Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter

Ailis Carrick stood in front of the class, their Senior year Health and Wellness teacher, going on about something that Sophia hadn’t been able to concentrate on since the class had started probably about half an hour ago already.

Another half to go, she absentmindedly thought to herself, practically willing the clock above the teacher’s head on the wall behind her to tick faster. It would be their second and final recess for the day after this class, and then two more classes she needed to endure before she could escape.

History, and then Mathematics remained. Urgh… She hated the latter beyond comprehension. And was no secret either, as it showed in the score she got for every test. Sophia simply couldn’t bring herself around to caring enough about that aspect of her life to want to do something about it.

Whenever Mr. Silvino, their enigmatic math teacher, who had come here all the way from Portugal wanted to talk to her about working harder so she wouldn’t end up flunking his subject, Sophia would give him one look that said, that is the least of my problems, you know? And he usually seemed to know what it implied, only giving her a look of pity before uncomfortably averting his gaze, but not before she glimpsed how his eyes covertly tried to take in her bruises and injuries.

Everyone knew what went on at her house with her father, and even though Mr. Silvino only joined the pack two years ago, he knew very well what had been going on by this point as well. He would usually opt for not pressing the matter any further then, seeming to understand why she kept rejecting his offer for private lessons after school.

Besides, even if she wanted to take him up on it, her father would never allow it. He would punish her more that night for even deigning to ask. Though she was sure that he would actually agree to it if he knew it would just be another form of torture in her life.

Sophia held back a humorless laugh at the thought of how ironic her life had become. She would leave her home in the mornings, if she even could call it that anymore, to come to school and merely be temporarily relieved to be away from her father, but then once she was away from that particular evil, she would wish the time to pass quickly so that she could leave here again and be away from this hell. Away from everyone else that continually taunted her. Away from these redundant classes, she had no interest in other than the teachers providing her some small form of reprieve from the bullying, as even bullies had to pay attention in class after all if they wanted to graduate. Every day was a dance between the two types of hell, both with the same intention -- to make her life miserable and cement the feeling of absolute hopelessness within her.

The very excitable Mrs. Carrick had always been very expressive with her hands and face, no matter what she was talking about to the class, as she did at that moment. She always had the uncanny ability to find any reason to be very enthusiastic about something. She’d always admired that about her. She wished she could feel excited about something. Fucking anything. But she knew that ability had eluded her a while ago already. For obvious reasons.

Countless times before, her classmates had taken advantage of this very exploitable trait of Ailis, and intentionally asked her questions unrelated to the school work scheduled for the day, but what they knew she would find interesting enough. Bait. Hook. Set. Catch. And what a willing hungry fish Mrs. Carrick was. So many classes with her had ended up like this before, where the shifter students would end up leading her down into their traps with their knowing smiles.

Many class sessions had gone by like this, without them having taken their books out, or written a single word down. And she fell for it every time, and Sophia suspected they had done it again by the way she seemed to ramble on about something that brought a bright shine to her dark brown eyes. Her black unruly curls were whipping and swinging around her face, her caramel skin practically flushed and glowing at the same time as she spoke.

This should have intrigued her enough to want to listen to what she was saying, but still, the young, battered, and daydreaming female sitting at the back of the class wasn’t able to bring herself to the point of paying enough attention to what the teacher was getting so worked up about.

In truth, Sophia hadn’t been able to make herself concentrate in any of the classes she’d been enrolled in since the very first day she started her secondary education at this horrible place, Tibald High. For a prestigious town, Tibald, and a school named after it and her family name, she sure hated being a part of it. Any of it. She loathed every moment of her existence here so much that she would constantly find her mind drifting off to somewhere else entirely. The only escape that was available to her, in fact.

Anywhere was better than this goddess-forsaken place, where half of the shifter students either avoided her completely or gave her sympathetic glances, whereas the other half would give her the nastiest sneers, or outright bully her. Not only verbally, but physically as well.

Sophia just hoped that her already, obviously bleeding arm would give them pause this day. Could she just have one small fucking break today? Was that too much to ask? But she knew very well that it bordered on wishful thinking, and she was also very much aware that such hopefulness only brought utter disappointment when it eluded her grasp. As it usually did, and most likely would again. So there simply wasn’t any point in wasting her energy on hoping for such small mercies in any case, was there?

