Temper: Deliverance: Book Three of the TEMPER Saga, page 1
Lila Mina
TEMPER: DELIVERANCE
Book Three of the TEMPER Saga
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Copyright © 2019 Lila Mina
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Cover design: © 2019 Giulia Natsumi
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Table of Contents
1 An Unlikely Ally
2 A Different Kind of Toy
3 As Sharp as a Blade
4 The Witch of the East
5 The Clearing
6 Painful Revelations
7 Loving Declarations
8 Sickening Revelations
9 Fighting Back
10 Trusting Him with Her Life
11 Healed
12 A Shroud of Bloody Snow
13 Awakening
14 A Mother’s Sacrifice
15 Getting to Know Each Other
16 Their Daughter
17 Mending Wounds
18 Back to Training
19 Sweet and Alluring Revenge
20 Setting the Record Straight
21 Bittersweet Joy
22 Her Spitting Image
23 A Love Tempered by Hardship and Duty
24 Face to Face
25 Freedom
Glossary of Japanese terms
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About the Author
The face becomes a mirror of the soul.
1 - An Unlikely Ally
Lana took a long sip of her hot chocolate and sighed with contentment. It was a blessing to be home alone for once. She could indulge in one of her deeply personal pleasures: soft-beat music in the ears, the latest novel of her favorite science-fiction author in hand, rice snacks and legs stretched under the large kotatsu table of the tatami dining room.
Despite the renovation work over the years, including double-layered windows and insulated walls, there was no helping the cold drafts, nor the lack of central heating. A kotatsu, the Japanese answer to humid and cold winters, was a blessing: a thick heavy blanket covered the table frame, and a tabletop was placed over it. The electric heater installed on the underside was the perfect solution for cold feet and legs.
A yawn escaped her, and Lana stretched her arms before reclining on her back to rest on the straw mats. Honda was away until the next day at an aikido seminar, and Yuki wouldn’t be home for a solid two hours. Her homemade lasagna was ready to be put into the oven. Experience told her Yuki would be in an excellent mood after dinner, maybe even willing to let her be in charge like she did now and then, especially when they were alone. Obviously, their incredible night in August had left a lasting impression. More proof of the affection and trust from her companion.
Lana hummed in happy anticipation; it would be a perfect evening. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. The delicious warmth the kotatsu provided made her drowsy.
Hm, this cocoon is just perfect… how about a nap? He wouldn’t know.
Staring at the wooden ceiling, she grinned. Her love for afternoon naps was one thing among many habits that irked Honda to no end. He wouldn’t scold her, but his constant brooding seemed to get even worse whenever she’d take one. Her pregnancy was her blanket excuse that made him step back, but still, he couldn’t come to terms with it.
Well, what else you would expect, my dear. You keep me busy at night, I need to catch up that sleep at some point.
Maybe one day she’d have the nerves to tell him. Maybe. Lana chuckled at her train of thought. The man was such a grizzly in more ways than one.
A real bear. But no teddy bear, no sir!
Her mind conjured the impossible and ridiculous picture of Honda morphing into Paddington Bear on her futon. This time she laughed loudly and buried her face in her hands, embarrassed by her childish thoughts.
“I’d love to hear the joke that turned you crimson.”
Lana shrieked and sat up in a jolt to face a smirking Nakazawa standing in the doorway. Her shock turned into embarrassment, then utter annoyance. So much for a nice and restful afternoon.
“Uh. Did you ring the entrance bell, Nakazawa sama? I heard nothing.”
The elder man walked leisurely inside the room to sit on the other side of the kotatsu. He obviously had no intention of leaving her alone.
“No, I didn’t. I brought a load of fruit baskets and other end-of-year gifts to Yuki and wanted to put them in the kitchen. As always, I receive way too many of those from our clients.” He helped himself to her snacks, his glare daring her to protest. “I didn’t expect to see you though.”
Having slightly recovered from her surprise, Lana replied with a glare of her own. “Well, I was… enjoying a moment for myself.”
“And here I am, barging in and bothering you to no end, I’m sure,” he grinned. “Although I’m glad to see you much less tense around me than you used to be. For the sake of our future collaboration, it wouldn’t do for you to be perpetually on the verge of knocking my teeth out.” He smirked at her discomfort. “Oh yes, I see this look on enough people around me. Although, it’s refreshing to see it on such a pretty face… and knowing you could actually do it,” he said, with a dangerous gleam on his eye.
Lana let out a long breath, followed by a low chuckle. Oddly enough, her usual tension evaporated.
That’s the way to play with this man.
“All right, I’ll confess the thought crossed my mind a couple of times. But like I told you last summer, my orders are clear. So, fear not, as long as you behave, you will not be the victim of any senseless act of violence on my part,” she replied with a half-cocked grin.
“What a relief! I guess I know whom to thank for this, unfortunately. So, now that we are non-threatening acquaintances, tell me, what kind of forbidden thought crossed your mind and made you blush like a young maiden? If it includes my daughter, you’d better keep it to yourself.”
