Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter

Tick... tick... tick. Sophia had rested the lesser bruised side of her face on the stack of books on her desk and watched the second hand of the white-faced, black-rimmed clock that hung on the wall behind the teacher’s desk. Since so many students missed school to prepare for the possibility of their first shift, the teacher had given them a free period. It was her third free period that day. She rolled her eyes at the clock; if it weren’t for the movement of the minute hand every sixty seconds, she would have thought time stood still. Other students loved free periods. With excitement, they would gather their chairs close together or move completely to form small groups of heinously cruel pods from hell. Their cell phones would come out of purses, backpacks, or pockets. The decimal of a typically quiet classroom that was usually filled with the monotonous drone of a boring teacher spouting information that Sophia hadn’t cared about changed. It would grow louder with the annoying gaggles of giggling females and the crude noises of the huddled football players. They were just as obnoxious and vile as the mighty god of Tibald High, Matthew.

Sophia hadn’t seen Matthew again that day, and for that, she had been extremely grateful. She could only assume that, along with half of the student body, he was at home preparing for the shift. The night of the full moons were filled with rituals for the experienced as well as new shifters. Those who had not yet become would be filled to the rim with excitement and hope. Truthfully, Sophia didn’t give a damn if she shifted or not. There would be no ceremony with the family when she took her first shift. There would be no celebrations, and no-one there to guide her through it. Sophia had heard that the first shift could be painful for some. She doubted any shift could be more painful than what she endured nearly every night. And unlike the pain she endured at her father’s hand, and the torment of her classmates, at least when she shifted, come daybreak, the pain would end.

Sophia had known better than to pray to the Goddess that she would be one of the lucky few who were given the powers of healing. All shifters healed faster than humans. If not for that fact, she surely would have died a thousand times by then. But the Goddesses blessed some. They could heal at a rate so sped up that within hours you never knew they had sustained injury. Those shifters were extremely powerful. They were the strongest. They were revered. While she never prayed that it would be her, she prayed Matthew wasn’t one of them. Not that she ever felt that she’d get the opportunity to inflict pain on him. But because if anything ever did happen to him, she would want his recovery as slow and as painful as possible. Not accelerated.

The bell rang to switch classes and the loud peel vibrated through the room. As usual, she let everyone else leave first. Doing so left her subject to her chair being kicked, or wads of paper or gum being tossed or spat in her hair, but it was better than them being behind her where they would shove and push. No way her back could have handled that. When everyone was out of the room, she stood, grabbed her books, and walked through the quieter than normal halls. Nope, she thought, no way in hell she was going to health class. Matthew may have left school, as she suspected, but his minion, Joss, was still there. She ducked into the stairwell that led to the upper level of the auditorium. Even if the chains were on the door, the L of the stairs would keep her hidden from anyone walking the halls.

Sophia climbed as carefully as she was able. When she reached the top, the chain linked the handles of the doors together. Locked. Oh well, she thought. Unable to lean her back against the wall, she knelt, then curled her legs under her. She tipped the side of her head against the cool wall. Briefly, she wondered if they would notify her father she wasn’t in class again, or if they’d assume that she had left to prepare for the full moon. It mattered not at all, anymore. She closed her eyes. The cool surface of the wall offered relief to her bruised face. In minutes, she was in a deep slumber. She was back in the dream, but this time she was on the outside, watching them through a haze. It was like watching a television that had a haze of smoke in front of it.

Sophia lifted her chin just high enough to give him better access to her neck. At first, he rubbed his nose against her there, seeming to revel in the smell of her as he took a few lungful whiffs of her.

Sophia startled herself as the loud moan that escaped from the pit of her stomach when his searing hot journey had brought his hungry lips to her breasts. She arched her back toward his mouth as if she could surrender more of herself to him that way. Fill his mouth with more of her.