Especially not when Matthew Ballen was around. Like that morning, he had stuck his foot out from behind the wall next to the entrance and tripped her as she’d come barreling around the corner to the first class for the day, which she had almost been late for. When she fell to the floor, the tender wound on her arm had ripped open yet again, and she had to deal with trying to stop the incessant bleeding again.

She scowled at his handsome, angular face then, from the ground as he smirked at her, wondering to herself how one person could be so beautiful on the outside, but absolutely rotting on the inside. His sleek and usually gelled back jet black hair was in contrast to his light, blue-as-the-sky eyes, and together gave that similar impression. The not-so-vague inkling that one shouldn’t be fooled by his beauty, because there was something infinitesimally sinister hiding behind that aesthetically pleasing visage.

Sophia could see that everyone else in school could pick up on this about him too, as they always went along with whatever he wanted and suggested, not daring to question him. But he had his beauty and charm on his side and could talk his way out of anything with the faculty members that were supposed to instill some sort of discipline, but Matthew always got away with everything. Not to mention that his mother held a very high position with the Lucian pack, with Thorin, the Alpha, and was stinking rich no less. If there had been no way for her evil son to smoothly talk himself out of shit, politics and corruption would usually do the trick.

After he had sent her nose diving into the classroom that morning, which had probably added more bruises to her already sore ribs as she’d fallen onto her stack of schoolbooks she had been carrying in front of her. He had given her one of his famous sneers just then and chidingly told her how utterly useless and unwanted she was here, as if she hadn’t been painfully aware of the fact already.

He had basically advised her, like so many times before, to just do them all a favor and off herself as soon as possible. Not for the sake of putting herself out of her own misery, but to not force him to keep looking at her repulsive face for another moment longer. To not be made to endure her objectionable presence for another single day. Asshole.

He did not know how much she considered that piece of ‘advice’ before. It most surely would have brought her the much-sought-after relief she so craved for a long time now. She would never have to endure another torturous day in this hell ever again. Not with him. But despite these contemplative, and deadly, thoughts of the possibilities that could finally grant her freedom from this torturing facility, Sophia never could get herself to the point of actually doing anything about it. She simply didn’t have the balls for it. Not yet anyway.

The other shifter students would usually feel the need to show their hateful sentiment toward her as well, as though Matthew hadn’t done enough, and that her father’s handiwork, so to speak, hadn’t been enough, as they sought to add their bit of contribution to the already painted and torn canvas that was Sophia. Hitting her in the arm, the face, or her stomach, it didn’t matter; she knew the Alpha would have given them all golden medals if he’d been around to see the treatment she’d been getting here over the years.

Just yesterday, for example, Matthew, or ‘Satan’ as she liked to think of him, and his gang of evil ‘minions’ had each had their piece of fun with her. These were the rest of the arrogant and empty-headed football team males. A group that followed their sinister leader everywhere and all of them had pushed her around between them so much the day before, laughing as they did, that she eventually gotten drunk and puked the bit of breakfast she had been able to wolf down that morning on Joss, otherwise known as Matthew’s right-hand man. Furious, he had pushed her away from him so harshly that it had been enough to send Sophia flying through the air and roughly hitting the ground. Her hands, elbows, and knees were still stiff and flaming red with the infection the loose granules of dirt that had cut thousands of deep scrapes into her skin there had caused.

She had given up counting how many times she had to nurse her various cuts and bruises they inflicted on her daily. By various of her classmates. But none were as cruel as Matthew. He was the worst bully of the bunch.

When all this had started, the bullying, she would usually get her hands on disinfectants and ointments to treat her own wounds, as the actual healers in the infirmary hadn’t ever been willing to help her, which had also been ordered by her father. But after a while of this, it was no use when the other shifters and her father would just do it again. And again. And again. Day after day. New bruises. Fresh scrapes and cuts. Additional injuries to the ones she already had were the constants she could expect.

