Bound by Forever - (True Immortality #3) Page 0,81

he’d had such fun. Such human fun. Niamh wasn’t just hungry for food, she was hungry for life, for experiences, for knowledge, and in that moment with her, he didn’t feel jaded and old and trapped by the monotony of forever. Before, he’d always known what lay ahead. An eternity of wandering, doing and feeling the same things over and over. But now Kiyo felt a freedom he hadn’t felt in a long time.

The freedom of not knowing what was ahead after all.

All because of her.

She was so unbearably dangerous to him.

Part of him was beginning to not give a shit if it meant feeling like this even for a while. Her words at the hotel, about them being nothing to each other but the mission, rang false then and even more so now.

Deciding that to think about it was to ruin his mood, he threw the thought away and conversed with the chefs about what they were doing. He then relayed to Niamh what they told him. They stood, drinking warm sake out of cups while they ate at the counter. She went nuts over the yellowtail, so he gave her his portion and took the squid off her tray before she could ask.

She smiled in gratitude and dipped a sushi roll into her soy.

“You got the hang of the chopsticks fast.”

“I had a good teacher.”

They shared a warm look. Kiyo was so relaxed, so in the moment, her next words pulled him out of it with all the impact of a bucket of cold water.

“So, tell me about Sakura.”

He almost choked on his snow crab sushi roll.

Niamh chortled. “What? We’ve already decided we’re not friends and nothing said between us means anything.”

Renewed agitation thrummed through him at the reminder. “What do you want to know?”

“You two seem close for someone who doesn’t get close to anyone.”

He shrugged, finding no reason not to tell Niamh the truth. “I’d started fighting in the underground fights decades before. In the ’90s I came to Tokyo for a job. When it ended, I decided to try out one of the underground fights here. Eito, Sakura’s uncle and pack alpha, saw me fight. I stupidly agreed to fight in one of his—a more professional setup in the basement of the hotel where people bet on the fights. Eito began to think he owned me. And Sakura pursued me. Since I had no plans to stick around, I didn’t see any harm in a casual arrangement. But Sakura got attached. Then she started dropping hints in Eito’s ear about what I was to her … and he tried to groom me.”

“Groom you?”

“To take over his empire with Sakura as alpha. I’d be her mate.”

“What happened?”

“They knew what I was when they got involved with me. I wasn’t going to change, and I never gave any signal that I would.” He knew he sounded defensive but everything he said was true. It wasn’t his fault that Eito and Sakura changed the rules on him. “I couldn’t stay even if I’d wanted to. No one could know that I didn’t age. But the immediate problem was that they were using me, and I felt trapped.

“On the other side of it was Daiki. Powerful alpha, an orphaned pup who Eito raised. It was assumed he and Sakura would become mates. Daiki loved her, but Sakura thought of him as a brother. Daiki was pissed, to say the least, when he discovered I was screwing his intended,” he related dryly. “He and his own little wolf pack were continually trying to fuck with me, and it wasn’t worth it.”

“She wasn’t worth it?”

“To him,” he answered. “She was worth it to him and I respected that. But she wasn’t worth it to me. So I got the hell out of Tokyo.”

“Reneging on a fight.”

He nodded. “I never promised to fight, but I never said I wouldn’t either. Which is why I’ll fight for Sakura if it’ll get her off my back.”

“I don’t think she wants off it.” Niamh shot him a saucy look. “More to the point, I think she wants you on it.”

Her words sparked an answering image but the face of the woman riding him wasn’t Sakura.

Kiyo looked away. “She can want what she wants. Doesn’t mean she’ll get it.”

A somewhat tense silence settled between them for a second or two but was abruptly broken by Niamh’s panicked words. “Oh no, not here, not now.”

Kiyo’s gaze jerked to Niamh who’d gone stiff as a post on the