Lana couldn’t help it; she burst out laughing. “Oh no no no! You don’t get any access to this, Nakazawa sama. Nobody does. But fear not, Yuki sama wasn’t in the picture. This time,” she added with a wicked smile.
Nakazawa let out a chuckle of his own. “You are shameless and irreverent. We’ll do just fine, you and me, and I can’t wait to see the bloody battlefields you’ll leave behind you.” He chewed a few more snacks. “So, tell me, how is your friend Gabriella doing these days? I hope you’ve told her to resign so she may join us as quickly as possible?”
Lana rolled her eyes and put her elbows on the table. “Nakazawa sama…” she began; she had to take a deep breath, or she would growl at him. “Gabriella is doing great. She is busy planning her wedding. She and Yamamoto san are now in Italy to celebrate Christmas and New Year with her family. All of them will fly back together during the first week of January for the celebrations. We are very excited for her.”
“Hm, weddings… yes, a joyful moment, when it doesn’t end up tearing you apart with all the schemes and resentment bubbling to the surface. Oh, I’ll send the newlyweds a nice gift.” Lana threw him a doubtful look. “Of course, we agree she could do so much better than a… motorbike dealer, right? That young man seemed nice and smart enough, but let’s be honest, she’s out of his league by a long shot. She deserves much more, and I hope her parents will point it out.”
You ass! Lana struggled to find her words, but it was impossible to keep her indignation fully at bay. “What are you talking about? This is… this is so inappropriate! Who are you to judge him? Who cares what he does? They love each other, they are perfect together, nothing else matters. I’ve never seen her so happy!” she said, her voice raising an octave.
The old man’s laugh rang loud in the room. “Really, Martin san? You, a champion of love and lovebirds? I thought you read quarterly reports for dinner, not dopey romance stories for teenagers. Oh yes, they’re cute together,” he grimaced, “but please don’t insult my intelligence, and pretend she shouldn’t have aimed higher, better, for someone who would treat her like she deserves and give her space to shine and grow.”
“I’m sorry, but no! For normal, healthy people, there are no aims, no calculations. If you’re lucky, you meet the right person, they love you back, and you decide to spend your life together. That’s all. And thanks to this, yes, you shine and grow. Yamamoto san will treat her like a queen, he already does. It has nothing to do with your… social status or bank account!”
“How simple! How simple-minded! I’m disappointed in you. Anyway, looking at you and the situation you’ve put yourself in, you’ll forgive me if I call you a hypocrite. Don’t preach something you’re unable to follow. Healthy people, uh? What does this say about you?”
A powerful blush turned her cheeks crimson, but it was out of anger, not embarrassment. “Let’s not go there, Nakazawa sama. I will never discuss this with you, end of story,” she said, her voice as cold as ice. “And I fail to see why you care for Gabriella’s personal life, even less for her love life.”
Yuki’s father shrugged and attempted to put on an innocent face. “Well, can’t an old man fall in love at first si
“Oh, it was infatuation at first sight, I’ll give you that. But love?” She gave him a meaningful look. “Please, don’t press on. Leave my friend alone.”
Nakazawa made a clicking, no-comment sound, and then his eyes fell on her book. “Is this French?”
Taken by surprise by his change of topics, she blinked. “Ah yes, it is. A science-fiction novel.”
“So, you read novels in French, not in Italian?”
“It depends. On the genre, the author.”
“And in English or Japanese?”
“Japanese is too hard to sit and relax. English is not enough emotionally charged for me. It’s a technical language, my work language. I use it with friends occasionally, or movies, but not for reading fiction.”
“Hm, fascinating,” Nakazawa remarked. “It’s another world, from my perspective. Everything I read and watch is in Japanese. But your mother tongue is…?”
Lana winced at the universal expression. “My first language is Italian. Second is French. The rest came afterward.”
“Speaking of mothers…” This time, Lana tensed and had to bury herself in her mug of chocolate to hide her lack of composure. “Yuki told me the three of you are going to Nikko for New Year. You’ll meet the Queen Mother, are you ready for this?”
Lana blinked again, at the same time relieved he wasn’t talking about that person, but also annoyed he would bring the topic of Honda’s mother on the table.
“I guess it won’t be very… pleasant, but we’ll manage.”
Nakazawa’s hearty laugh boomed in the room. “Not very pleasant? Are they sending you to the execution grounds with no warning? Do you know who she is? A cold-hearted schemer! A first-class manipulator! A heartless woman who will shred her son into pieces – doing the right thing, for once. Ah! This is the only reason that I have refrained from calling her, to inform her of the little ‘surprise’ you bring with you. Just to know he’s walking into a pit of lava that will explode into his face.”
All feelings of appeasement fled, and anger washed again over Lana. “This is extremely cruel and heartless of you to wish this, Nakazawa sama,” she said, voice barely in check. “We are quite aware of the problems my condition raises. But I want to believe we can… resolve the issue constructively.”
