Devilish Frayer peered intently at his poor victim, awaiting the spoils of his efforts to show and shatter her false calm. This glorious moment would stay with him forever! Her hair stood on end, her muscles shivered, her eyes flickered... and her lips moved... He hung on each syllable as they slipped from those ebony lips, heart racing, but the high was dashed away. "They're... fine" she said!
"Liar!" he hissed in his mind, "The tale is told in your eyes! Why are you... How can you..." She loved those forsaken wolves with a sickening intensity, and they were obviously not fine! How was it possible that she hadn't taken a snap at him? How could someone like the innocent Sheylie take that, then turn around and deliver that almost-perfect lie? Throughout their childhood and into today, she had taken blow-after-blow without breaking. Frayer didn't think even he could take so much abuse if he had to!
Mighty brutes and wizened leaders had all fallen prey to the games, powerful wolves enraged or made fools by less, and yet here is a she-wolf who had absorbed such a heinous blow as an attack on unfortunate loved ones, and so gracefully too. There was no doubt about it, Sheylie was the strongest-willed wolf in existence.
She even managed to make more smalltalk, though Frayer, wrapped in frustrated thoughts, nearly missed it. "How have I been?" Terrible, was the truth! Terrible now that he was losing this fight. Terrible since he's had no pack to torment for so long. "Terrible without her..."
"No! Quiet! For the last time, quiet! I don't need her or anyone else!" - "You've gone so long hurting everyone you've met. You have no pack, no friends; the only company you have is an orange rock and the other voice in your head, and even I hate you. You've seen how all the others live happily by loving each other - by taking pride in the good they do for their companions! Can't you, for once in your life, just try being nice?" - "No. Now, silence!"
Oh no - was that growl out loud? Quickly, Frayer, cover it up with another lie - how you do so well! "I've been... uh, wonderful!" he managed to choke out. He was losing this! If he couldn't pull this around, she would notice how affected he was, if she couldn't see it already. He certainly would have noticed it in her place. "I've eaten well, stayed healthy, made - heh - friends..." He tried on his smile again, but it no longer fit. "Yes, my life is perfect!" Utterly unconvincing. The look in his eyes, the twitching of his ears, the frown that tried to override his lips' other commands, all tells were there. That part of the black wolf deep within was grinning now, the part that someone might call his "conscience". Frayer couldn't believe it! It wasn't Sheylie who was winning this game against him, but he was beating himself!
"All hope is lost, old friend. But you can still appologize." No, stubborn Frayer would not. Instead, he turned his head away, pretending to watch the rain through the mouth of the shelter. Maybe, if he was lucky, she hadn't seen his lapse of character a moment ago - luckier still if she didn't realize that he was hiding his face now.
"You will thank me, when you and she are happy."
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