Page 12 of Emperor of Lust

His lips twitch with a faint smirk, but there’s something unreadable in his gaze, darkly amused, almost triumphant. Andthen Kenzo speaks, his voice quiet, the resignation in his tone only deepening the chill settling over me.

“To Damian,” he says, the words striking with the force of a hammer. “You’re getting engaged to Damian.”

My world shatters in an instant. The room feels too small, too cold, and the weight of my brother’s words presses down on me too heavily, squeezing the air from my lungs.

Everything explodes into chaos. Annika is yelling at Kenzo. Takeshi is balling up his fists and storming toward him. Mal is yelling, and Isaak suddenly jumps up to stop Freya from lunging at Kir.

Me, I’m just numb, frozen, in a horrified state of shock as I turn to the man who just hours ago had me on my knees, at his mercy.

Damian isn’t yelling. He’s not even moving. He’s just sitting back in his chair, surrounded by the chaos like he was born to it, looking right at me. He smiles, a slow, dangerous curve to his lips that says he hasn’t forgotten the power he now holds over me.

Not for a second.

4

HANA

The room is pin-dropsilent as Damian, Kir, and Isaak file out the door, letting it shut behind them.

I’m still sitting utterly frozen, my head swimming as I try and process the impossible weight of what Kenzo has just told us.

Across the room, Takeshi’s eyes blaze as he paces the floor. Mal sits near him, his jaw set, gazing into the middle distance. Beside him, Freya rubs his back, her own expression a mix of disbelief and fury. Annika pulls her gaze to me, but I pretend I don’t see it and keep staring blankly into a space about two feet in front of me.

I don’t know how long we sit like this, but Takeshi is the first to break the silence.

“You can’t be fucking serious, Kenzo.” His voice is simmering with barely controlled anger, each word cutting through the quiet. “Damian is a psychopath, and you want Hana to pretend she’s fuckingengagedto him? Do you realize how insane that sounds?”

Kenzo doesn’t flinch. He meets Takeshi’s glare with a calm steadiness that only infuriates our brother more. “We don’t have a choice,” he says firmly. “The subject is closed.”

Takeshi’s gaze shifts to me, filled with a fierce protectiveness bordering on rage. “And Hana? What happens to her? You’re just…throwing her to the wolves?!”

Kenzo lets out a heavy sigh, his gaze drifting to me, a faint shadow of remorse in his eyes. “This alliance is crucial, Takeshi. Miyamoto’s support is the difference between success and failure in Tokyo. You know that.” He pauses, glancing at me with a gravity that sends a chill through me.

“SofuckTokyo, man!” Takeshi roars. “If the cost is our fucking sister, then we walk away from it!”

I sit silently, caught between Takeshi’s anger and Kenzo’s unwavering conviction, my own emotions a tangled mess that I can barely make sense of. Part of me wants to tell Kenzo I won’t be a pawn in this shit. Or that Takeshi is right, and that Tokyo isn’t worth it.

But another part—a deeper, darker part—knows that this is exactly the kind of burden I’ve been training my entire life to bear as the dutiful, unwavering sister who will do whatever it takes to secure our family’s future.

Kenzo’s gaze softens slightly as he meets my eyes, his expression somber. “Miyamoto owes a debt to our father,” he says quietly. “And he has never forgotten it. Now he wants to repay that debt, but his terms are clear. A lot of those Tokyo families are old-school enough that in their minds, respectability equates to you being ‘spoken for’.”

My chest tightens as Kenzo’s words sink in. To Miyamoto and the other family heads, as un unmarried woman I’m a liability, unworthy of their support.

Fuck.That.

Bitter resentment rises in my throat, yet beneath the anger there’s cold understanding, a reluctant acceptance of the truth.

Tokyoisworth it. The Mori-kai are at the top of the food chain here in Kyoto, but Tokyo is Rome at the height of the Ancient Roman Empire. We break intothat, and we become gods.

Kenzo’s tone becomes almost apologetic, as if he can sense the conflict churning within me. “This arrangement with Damian is temporary, Hana. A mere formality.Obviously. Once we’ve established our position in Tokyo and secured the alliance with the Kato-kai, the engagement can be broken off, Iswearto you. And the reason why Kir and I talked and came to the conclusion that it should be to Damian is because the Nikolayev Bratva will also be seeking a toehold into Tokyo. This gets Damian into the mix there alongside Hana, so both our families can start carving out a piece of it.”

Annika turns to level another icy glare at my brother. “You didn’t mentionanyof this shit when we talked the other day,” she hisses. “Kenzo, what you’re asking is?—”

“No more than what he’d ask of any of us,” I say gently, looking right at her. I shrug with a wry smile. “Look, Anni, I appreciate you going to bat for me. But this isn’t sexism. If Miyamoto demanded thatTakget married in order to run things in Tokyo, Kenzo would be asking him to do the same.”

“And I’d be telling him to go fuck himself,” Takeshi mutters darkly.

I ignore my twin and smile wryly at Annika again. “Kenzo’s right: it’s notreal.”

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