Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 40

Things had still been a little tense and awkward between Sophia and Neil, but after the other night when she’d had that awful nightmare, he was there for her – no questions asked. It was suddenly like none of that mattered anymore, without having to even talk about it.

It was as though the seemingly untouchable barrier from the days before had just faded away the moment he held her in his arms, soothing and placating her after she had that strange dream that had scared the living shit out of her.

After that, they had been somewhat more comfortable around each other, almost like Neil had given up on avoiding her completely. He’d even started touching her hands, arms, shoulders, and even laid his reassuring hand on her knee a few times again.

Even though she should still have been angry with him, she couldn’t bring herself to keep holding on to the grudge she’d had against him for the way he’d been treating her before. Sophia much preferred him this way anyway, so she didn’t want to risk it falling away again just because she felt some kind of ‘I’ll-get-back-at-you’ urge to give him a taste of his own medicine.

No, her instinct to forgive Neil, and have him close to her again, was much more powerful and won the internal battle instantly. The other side didn’t have enough motivation or much to go on in the first place, so she knew that the silly urge didn’t ever stand a real chance in any case.

Sophia had also caught Scott looking at them a few times with such a sweet smile whenever Neil would say something nice or encouraging to her, or when he’d touch her, even if it was just in passing or seemingly casual. He obviously approved of Neil’s shift in behavior as well. The atmosphere around the apartment was certainly a lot better for it too.

Sophia had no choice but to forgive him when Neil had kept the promise he had made to her that night. He’d said that he would make sure Leo was okay, and he did. His informant at the school had reassured him that her little brother had still been fine that previous day at school, but that he would check in the very next morning to confirm if that was still the case.

When she walked into the kitchen that morning after, Neil told Sophia with a relieved smile that he’d just received a call from the security guard they knew at Leo’s school, and that he’d confirmed that her brother had arrived at school looking healthy and happy.

Then Neil had gone even a step further by telling her that he’d made contact with another ‘connection’, and asked another eye to be kept on the Tibald house and report if there was any kind of sign that Thorin was being violent or even simply raising his voice at Leo.

And if that wasn’t enough to make Sophia want to grab and kiss him, Neil had even assured her that proof of his safety in the form of photos would soon be sent to him from these people watching over her brother, that he’d made them promise to do it as soon as possible.

Hell, how could Sophia possibly still have stayed mad at the guy after he’d gone through such lengths to assure her of Leo’s safety, just so that she wouldn’t keep worrying herself into a tense knot over it?

Even so, Neil was still adamant to not relieve her mind of the other things her insides were still in the knot over, which was why they would even bother going into Moon Walker territory almost every night.

Why would they keep taking such risks? It didn’t make sense to Sophia, but for the time being, she had decided not to keep pestering them about it. However, she was more worried about them now than ever before, knowing where they went but being left ignorant as to why just made it all worse.

Her mind kept going to unspeakable explanations, suspecting them of intending to make some kind of big profit from a war between the two packs. Not that Sophia was an expert on wars or that she knew exactly what mercenaries did in such times, but she knew enough that such people tended to work for whichever side paid them the most money. Sometimes even playing both sides…

No, Neil and Scott aren’t like that! Sophia admonished her overthinking mind for the hundredth time.

Whatever their reasons were for what they did, she knew that their intentions must have been good. Right? Even while Sophia was fully aware of the fact that they were less than forthcoming about their past, or even how they were able to afford this apartment, food, and all their fancy equipment and weapons, she had to believe that they hadn’t done, or still kept doing, horrible things to fund all of it.

I trust them, Sophia thought with conviction, putting the suspicious side of her mind to bed. Neil is a good person. Scott is a good person. They would never do anything horrible and immoral.

It was a simple but all-encompassing truth. Every fiber of Sophia’s being was telling her this, especially as she watched the two males in question from the couch, where she’d been pretending to be reading one of Neil’s spy novels the whole time.

“Pretending” because her brain was preoccupied with her own thoughts, and she kept being distracted by wanting to watch Neil and Scott as she thought about things. This way she could not tip them off that she was in one of those all-thoughtful-and-quiet moods again, as Neil liked to call it.

She knew when she was like this, it would just end up making Neil uncomfortable, then he would take it upon himself to make her feel better. She didn’t want that either, especially not while he was clearly so excited about two of their old friends coming over.

They were both busy in the kitchen, getting beers and snacks ready for Victoria and Connor who would be arriving at any moment. They’d told her that both of them were lifelong friends of theirs and that they trusted them completely with the knowledge that Sophia was hiding from the Alpha of the Lucian pack, her father.

