MARKED BY DECEPTION

9- YOU MAY CALL ME DARIUS

“Wake up,Sera!”Nyx tapped me severally on my shoulder trying to wake me up from sleep. It was taking everything in me not to fling her across the room.

I was awake, I just didn’t want to leave my bed.

Not now.

I was too tired to even move,I barely got up to six hours of sleep the previous night.

“Leave me alone!”I groaned, facing the wall.

“Oh my goodness, we are going to be in big trouble”, she cried out frustrated. From the footsteps that I was now hearing in the room, I knew she was pacing around. Frantically.

She kept on trying and I kept ignoring, until a loud bang on the door made her still.

“Coming!…right away..”, nervousness filled her voice. I turned to look at her immediately after hearing her sound anxious,

“Who was that?”

“Felicia!”, she paused, taking a deep breath in ,trying to control whatever anger that was about coming out of her.

“This is her third time knocking.It's 8:15 am, it’s just our third day here and we are late!”, she rubbed her fingers together, “oh lord”

I rolled my eyes. “We are not late… I am, you can go without me”.

Her mouth dropped, “ why… why should I leave you?”, her tone softened.

I turned my back to her ,“Because we didn’t come here together”, I answered sharply.

Silence.

When I turned and saw the look of hurt on her face it was already too late to take back my words. She looked down to avoid meeting my pitiful gaze.

What have I done?

“Oh.. I see.” She swallowed.

The silence stretched. I knew I had to apologize at that moment but I could barely even find the words.

“Nyx- ”

She interrupted me quickly,“You’re right.”, she started walking towards the door. “See you whenever!”she walked out, banging the door loudly behind her.

“Ugh!”I knew she was mad but I already told her how I felt about that. I hated loud noises, they always overly stimulated me.

I got out of bed reluctantly. I had to get ready in fifteen minutes, Madam Rose only gave thirty minutes grace.

As I grabbed my towel I remembered my encounter with Alpha Darius last night,

“That son of a b***h”.

This was exactly what he wanted I’m certain. For me to be tired and incompetent at work, leading to my punishment without him actually doing it.

I was not going to let that happen. It took me five minutes to have my bath and another five to get ready. I didn’t even know I had that in me.

As soon as I step into the outside kitchen I am met with madam rose angry glare. My eyes caught the wall clock by the corner. One minute to 8:30, I was so damn lucky.

“Come” Willow, our group head beckoned to me.

“Help me”, she gestured at the big pot on the ground. I bent, picking it up with her and placed it on the already prepared firewood.

“Thank you—-why are you late?”, she asked, dusting the charcoal off her hands.

“Just not feeling myself today”, I lied. Well, maybe it was not entirely a lie. If I had not spent the night reading sappy romance stories to the alpha I’d have not been late.

“Sorry. Madam Rose was really angry”, I looked at her.

“I’m surprised she hasn’t called me”, her eyes were still on me.

Willow shot her a quick glance. “Same—you should join the girls in cleaning upstairs”

I am taken aback,“Cleaning ?”Nobody told me about cleaning.

“Yeah. That’s why we were divided yesterday. She did a bit of orientation this morning.” She leaned in to me and whispered , “Kitchen lady is just a fancy name for palace help because we are doing everything here”, she pointed at the pack house.

We walked together into the pack house. Inside, we run into Alpha Darius with his beta, gamma and enforcer coming down the stairs.

Great, the one person I didn’t want to see.

We stopped at the foot of the stairs till they came down, then he walked past me , cold and quiet like I had not spent a few hours with him last night—alone.

I had not expected him to say a word to me but he couldn’t even look at me which was strange because he was always looking at me. I pushed back the thought of last night away and every other weird interaction I’ve ever had with him.

The plan was to seduce him. Even though I kept wondering how that was going to work if he kept leaving me confused like this. I did not feel in control, in fact I felt like I was being controlled.