Not only had she neglected taking care of her wounds after a long enough while of this, but she also cared less and less about her appearance. Sophia’s mother used to tell her that one should always look presentable, even if just leaving the house quickly to go buy something at the supermarket. And that was exactly the way her mother had been all her life.

She would always look like she’d be ready for a night out on the town, or like she was going on a date. Beautiful and elegant. More than any other member of the Lucian pack, which was no wonder, as she had been the Luna of the pack after all. Sophia could still see her proud form in front of her now. Within her mind’s eye, she watched her mother with admiration the way she always had as a child. Her platinum blond hair would customarily fall in soft swirling tumbles down her one shoulder, her make-up immaculately applied, and her dresses would always be flower-themed. She even smelled like a bouquet of flowers too.

Sophia had always studied and tried to mimic her mother and had even taught herself to walk like her. She always had a sort of flowing gracefulness about her, keeping her head high, her eyes never faltering as she acknowledged every single pack member. She made them feel like they mattered to her, and she would usually have gone above and beyond to help anyone that had been in need of aid. No matter how big or small their need had been, Sophia’s mother would never neglect any single member of the pack. Needless to say, the loss of her mother had not only been an unspeakable devastation to her alone.

Sophia couldn’t help but think of what her mother would think of her daughter if she had seen her now… Dirty. Disgraceful. Weak. Sickly. Nothing like her mother. Nowhere near anything she had been or expected of Sophia to become by the time she was to graduate from high school. The day she would officially become an adult. The day which was drawing nearer and nearer. The day she would be free of this awful place, this town, and its people. Especially her father. Oh, how she couldn’t wait for the day she could finally be free of him.

But every time Sophia would dream of her freedom, never having to return to this place ever again, to never be forced to look upon her father’s abhorrent face for another moment longer, her thoughts and concern would jump to Leo. Her little brother hadn’t had to suffer any of the Alpha’s outbursts or had to pay with his body when their father lashed out. Up until now, Leo had been safe, and still their father’s golden boy, but she couldn’t help but worry that this might change as soon as she left.

Would Thorin turn his aggressive outlet tendencies on his only heir? She doubted this. She knew the Alpha was cruel, to most, especially her, but could be certain that he wouldn’t lift his fist to the son that could inherit the Lucian pack from him. Would he?

If his newest torture tactics had been any indication of how far he was willing to go with his brutality, Sophia just wasn’t so certain anymore. She couldn’t be assured once she left that the vicious male wouldn’t turn on Leo. Could she risk living with herself in the face of this unpredictability? She might as well stick a bull’s eye target on her little brother’s forehead and say, “have at him, dad.”

Sophia couldn’t get the words he’d said to their father that morning, that he desired to become a compassionate and fair leader, but for how long would that idealism last under Thorin’s thumb? Especially once she’s gone. All that pent-up rage and negativity would be concentrated on Leo. He would slowly lose his soul, his joy, same as she had. For the life of her, she couldn’t ever allow that to happen! Leo had a bright future ahead of him. If there was one person who could turn this descending path the Lucian pack had been on lately, not only economically, but morally as well, it was him. Her little brother would save them all, so she just needed to endure her torturers long enough to grant him this chance.

Or maybe she just ought to grab their things one night and make a run for it together. She and Leo could try to make a different life for themselves somewhere else. Somewhere far away from their spiteful father and his cruel pack mandates. Maybe this pack wasn’t worth saving from falling into absolute ruin Sophia thought, but she knew that this had never been the way her mother had thought. She would always try to fix things. To be the agent of positive change and salvation had been her mother’s trademark… But then again, Sophia was nothing like her mother. She couldn’t even try to be anymore.

She might even have looked like a younger version of her mother once too, but every time she looked at herself in her mirror above the sink in her basement room, she would see the resemblances fade more and more with each passing month. Not only the bruises and swellings on her face had been responsible for that. She lost her self-worth along the way too because even though she had the necessary soap and a basin to wash and try and be hygienic as much as she could at the very least, she hadn’t even had the will to do that anymore.

Damn, what Sophia wouldn’t do for something as simple as lying and soaking up hot water in a bathtub, though. She would frequently find herself dreaming about how she would fill it almost to the brim with steaming and foaming water, so that she could finally wash the stink and blood from her body completely. It was in stark contrast to what she had to settle for cleaning herself for the last five and a half years.

