Chapter 6
Rei Kurosaki
I woke up in my own bed, but I had no fucking idea how I got there.
The last thing I remembered was the forest.
My hand flew to my throat instinctively. It was sore.
Swallowing hurt.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
I sat up slowly, head spinning, a dull ache throbbing behind my eyes.
My body felt used. My muscles were sore from running, my knees were bruised from the forest floor, and between my legs… fuck.
My pants were still stiff with dried cum.
The memory of that humiliating, untouched orgasm crashed over me like ice water.
Coming hard just from him fucking my mouth with a gun.
Gagging, crying, leaking like a desperate slut while he laughed at me.
Nausea rolled through my stomach. I felt sick. Disgusted with him.
Disgusted with myself.
How the hell had my body betrayed me like that? How had fear and adrenaline twisted into something so filthy and addictive?
I forced myself out of bed on shaky legs.
The clock said it was still early, enough time to pull myself together before school. I stripped off the ruined uniform, avoiding my reflection for as long as possible, and stepped into the shower.
After the shower, I went through my skincare routine on autopilot - cleanser, toner, moisturizer - my hands moving mechanically while my mind replayed every second in the woods.
I pulled on a fresh black shirt and clipped a deep red flower into my dark hair.
Blood red today.
My phone was blowing up on the nightstand. One hundred missed calls from Marco. Two hundred messages. I wasn’t exaggerating.
There were dozens of videos from yesterday, students filming Dimitri getting me into his car. Marco’s texts got increasingly frantic.
Marco:
Rei where are you??
Marco:
Please tell me you’re okay.
Marco:
I’m losing my mind. Call me.
Marco:
Rei please. I’m scared.
I called him.
He picked up on the first ring.
“Rei?!” His voice was breathless. “Thank God! Are you okay? What happened? Did he hurt you? I’ve been calling nonstop—”
“I’m okay,” I said quickly, rubbing my sore throat. My voice came out rougher than usual. “Marco, breathe. I’m fine. I’m home.”
There was a long pause. I could practically hear him trying not to cry.
“What happened? Tell me the truth. Did Dimitri hurt you? Everyone’s talking about it. The video—”
“He was just messing with me,” I lied. “I’m okay. Really.”
He suffocated me with a gun until I passed out. I came untouched while choking on it. I’m definitely not okay. I belong in a mental hospital for taking pleasure in that.
“You promise? Because if he touched you, if he—”
“I promise,” I cut in gently. “I’ll see you at school, yeah? Just… don’t worry too much.”
He was quiet for a second, then whispered, “I love you, Rei. Be careful. Please.”
“Love you too. See you soon.”
I hung up and dropped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.
What the hell was I supposed to do now?
Dimitri Morozov had broken something open. He had shown me parts of myself I never wanted to see.
The way my body responded to his violence made me sick.
Disgusted.
And yet, even now, lying here in my own bed, my cock twitched at the memory of his voice in my ear.
I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes, groaning. “Fuck.”
Thirty minutes later, I forced myself to get up. I was hoping for an empty kitchen so I could grab coffee and leave before anyone noticed me.
No such luck.
Kento was standing in the middle of the kitchen, leaning against the marble island.
I hadn’t seen him in three months.
He was twenty-two now, three years older than me, and he barely existed in our lives anymore.
He attended Bloodburn on the Goldcrest side—the arts campus—where he supposedly focused on whatever creative shit kept him away from the main building.
He didn’t live here.
Hadn’t since we moved from Japan. Father’s death had made it worse, but Kento had always been detached. Like family was an inconvenience he tolerated at best.
Today he was dressed in all black, hair slightly longer than I remembered, features carved from the same Kurosaki mold as mine but meaner. He looked like trouble.
“Hi,” I said. My voice was hoarse. “Didn’t know you were coming.”
Kento tilted his head as he scanned me from head to toe.
“I wasn’t planning to. Something caught my attention.”
He pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and turned it toward me.
The video played on silent. Me getting into Dimitri’s car yesterday.
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“Mind explaining what you’re doing next to a Morozov dog?” Kento’s voice was dangerous. The kind of tone that used to make people back off in Tokyo.
I arched an eyebrow, crossing my arms. “How is that your business?”
He set the phone down, straightening to his full height. He was taller than me, broader from whatever training he did when he disappeared for months.
“I think it’s very much my business when my little brother is getting dragged off by Russian brutes. The Void Kings, Rei. Are you fucking stupid?”
