning around recapturing my humor, I replied, “It’s my wedding day, Sister. I’m getting dressed.”

I was going to make this a day to remember.

Chapter 3

Dante

This isn’t good. None of this is fuckin’ good. Sato has made me wait two days for a face-to-face with him to get this marriage shit straightened out and I don’t like it.

As stressful as things are after Matteo did what he did, I wasn’t lookin’ to die. Maybe the rumors about Kuroi were true. Maybe they weren’t. But if being married to Kuroi didn’t get me killed, marrying a man would. There would be a target on my back, most of all from Pa.

He wouldn’t be able stand for this insult to the pack. And how would the men I demand respect from react to me being with a man? Weakness is something that will get you killed in my line of work. So there is no way this can happen.

The problem, though, is that that Yakuza son-of-bitch won’t even talk to me about it. Yeah, he pretends that he doesn’t speak English, but I know he understands every goddamn word I say. Play ignorant. That’s how they underestimate you. Well, guess what, fucker, I know that game to and I’m not falling for it.

“You okay, Dante,” Lorenzo asked from the passenger seat. “You’re looking a little red.”

“I’m fine,” I tell him definitely not feeling fine.

I felt like my face was on fire and bugs were crawling under my skin. This was exactly how I felt when my wolf was forcing me to shift. I guess my wolf had its own ideas about how to handle things. But if I let him take control, everyone would end up dead.

“You sure your contacts don’t have anything we could use in this meeting?” I asked hoping a miracle would get me out of this.

“They got nothin’. I approached this from every angle I could think of. Sato isn’t in debt to any New York packs. Thereare no dock workers that they rely on for their imports that we could squeeze, and with the structure of their compound, extermination wasn’t an option.”

I looked over at Lorenzo. I was impressed. He really had considered all of the angles. If something happened to me, he should be the one to lead the pack.

He could never do it. Leading a pack required as much intimidation as it did navigating obstacles. Lorenzo was a master at working behind the scenes. Maybe even better than me. But that was where his skills ended.

To lead a pack, you had to be a people person. Lorenzo wasn’t that. Being a people person was Matteo in a nutshell. But Matteo was a hammer that looked at everything and everyone as a nail. If I could figure out how to combine those two brothers, they might be better than I could ever be. But you can’t expect blood from a stone. With those two, you just have to take what you can get.

“That’s disappointing, Lorenzo. I was counting on you coming through for me.”

“I can only give you what I’ve found. Making up shit would just get you killed.”

“In this situation, that isn’t the only thing.”

Pulling up to Sato’s residence I had to marvel at it. He had somehow recreated Japan in upstate New York. It didn’t entirely work. To be honest, Sato’s compound looked like one of those 1920s American castles with the roofs replaced to make them do that Japanese swooping thing.

The garden was incredible, though. There were ponds and those manicured trees that looked like the tail of a poodle. In the front was sand with lines drawn in it and a large rock sticking out. And there was even one of those structures that look like Japanese writing. I didn’t see what the purpose of it was other than to look nice. But everything told a story.

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