It has been easier with other men. They wanted to be in my pants as soon as they set their eyes on me, but this one? He wanted to read my mind while I read him stories.

“He’s so hot,” Willow said, bringing me back from my thoughts as we climbed up the stairs.

“Who?”, I asked.

“Who else?”She looked at me surprised. “The alpha ofcourse.”

“Mhm, just asking cause four men just passed”

She made a face, “eh- they are okay not bad”

I was silent.

“You don’t think so?” She asked, her brows were raised.I wasn’t comfortable having this conversation about him with someone I did not trust.

“I haven’t noticed”, I simply said.

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped. “You’re kidding right?Everything about him is hot. Did you see how he just walked past, the way he talks, his charisma—”, she was obviously starstruck and smittened by him.

He was attractive quite alright but I hadn’t even had the time to even register that because I was too busy focused on how to play my role without being outsmarted in the process.

“Oh- " ,I just said in return to a gush. If I let her, she would go on and on about his looks and charm,and I personally didn’t want to listen to any of that.

There was a two minute silence, before she said something that left me shocked.

“I want him”.

I burst into laughter,forgetting it wasn’t ethical to laugh at someone’s face like that. But was she hearing herself?

She looked at me displeased,“What?”, she pouted.

What was the best way to tell her that an alpha and an omega were two opposite ends and couldn’t be together?

This was real life and not some fantasy book.

“What if he has a mate?”, I asked. There was no way she could have him if he did, except he rejected her Ofcourse but he didn’t come across as someone who can.

Now she was the one laughing, snorting in between .“He can’t have a ‘mate’ sera…..”

She continued laughing and I wondered what was funny about that.

“He was cursed okay, Or rather he can actually but who ever he falls in love with will automatically be his mate”

My mouth dropped at that revelation, she could tell I was shocked, “you never heard?.”

“No”, I replied. At this point I started to feel I was the only one who did not know a single thing about this alpha.

We just got to our place of duty. Some girls were already cleaning the floor and dusting some statues that were on the hallway.

“You think all these girls here really want to be ‘kitchen ladies’” , she said it as if it were a slur.

“Everyone wants him, that’s why some of us are here… maybe including you!”, she pointed her fingers to my chest.

I removed her hands quickly,“I didn’t know that about him, I barely know anything about this place. I just needed some money”

“Hmm. Well now you know.”, she shrugged. I'm certain she didn’t believe me but my motive was way different than hers, and that’s all that mattered.

“He is betrothed though but well i don’t know much about that part”, she sounded uninterested talking about another female.

“Lucky girl”

“Mhm”, was her only response.

We walked down the hallway, she stopped at his study.

“You should clean here”

“No no ”, I protested. I begged quietly, "I don't want here”

“Well, all the other places are taken. I do the guest room on this floor”, she hands me a duster and broom from one of the girls who had just finished her duty. At this point,I accepted defeat, the moon goddess was cracking a joke I did not find funny, cause of all places why here?

Why was his study not his floor for goodness sake ?

“Make it clean.”, she smiled, then leaned in and whispered, “I heard this is his second favourite place”.

“Then why don’t you clean here.”,I tried one more time to persuade her into taking the study.

A smirk crept on her face, “oh c'mon sera. Who wants to look desperate?.” She walked away leaving me there.

I stared at the space I had spent over two hours in last night. My eyes traveled to the corner I sat while reading him that book that was rather too cheesy for an alpha.

Taking a good look at the room now, it wasn’t really fitting for an alpha. The baby pink curtains added a feminine touch to the beige room, not to mention the spinning ballerina on the book shelf.

This was a contrast of who he was,—dark, strong and manly.

This was previously owned by a woman, but who?

I start cleaning,whistling one of my favorite rhymes as I dust the shelves, also taking my time to properly arrange the books according to their genre.

There were a few books that laid on the desk,unshelved;

“The omega he loved”, I tried to contain my giggle as I read the title of one of the books but I could not.

