No he wouldn’t be, but Zane didn’t have the luxury of calling her out on her lies the same way she did with him.
What could she possibly know about Pavel that needed to be kept secret? Unless she’d discovered that he was a shapeshifter…? Zane still hadn’t taken the time to research into that, but now it didn’t seem like such a waste of his time. For the life of him, that was the only secret he could think of her having, and for some reason, it scared her.
Enough to have her asking him to spend time with someone else instead of just sit here in her palace like the shiny trophy she viewed him to be.
“Perhaps this was a bad idea.” Lyra was looking at him oddly all of a sudden. “You seem too…excited. You said the two of you weren’t close, so I assumed this wouldn’t be a hardship for you, but if you’re just going to use it as a reason to try and—”
“I’m excited about there being a potential mystery revolving around a man I thought to be utterly boring,” Zane corrected her. “That’s all it is.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.” He gave her a soft smile, the one he knew would instantly convince her he was head over heels for her. She thought she could sniff out all his lies? Funny that she’d never caught that one. “Let me do this for you. And for Kelevra.”
She nibbled on her lower lip, but unlike her, he could see through when she was putting on an act. She wanted him to feel bad for making her doubt his devotion to her. “I suppose that is technically your responsibility, as a member of the Retinue.”
His responsibility was to protect the prince, not her, but sure. He liked this too much to point that out. Liked that she was giving him so much of her attention, that she was pulling out all the stops in an attempt to manipulate him to do what shepleased. It’d been so long since she’d bothered putting in that kind of effort where he was concerned, even these dinners were fewer and farther between.
It was too bad he didn’t actually like her. If he did, he might reciprocate, might turn on the false charm and sweet talk her back into his bed instead of letting her leave for her date with her other lover.
But Zane didn’t like her, so he wouldn’t bother, no matter how much fun it was to see her try so hard and think she was getting away with it.
“Thank you. I knew I could count on you.” Lyra smiled back at him and then stood from the table, indicating they were finished now that she’d gotten what she wanted. He remained seated, stilling when she came around to his side and pressed a chaste kiss to the top of his head, but if she noticed his stiffness, she didn’t comment on it. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
He hummed, Lyra undeterred by his nonverbal agreement. His consent had never mattered to her one way or the other, after all.
It wasn’t until later that night when he was getting ready for bed that it hit him what he’d truly agreed to do. While he’d been so caught up in leading Lyra into a false sense of connection, he’d missed the most important part of the whole request.
She’d asked him to get closer to Pavel.
And Zane had agreed.
Chapter 10:
Whispers and stares wherever he went were nothing new, and Zane didn’t bother to try hiding the mark on his neck. On the contrary, he purposefully wore his shirt loose, the top four buttons open so that whenever he reached for something, the material would stretch and give anyone within a twenty-foot radius a good view of the sealed second skin bandage covering the injury.
On the outside, he was as stoic and unimpressed with their fawning as always, but on the inside, he was preening.
Zane had pretty much always been a secret attention whore—as Kazimir had once teasingly called him. Whether that was from being abandoned as a child or because he’d been adopted by a family who had struggled to recall his age the first four years was irrelevant. The reason for him being this way didn’t matter, because knowing wouldn’t change anything.
He wasn’t going to try, because there was nothing wrong with him.
Except for maybe the fact he was sitting here in the lab, during one of the room's busiest times, specifically so he could show off the mark on his neck.
So he could silently rub in everyone else’s face that someone wanted him badly enough to lose their absolute rational mind over him.
Maybe he should rethink that whole getting help thing after all.
The bite had hurt, and not only had he been taken advantage of, he’d been dominated in front of the entire class so the whole university would find out. He should be embarrassed and cross. Out for blood, even.
And yet that initial bloodlust had dimmed, ever since he’d noticed the usual stares of longing were now mixed with envy. Were they envious of him or Pavel? Both? Who cared when it meant greedy eyes peering at him more closely, covetously and boldly.
As the Prince of Medicine—a ridiculous nickname he secretly loved—he was often met with attention. Students and professors sent him suggestive glances and propositioned him all the time but he always turned them down. He’d taken a random lover now and again, but it wasn’t a common practice since he’d always had Kazimir to help scratch that particular itch.
Them thinking he’d changed his ways and caved for Pavel was…thrilling. The way they wandered closer to him than they would have dared before, as though he’d become somehow more unattainable yet they just couldn’t help themselves.
It wasn’t better than sex, but it was certainly helping to take the edge off in a different sort of way.
In the past, whenever he’d felt particularly down, all he’d had to do was come to campus. Literally anywhere on school grounds would suffice. The second he was there, attention flocked to him like moths to a flame, and he got off on it every single time.
