Chapter 14
Chapter fourteen
The Queen's Risk
Nyomi
I'd taken a huge risk with the grieving space.
The biggest risk of my life. The kind of risk that could have burned down everything I'd built with the Claws in the last few days.
Because if it hadn't worked—if Kenji had turned cold on me, if Hiro had hardened instead of broken, if the Claws had walked out of the ballroom and never looked back—it would have broken my heart.
And softness, with men like these, was a currency that did not replenish.
I thought back to one of the first things Hiroko had taught me.
Hiroko tilted her head. "Let me tell you a secret most women never hear: The stronger the man, the deeper his ache to surrender."
I blinked. "You think so?"
She smiled. "I know so. Alpha men spend every moment of every day making decisions, commanding people, and orchestrating worlds.
They wear their dominance like armor. But armor is heavy.
And power is lonely. In the quiet moments—in the dark—they long for relief.
They want to be told what to do. To be undone. Most die never getting that relief."
"Why?"
"Because true surrender requires immense trust, and many men of this sort see it as weakness."
Of course I wanted the Claws to dance, drink, and have fun at their party. They had been boys who had never been allowed to laugh.
But as I planned it all. . .I considered the fact that boys who had never been allowed to laugh had probably also never been allowed to cry.
And what if their grief was older than their lethality?
I think. . .this is working. . .
I kneeled with Kenji beside the altar for his mother, my hand resting on his back, my eyes on the sway of candlelight along the wall of faces. His shoulders were still trembling under my palm.
My Dragon was not finished with his tears just yet, and I would not rush him.
I glanced behind me and saw Hiro on the floor beneath Nura's frame with two monks on either side of him and Daisuke soothing Hiro and brushing Hiro’s hair away from his face. I watched Reo on his knees before his mother, Kaede with his jaw finally unclenched, staring at his grandfather.
My heart pounded.
The violin notes softened to a long, tender lullaby that a mother would hum over a sleeping child.
I raised my view to the dragon-shadow and grinned.
The beast was flying along his mother's picture.
Its long body was wispy, shadowy, and now for the first time shimmering black.
Thin curls of darkness trailed behind it in rippling ribbons, breaking off at the tail and dissolving into the air before new ribbons formed along its spine.
Now I could actually see scales. My heart almost stopped. The scales were this deep black with a faint edge of silver where the light slid across.
Over and over, the dragon-shadow slowly flew around his mother’s picture. When it turned, sparks scattered. Little flecks of light, like crushed diamond dust, drifted down from the underside of its belly and disappeared before they reached the floor. Every beat of its wings released more of them.
In fact. . .the air around the altar had become a slow snowfall of shimmer.
Wow.
And the dragon-shadow’s eyes had gone from red to gold.
In my arms, Kenji silently cried and up above us, the dragon-shadow glided along their mother’s frame. Next, it flew right through the picture.
I parted my lips in shock.
The beast's body passed clean through as if the photograph were a doorway.
Seconds later, the dragon-shadow came back around again on the other side. Smoke trailed behind it in long graceful curls.
I watched it circle her.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
And each pass the dragon-shadow grew larger, sparks multiplied at its tail, and more ribbons of black smoke broke loose and drifted upward to pool against the ballroom’s ceiling.
This has to be a good thing. Right?
When Kenji had first walked into the ballroom, the dragon-shadow had been smaller than I had ever seen it. No bigger than a large cat, curled tight against the tension of Kenji’s muscular body.
I had watched it shrink further during the altar reveal, drawn in close to Kenji’s huge shoulders.
Now it was growing.
Lengthening.
Scales appearing.
In fact. . .minute by minute. . .I witnessed the beast go from two feet to four and then six to ten feet.
Now. . .it looked to be close to twenty feet at least. Gigantic and imposing. Very similar to the night when I’d first seen the dragon-shadow at Hiroko’s club in the room with the queening chair.
The large beast flew along his mother's picture first, tenderly circled her face once.
It pressed its shadowy snout against the glass of her frame the way a child pressed its face against a window.
Then the dragon-shadow turned and flew to Kenji’s brother, whom I had to admit had been quite a good-looking man. It was clear that Kenji’s family had quite the handsome DNA.
There, the dragon-shadow hovered in front of my brother-in-law's face.
