Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 8

Sophia didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but the moment she opened her eyes after a night spent in more agony than she thought would be possible to survive, she felt amazing.

There was no other word she could come up with. She hadn’t felt this good and pain-free in ages. Sophia realized that she must have fallen asleep a while ago and had shifted back into her human form without realizing she had.

As she started to pull herself up into a sitting position on her old mattress, she heard the rusty old springs underneath the fabric that barely covered it anymore, groaning in protest as her muscles usually did with the movement as well. For some reason, their straining complaints sounded louder than usual this morning.

Time, neglect, and musty conditions is a cruel mistress indeed. I know, I know, Sophia felt inclined to say it, but never got around to it, as something very strange and unexpected happened then.

With her face already scrunched up into a wince, and clenching her teeth, expecting to feel the usual sore stiffness in her body, Sophia’s eyes shot open wide. As her muscles that should have been rigidly complaining at that point only gave supple agreements the further her back pulled her upright. Effortless. Painless.

What the hell?

How was this even possible, she wondered, leaning her back against the mattress again, just so she could pull herself up again.

Could it be?

Sophia was sitting in an upright position on her bed again, and once more it hadn’t hurt to get her there.

“Okay, let’s test this further,” she said to herself, again hearing her voice so clear, as if she was able to identify every sound fragment as it reverberated off the walls in the small basement room.

Placing her bare feet on the floor beside her mattress, she prepared to start lifting herself off of it, noticing at the back of her mind that she was completely naked, but her attention was somewhat too preoccupied at the moment to really consider it.

Sophia, still unable to believe what was happening, found that even pushing herself up off the floor was effortless. Well, as effortless as her frail and starved body could handle, but the point was that it was painless.

Painless. Painless. Painless.

How was this even possible? Was it her first shift that had healed her?

“Oh, hell, yes,” Sophia said almost excitedly, as she was able to bend forward and touch her toes.

She hadn’t been able to do anything even as simple as that in forever! She did it again, and again. She stretched her arms out above her head, and had to reign in an elated squeal that wanted to escape her chest.

She didn’t want to get ahead of herself, but she twirled there on the spot, with her arms still miraculously stretched out with no stiff muscles to speak of, but stopped the moment she realized something else.

She burst out laughing, not bothering to keep it back anymore when she saw that she was completely naked, and she could only imagine how her performance just now must have looked like.

Involuntarily, Sophia glanced over her shoulder to the small hole at the bottom of the wall, and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t see him there. Good. The poor mouse had been through enough already.

But something else became evident to her then. Her sight was sharper as well! She could see right into the dark hole, and everything in there.

So it was true. It was common knowledge that after the first shift their senses would become sharper.

Sophia honed her vision in on the little hole even more and could see the dead bugs and debris clearly there, which had most likely gotten in there from the other night when she destroyed her nails and a part of the wall.

Reminded about her nails, she looked down at them and realized that the band-aids must have come off when she’d shifted. Nothing. The torn and bloody fingers were gone. It was as though it’d never happened!

Biting her bottom lip, almost too afraid to look, she made her eyes dip down at her shoulder where the gash had been, the one that kept opening and bleeding. Sophia heard herself gasp at what she saw there instead. Smooth skin. Very pale and almost translucent skin, as she could see almost every vein there, but still, the cut was not there anymore.

Without another moment of hesitation, her heart having clambered up into her throat and stuck there now, she walked over to the mirror above the basin.

The bruise is gone too!

Other than the bit of yellow coloring still underneath her left eye, there was no other indication that an almost black bruise had been over there just yesterday.

Within an instant, she had her back turned to the mirror and saw herself gaping at the sight of her back. There was also no proof of the beating she received there. Those marks were still supposed to be fresh, but smooth and untainted skin stared right back at her instead.

Sophia had never heard anyone say that their first shift had healed them, or hadn’t learned about such a possibility in any of her classes before. But then again, it might not have been something significant enough to mention. Not to them.

No one else had been constantly walking around with a scarred and battered body, so they might simply have not noticed that it was something that tended to happen with the first shift.

There was a soft, hesitant knock on the door, but it sounded like it was right next to her. Sophia whirled around in surprise, trying to cover her naked body with her stick-thin arms as much as she could, even though she knew she didn’t have to. He was just knocking, but she still jumped over to her bed to grab the sheet from it so that she could cover herself with it, just in case.