A small basin that only offered cold water could only be effective for so long. It was always such an effort to wash her whole body in that way. Not to mention, getting her hair properly cleaned under the small faucet was an uncomfortable mission by itself. Especially in the winter, she wouldn’t get that cold water near her if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. In the beginning, Sophia had still tried her best to keep living like her mother would have wanted her to, the way she taught her how a lady should take good care of herself and her appearance. But after a while, it just didn’t matter to her anymore.

It just didn’t make sense why she should still keep cleaning up while others were so intent on dirtying her again. Whether with her own blood from the injuries they tend to constantly inflict on her or from the mud or dirt, they laughingly pushed her into. She was sick and tired of it all. Sophia was so over it she hadn’t bothered to keep attempting to erase the many marks from her body anymore. She didn’t have the will or energy any longer. She even still tried to hold herself upright or walk like her mother once had. The dignity she pretended she still had somehow had also long vanished. She was the husk of the person she once had been. With her body and hair full of dirt, grime, and marks, and her school uniform basically looking the same as her, in desperate need of a wash and some stitching in some places, she was unrecognizable to merely a handful of years ago.

Another big change in her had not only taken place on the outside. Sophia had become a completely different person internally as well. She used to be full of energy and emotion. When she felt things, she felt them strongly. She had been free to feel and express them equally then. So it was no surprise that she used to cry and bawl her eyes out when the other werewolves had bullied her initially, calling her names and pushing their shoulders up against her, forcing her to stumble and they would laugh at her.

It all had hurt her so very much in the wake of just having lost a big fucking part of her life, but after the bullying had gone on long enough, she decided a while back she would not give them the satisfaction of her reaction anymore. She forced herself to avoid showing emotion so often until this point that she doubted whether she even had anything left within her anymore. The only emotion she could feel now was an echoing and hollow emptiness. Except when it came to Leo. He was the only person she still gave two shits about in this world.

Sophia even doubted whether she was still able to cry anymore. It was like the wells behind her eyes had dried up completely, with no sign of ever filling up again. It was as though an internal switch had been flipped at some point she couldn’t give a time or place for, but she suddenly just started to feel numb and absent from reality most of the time. Even as she was being bullied or picked on by others, or punished by her father, she would find escape by making herself believe that she was somewhere else.

Sophia had gotten pretty good at this -- making her mind take her consciousness to another place. Sometimes it would take her to a meadow her mother used to take her to when she was little, or she would drift along a calming stream, or find herself alone on a sailboat in the middle of a beautiful lake she’d never seen in real life before. She would convince herself that she was safe there. Temporarily.

Lately, however, she found a new and more effective anchor to pull her mind to another reality. The male she’d been dreaming about lately. The tender and assertive young male she’d never met before, but one she couldn’t get enough of. Most nights, she would dream of him. He had unwittingly become her new escape. His strong warm hands roving her body, gently exploring her and eliciting the most exquisite of sensations to ripple through her blood. His mouth would always devour her neck. Her shoulders. Her breasts. And he wouldn’t stop there. Never stop there. Even just thinking about it sent shivers down her spine. Shivers in a good way, but she couldn’t help the ominous feeling that went with it.

It had been the raw, carnal hunger in his dark eyes that seemed to devour her in each dream, causing her blood pressure to skyrocket. Even now, just imagining them on her again, she felt uncertain whether she wanted to run to or far away from him. It confused her to no end, so she opted to ignore the dreams of this man instead of giving them merit.

This beautiful stranger might just be another male sent to torture her for all she knew, Sophia reasoned, even if he was merely a phantom in her dreams. Even if it was more difficult to do to him she still tried to treat this ghost the same way she did her father and Matthew. She would push the effect they had on her down to a dark and obscure place below her chest, where she nullified most of the fear and anguish they evoked in her before she could really feel it. Or allow herself to.

