Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 17

Sophia appreciated that Scott, the security guard that was Neil’s friend, let her know how to find Neil. But she was unsure if she should go. If Neil had gone to a hidden spot to think, maybe he wanted to be alone. Sophia bit her lip. There had to be a reason that he wasn’t at work and was off alone. Maybe he didn’t want to see her. Maybe he was avoiding her.

She paced the tree line outside of the boundaries of school property. She hadn’t been afraid when she ran across the field to the other side. Scott’s eyes bore into her back as she zigzagged across the green. She knew, without understanding how or why, that he wouldn’t let anything truly horrible happen to her. And again, did it really matter, anyway?

She leaned her back against a tree. The flaky exterior crumbled from the slight pressure of her back. The crackling sound pierced the silence like the ripple of fireworks. Her mom had told her when she was little, that hugging a tree brought life forces to the hugger. One time, when she had been stuck in the school library, she looked it up. This was before the fateful day she sunk into the pits of hell that had become her home. If she remembered correctly, hugging trees increased something called oxytocin. Absorbing that creates serotonin and dopamine and makes the hugger feel calm and happier. She did not know what any of that meant. But, what the hell, calm and happy would be a welcome relief. Shielding her eyes, she peered across the expansive lawn to make sure no one was looking. She didn’t even see Scott watching anymore, but she moved to the other side so that its bulk would hide her body. She brushed a few ants from the trunk, then wrapped her still frail arms around the massive trunk and gave it a squeeze. Laughing at herself, she wondered how long she would need to stand there latched onto the tree before she felt something. She rested her cheek against its crunchy bark and closed her eyes. She thought of Neil. Memories from the first dream to their most recent encounter were images in her mind that passed by like the towns on the highway. She sunk into the hug and sighed.

When a few minutes had passed, she lifted her head and let her arms drop. The rays from the afternoon sun shone through the leaf covered branches of the towering trees along the line. She breathed deeply and inhaled the scent of earth. Damp moss, pine needles and flowers; a combination of natural scents that tickled her nose. She didn’t know about the dopamine and other crap, but she felt calm. Like it had lifted a weight off her chest and pressure that had been bearing down on her shoulders trying to stake her heels into the ground eased. Who knew? She thought. She must hug a tree more often. Or maybe it had been thinking of Neil. Or a combination of both.

She had still been afraid to search Neil out at the lake. Her crush hadn’t eased at all and if her presence there upset him or angered him, it would upset her. It would hurt her. And while she hadn’t felt the blade of hurt spearing her heart in that male-female way, she heard females crying in the school bathrooms and knew it wasn’t something she wanted to add to her array of daily pains. What if he were cruel? She thought. What if he acted like all the other guys? Though she’d not seen any signs that he shared a brain with the males in school, she had seen things, reactions in Neil, that had put the fear of the goddess in her. Even not directed at her, it had raised the hair on the back of her neck, caused goosebumps to rise across her skin and made her tremble. She knew she hadn’t wanted that directed at her. She paced a few times from one tree trunk to the other. No, she would go. If he didn’t want to see her, then she would just leave. But she was going.

She tried to remember where Scott had told her to go, but figured she could always scent the lake water if she needed to. That was something that had happened, along with her bruises and wounds healing faster than they ever had before. Her sense of smell, sight and hearing seemed to have grown stronger with each day that passed. She found what she thought was the path and picked her way along it, stopping every few minutes to listen. Raising her chin to the sky inhaled the scents. She didn’t know if it was the right path for certain, but she didn’t feel it was wrong, either. She observed the path up ahead and there were signs that someone had been there recently. A footprint in a puddle of dried leaves and stagnant water, a male’s shoe size. That, or very large female. The bend curved and above it, the branches of the trees had twined together to create a beautiful green arbor. She walked under it, astounded at the way the branches twined together like clasped hands and arms wrapped around each other.

How was that even possible? she thought.

The path wove around another gravel covered bend and under another branch arch, then Sophia gasped and stumbled. She blinked twice in shock.