“Pah! Don’t be delusional. There is no ‘constructive’ solution. You and this child are a threat. I’ve made my peace, we’ve found a way that may or may not work out for us, but it’s not going away. Even with your amazing proposal to my daughter – oh yes, I am aware of it. Completely foolish of you, but amazing nonetheless.” He regarded her shrewdly for a moment. “But from her perspective, it won’t solve anything. No, Martin san, you don’t know what you are facing in Nikko, trust me.”
Nakazawa fell silent while he collected his thoughts. “Honda Natsuko… born Takeshita… a powerful and respected lineage going back almost 1000 years. The Witch of the East if you ask me. When I was still a boy, there were plans to marry us although she’s ten years older than me. I thank the gods every day my father still had some sense left at the time and decided against it. I’m pretty sure I would have ended up dead, like her worthless husband. I’d be willing to bet she was the one who got rid of that useless drunkard. That, or I would have killed her within one week of our marriage.”
He leaned again across the table. “Between you and me, she was one of the main reasons I couldn’t stand the idea of marrying my beautiful, smart, delicate, stubborn, infuriating daughter to that… that… argh!” He shook his head, aggravated. “And I was right! How she treated her later on, I will never forgive it! But that fool Inoue had to intervene… and my wife couldn’t see the problem and was so happy. And it didn’t help that Yuki lost all manner of common sense and found it acceptable, go figure why! Women! I can’t understand the whole bunch of you!”
The elder man grumbled under his breath. “Bah, you’ll see what I mean soon enough. Hm, I need something stronger than tea. Let me fetch the bottle of special shochu Honda hides away and never offers me. It will teach him a thing or two.”
Speechless, Lana watched him leave the room. With a heavy sigh, her head plopped down on her folded arms, and she closed her eyes.
What a freaking mess. We’re walking into a minefield, a war zone… oh gosh, I really didn’t need this…
Dark thoughts filled her mind, and she struggled not to cry.
“Here we go! I have to give it to him, for someone so clammed up and constantly on edge, the fool has excellent taste… in spirits and other good things in life,” Nakazawa smirked, putting a 1.8-liter bottle on the table, along with a small glass. This time, he sat on Lana’s left side. “I don’t offer you one…”
Barely hiding her exasperation at his antics, Lana shook her head yet served him. The old man raised his glass and drank it in one quick shot.
“Ah, much better. Now, Lana san, it’s time we have a little private conversation, you and me. Let’s face it. Nikko will be your downfall. The hag will throw you out, and her son will have no other choice but to cast you away. He’s an imbecile, but he’ll obey the head of his clan if he hopes to keep a tenth of anything. I don’t know what they hope to achieve by bringing you there, but that’s the reality.”
Lana froze on her spot at his threatening words spoken suavely as if he were discussing the weather. Their arms brushed. To her shock, she found she couldn’t move, or even speak.
“You shouldn’t be afraid, my dear. My job proposal will still stand. And if you may not return here, you will always find my door… my personal door… open.”
To her dismay and mounting anguish, she couldn’t find in herself to move away, or even scream at his face. His hand reached out, his bony fingers traced her cheek and jawline, before moving to her chest to graze her breasts.
“Gabriella is pretty and all, but you… I will be ecstatic to welcome you, lovely, fiery woman. See for myself what this fuss is all about, why these two are willing to face fire and thunder to keep you in their bed. You must be such a pleasure to taste… I don’t want to wait… Can you keep this between us, hm? I promise, you’ll forget them, forget him!”
Lana’s heart exploded in fear, and tears ran freely on her face.
What’s going on! Why can’t I move? Why can’t I push him away? I don’t want this! I don’t want him! Pig! Monster! Help! Someone, help me!
But she could only stare when the old man brought down her thick woolen tights and panties before pulling up her one-piece dress to expose her bra. His hands roamed over her body, her large belly, as he hummed with pleasure. He pushed her on her back and opened her legs wide, exposing her to his gaze and fingers, leaving her helpless.
“Oh, look at this, a light-golden bush. Tell me Lana, is it true? Do you taste like honey?”
And to her extreme horror, the old man’s face began to shapeshift in front of her very eyes. A long tongue darted from his mouth, showing pointed teeth, and black and red fur covered his face. Orange eyes burned with unspeakable evil. With a flash of insight, she recognized what had been until now a faceless threat.
Nogitsune!
Face splitting into a wild and awfully toothy smile, the wicked fox leaned forward and bit her inner thigh harshly. Pain shot from her leg, but again, she remained mute. His inhuman and raspy tongue swept the bleeding wound. He licked the blood from his lips, smacking them with gusto, before plunging into her pussy, invading her, touching new places deep inside.
Searing pain, guilt, shame, terror and – to her dismay – intense pleasure exploded together in her, and she screamed out loud in a mix of climax and agony, finally able to produce sound again.
Her own scream woke her up, and her body jerked. Disoriented, chin covered with drool, she looked around her, heart drumming widely in her throat. She was alone.
A nightmare! Another fucking nightmare!
A sob of relief escaped her; she wiped her face with shaking hands and couldn’t help herself. Her fingers brushed her thighs to check for wounds.
Nothing. Thanks goodness.
“Martin san! Are you all right?”
