Page 4 of Wrathful King

It was then that the whimpers and soft cries truly registered. I scanned the room blindly, looking for a glimpse of the others until I finally spotted them. Whites of eyeballs through the shadows. Barely visible bodies. Women slumped in the opposite corner of the box, caged up like me and looking like they were on death’s doorstep. Some cried. Some prayed.

But we all faced the darkness together.

3

AMON

Ishifted, the motion sending a soaring pain through my chest.

“You die, fucker, and I’ll kill you all over again!”

Dante sounded like he was underwater. Or maybe it was me who was drowning in the pit of hopelessness.

I peeled my eyelids open to find my brother’s face hovering over me. Where in the fuck did he come from?

“Reina.” It took all my strength to push the word out, and it sent me into a coughing fit. My ears rang, but I did my best to focus, desperate to hear my wife’s voice.

I resisted the temptation to slip out of consciousness, fighting my body’s reaction to the pain. I needed my strength so I could see her. Hear her.

“Don’t talk.” Another voice, one I couldn’t place. I turned my head to the side, but the glint of metal on gravel caught my attention.

The platinum chain with two Japanese kanji pendants.

Ignoring the ache, I reached for it with a shaking hand. My motor skills were shot, so it took several tries until I finally had it in my grasp along with a fistful of rubble.

Burning pain seized me and I closed my eyes and leaned back, the hard ground calling for me to rest my head.

Then darkness pulled me under.

* * *

I was in a soft bed when I woke up next, the ocean’s familiar sound jostling my senses.

Somehow I managed to open my eyes as my surroundings slowly came into focus. The white walls. Blue ocean. I was in my compound in Jolo, Philippines. Then the smell of antiseptic and the sound of a machine registered.

“Get the fucking doctor.” Dante’s voice again. Fuck! Was he always so loud? “He’s waking up.” Footsteps next to my bed, a weight on the mattress beneath me. “Can you hear me?”

“I wish I didn’t,” I grunted, my voice barely audible. “Where’s Reina?”

He didn’t get the chance to answer before the doctor rushed in to check on me. Poking. Probing. Speech, memory, and motor skills tests.

“Where’s my wife?” I asked again, locking eyes with Dante once the doctor cleared me of permanent damage. “And what are you doing here?”

Silence fell and foreboding slithered through me.

My eyes narrowed. “Where. Is. My. Wife?”

The doctor glanced between us, shifting uncomfortably as he muttered something about excusing himself. The door clicked behind him and the stillness that followed was heavy. So fucking wrong.

“Did you fucking hear my question?” I felt like I’d aged a decade. “I swear to God, if you hurt her—”I’ll kill you.

Brother or not, I’d end him.

He glared down at me. “First, you kidnap my bride,” he stated, although there was no heat to his voice. “And now you threaten me. Never mind the fact that you almost died on me.”

Shit, I felt like I’d died and come back to life as a bruised corpse.

“She’s not yours.” Fuck, why did I feel so fucking exhausted? Two bullets in me—one in the shoulder and one in the chest, inches from my heart—might have had something to do with it, but I didn’t like it. “She’s always been mine.”