LILA CROSS
They called it charm. I called it survival. The difference between us was that I knew exactly what I was.
Ryker called a bitch, not behind my back either, nah, that daring devil said it to my face and Rowan always refuted him for that.
But he wasn’t wrong. I was a bitch and it was sothing I had made my peace with a long ti ago.
They wouldn’t know it if they look at though, throw in a heel, a sundress, nude lipstick and a pink hair clip and you were now transford into a lady, soft edges and sweet smiles and everything a room full of n wanted to see, it was the classic rule and it worked every single ti without fail.
It only took a devil to recognize one, which was precisely why Ryker and I never got along.
To Rowan I was the perfect fiancée, calm and gentle and lady-like, smiling when we went out, letting him hold the chair for , blushing at complints and giving that half-chuckle half-laugh to the corny jokes cocky n made at dinner tables while I calculated every person in the room.
It wasn’t my fault. I was raised this way, being the Alpha’s only daughter of the Ironcrest pack ant being dressed like a lady and sharpened like a blade, raised to act gentle in public and be absolutely ruthless when it counted, to trample and slaughter anyone who got in my way and smile while doing it.
"You can go check out the hall, I will be right behind you, let just get so paperwork done," Rowan had said that morning, scribbling on so docunt without even looking up at .
I rolled my eyes and walked out of the office and he didn’t seem to notice or care, his pen scratching against paper like I had already left the room before I actually had.
Sothing about him had changed lately, the past week to be precise, always busy, always occupied, dodging any suggestion of going out together, his attention pointed sowhere I couldn’t quite locate and that bothered more than I wanted to admit.
We were a couple of weeks from our wedding and I was carrying the entire weight of the planning while he scribbled in offices and gave half-answers, and people were starting to ask questions I didn’t have clean responses to.
I stord through the garden cursing under my breath at the grass, "Fucking greenery," pressing into the soles of my five inch heels with every step, the sun beating down on my neck without rcy, sweat gathering at my collar in a way that was deeply undignified.
I was aware that Rowan and I started as a political arrangent, two strong packs folding into one through marriage, but I liked to believe we had moved well past that by now, we had fucked, good hard fuck a couple of tis, and I had played the good girl perfectly, letting him lead, whispering against his ear, "Rowan I have only been with one other, take it easy on ," and he had believed every word of it.
Well, I had only been with one other in this pack, which was Cole, also a good fuck, but the mont I got close enough to Rowan I dropped Cole without a second thought and I suspected he resented for it, at least he had kept his mouth shut about our little arrangent.
Outside this pack I had a collection of n who had sworn to secrecy and worshipped my dripping wet pussy like a religion, multiple orgasms, n in bondage and holding every string, that was entirely my preference, but for Rowan I would be the good girl, patient and devoted and perfectly packaged.
The building ca into sight and I spotted her imdiately, standing at the entrance steps in that floral dress with her hair pulled back, Nia beside her with that irritating smile she carried everywhere, and infuriation moved through my chest the mont I laid eyes on her.
I hated her. From the mont I heard Alpha Corvin was taking a mate I had hated the idea of her, she would be Luna and I would be what exactly, second, lesser, overlooked in a house I had already ntally claid, that innocent face and those wide eyes acting like a helpless victim when she was standing in the middle of everything I had already decided was mine.
That position belonged to and I would make absolutely certain of it.
I smiled and opened my mouth, "Look who is here, if it isn’t the wench breeder."
She scowled, her pretty face pulling tight with a fury she was not bothering to hide, and I held her gaze and kept smiling because the smile was the sharpest thing I owned.
Nia stiffened beside her but said nothing, smart girl.
Amaris took one step forward, chin lifted, eyes burning, "I have seen ladies like you my whole life," her voice ca out controlled and clear, which was more than I expected from her, "easily threatened, rattled to the bone the mont they are standing in front of a woman who is everything they want to be and more."
The smile dropped off my face before I could stop it.
I looked her over slowly, top to bottom, the floral dress and the simple ponytail and the bare face, letting the silence do its work before I opened my mouth, "Everything I want to be," I repeated, my voice dropping to sothing quieter and more dangerous than a shout.
"Sweetheart, you are standing in a house that does not belong to you, wearing a title that was handed to you like charity, about to walk down an aisle to a man who sees you as nothing more than a vessel, and you want to talk to about what I want to be."
Sothing flickered behind her eyes but she didn’t step back, I gave her that.
"At least I know exactly what I am here for," she shot back, her voice holding, "you have been here longer and you still cannot say the sa, can you."
My jaw tightened, "Watch your mouth."
"Or what." She tilted her head, and the nerve of it, the absolute nerve of this girl standing in front of with her chin up like she had anything to stand on, "I am not scared of you, I have done nothing wrong to you."
Nia took a small step sideways, removing herself from the blast radius with the quiet efficiency of soone who had excellent survival instincts.
"You have no idea," I said, my voice coming out low and clipped, "what I am capable of."
Amaris looked at for a long mont, steady and unblinking, "Neither do you, apparently," she said quietly, "or you would not have co over here and started this."
"You little bitch," I snapped, my hand connecting with her cheek before the words had fully left my mouth, the crack of it sharp and final in the open air.
Her head turned with the force of it and for one second the whole world went quiet.
Then she turned back and slapped so hard my hair clip flew sideways, the sting of it blooming across my cheek hot and imdiate, and I had not seen that coming, not from her, not from those soft hands and that victim face, and the shock of it lasted exactly long enough for to raise my hand again.
A grip closed around my wrist, iron and immovable.
"What the hell," I wrenched around, ready to unleash everything I had left.
Rowan stood behind , his hand locked around my wrist, his jaw tight, his eyes moving between my face and Amaris and back again with an expression I had never seen on him before, sothing cold and calculating and completely unreadable.
He had seen all of it.
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