Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 14

After Sophia’s encounter with Neil, she changed her mind about skipping her classes for the remainder of the day. She rather opted for just getting back on track with them again.

Not that she wanted to, obviously, as she had rather been looking forward to replaceing somewhere dark and quiet to hide away for the rest of the day. She just wanted to be left alone with her thoughts until the final bell announced that their school day had ended.

Her father was part of the reason why Sophia decided not to ditch her classes after all. She just had the worst and most degrading torture session of her life last night. She didn’t need him using it as a possible excuse to crank things up yet again, when he found out she’d missed her History, English Lit, and Biology classes.

But the biggest reason why she went back to her classes for the rest of the school day was because Sophia didn’t want to risk having another run-in with Neil again as she had earlier.

As much as she found herself reveling in the feeling of being scanned by his concerned eyes, and how she saw flashes of indignation at the signs of her abuse there, she just couldn’t handle his questions today. Especially not after last night’s horrors with her father.

Sophia didn’t want to risk him talking her into admitting everything to him, because she knew very well that she would. With enough prodding from him, she suspected she would be willing to tell him anything. Do anything.

One more gentle, accidental touch to the side of her neck as he pushed a strand of hair out of the way. One more look of kindness. Of tenderness. Sophia knew now that not feeling anything when he did those things, damn when he just looked at her, was freaking impossible.

But what would be the use of confessing the whole truth of everything to him? It wasn’t like Neil could actually do anything about it in any case. In fact, if she was to tell him the extent of her punishments, it would just change the way he saw and looked at her.

Gazing at her with concern was one thing. An acceptable thing. But pity? Abhorrence?

Those were the last things Sophia wanted to see within those bronzed orbs. So she decided to avoid him instead. Well as much as she could anyway.

With the small ten-minute break in between her classes, on her way to English Lit, Sophia went by her locker to pick up the required textbook for it, as well as for the final class. She noticed him following her from a distance. Watching with eyes that saw everything. A protective presence.

It was like having her very own guardian angel. That was if guardian angels were even allowed to be so darn hot and dangerous-looking.

Secretly smiling to herself at the thought, feeling his eyes on her, Sophia opened her locker and saw a folded piece of paper falling to her feet.

Her heart skipped a beat. Not in a good way, because she knew who had most likely written and placed the note in her locker for her to replace there.

Haphazardly scanning the faces around her, but intentionally keeping her eyes away from where she knew Neil was still watching her, she bent forward to pick the note up from the floor after her quick search for Matthew and his cronies came up empty.

‘For my mate,’ it read on the one folded side.

Sophia took a deep breath through her teeth, preparing to not show any emotion or reaction whatsoever, no matter what she was about to read there. She knew her security guard slash watcher angel would come over and demand an explanation from her if she showed any hint of worry or fear.

She didn’t want him to get himself involved. He might then end up losing his job at the school, and for some reason, Sophia couldn’t bear the thought of that.

Who else could she surreptitiously hope to accidentally run into here each day?

It might have been a hellish place, but Neil had been making it less and less so, even if he was a little bit inconsistent with the whole not being there sometimes. Especially when she was always looking for him for some reason.

‘Remember the story about Randvi? You will be sorry…’

Sophia read and re-read it. Over and over again.

Randvi was part of a tale told within the Goddess Scripts, about a beautiful shifter female in ancient times who, as the story went, had been publicly stoned to death for using tricks to get what she wanted from her mate.

You will be sorry…

Realization finally dawned. A cold and foreshadowing realization of what significance these few words held.

Matthew must have known that she switched their test papers the other day, or at least suspected something, she concluded. There was no other explanation for the intended message written on the note. The note she was still staring at in hidden disbelief.

To anyone else, meaning Neil for the most part, it might have just looked like she was merely reading a long letter or something, but she was actually only staring at that one sentence now.

You will be sorry…

Did this really mean that he planned to stone her?

Seriously?

Were they back in the bloody fucking medieval times?

In her mind, Sophia thought it was archaic and illegal – if that word even meant something in her case – to throw someone to death with fucking stones!

When Sophia noticed from the corner of her eye that her watcher stirred uncomfortably like he was about to give up on holding himself back for any longer, she closed the note, gave it another fold to make it smaller so it could fit into her shirt pocket, and she started to continue down the hall.

Sophia wanted nothing else but to throw the crumpled-up note into the nearest dustbin, but with Neil following her again, she was able to practically feel his unease. But for the most part, an intense curiosity was blazing from his eyes there too.

She wondered whether she could even go and see any of the teachers about the threatening note. Would they even care about it? Even if she went to Mr. Silvino, would he be able to do anything about it really?

She doubted all of this. Once again, Sophia was left with no other option but to accept the possibility of being stoned, but hoping against hope that it was one of the threats he’d only made for the sake of threatening her – not actually seeing it through.

Sophia could only hope.

You will be sorry...