Sophia wasn’t certain whether she subconsciously started doing this, or whether it had been a natural consequence to endure daily abuse, but she was grateful for it. Her mind being able to escape the present had been her salvation, albeit short and not a solution in the least, it was what kept her sane. Or mostly, she hoped it did. But it had its negative effects as well, such as her academic performance. Especially since the beautiful, strange male had shown up in her dreams.

She remembered how she used to be a Grade-A student. Sophia used to love spending hours in front of books. Reading, studying, and even doing her homework. She absolutely loved learning many new things! Her teachers used to tell her mother that she had been the most inquisitive and cleverest child they had ever had in their classes. They wouldn’t say the same about her now, would they?

Sophia’s grades had taken a nosedive for the worse. She was barely scraping by since her world had gone to shit five years ago. But there was no use in getting back to the reason all of this had been happening to her since then. She’d been found kneeling in her own mother’s blood, with a bloody dagger in her hands by her father. Then accused, ridiculed, and duly punished for it for something she hadn’t done. That was that. She eventually accepted this. Doing anything else, like trying to convince people, her father, of her innocence, had proven to be futile and a waste of energy.

It hadn’t mattered how much she pleaded with Thorin, begging him to believe she hadn’t done it. He simply didn’t believe his own daughter, that Sophia hadn’t killed her mother. She would never have done such an awful thing, and of that she was certain.

Sophia shook her head, trying to make herself forget that night. No matter how many times she tried to figure out what had truly happened that night, and why her father hadn’t wanted to believe her, and how he’d instantly accused her of killing her own mother, she was still unable to come to any other conclusions. Her father had caught her kneeling in her mother’s blood, with a dagger held over the heart that had stopped beating moments before that already. She knew what it must have looked like, but she had no idea why her father hadn’t even tried to hear her out, to get the truth from her.

Had he thought that less of her? Hadn’t he loved her enough to at least want to hear and consider her side of the story?

Well, if his current treatment of her was anything to go on, the answer to that would be a huge resounding NO. Every. Single. Night. He would come home from his Alpha pack duties and be in a foul mood. Sophia wasn’t even all that sure anymore if it was still because of what he’d thought she did, or because he was just unable to be anything other than brooding and aggressive, but he had gotten worse in the past two years. Not that the years before that had been anything close to a freaking picnic before, but he had never drawn blood in his punishments before.

Now, it seemed as though it was the only thing that could satisfy him. Seeing her bleed dripping to the basement floor as it seeped from a fresh wound. She’d seen the wild look in his eyes lately. She would watch how they would only become less ravaging the moment the warm thick liquid would escape the barriers of her skin. It was his new ‘fix’, and if the history of his violence had taught her anything, was that it was destined to only get worse and worse over time.

There was no denying it. Thorin had markedly turned even more cruel and creative in the many ways he punished her for what she’d done all those years ago. She couldn’t help but think that maybe she did have a hand in her mother’s death after all. Maybe if she hadn’t pulled that dagger from her chest, she might still have been alive today. There may have been a possibility to save her in time if she hadn’t caused the blood to prematurely fill her lungs, causing her to drown within her own body. Maybe it all had been her fault. Maybe she deserved every single painful strike and slash from her father each night for taking the one chance her mother had had to be saved back then…

Suddenly, Sophia was brought back to the present by the snickering cacophony resounding around her. She’d obviously missed whatever had been said that had caused them to laugh. She generally didn’t care much for what they thought was funny, so just as she was about to launch back into the realm that was her mind, the only place she could escape her physical surroundings, Sophia realized that every single pair of eyes in the classroom were trained on her as they chuckled.

She didn’t have to guess who exactly had said or done something to cause their hateful mirth to be directed at her. Sure enough, Matthew Ballen had his ice-blue eyes on her, a sinister sneer plastered there especially for her. A numb version of dread filled her, but Sophia refused to let as much as a flicker of it show on her face. She couldn’t help but wonder what he’d said this time, which she’d missed when she had been so deeply lost in her thoughts and past again.

The intention in his expression was clear enough though. His eyes were filled with malicious and vile plans. About this Sophia had no doubt. She grew better at identifying the kind of looks he gave her after all these years, and this look spoke of more bullying to come. Soon. Very, very soon, she realized by the way his eyes darkened as they dipped to her shoulder.