And the beast grew larger.
I gasped.
Massive wings stretched outward now, wispy and trailing smoke.
The beast rose away from the pictures and hovered over us all.
I looked down at the back of Kenji's neck.
Minutes passed.
Each man took what he needed from the space.
Reo remained at his mother's picture longer than I expected. He stayed on his knees with his hands pressed together in front of his chest. His lips moved continuously. In a language I did not recognize, he was having a deep conversation with his mother and it warmed my heart.
Kaede sat cross-legged in front of his grandfather's frame and smiled sadly. I could tell he was thinking about past happy moments and sitting in them.
Toma lit his family's candles. One for every sibling he had lost, and while he did so he whispered something in the darkness.
Daisuke held Hiro who had stopped sobbing. Instead, they both leaned into each other with their eyes closed and the monks praying around them.
My mind went to the twins.
I glanced toward the curtain opening they had walked through what felt like hours ago, even though it had not been that long.
The heavy curtain swayed.
Did they leave the ballroom entirely?
Or were they somewhere by the bar sitting beside each other in silence?
Were they mad?
Sad?
I did not know, and that unknowing pressed against my ribs the way the picture of their mother must have pressed against theirs.
Hiroko, did I go too far with them?
I watched the curtain sway once more.
My biggest fear was that the twins would never process their trauma and carry her in their bones for the rest of their lives, never letting her out.
Or maybe tonight had opened a door they would walk through in their own time.
Either way. . .it wasn't my decision to force.
I'd done what I could.
I won't push them anymore tonight.
After half an hour, the violinist had eased her melody into a lighter song and my gorgeous helpers arrived in lovely gowns.
They strolled into the grieving space carrying silver trays with folded steaming cloths, small porcelain cups of tea, and sweet little rice cakes with red bean paste.
They moved through the Claws the way nurses moved through a military ward of wounded soldiers.
Silent.
Gentle.
Offering without asking.
One woman pressed a warm cloth gently to Toma's face and he closed his eyes and lowered his shoulders. She held the cloth there until the steam faded and then she replaced it with a fresh one from her tray.
A minute later, Toma hugged her, and she widened her eyes in shock.
Another woman set a cup of tea beside Kaede on the floor and stepped back. Kaede looked at the tea for a long moment. Then he picked it up and drank.
Two women surrounded Hiro and Daisuke, offering the steaming cloths and tea, hugging them and wiping their faces.
I smiled as they happily received the love.
Two more surrounded Reo, doing the same, and even his waitress who held the tray of mac and cheese skewers returned too. There, he sipped tea, munched on the skewers, and sighed as they wiped the dried tears from his face.
Good. You deserve all the love and pampering, Roar.
Finally, Kenji moved against me.
The Dragon gathered himself.
My hand slid from his back as he straightened, and I held my breath because I did not know what state he would be in when he stood. Whether the tears would have made him tender. Or whether they would have made him more furious.
He rose and lifted me with him at the same time. Those strong hands went right under my arms and easily brought me up off the marble.
My feet found the floor.
My heart climbed into my throat.
For one long minute, he just looked at me like he had never seen me before. Like I was the answer to a question that had been ripping him apart.
“Naughty Tiger.” And then he kissed me.
Oh shit.
The space disappeared.
It was such a hungry, intense kiss. Possessive. Demanding in a way that bypassed my mind entirely and went straight to my knees.
My pussy.
His trembling hands moved up to cradle my face. His tongue pushed into my mouth, tasting of cherry sake.
It was a claiming so profound my soul recognized it before my heart and body could respond.
His chest pressed against my breasts and I could feel his heart hammering through the fabric of his suit.
I gasped into his mouth.
My hands flew up to his jaw.
He deepened the kiss, pulling me closer and sliding his arms around my waist.
The tears on his cheeks were still wet and they smeared against my skin, marking me.
Oh God. I love this man so much. I would die for him.
And something happened that had never happened before, that would change me for the rest of my life. . .the dragon-shadow dove for us and curled its massive wispy body around us both, shimmering black scales closing us inside the cage of itself.
I trembled from the shock of it all because I could not only feel Kenji’s warmth. . .but I could feel the dragon-shadow too for the first time and it was a velvet inferno. Comforting and terrifying. A storm made of silk and stars.