Emperor of Havoc: Chapter 28

At first, I think I’m imagining the haunting sound permeating my thoughts, pulling me from whatever I was dreaming about. But when it comes again, and the dreams recede to the shadows around me, I realize I’m not dreaming at all.

I stir in bed, slowly emerging from sleep, feeling the soft weight of Katarina still dozing on my chest. Then I hear it—a faint, breathless murmur, slipping through the stillness like a ghost that doesn’t belong.

Holy fuck.

The sound is coming from her throat. But that’s not what stuns me to my core.

…It’s that the sound was wildly close to being a word.

Help.

I strain my ears, willing her to say it again.

“Mmmhehhp!”

Fucking hell.

The sound slips from Katarina’s lips again. It’s broken and fractured, but unmistakably her voice. She’s restless on top of me, her body twisting as her feet kick at and twist the sheets, her face tight with distress.

“Katarina…” I murmur softly, leaning closer. Her eyelids flutter, her breath quickens, but she doesn’t wake. Instead, the soft, choked sound comes again, and when it does, it tears something inside me.

“Mmmhehhp!”

She’s calling for help.

With her voice.

I shake her gently. “Katarina. Kat!”

She jerks awake with a gasp, her gray eyes wide and unfocused. For a moment she looks right through me, fear etched on her face raw enough to make my chest ache. I reach for her, pulling her shaking body into my arms.

“Shh,” I murmur, my hand sliding up and down her back. “It’s okay. It was just a dream.”

Her breathing is ragged, her frame trembling as she clings to me. She doesn’t sign anything, her hands gripping my torso like it’s a lifeline. It takes a few minutes for her to calm and the tension to ebb from her body.

Finally, she leans back slightly, her eyes meeting mine with a vulnerability that’s rare for her. “Tell me what chases you at night, princess,” I whisper.

She hesitates, her gaze dropping to the space between us. Then, with trembling hands, she begins to sign.

Her movements are slow and hesitant at first, but they gradually grow more confident as she continues. She tells me about the Chibari-kai, a rival Yakuza family, and about the nightmare they made her endure, kidnapping her when she was just a girl and locking her in a dark, damp basement for a week.

More than a week.

How she was terrified, starved, and left to wonder if anyone would ever come for her. How every now and then, those motherfuckers would barge into her dark cell and threaten to beat her, rape her, or kill her.

Jesus. I want to rip a hole in time, go back, and destroy them. Slowly. Painfully.

Her hands falter for a moment but she presses on, telling me about the rescue attempt—how the kidnappers fled with her, taking her in their car as they tried to escape.

She tells me about the crash, the car careening off a cliff, the metal tearing through her body, leaving her broken and bleeding.

She stops, her hands trembling in her lap. Her gaze flicks to me hesitantly before she takes a steadying breath and continues.

“All that…changed me,” she motions. “It stole my voice. I don’t know why. I wish I did.”

I cup her cheek, using my thumb to brush away the single tear that beads in her eye.

“There’s something else that whole experience took from me, Tak,” she signs slowly. Her eye lift to mine with a haunting edge to them.

“I can’t have children.”

Both of us go still, our gazes locked together.

“I just take the pills to regulate my cycle,” she continues. “When you messed around with them before, I was mad because I felt out of control, not because I was worried you might get me pregnant.”

The air feels heavy around us. I don’t say anything at first, my mind reeling. Finally, she breaks the silence, her face tinged with bitterness.

“You got cheated,” she signs. “You got a defective bride.”

Her words ignite a fierce protectiveness in me, roaring to life in my chest. I grab her hands gently, silencing her before she can sign anything else.

“What the hell makes you think someone like me should be a father?” I murmur.

Her eyes widen slightly and for a moment neither of us speaks, the weight of her confession settling between us like a stone.

I feel a shift inside me.

I came here and barged into her life because I had a plan. A vendetta. But now something’s changed.

Maybe I’ve changed.

She’s not part of my plan anymore.

She is my plan.