He must have noticed the gash there on her arm, and thought he would aggravate the wound even more for her, but there was something else in his expression as well. The way his cruel lips curled made him appear to be utterly disgusted about something he saw there. As though he was about to throw up or something. Sophia wondered, had Satan incarnate become squeamish about seeing her blood all of a sudden?

She seriously doubted that could be the reason for his I’m-going-to-be-sick look. Same as her father’s punishments taking on a new tone of brutality lately, Matthew’s bullying had also gotten worse recently. His eyes shone with even more contempt and revulsion than they ever had before as he looked at her.

Sophia and Matthew used to be friends actually. Once upon a time. Goddess, that was ages and ages ago! She was still unable to believe it herself, how their friendship, hanging out at his house every weekend, how swimming and playing together had turned into hurting and humiliating her so quickly. His mother and Sophia’s mother had been best friends back then, so naturally, she and Matthew had ended up spending a lot of time together. They still did, but it was far less enjoyable now.

In fact, everyone in the pack had thought she and Matthew would end up as mates by the connection they clearly had had at the time. They had been inseparable. But those days were practically nonexistent now. Especially in Matthew’s mind. Where they had been intense friends before, he had become an exponentially greater enemy over the years.

Her mother had been well respected and adored by everyone, and everyone had expected Sophia to follow in her elegant footsteps. But the moment it had gotten out that she killed her own mother, their shock and disbelief had soon turned to hatred. Especially once Thorin, as the pack Alpha, had legislated a new mandate that was still active and enforced to this day. And it had been as though Matthew and his mother had been hit by the event even harder than it had anyone else. She figured that it might have been the reason for his passionate hatred for her. He had also not bothered to listen to her pleas of innocence at the time. In fact, she remembered how it had just aggravated him, causing the bullying he dished out to worsen.

She remembered how she would beg for help from the other shifters in the school and the pack, but they wouldn’t do anything to stop what was happening, even if some of them appeared like they wanted to, but would stop themselves from interfering. Doing awful things, were in a way just as bad as allowing them to happen, but Sophia couldn’t blame them. The way Thorin had started ruling the pack from that day forth, no one dared to go against his word. Over time, he had not only gotten more forceful with her though. The rest of the pack had been living with his tyrannical rule ever since as well. His reign was absolute, and no one dared to step a foot out of line. Not even to toe the lines he’d drawn.

She remembered the days when the pack used to revere him. He had been a fair leader and had been seen as a protector and a provider of the werewolves who followed him. They had been loyal to the core, and the pack flourished. But now it was all different. Everything had changed and stood in stark contrast to how it had been before the night of her mother’s murder.

No one dared to admit the truth. To not even whisper it to the forest. Thorin, her father, had turned into a dictator. A malevolent and ruthless one at that. He had exploited his position as Alpha of the mighty Lucian pack, and had pressed and pressed the people under his violent hand until their loyalty had transformed into fear.

Not a single member of the pack ever dared to stand up to him. The few that had tried before had died brutal deaths. She still felt the bile rising and scorching up her throat at the thought of those heads of the poor shifters who had to find out the hard way that there was no standing up against the Alpha, that no matter the reason, they would be seen as enemies of the pack. Each one’s head had been chopped off and stuck to their own pike, in front of the Lucian pack Headquarters. The building her father went to work at every day.

“The full moon is upon us people!” Mrs. Carrick’s excited voice broke through the veil of her contemplations, which was an impressive feat by itself, as Sophia had always assumed that a bomb could go off in front of her and she would still not be disrupted from the realm of her mind. “You only have a few days to prepare. We all know, despite the legends telling us otherwise, that her shifter instincts are overwhelming and animalistic in nature. From your very first shift to hundreds after that, with every full moon, it can take a very long time before any of you will be able to control what you do when you shift. Luckily we have high walls surrounding our cities, so no one could run the risk of going after a human and tipping them off to our existence here, but still, take the necessary precautions.”

Great. Thanks for revealing yet another aspect of my life I need to worry about, Sophia thought ruefully to herself.

Ailis went on, luckily not noticing Sophia’s glare. “I’m sure I don’t even need to tell you all this, as it’s been a customary procedure for many, many years now, but I’m going to do it anyway.”