I’ve always found these titles a tad bit too comical. These books made people like Willow delusional.

Why would an Alpha love an Omega? In what world did that even happen. Not at Shadow pack for sure.

Out of curiosity I opened and scanned through the pages.

“He claims her on the night of the full moon…that’s rather interesting… oh my word”, a deep throaty laughter escapes me, tears from laughing a lot rolled down my cheeks.

I shelved it right next to the book I read to him last night, they belonged in the same category. Delusional story lines that people loved to refer to now as— romance.

“Do you want that to be our next read ?”, a deep voice breaks into the silence of the room, leaving me startled.

I knew exactly who that voice belonged to, the man I had become a bit familiar with.

I turned to meet him standing by the door, “Alpha Darius…I”

He walked in quietly, shutting the door behind him.

“I was assigned to clean your study”, the last thing I wanted him to think was that I missed being here or anything of that sort.

He didn’t reply to me. He walked to the shelf where I had kept the book. Instinctively, I take a step backwards as he comes close.

The Lyra I knew would have stepped closer, making a move, setting the ball rolling. But no, since I stepped foot on this pack I had become rather slow.

With him, it was to understand. He was like those books missing a book cover , no title, no synopsis,so you have no idea what to expect.

He turned to me with a smile, “Do you like this book, Sera?”he asked, waving it in front of me. The look on his face was pure mischief, his eyes dark, how come I was the only one that got to see this side?

Everyone else thought he was dreamy, adorable,charming ,innocent.. and what not.

They talked about him every chance they got, I didn’t care, my main concern was why I didn't see that version when we were alone. Instead I was met with the sarcastic, dark, mischievous version.

He barely even waits for a reply, “ it should be our next read”

Immediately my brain is alert, ‘next’

Was he planning on making this a daily thing?

“What do you think ?”, he brings himself closer to me, too close for comfort, only our exhales could separate us.

I looked down.

His masculine scent of incense, citrus and cedar filled my lungs.That scent of rawness , power and strength.

This was the first time a man was this close to me without me being the one initiating. I was supposed to seduce him and not the other way round.

Yet, I found myself moving backwards till all I met was my back on the cold wall. He looked down at me, I could feel his eyes on me and then in the midst of the discomfort something tugged at me to look at him in the eyes.

So I did.

His breath immediately seized, now he was aware of how close we were, his chest kept rising and falling, his tight short sleeve shirt showed it perfectly. He looked down, avoiding my eye contact and for the first time here I felt what I’d been missing. Power.

“Sera..”, he said my name after a while in a low masculine grunt. The air from him brushed against my lips.

“Yes..Alpha”. My wolf was nagging for him to look at me again just to get that satisfaction of his breath seizing.

He did. However, this time I couldn’t read his face. It was drained of the initial mischief and fierceness.

“This would be our next book”, he said coldly. I knew what that tone meant, it was not a suggestion, or a request, it was a command.

“Yes Alpha”.

He took a step away from me and I could finally exhale.

“Thank you for arranging my books”, now he was soft spoken almost like a child.

“It’s my duty”

“Thank you”,

I watched as he walked to the drawer , unlocked it and took a few documents from it.

So he forgot something. I had thought he sensed I was here. Maybe, it was both.

He turned back to me, “ while arranging, don’t make any drastic changes.” His gaze swept the room. “I prefer it exactly as it is”

“Yes Alpha” , I hadn’t planned on doing so but now he has made me very curious.

Who did this room originally belong to? And why was he attached to it?

“Darius.”

I blinked.“Sorry”

“ I guess if you’d be reading me stories every night” he said calmly,“ you may call me Darius”

Every night?

My pulse skipped,I had things to do, plans to carry out. I could not do this every night.

“Excuse me? I ca-”

“See you by 10:30”, he walked out, leaving the door open without saying another word to me. Making me wonder when he became in control of this game of mine.