[YUZUKI]
Yuzuki tried.
Oh, she had tried her very best not to think of Matsui.
Nevertheless, that was all she saw in Ayami in the little time that Rinko had given both of them. The ghost of the woman she loved with everything.
The woman who had crossed over to the one place that even the mighty Kurayami queen Yuzuki was at the moment would never be able to follow unless the moon goddess was kinder to her. To both of them.
It was a price that she had made her peace with, but why did it feel like today was the beginning of something that she couldn't quite put her hands on? How the fuck was she even mated to the woman closest to Kazuya?
Yuzuki knew more about mate bonds, and she knew damn well that even the fates couldn't be that cruel. But if her assumption was right, and the moon had paired her with a reincarnation of Matsui, what the fuck was she to do?
Where would she truly even start from, especially if she were to choose a chance away from the horrors of a past that haunted her to this day?
"Your time is up," Rinko said, walking in, just in time.
Yuzuki wasn't sure if she could have let her mind work around Ayami because the pull was real. It tugged at her heart. It was something that she couldn't deny. But if her assumptions were true, she couldn't risk Matsui's life a second time.
"Thank you. For letting her stay, even if just for a while," Ayami said softly and in earnest, a clear contrast to the profile she was known for out there. The mighty, lethal enforcer was being kind.
Rinko didn't know if that was right or wrong.
She wasn't even sure if this was ever going to be worth it.
But there was something in the way that Ayami spoke that had her wondering if, just for this moment, they were not just people from enemy kingdoms, but women who had found each other bonded one way or another because of fate.
The good kind of fate, anyway.
"We have to leave now, before the sun comes up and things get more complicated," Rinko voiced a little calmly, instead of the kind response she had been thinking of in her mind.
She knew that this wasn't the place for them to play diplomatics, but she understood that there was a chance that Yuzuki had triggered the mate bond. That this was something Yuzuki wanted to happen.
And that was more unsettling for Rinko than the possibility that this was the doing of the midnight moon.
No one was ever going to be brave enough to stand up against Yuzuki, and if she managed to pull Ayami into her corner, the werewolf queen would forever be unstoppable.
Especially if this meant she would be controlling Kazuya's army with just a smile on her face and a pout that was meant for Ayami Araki.
"I'll find you, Yuzu. I promise. Until then, don't worry about anything other than keeping the smile on your face. I'll handle the rest, peaches," Ayami said.
Once again, Yuzuki froze.
She hated that her mind was probably playing tricks with her, but the way that Ayami was looking at her like this was not the end of their story, had Yuzuki wondering if this was really the woman she had been given years ago.
She wondered if this was the bond that she would have to fight for.
"I'll be fine, kitten," Yuzuki responded, Matsui's pet name rolling off her lips freely like it was common for her and Ayami.
"Just remember that you're my true mate, and I'll always choose you, no matter what Kazuya does and tries. Always, Yuzu. I'll never let go," Ayami swore before pulling Yuzuki into a tight hug, one that spoke more about their hearts than their bodies.
Then Yuzuki felt it.
The pulse.
The kind that she always felt with Matsui.
The three-pause pulse.
Matsui's heart was always a stubborn little thing. One that not even the medicines of Yamashita would ever be able to fix. It was something that Yuzuki had prayed to the moon goddess to fix for her mate, but it never happened.
Even on the day Matsui was murdered before her, the three-pause pulse had been there. Matsui's heart always paused for two seconds after every three beats. It was something that Yuzuki knew by heart.
In this moment, as she held onto Ayami Araki, the former Fukada pack alpha realized she had found the one thing she had been seeking through and through.
Her Matsui.
"Your… your pulse," Yuzuki breathed, trying to be very careful.
But there was nothing careful about the way she looked at Ayami genuinely, like she was finally seeing the ghost of the one person she had wanted all her life. Perhaps it was still in her head.
When Ayami's lips parted…
Yuzuki felt her world tilt.
"Three-pause… cool, right?" Ayami said, and it took everything for Yuzuki not to jump the woman again.
She wanted to stay. To be here with her. To tell her that all would be fine. That they found each other, even if Ayami clearly had no memory of it. This time, Kazuya wouldn't fuck up their lives, but as always, the stakes were too high.
Yuzuki didn't know Rinko enough to trust her. She didn't know Ayami enough to make her understand what she had been tasked with. But even with all that, Yuzuki knew.
She wasn't letting go either.
She was never going to let her Matsui go, or lose her again, much less because of King Kazuya. Yamashita would burn first before Kazuya got to her Matsui again. She would make sure of it.
"I love you, kitten. Gods, I love you so much," Yuzuki confessed, her eyes holding Ayami's in the way that spoke of a connection from long before.
And Ayami was stunned.
But not as much as Rinko, who was staring at her queen like the woman had very well lost her goddamn mind.
A romantic confession to the most lethal enforcer of the realms, who was also their enemy, was not the best of ideas. Yet she could sense that Yuzuki had no regrets about it.
It wasn't even a plan anymore, something that added to Rinko's confusion.
"You can't just confess to a Yamashita enforcer, Yuzu. Come, we need to get you home before you continue professing love for a woman you just met tonight," Rinko scolded, even though she knew that the sincerity in those eyes was real.
Either her queen could pull the best of fake shit, or there was more to what she had learned tonight. Perhaps that was how life was always going to be, right?
It was never easy or workable, yet somehow, they had to deal with it all.
"But I love her, Rinko," Yuzuki pouted, and Ayami watched in silence.
"We're leaving," Rinko announced.
Ayami didn't try to stop them.
She had a mission for herself anyway.
Nothing about what Yuzuki had said sounded like a lie.
It was all from the heart.
But Rinko was also right. There was just no way that Yuzuki was confessing to her on their very first meeting. Perhaps there was more to the servant than she was mated to.
And gods, Ayami would find out.