Bound by Forever (True Immortality 3)

Daiki cursed under his breath and turned his back on her.

Kiyo didn’t blame him.

“I know about your little house in the mountains of Kyoto.” She nodded smugly. “And every year that you returned, you never seemed to age. Word in the supernatural world got out about a mysterious Japanese American werewolf who rarely lost a fight in the underground. Rumors spread that he was not what he seemed. So I did some digging. It is amazing how money and connections can speed up the research process. And what did I find”—Sakura fingered the pendant—“but a puzzle. Small puzzle pieces that all fit together, leading back to 1898 and Mizuki Nakamura, Japan’s greatest miko.”

“How?” he asked flatly.

“You taught me all about poker face, Kiyo, but I have never surpassed my teacher. You look so unaffected, but I know better.” Sakura stepped dangerously close to him. “You made a mistake all those years ago. You slipped up and confessed your real name to Oji-chan, as well as your place of birth. And he told me. Kiyonari Fujiwara from Osaka. My researchers scoured letters, documents, contracts—every piece of literature connected to the supernatural community in Osaka. What did we find? A diary stolen from Mizuki. It was in the private collection of a coven. The Yamamoto Coven.”

“The Pack Coven,” Kiyo replied, feeling the pieces come together. The Yamamotos had been on retainer to Pack Iryoku for nearly a hundred years. “They spelled the wolves just now?”

“Yes.” Sakura glanced to her left and he followed her gaze. He saw nothing but darkness. “Three coven members. They left when they saw the blade of the katana break when it should have cut off your head. Cowards.” She turned back to him. “Still, they have their use. They were happy to let me have a look. And there you were. An entry about a werewolf—made, not born—who took vengeance on Mizuki’s grandson for the rape of your mother. I commend you, Kiyo. I would have done the same. But Mizuki took offense to your killing her grandson, and she sacrificed another miko to curse you with immortality. She said in her entry that you loathed being a werewolf. That tormenting you with an eternity of being trapped as a wolf was a greater revenge than death. I think she was wrong. I know no wolf as connected to his animal as you are. Watching you take out my wolves like a beast was highly arousing.” She snapped near his lips with her teeth, and it took everything within him not to rip her fucking heart out.

But her hand was still wrapped around the jade.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. “So here you are. The world’s only immortal werewolf.”

“How long have you known?”

“About eighteen years.”

“And you kept my secret all this time?”

Her face softened. “Even from Daiki. You see … in her diary, Mizuki spoke of this jade talisman and how it held all of her spells within. No other miko had the power to contain it. She tried to warn them to bury it with her, but they did not. Unfortunately for you. Destroy the talisman, and her spells would be undone. Never mind what chaos that might unleash upon Japan … what if it meant you did not just become mortal but that you would die?”

Sakura’s eyes brightened. “I did not want you to die, Kiyo.”

He was untouched by her emotion. “It looks like you’ve changed your mind about that.”

She shrugged and retreated a few steps. “I have a difficult life, Kiyo-chan. It is a constant struggle as a woman to remain alpha of one of the world’s most powerful packs. You have no idea what I have to deal with day to day.”

“Get to the point, Sakura.”

Her eyes flashed in warning. “It happened the day the fae grabbed at my wrist. Haruto saw it burn her. My iron bracelet. I knew nothing of the fae other than the myths. The bracelet was a gift from Haruto’s family, who have a deep belief in the legends. And he knew about the pure iron and how it hurt the fae. At first it seemed ridiculous to imagine the fae as real, let alone walking among us … but she smelled and felt so different from any other creature, and she did react strangely to the bracelet.

“Haruto told me more about the gifts of the fae. How their magic is limitless. How they are not bound by the laws of nature. How they do not have to pull the energy from the world to power their magic. They are energy. They are pure magic. To have such a being within my control … I will never again have to worry about losing my position as alpha.”

He was going to kill her.

There was no question of it now.

“There was still part of me that did not want to hurt you … that did not want to be your enemy.” She curled her lip in bitter disappointment. “You were my one weakness, Kiyo. And I wanted to be your weakness. But that will never be now that you are true mates with the fae. So, in lieu of being your weakness, I now own your weakness. Both of them. The fae bitch and the jade. I had the coven steal the pendant from the museum in Osaka last night.