Sophia tried to go through the veil but couldn’t. She was merely an observer in the dream she had been a participant in for longer than she cared to remember. She banged her fist on the veil and it cracked under the force. The center point was a tiny hole the size of the point of a silver bullet. Lines extended the entire way around the hole. She jerked awake. She rubbed at her eyes and felt the sweat that had beaded on her temples in her slumber.

The creak of a shoe sounded on the stairs. She pulled herself up, using the wall for support. With nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide, in weary resignation, her shoulders drop. The footsteps grew louder. The step on the uncarpeted stair and the creak of a leather shoe. She had gotten very good at judging sound. Be it above her, behind her, or off in the distance. A sense that was honed from being caught by surprise too many times. She ground her teeth together in fear of who it might be. When the top of the stairs creaked under the heavy weight, she sucked a breath in through her teeth.

A sigh of relief escaped her when she saw it was him. It’s almost like her dreams have been a silent call to him the last couple of days; with him showing up the way he had been. Certain that he was going to reprimand her for skipping class, but just as certain that he would not bring her harm, she relaxed.

She let her gaze roam from the bottom of his creaky leather shoes to his handsome face. She looked at his kissable lips, lips she knew intimately from her dreams. Her gaze lingered a touch too long because he grinned. The curve of his lips showed his brilliantly white teeth, spreading that bow upper lip she remembered as if it were real and not a dream.

“Hi,” he said.

Lost in remembering the dream, she hadn’t answered. He took a step forward, extended his arm and she startled. Her eyes flew to his, and she bristled in embarrassment at being caught staring at his mouth. And for yesterday, all of yesterday.

“Are you going to get me in trouble?” she asked outright.

He sat on the top step and waved to her to come over. Not even caring if it was safe, after all, she’d tumbled down a few flights of stairs at the hands of someone else, she sat down next to him. She stayed out of his arm’s reach, just in case, though the fear he put in her wasn’t from the violent swing of his hand. It was from the lethal edge she saw in his eyes. In her dreams, and last night. A feral hunger, for what she did not know. Blood? Lust?

He must have sensed that she was embarrassed, or maybe he just knew she was awkward, used to only being bullied or abused and no longer accustomed to the socializing most found second nature.

“Long day today, huh? Full moon and all,” he said.

“Uh. Yeah,” she replied. She felt his gaze taking store of her bruises and cuts.

“I’m Neil. Neil De Boule.” He reached a hand across the space between them. When she didn’t take it right away, he pulled it back.

She thought he remembered that name. From somewhere... but where?

“I’m--“

“I know who you are, Sophia.”

“Of course you do.” She mumbled under her breath.

They sat in silence, and she looked at the holes of his piercings and signs of the tattoos she knew he had under the sleeves of his shirt. The tip of the one that wrapped around his wrist could be seen, but otherwise, they were all covered. She thought of how he looked yesterday, and how he looked in his uniform. Then she thought of him in the dreams and her face flushed with heat. He is so damn beautiful. Her eyes flitted to his and got lost in the depths for a fraction of a second before she snapped her eyes away. There’s danger in those eyes. She couldn’t pinpoint the what’s or the why’s of it, but she knew it, as sure as she knew her nightmare would continue that night, and the next, and the one after that.

Someone started to climb up the stairs. She stiffened and held her breath. He scooted close enough that he could rest his hand on her shoulder, and she winced at the pain. He moved it to her arm.

“It’s okay. You’re safe with me. You’ll always be safe when you are in my presence.”

Another security guard stepped onto the landing. One she had seen around school before. He was also one that didn’t turn a blind eye to the bullying she received and would disperse the students, then watch her as she’d go to her classroom.

A look passed between them, and then Neil stood.

“You can stay up here. No one will be up here for the rest of the period but be ready to blend in with the students as soon as the bell rings.”

She nodded. She understood. The other security guard gave her an appraising look and together they descended the stairs in silence.

Neil...Neil De Boule. Yes, she heard that name...somewhere.