Sophia found that she was surprisingly not too nervous, or as much as she expected she would be, about these two strangers coming to stay with them in the apartment for a while.

If Neil and Scott trusted them that much, then she did too. Besides, seeing them so excited about being able to catch up with their friends again, was one of the most heartwarming sights she’d ever seen.

Especially seeing Neil with a brightness to his eyes and his voice made her chest ache and brought a small smile to her own lips, which she hid behind the open novel she held up in front of her. She would just peer over the top, secretly watching them, and the moment either one would steal glances in her direction, Neil being the most frequently curious one, Sophia would just quickly lift the book to cover her eyes.

She knew that he could always somehow feel her eyes on him, but she just couldn’t help staring. Neil being in such a good mood was a rare thing to see, and she wanted to commit it all to her memory to reach for in case there were possible times ahead again where he would go back to being Mr. Broody again.

Sophia couldn’t stop the little giggle from escaping her throat at the reminder of the private nickname she’d given him, and quickly hid her face behind the book as she saw the man in question’s inquisitive gaze lift in her direction.

Within no time, familiar fingers curled over the top of the open book, pushed it down and grabbed it out of her grip as Neil sat down right in front of her. She’d been sitting with her back to the armrest of the couch with her legs stretched out straight across the length of the couch, but had to pull her feet away just in time to him plopping down where they’d been.

“Hey!” Sophia yelled in exasperation, but mostly because she was surprised at having her cover taken from her. “Give that back–”

As she shifted over to him in an attempt to grab the book back, flailing and helplessly reaching for it, he was playfully blocking her against his outstretched arm, while his other hand was holding the book away from her in the opposite direction as though he was trying to read what she had just been reading.

“I’ve read this book twice before, and I don’t remember there being anything slightly humorous here,” Neil said laughingly, still holding Sophia away from it, without having to use too much of his strength.

“Just give it back, I haven’t finished reading yet,” she still protested, blushing and not wanting to have him realize that she hadn’t been looking at the words at all, but at him, all along.

“Wait, I would just like to read what you–”

What he wanted to say after that was cut short by Sophia clambering her way underneath his blocking arm, and ending up on top of him in his lap. She at least got the book back from him, but the moment she realized where she was, a heated alarm shot through her body. All her senses were standing at attention – and so did his by the looks of him having gone completely still.

Neil’s quickened heartbeat drummed into her ears, keeping pace with her own. For a moment, neither one of them seemed to be able to do anything other than just stare at one another wonderingly.

With her hand resting on his shoulder, and with him holding her by the waist, Sophia felt compelled to lean in even closer to him. Especially as her eyes dipped to his mouth, it was like there was suddenly some kind of irresistible magnetic force behind them, pulling her forward, other than his hand that had started to pull her toward him as well, as though he felt it too.

“They’re here!” Scott informed them, completely breaking the spell between them.

Neil was out and up from under her within one imperceptibly quick movement, and was walking toward the front door as though he couldn’t get away from her fast enough, his back as stiff as hell.

Phew, that was close, Sophia thought, trying to push the heat down as she heard a car pull up front.

Scott must have heard them coming from a block away when he must have noticed them about to overstep a line. Looking over at him by the kitchen counter, she had her suspicions confirmed. He gave her a knowing smile and a nod as he too walked over to the front door to meet their friends along with Neil.

Sophia couldn’t hold the hot crimson from reaching her face, feeling mortifyingly embarrassed despite his look of satisfied approval. And despite feeling like she would much rather want to go hide under a rock somewhere, she got up from the couch as well and followed them to the door, but waited there for them to come back inside.

She could see them through the open door. A beautiful but badass-looking female got out of a dark green Land Rover and immediately walked over to hug Scott. She had thick pitch-black locks that cascaded down her shoulders, and carried herself with something elegant, but squealed like a school girl as she bounded right into his open arms, obviously happy to see him. Very happy indeed, she realized as Sophia saw how she grabbed onto Scott’s ass cheek and gave him a good squeeze there.

Smiling to herself at realizing that Scott and this girl might have had something of a physical relationship before, her gaze traveled to Neil who was clutching the other male’s hand in between them before giving him a one-armed hug, the way guys tended to greet one another.

“It’s so good to see you again, man,” he said to Neil, and Sophia could see the truth of that statement written all over his friend’s expression. “What’s it been? Two years now? Fucking hell!”