The forest floor was covered with a beautiful mix of vibrant colors. She knew these flowers. Her mom loved flowers and taught her all about them from the time she was quite young, but to see them blanketing the earth in their beauty was astounding. Bees flitted from one flower to the other and butterflies flew on their graceful wings and landed so gently the petals didn’t move. Purple Dwarf Lake Irises intermixed with the bold, white petals of the Trillium. The yellow Woodland Sunflower and the Yellow Lady’s Slipper gave a buzzing energy to the natural flower garden. Random pink and purples dotted their colors amongst the purple, white, and yellow. She breathed deeply and the sweetly subtle smell of them and remembered the softness of her mother. How the scent of flowers would stay in the room for minutes after she left. She bent over and fingered the moccasin shaped petal of a Lady Slipper, careful not to harm it. Soft to touch, Sophia had wanted to pick one. She wanted to wear it in her hair so the aroma would breeze under her nose when she stepped. But she remembered in some areas it was illegal to pick them, and unsure, she decided it was best to not. No, she laughed. She wasn’t picking one, so she didn’t get in trouble with the law. Hell, their jails would be preferable to what she lived with. She wasn’t picking one because there was a reason it was illegal and if memory served; it was because some were endangered.

She followed the narrow path that wove between the flowers, careful not to cause damage to any of the flora. She smelled the lake. The musty odor had told her she was near, but up ahead the floral blanket broke to random dots of bold colors and bled into moss-covered trees. When she got closer, she could hear the lake. She heard the peaceful sound of water rippling. The sound of the water folding against a dock. The gentle lapping as it touched the surfaces surrounding its beauty. She moved slowly, quietly through the trees until the big beautiful blue basin was much larger than she thought it would be. Sun sparkled off the surface. A green sunfish leaped. It must have been at least three feet or higher into the air. Then, it broke the water’s rippling surface, only to disappear into the blue depths. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

She moved with a grace that surprised her, like she absorbed all the earthly elements into her body and it gave her motion as fluid as the rippling water. When she reached the tip of the lake, she shielded her hand over her eyes to block the sun from her eyes. There, she thought. On the edge of the dock on the other side were a pile of clothes neatly folded, and a pair of brown work boots. She circled the lake, heading for the dock with the stack of clothes while monitoring the water for signs of Neil, but the lake was bigger than she thought. She reached the dock and walked down 15 feet down the wooden planks to the edge where the clothes were neatly stacked. Yes, she thought. This was Neil’s. His scent surrounded her, then dissipated on a breeze. She took her shoes and socks off and lay them next to his, then sat down on the dock with her feet dangling a foot or two over the water. More fish randomly broke the water’s surface, leaping high. Sitting there on that dock, surrounded by nature and just being, had given Sophia moments of quiet tranquility. She had no fear. No fear of getting caught because it was hidden. There was no fear of her father, for the moment. No fear of Matthew and his cronies. No fear of anything. A path cutting through the water in a straight line drew her attention. As it got closer, she could see Neil.

His powerful arms alternated, submerging, pushing the water backward, the other rotating to his hip, and then back out. Sun glistened off his wet arms and when his head turned to the side for a breath, Sophia could see his beautifully tanned face and his dark hair atop his head. She knew she used the word beautiful to describe him in her mind, but truthfully, there was no other word. This male was astoundingly beautiful. After twenty strides, the goddess must have decided to give Sophia one more pleasure that day, because he flipped on his back. After floating for a minute or two, he started to back-stroke. Damn that chest. Hardened muscle, sculpted abdomen muscles. The sun glistened off him like he was some kind of Greek god from her history books. Holy shit, he is beautiful. Like sculpted art. No other word, beautiful. Sophia fanned herself under the beating sun, uncertain if she was hot because of the sun beating down on her, from the long walk to the lake, or from the images his body created in her mind’s eye. She knew she had to release those images on the wind because to hope would only bring heartache. But for a minute, just a minute, she was going to hold it tight.

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