“Sophia?” Leo’s faint voice came from behind the door. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Leo,” she called to the door.

“Did you have your first shift?”

She could clearly hear the strain in his voice. Was it disappointment or pain she heard there?

“Yes,” she answered. “But I’m fine now. I’m human again.”

Sophia heard a light thump there, as though he had placed his forehead against the door. She waited, but just before she thought he might have walked away, he said softly, “I can’t believe father let this happen … You were supposed to be allowed to go to the Sanctuary like everyone else. No one should go through this alone like you had to.”

Her heart squeezed there, still lodged within her throat at the concern in his voice. Concern for her.

“I’m okay, really,” Sophia tried to make her voice sound as consoling as she possibly could. “It wasn’t all that bad anyway.”

A blatant lie, but she wanted nothing else to stop hearing the worry in his voice.

“I’m just busy getting dressed. I’ll be up there in a minute,” she called up to him after a few moments of silence, like he didn’t know what to say.

He must have heard her howls of pain and didn’t believe her in any case, but it was over now and she didn’t want him to keep feeling bad about it.

Sophia quickly found her school uniform, still dirty and disgusting, since it wasn’t her week to use the machines. Maybe she would have the chance to sneak up and wash it when she got home this afternoon again, she reasoned.

Dressed and ready to run up the stairs, because running was an actual possibility now, and she couldn’t wait to do it, she stopped in her tracks before she could. She found herself eyeing the basin instead.

She made her decision quickly, as the school bus was surely to arrive soon. But Sophia had her hair wet, washed with the bar of soap, and rinsed out before mere two minutes had passed. It was possible now because no stiffness plagued her muscles.

Sophia made herself revel in the painlessness of every single movement of her body, for she knew that she would certainly be stiff and bruised again before this day ended.

Towel drying them as much as she could, she would leave the remaining wetness to dry on the bus ride to school. Bounding up the stairs, taking two steps at a time, Sophia held back the laugh of pure joy just waiting to be let free.

By the time she practically burst through the basement door, was when she realized she needed to be quiet to not wake her father, though she knew he usually slept until noon the days after the full moon excursions. Hunting, running through the woods, or whatever else the shifters did in their wolf forms. All she knew was that he was always tired as hell after such a night.

Even on the bus ride to school, and the moment she entered the double doors to Tibald High, Sophia noticed this on almost every shifter’s face as well. The excitement and the activities of the night had tired them all out.

The day after the full moon had actually always been a day she would get picked on a lot less at school, and she hoped today would be no different.

Could she enjoy just this one day without limping or tenderly having to move around so as to not let pain shoot through her body? Just this one day, she pleaded to the Goddess. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the Find ɴøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

And there had been something else she was about to let the Goddess know about the other thing she so badly wanted, but her mind came to a standstill when she felt eyes scrutinizing her. Eyes that sent shivers down her spine. Not from cold, but from the heat of those honey eyes.

Neil’s gaze was intently trained to Sophia’s face. He seemed to be astonished about something, giving her the same open-mouthed stares as Leo had when she’d tiptoed into the kitchen earlier. He’d been pleasantly surprised to find her face free of the angry bruise that had been there the day before.

The security guard of her dreams had that same expression on his face. Shock, elation, and relief, all mixed into one within his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by something else. Was it worry or anger? Sophia couldn’t tell for sure, but she knew it was because of what he saw on her face, or rather, what he didn’t see there.

All hope within her vanished at seeing the way his face darkened before he tore his eyes away from her face, as if he had just realized that he hated her, too. Like the rest of the pack. She should have known better than to let that light even just have a peek outside the door of her heart.

Not that it really mattered anymore, as his look of disregard was clear enough. She found her eyes scanning his neck and whatever was visible of his chest from underneath his uniform, she couldn’t find any mark there. It was nowhere to be seen on his skin.

She shut the door in her chest. Actually, she threw it shut with a loud bang. She even felt her heart shake from the force of it.

How could I have been so fucking naïve?

When she saw how he leaned over to the security guard next to him, the one that seemed to be his friend, she watched as he whispered something to him close to his ear. The moment the other male looked at her with a similarly dark look, Sophia couldn’t bear it anymore.