“Yeah, well,” Neil said, giving him a push on the shoulder with his fist. “Not my fault you always have better things to do whenever we invite you guys over for dinner – hey, Vicky,” he said as he draped his arm over the girl’s shoulder and gave her a tight hug against his side. “Come on in, you guys.”

As all of them entered and gathered inside facing Sophia, she noticed that Neil’s eyes were still a bit dark from what happened between them earlier as his gaze met hers, but he smiled casually as he introduced their friends to her.

“Sophia, meet Connor and Victoria,” he simply said and stood to the side so she could have a good look at them.

Connor was a brawny sort of guy that looked like he would have made a good wrestler, but she figured him being shorter than Neil and Scott gave him the look of being broader and more muscled than them, but doubted whether he’d be stronger though.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Sophia. Heard a lot about you from these idgets,” he indicated to his friends at the strange endearment as he winked at her with humor sparkling within his eyes.

She could tell that he was the sort of guy that was always the one making jokes in a group, the kind you couldn’t do anything other than like him for it.

Instead of asking him what he’d heard about her exactly, she rather just said, “Likewise.” At that, she looked shyly over to Victoria, who had a warm smile for her in answer already as Sophia gave her a friendly nod in greeting as well. She did this, ignoring Neil’s proud eyes on her.

“So, Sophia, I hope you don’t mind us talking about our old military days all night,” Connor said, but immediately after looked like he wanted to slap himself on the forehead at Neil’s sharp look – and her own shocked one no less.

“Connor, really?” Neil said, looking angry all of a sudden.

“Sorry, dude,” Conner said, not entirely looking all that apologetic. “You know how I am.”

“Exactly why I kept reminding you about keeping your fucking big mouth shut in front of her when I called you yesterday!”

“Oh, come on, Neil,” Victoria said pacifyingly to him. “Don’t tell me this girl hadn’t already figured out you guys are so obviously ex-military by now?”

As much as Sophia felt relieved to replace out that her suspicions had been wrong – so very, very wrong – about Neil and Scott all along, guilt swept into her chest as well. No, she thought the worst of them, actually, was what the answer to Victoria’s should have been, but with the desperation in Neil’s eyes, she could never admit it out loud.

“It might have crossed my mind,” she lied instead, and hoped against hope that Neil wouldn’t notice as she gave him a smile of assurance that she didn’t feel. However, he must have picked up on the colossal relief she felt at the unexpected revelation, as she saw the tension leaving his body.

“Now that we’ve settled that,” Scott said, giving Sophia an encouraging squeeze on the arm as he passed by her. “Let’s all have a drink and just celebrate our long-overdue reunion, shall we?”

Immediately, it was as though that one word, ‘drink’, shattered all the tension, and everyone cheerfully approved of his suggestion.

As everyone followed Scott into the kitchen, Connor stayed behind to put two bags that made up their luggage on the floor. It was then that Sophia noticed the same angry-looking wolf tattoo on his forearm. It was identical to the one that Neil had.

“It was our Elite unit’s emblem, you could say,” Connor explained as he noticed her interest, knowing that she must have seen it on Neil’s arm as well. But she’d never noticed it on Scott’s arm though, she realized – but instantly had the answer to that as she remembered that Scott never wore anything other than long sleeves, so she never exactly had the chance to see whether he was sporting the same tattoo before, but knew now that he must have had one all this time.

“That’s enough, Connor,” Neil called over to his friend from the kitchen. “Come and get yourself a beer. You too Sophia.”

“The Captain has spoken,” Connor said with a shrug and then gave her a teasing wink, indicating for her to walk ahead of him. “Let’s not keep the Bossman waiting.”

It was strange to Sophia how he hadn’t made the two things he called Neil, ‘Captain’ and ‘Bossman’ accusatory in the least, or even all that teasing. Instead, it was more like an indisputable acceptance.

But she was only allowed to briefly wonder about this as Neil came to stand at her side and placed a hesitant hand on her lower back the moment she entered the kitchen. Sophia leaned into his touch, and found his answering smile when she gave him a sideward glance.

He handed her a drink of her own. It was a Shandy he’d made for her with ginger-ale as he knew she didn’t like the taste of just plain beer.

“Thank you,” Sophia breathed, trying to not let it show on her face how much she enjoyed the feeling of his hand resting on her back as he rhythmically ran his thumb in circles there.

“To friendship,” Scott said as he raised his drink to the middle of the group.

Everyone repeated after him while lifting their drinks on cue – even Sophia, “To friendship!”