Her Lies
Xander POV
She’s acting. Even I can see it in the way her fingers hover too long over the food. Then there’s the way she hesitates before taking a piece of fruit as if she’s forcing herself to look uncertain.
She wants me to believe she doesn’t know how to serve herself and that she’s unfamiliar with choice, with abundance is all calculated.
A woman raised in a powerful pack doesn’t flinch at something as simple as breakfast. This is a game. She wants me to feel sorry for her.
The thing is, she doesn’t know what I know. Gideon’s daughter is well known by other packs. She travelled a lot. She was a spokesperson for the pack. I’d never met her, but people would praise her so much.
So her pretending to be like she wasn’t fed is a lie.
I can see she wants me to feel sorry for her. She’s almost begging me to see the truth. I lean back in my chair and watch her as she moves mechanically, picking at the food she’s placed on her plate, but she’s barely eating. She takes a few slow bites and keeps her gaze down with her shoulders tense.
She’s good at this.
A lesser man would fall for this act, and they might see the way that she hesitates and thinks she’s broken. A desperate girl who is starved, but I know better than that.
Serafine Nightbourne was raised by a man who manipulated for a living. She’s been trained to act weak, to appear fragile. She’s been trained to lure in men, to make them underestimate her.
She’s in for a shock, as it won’t work on me. Taking a sip of my coffee, I study her. The bruises on her skin from last night are already beginning to darken, and they stand out starkly against her pale flesh. I should feel something about that, but ! don’t.
I do, however, see other marks on her, which are not bad; they are just scrapes. “Where did the scratches and such come from?” I point to her body, and she pauses, staring at me quietly. “There were scratches on your legs when you walked in. There are some bruises on your arms as well.”
“1…” She stops, and I observe her. I know her answer. She won’t tell me; instead, she will say something like. It was an accident‘ or maybe ‘I got them in training.‘ There will always be something.
“Well?” I ask again, but this time, I decide to add something else. “Was your father abusive to you?”
Her body locks up, and she looks down at her plate. “I would rather not discuss my father.”
She isn’t denying it; she doesn’t want to say it outright because then she’s lying, but she also doesn’t want to deny it.
“You can stop pretending,” I say casually, breaking the silence.
Her fork pauses mid–air now, and her fingers tighten around it for just a second before she sets it back down. Yeah, she didn’t expect me to see through her bullshit.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she whispers.
Smirking, I relax more. “You’re acting like you’ve never sat at a table like this before.” I gesture toward the spread of food.” Like you don’t know what to do with something as simple as breakfast, and like this is all new for you.” She threw lavish parties, so I’m not fooled.
Her posture doesn’t change at all, but I don’t miss the slight hitch in her breath. It’s almost impressive how quickly she schools her expression. How quickly she shuts down her reactions.
Almost, because I don’t.
“I’m not acting, and I’m not lying,” she says, her voice is quiet but firm.
Tilting my head, I let the silence stretch between us. I let her wonder about what I’m thinking. She’s lying. I already know that, but I want to see how far she’s willing to take this.
“You’re going to learn quickly that I don’t tolerate dishonesty,” I say smoothly, setting down my cup to pay more atter her. “If you want to lie to me, at least do a better job of it.”
Her throat bobs as she swallows, but she doesn’t brook That’s interesting expected her to give in. I decide to let it go, for
now at least.
Successfully unlocked!
Deciding to drop the topic for now, I shift to someum eise. After breakiast, I’m going to explain how things work around here.” This pack isn’t like her family’s; we’re not small, and she is going to need to know the rules.
She blinks, and I don’t miss the way her fingers curl slightly against the edge of the table. “What do you mean, how things
work?”
1/2
Her Lies
“You’re not in your father’s pack anymore, Serafine. There are rules here and expectations. You will follow them, and there will be things that are expected of you.” I pause for a moment. “You are not my Luna, so do not expect anyone here to follow your word”
She presses her lips together, but she doesn’t argue or question any off. She’s a smart girl, at least
I take another sip of my coffee before deciding to speak again. “You should finish eating,” I say “Then we’ll talk.”
She doesn’t respond. She picks up her fork and quietly eats without saying anything.
She’s still pretending, still playing her game. It’s a long game she’s aiming to accoBlish, but I’ll break her of that soon enough.
When she’s finished, and the plates are taken away, we stand. My eyes flicker across her body. She’s barely covered, and now last night comes back into my mind. I’m not a monster. I honestly thought it was all a lie
As much as I want to pretend like it was nothing, I can’t. She got no pleasure from last night, and I’m not the sort to take pleasure without giving it. I can’t just leave it like that; I can’t leave her to believe that sex is painful and nothing but painful. “I will come with you to your room,” I say, and she nods, not arguing with me.
♡
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