I knew he hated them. Rumors had always swirled about Kento and that blond one—Ilya, I think. Something about Kento supposedly fucking his sister last year and the resulting fights.
I never paid much attention.
I didn’t keep tabs on my brother. He had made it clear a long time ago that he preferred it that way.
“What I do doesn’t concern you,” I said.
The red flower in my hair suddenly felt too bold for this conversation.
“You haven’t been around in months. Don’t start pretending you give a shit now.”
Kento’s jaw ticked. He opened his mouth to respond—probably something mean—but the sound cut him off.
My mother swept in, Daniel trailing behind her like the parasite he was.
The second she saw Kento, her face lit up with delight.
“Kento! Sweetheart!” She rushed forward and threw her arms around him. He didn’t hug her back, arms hanging stiffly at his sides, but she didn’t seem to mind.
She never did.
“You haven’t been home in so long. I missed you.”
Kento muttered something noncommittal. My mother pulled back and glanced between us.
“Stay for breakfast. Both of you. It’s been forever since we’ve all been together.”
To my surprise, Kento nodded once. “Fine.”
Daniel gave a fake, polished smile, but he stayed quiet.
Last time he tried playing stepfather with Kento, my brother pulled a gun on him and threatened to put a bullet in his head.
Daniel hadn’t tested that line since.
We all sat at the long dining table. Servants brought in food, but no one touched it much. I poked at my plate. Every time I swallowed, I remembered Dimitri’s voice in my ear: Your life is mine now.
They all started talking, but I wasn’t listening.
My mother’s voice droned on about some ridiculous family trip to the Maldives or Aspen or wherever rich people went.
She knew Kento would never stick around longer than an hour.
He never did. Still, she kept pushing, her tone bright, like if she smiled hard enough the cracks in our family wouldn’t show.
Daniel nodded, occasionally throwing in some useless comment about “strengthening family bonds.”
I pushed my eggs around the plate with my fork, the yellow mush turning cold and congealed.
“Rei?” My mother’s voice made me look up. “You’ve barely touched your food, sweetheart.”
“I’m not hungry,” I muttered.
Kento’s dark eyes were locked on me the entire time. He hadn’t said much since sitting down, but he was watching me - the big brother who’d never really been one suddenly deciding to play protector because a Morozov had touched his family’s property.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
“I have to go,” I said abruptly, pushing my chair back. “I’ll be late.”
Kento stood at the same time. “I’ll drive you.”
“There’s no need,” I replied quickly, already grabbing my bag. “I can walk.”
He snatched my backpack out of my hand before I could react, slinging it over his shoulder. “I wasn’t offering. I was telling you what’s going to happen.”
I sighed, annoyed but too exhausted to fight him. Arguing with Kento was like arguing with a brick wall. I knew I wouldn’t win.
So I followed him out.
We slid into his car, a different one from the last time I’d seen him, of course. Everything about Kento changed constantly.
“Let’s continue where we left off,” he said after a few blocks. “What were you doing with Dimitri Morozov?”
I knew he wouldn’t drop it. But telling him the truth? That Dimitri had hunted me through the woods, fucked my mouth with a loaded gun until I came untouched and then choked me unconscious?
Kento would lose his mind. Not because he loved me - he didn’t love anyone, as far as I could tell - but because of his pride. The Kurosaki name being disrespected by a Morozov would be unacceptable to him.
I lied smoothly. “We have a project together. We needed some references, so we went to the library.”
Kento’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “School has the biggest library in the city. Why would you need to go anywhere else?”
I shrugged, staring out the window at the passing buildings. “It didn’t have what we needed.”
Even I didn’t buy the lie. Bloodburn had everything. And I only had two classes that even overlapped with Dimitri’s schedule. There was no project. Kento wasn’t stupid.
“Stay away from him from now on, Rei. All of them.”
I stayed quiet for the rest of the ride, fingers twisting in my lap.
Kento didn’t push harder, which was unlike him. That meant he didn’t believe a word I said. He was just biding his time, probably already planning to dig into whatever the hell was going on.
When we finally pulled up to Bloodburn Academy, I grabbed my bag and stepped out quickly, eager to escape.
Kento lowered the window, leaning over to look past me.
His entire expression changed, eyes narrowing.
I followed his gaze.
Dimitri Morozov stood near the entrance, but beside him was the blond one - Ilya - and my brother’s gaze was locked on him.
I didn’t dwell on it. I turned and walked inside without a backward glance.
Marco was on me the second I stepped inside the building.