Holding down a sob, she tore her eyes away from them and walked away, willing her legs to take her away from them and the two men’s judging eyes as quickly as they could.

Sophia had thought that they were at least two shifters here that were on her side, but she’d been wrong about that too. Why, she didn’t know. Why her having had her first shift would cause them to be talking behind her back, and throwing her dirty looks suddenly, was beyond her, but it just showed that they were no different from everyone else here.

Just getting away from their condemnatory stares she could still feel on her, she blindly walked down the hall. Ignoring the tendency to run, because she didn’t want to make it too obvious that they had upset her, Sophia was walking fast enough that the doors to numerous classrooms had passed her by in a blur, nonetheless.

That was, until she ran straight into a solid wall as though she’d just sprinted into it. If that hadn’t just given her a concussion, she didn’t know what else would.

Confused and trying to get her world to stop spinning out of control, Sophia slowly lifted her eyes to try and assess what had just taken place. But she felt before she saw.

The cold currents in her blood were undeniable, as well as the harsh hands pinning her arms roughly against her body. Just when she thought that his grip would break her in half at any moment, her brain stopped working altogether the moment Sophia spotted something shiny and golden at his collarbone.

It was barely visible, obscured under his black t-shirt, but involuntary devastation and a sense of doom dawned on the sudden barrenness of her chest when it was clear to her now.

Matthew has the mark of the sun. The mark of her mate…

Goddess… There must have been some mistake…

If hope had still been wandering aimlessly in her heart somewhere after what had just happened back there with Neil, it most certainly had been extinguished now.

As if her staring at his collarbone tipped him off, Satan pulled her roughly through a classroom door right next to where they stood. Probably not wanting anyone else to see what he was going to do to her now, which was strange. He was usually too happy to let the other shifters see him bullying her.

Once inside, he closed the door and immediately pushed her up against the wall. I was semi-dark in the room, as the lights hadn’t been turned on yet, but she could still clearly see that mark there. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. She still couldn’t bring herself to accept it.

This can’t be happening…

“You’ve had your first shift, haven’t you?”

This cannot be true…

“I’ve known for a few months now,” he snarled into her face, but Sophia was still unable to look away from the mark as if she could will it out of existence. “Just imagine my disgust when I found out after my shift that you are to be my mate. How could a weak and disgraceful creature like you ever be chosen to be with me?”

At this, he pressed her even harder against the wall, almost lifting her from the ground with his arm at her neck now. It was only then that she was able to bring her eyes up to his icy ones.

They might have looked like ice, but they were roaring with a fiery rage and hatred she’d never seen before. Dread made it impossible for her to breathe. Or was it him suffocating her with his brutal arm pressed against her?

“I would never accept you as my mate,” the snake spat into her face at the last word, and Sophia would have been inclined to agree if she hadn’t been fighting for air at that moment.

He seemed oblivious to her being seconds away from passing out, as he pushed himself up against her, giving somewhat of a relief to her throat, but it wasn’t in the least bit less smothering.

His chest was hard as stone against her body, hurting her breasts as he pushed hard there, but his chest wasn’t the only hard thing pressing into her. Icy terror slithered down her spine.

“But as my mate now.” Matthew brought his mouth to her ear and breathed hotly into it, pressing himself impossibly more into her. “I can do whatever I want with you. And I will do exactly that. Trust me.”

Before Sophia could come up with anything to say back, he violently released his arm and his body from her, but only for a fraction of a second before she fell to the floor after he struck her across the cheek. The pain was back and in the very cheek that had just healed. Dizzy and disoriented by the assault, Sophia was helplessly holding her face in her hands as the silent tears started to seep through her fingers and dripped to the dusty floor.

It was impossible to hold them back this time. This time when all hope had completely deserted her. He hadn’t said anything about her healed cheek, but his intention was clear. Satan wanted visible proof of his abuse back onto her face.

“You can expect a lifetime of pain and misery, Sophia,” Matthew said, his voice laced with cool certainty.

She heard him turn and walk away, but it was only when he’d left the room and the door closed again that Sophia let the violent sobs out. They came pouring out in uncontrollable waves, her chest heaving in succession to each sob tearing at her chest.

She truly was doomed. Nothing mattered anymore.

Life doesn’t matter anymore…

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