Page 1 of Kotori
Kotori
KAITO
Respect is earned with fear. Love is a weakness. Truth is control.
When the American tutor arrives, I see something worth claiming. Something to possess completely. Her stubborn defiance only fuels my need to break her—to mold her into the perfect woman who serves only me.
She doesn't understand that the moment she stepped into my compound, she became mine. My possession. My obsession. My weakness.
PAIGE
Don't anger the yakuza. Don't fall for your captor. Don't forget who you are.
My employer is the country's most dangerous yakuza leader—a man who deals in death as easily as I teach grammar. He watches me through cameras, controls my every move, and demands a surrender I'm terrified to give.
I should hate how completely he's taking control. I should fight when he demands my submission. I should run before I lose myself completely.
But with each possessive touch, each gentle moment with his daughters, I'm falling deeper into his dark world—where protection and captivity blur into an addiction I never saw coming.
When enemies from his past resurface, threatening everything he's built, I'll discover the true price of being claimed by the yakuza king, and whether surrender means strength or destruction.
KOTORIis a dark standalone romance where surrender means survival. This dark, Japanese mafia romance contains shibari bondage, breeding kink, and cruel psychological conditioning. It does not shy away from complex depictions of toxic masculinity and rigid patriarchal society. This is intended for readers comfortable with captivity themes, extreme power imbalance, and morally bankrupt characters. Full content warning inside.
1
Paige
Thetaxidriverkeepsglancing at me in the rearview mirror like I'm carrying a bomb instead of a lesson plan portfolio.
"You sure about this address, Miss?" His English is careful, practiced. "Very... private family."
I adjust my blazer and check my phone again. Still no signal. We've been climbing this winding mountain road forever, leaving Kyoto's city lights far below us. Ancient forest presses against both sides of the narrow stone road, thick enough to muffle sound. Thick enough to hide screams.
Stop being dramatic, Paige.It's just a wealthy family who values privacy.
"I'm sure," I tell him, injecting more confidence into my voice than I feel. "Mr. Matsumoto is expecting me."
The driver's knuckles go white on the steering wheel. He mutters something under his breath, "Kami-sama tasukete," andI catch enough from my college Japanese classes to know he's asking God for help.
Outside the window, delicate cherry blossoms flutter from the trees like pink snow, their brief beauty a poignant reminder of impermanence. Spring in Japan. A season of new beginnings. Or in my case, desperate escape.
Not long ago, I was grading papers in my cozy Chicago apartment, planning summer lessons for underprivileged kids. Back then, I thought David was working late at the law firm instead of working Sarah in my bed. Back then, I believed in forever and happily ever after and other fairy tales that crash and burn when you walk into your own bedroom and find your fiancé's bare ass pumping into your colleague.
"Paige, wait—" David had scrambled off Sarah, his perfect lawyer composure finally cracking. "It's not what it looks like."
Right. Because naked people in my bed could be interpreted in so many different ways.
I stood there for exactly ten seconds, memorizing every detail. Sarah's smug face. David's pathetic scrambling for his boxers. His engagement ring glinting on my nightstand like a witness to my stupidity.
Then I'd turned around, packed a bag, and bought a ticket to the furthest place I could think of. If David wanted to destroy my life in Chicago, fine. I'd build a new one where his betrayal couldn't touch me.
But I couldn't help noticing that what I'd found wasn't just two bodies intertwined. It was the confirmation of something I'd spent my entire life trying to disprove: I wasn't enough to make anyone stay. First my father, who'd walked out on my eighth birthday without even saying goodbye, his parting words to my dying mother a careless "She'll be fine." Then my mother herself, whose body gave out when I was nineteen, leaving me truly alone. Then a string of relationships that always endedthe same way—me, abandoned for someone more exciting, more beautiful, more worthy.
David was supposed to be different. David had promised to be different.
Japan seemed exotic enough, foreign enough, different enough to erase the taste of walking in on your entire future exploding. Teaching English to wealthy families pays well, especially when you're desperate enough to take the first offer that comes along—and God knows I was desperate. Three maxed-out credit cards, six months of student loan payments I'd deferred while supporting David through his final year of law school, and an eviction notice taped to my apartment door the day after I found them together.
Sarah, my colleague, hadn't just taken my fiancé. She'd taken my apartment building too—her father owned it. "Nothing personal," the notice had read. "Just business." Two weeks to vacate. David's betrayal had left me not just heartbroken but homeless and drowning in debt.
