Contract Marriage: The Lycan Queen's Tempting Fate [GL]

[SAKURA]

"You don't have the range to tell me what to do and what not to, Sakura. I am not your Lycans that you command," Izanami said definitely and everyone in the council room stared at the woman like she was desperate for a death wish. 

Surely, they had all heard what Sakura had promised to do to her if she so much as hurt Kiyomi, but then it seemed like the woman couldn't care about what was right and wrong, or even what she needed to embrace right now. 

She was still clinging to the hope that her daughter was still the same manipulated girl who never cared about anything and who was never going to love, let alone be loved. 

Maybe she was hoping that Sakura would go back to being the submissive little shit she had always known, but then Sakura was different. She had someone to fight for, someone for whom she wouldn't mind killing her mother. 

She had someone who meant everything to her and Izanami refused to accept that a Lycan rogue had gotten her daughter's attention. And that too, a Kimura rogue. That was absolute bullshit.

"Otaru," Sakura called out coldly.

"Your majesty."

"Kill my mother," Sakura commanded.

"S… Yo…"

"Are you having trouble following orders, enforcer?"

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Otaru said, trembling as he stared at the former queen who was so close to the doors. Otaru was painfully aware that Izanami was powerful and could easily kill him. 

Frankly, this was the worst state that Sakura had ever put him in, and yet he couldn't fight the command of the Lycan queen. He couldn't go against her because she was his queen and more than anything, his best friend. 

It wasn't fair that this shit had gotten to this point, but Otaru knew there was no other way out. 

Izanami was watching amusedly as Otaru tried to hold himself back. It was a pathetic attempt at a reality that would never make sense for quite some time, but Izanami could feel the shift in the air. 

This was no longer just about an enforcer coming at her. It was about the amount of power in the room and even worse, the amount of insanity that her daughter had piled up to this point. 

Sakura was not rational and she was very aware of it, but her mother had posed a threat to the one woman she loved with her life. It was something that Sakura was never going to negotiate about. 

The sooner everyone understood that, the easier it would be for them to get over whatever this was.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness," Otaru said to Izanami before he unsheathed his sword and struck Izanami on her shin. It was always the first place Otaru went for and the Lycan queen stared amusedly even as the blood oozed from her. 

It was nothing to her because she knew he could heal as fast as possible. Pain was always a construct. That was a lesson that Izanami Watanabe had forced down her daughter's throat over the years, and perhaps that was why she was calmly watching. 

Next, Otaru sliced her shoulder, almost making a clean cut, but Otaru could feel the power holding him back. It didn't take long for him to understand that it was all coming from Sakura. 

The woman was showing her mother what happened when she was defied and she was using Otaru to show that example to everyone. 

The warriors outside the council room were scared shitless of what was waiting for them in the room and they knew that this wasn't just going to be one of those days that they went to war and fought then came back home. 

This was going to be their worst nightmare and the sooner they embraced that part of their reality; the easier life would be for them. It wasn't as hard because, at the end of the day, that was what life was supposed to be like for them. 

But was it ever supposed to be this complicated?

"Get on with it, warrior," Izanami said and Otaru almost had a brain aneurysm at the woman's statement. What part of this madness did she not turn on? All that Izanami had to do was not be a threat to Kiyomi and everyone would live happily ever after. 

However, right now the woman seemed to love the spectacle she was putting on for everyone. It was scary, how even as Otaru poked her right lung with his blade, she relaxed. It took a moment for the pain to become a reality that Izanami was never used to. 

All her life she had been a warrior, one of the best in Doiwa kingdom. She had fought and won, as always. She had bled for this kingdom and had bathed herself one too many times for this kingdom. 

She had reigned and managed to have the best of the best. She had been powerful enough to have control over her crazy daughter and yet right now the only thing that she could seem to do was stare in hopelessness as her ling bled out. 

Her body was bruised from Otaru's blade and it surprised even Otaru himself. 

He could have sworn he had only struck the former queen twice and yet the woman looked like she had been to war that day and was still fighting, her wounds weren't healing, which was not something that always happened. 

She was always the one who healed the fastest. 

However, here she seemed to not be healing at all. 

If anything, it was as if she was human.

"You seem too unfamiliar with pain, mother. Luckily for you, I know a certain neurosurgeon who passes on as a general surgeon too. She can fix you up. She can make sure your lung doesn't fail and that you can walk again—

"...she can even try to talk some sense into me and let me leave you with your powers. But your time is limited, Mother. My kitten always said a punctured lung took minutes before it was out of service. 

"You know what that means, right? All the doctors and physicians of Doiwa are under oath to never treat anyone unless I approve, and you are just a beautiful case that I am not interested in approving," Sakura spoke.

Izanami stared at her daughter like she had heard her wrong. There was no way her daughter was leaving her at the mercy of a rogue, and one that she despised too much at that. 

Crazy what life had gotten to be for Izanami, and unluckily for her, Sakura was not bluffing.

Otaru could see the little smile on his queen's face and he could tell that she wanted a compelling reason to go to Odanera. Skura missed the love of her life and if she had to fuck up her mother just to see Kiki again, then she would do it.

It was almost diabolical, but then Izanami wasn't a saint, no?

"Oh, hell no. I'd rather die," Izanami said.

Sakura threw her twin blades at her mother, aiming directly for her neck and her other lung. Izanami stood there shocked, written all over her face as she struggled to breathe and came to the realization her very own daughter had sliced her carotid. 

This was the worst kind of evil, but really Izanami had created her, right?

"I'll bring Father to your funeral, don't worry. He won't even know that he will be dying too, that day," Sakura said with a sinister smile.

Izanami tensed even more. She had not thought this far with her devil of a daughter and it was scary because even in her state, a part of Izanami wanted to fight with Sakura. 

Otaru, on the other hand, was still from the shock of having two blades go past him and into the body of the woman whose right lung was still holding his blade. He hadn't even moved an inch but Sakura had managed to cause so much damage without telling him to move to the side. 

Oh, but the betrayal was clear on Otaru's face, but he wouldn't whine about it, until it was just the two of them. His eyes spoke for him even as Sakura smiled at him, while he glared at his best friend for what she had done.

"Get out. All is done here," Sakura ordered and her mother whimpered in pain.

But Sakura didn't care.

Her mother knew her options, and she had to choose.

"Fine… I accept," Izanami said as she choked on her blood.

Sakura smirked in victory.