"I thought you said he wasn't your father."
"He's not!" she insists. "It's terrible of you to eavesdrop, Mr. Hunter," she says crossly, puffing her chest like that's in any way capable of making her look bigger. She barely reaches his neck and the effort just makes her look more adorable.
"
If he's hurting you, or forcing you, I can help," he says. "And if you're fucking your own father, then there are... places- therapists that can help you with that too. You don't have to stay here if you don't want to," he promises, trying to sound as sincere as he can.
She frowns and her eyes fill with tears. "That's not- you don't understand," she stutters, tears glistening on her lashes as she looks up at him. "I- I love him. It's just- it's just something we do for fun. It doesn't mean anything. Daddy- Alpha Derek says it's normal. People do it all the time."
He feels a little bad for making her cry and for making her doubt herself and her relationship, but she does cry so very prettily and he's only human. Well, half human. "Is he hurting you?"
She shakes her head quickly, but then stops and nods a little. "But only because I like it," she insists.
"You like getting hurt?" he asks.
She nods timidly, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "Sometimes!" she says, ears turning red.
"How long have you two been sexually intimate?" he asks, not letting her pause on each answer for too long.
She crosses her arms over her chest, more upset than embarrassed now. "He didn't touch me until I'm eighteen."
That's hardly a relief, considering he could have started grooming her before then. "Are you trying to defend him?" he asks.
"Defend him?" she echoes, confused.
"He would be in serious trouble if anyone were to find out your relationship. He is your father by name, you see. The legal files state that he's your father and you carry his last name even though you claim that you don't share blood. That would hardly matter to the courts, who would take you away and put him in prison."
"But he's not- he's not hurting me," she insists, worried again. "Why are you doing this?" she whimpers. "I love him," she insists.
"You're too young to know what love is."
"That's not true," she insists. "Daddy loves me and I love him back."
"How do you know?" he asks. "How can you be sure? Have you loved anyone before?"
She looks torn and confused, brows furrowed together unhappily as she listens to him speak. "He- he- Daddy takes care of me," she whispers.
"As a father should."
"He doesn't- I'm not-" she stutters.
"You just said he's your 'daddy'," he says, deliberately confusing her even more. He knows the dynamic is part of their kink. It's a pretty normal one too, as far as kinks go, more normal than tying her up outside of the house and fucking her outdoors, in any case.
Later, he would congratulate himself for doing so well. It's clear that this is something that has been worrying her too, otherwise she would not have been so easily affected by his efforts to create a rift between them. "He can't marry you," he says. "Or have children with you, not unless you're ready to keep your children hidden from everyone, isolated."
She makes a distressed sort of noise and he knows he's hit the nail on the head. she had spent her entire childhood being passed from one family to the next. Not hidden, but invisible. The townspeople treat her with a sort of fondness that is afforded to a stray cat that they feed occasionally. It is little wonder that she clings so desperately to the first person in her life that has a possibility of permanence.
It it cruel, what Derek is doing to her. But what he's doing is no less kinder.
Thankfully, he has never been a kind man.
Chapter Eight: Compromise
It does not take very long at all for his plan to come to formation afterwards. Derek comes to find him at his house a few days after he has talked to the Mayor, bringing Jake into the plans he has to turns the abandoned houses here into a holiday destination.
"You have been playing a very cruel game, Mr. Hunter," Derek says in lieu of a greeting. His expression is icy and try as he might, Erik can't tell if the man is upset or amused.
"Have I?" He opts for ignorance.