Hades
Eve crouched down slowly, and Sophie’s eyes followed her down until they were at eye level. "You are afraid of Alpha Hades, why?"
Sophie scrunched up her nose, "He is not a good man."
"Hmm," Eve mused. "Because he does not like werewolves?"
Sophie glanced up at me and withdrew into the room a little more.
I took a step back. What she said hurt more because she was right. I was not a good man.
"Yes," Sophie replied. "But I am not one." She lied.
She was far too young to understand the complexity of the wrought rivalry between our two kinds but she was justified in having disdain for a man that would have wanted her dead months ago.
"This uncle Luci of yours," Eve said softly. "How does he look?"
She blinked, glanced up at me again, eyes narrowing before facing Eve again. "He had blue eyes, pretty ones, my papa said he used to be jealous of them because his are black."
I was suddenly dragged down by Eve so that I was face to face with Sophie.
She recoiled.
But Eve drew her back with her voice. "What is the colour of his eyes, Sophie?" Eve asked.
Sophie’s eyes hesitantly met mine and from this angle I could see more of Cain in her face. Dark long lashes, a pointy chin despite the softness of her face, her distinct cupid’s bow and a long philtrum.
She finally answered. "His eyes are blue but Alpha’s eyes are the colour of steel."
"See?" Eve probed.
She pouted in response. "He is not Uncle Luci. Uncle Luci has pretty dimples and smiles a lot." She smiled wide, pointing at her dimples. "Papa said I got them from Uncle Luci. But he looks like he eats babies’ pinkies for dinner."
I was not sure if I was supposed to bark a laugh or shoot myself in the head.
The guard still standing above us choked on a laugh and tried to cover it with a cough, only to fail woefully.
Eve jabbed me in the side, prompting me. I could taste her urgency from the Fenrir’s chain. It tugged at me.
I knew what she wanted from me. The smile. The dimples that had disappeared along with the boy who’d once built pillow forts and laughed until his sides hurt.
Taking a shaky breath, I let the iron mask I’d worn for decades crack just enough. I thought of Cain as a child, chasing me through the corridors. I thought of the way Sophie had painted that door with her papa. I thought of Eve beside me, believing I could be better.
The smile felt foreign on my face, rusty from disuse, but it came. And with it, the dimples that genetics had carved into my cheeks.
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