Here we go again…

“If you haven’t had your first shift yet, be sure to make your way to the provided concrete cell blocks at the Sanctuary. There you will be kept for the night to ensure you do not hurt yourself or your loved ones. But if you’ve had your first successful shift already, you and your shifting Mentor will have a lot to work through at the next full moon. If you do not have a Mentor, for whatever reason, if your parents or grandparents, or older siblings are not available to help you through this process, remember that the pack has social workers available for this purpose as well.”

Mrs. Carrick had informed them of this many times before, ever since they had entered their Senior year, as it was the time when most usually started to experience their first shifts. The class looked bored, as though they had thought the same. She hadn’t needed to repeat this to them. Sophia hadn’t experienced her first shift as of yet and didn’t even know if anyone in class even had before either, but then again it wasn’t like any of them would tell her if they had.

“And as you know,” Ailis said, her voice rising an octave as she spoke, her excitement palpable now, as though it was a living thing ricocheting against the classroom walls around them. “Once you’ve had your first shift, the Moon Goddess will grant you your mate as well. Girls, you will be marked with the exquisitely beautiful symbol of the moon, a silver crescent. While you boys, you will be marked with the powerful symbol of the golden sun. Only the two mates can see it upon one another.”

The young shifters were slightly paying more attention to the teacher now. All hopeful at the prospect of finding their one true love in this world, shown to them by the guiding hand of the Goddess.

“Ladies,” Ailis addressed the female variety in the room with a barely contained girly squeal this time. “I cannot begin to tell you what an amazing feeling will come over you once you see that blazing sun on your man. The man that will be yours and yours alone. The only man that will be able to warm your loins for the rest of your life.”

All the girls giggled breathily as they glanced at one another, wagging their eyebrows, and winking flirtingly at the young males around them. The sheer heat and exhilaration the possibility and expectancy of it brought them were almost as tangible as Mrs. Carrick’s elation on the topic had been.

By the way Sophia’s blood ran cold, like the faucet in her basement room, instantly causing the delicate blond hairs on her arms to stand on end, she knew that Matthew’s devilish gaze was on her again. It was like his eyes were able to telepathically tell her that he had violent plans for her in that fucked-up mind of his.

Even though every single fiber in her being wanted her to look back at him, even if only to make sure she hadn’t been mistaken in her interpretation of the intuitive feeling she’d had, she forced herself not to. She wasn’t going to give the satanic male the satisfaction knowing that she was aware of his intent directed at her.

“As the beautiful story goes, of the two lovers that had once been the sun and the moon, none other than our Sun God and Moon Goddess,” Ailis continued, and Sophia was grateful to the distraction, even though it was a story every shifter knew by heart since they were children. “The sun would give up his light, his life, to allow the moon to live, and with each reincarnation, their love and light would find each other again…”

Every female couldn’t help but sigh at the romanticism of that story. Even Sophia had been unable to bite down on the hope that seemed to bloom somewhere within her each time she heard this story. It was a small, shining glimmer in the dark empty void that had become her heart.

For some unknown reason, that light guided her thoughts to the male that had been haunting her dreams almost every night. Maybe she hoped that he would become her mate? But how? It wasn’t possible, as he had merely been conjured up by her imagination after all. Her sick, sick imagination…

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 be reveling in the smell of her as he took a few lungful whiffs of her.

“You smell so fucking good, Sophia,” he said, his voice hoarse as his hot breath against her skin there caused her to feel even more flushed. Her heart felt like it wanted to climb out from her chest. “I wonder how you taste…”

He didn’t wonder about it for too long, as he immediately started to lick, suck, and kiss her throat, her earlobes, her jawline, then he moved to mark his territory even further as the trail led him ever downward.

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.

He got the message alright. He almost took all of her one breast into his mouth with fervor, the one hand holding it in place while the other gently played and kneaded her other aching breast. His biting and sucking had started to border on torture, but she didn’t want him to stop. Her incessant moans told him that too.

Surprising her, he bit right into the sensitive flesh right next to her nipple, just when she felt she’d been about to reach her release that had been building with each taunting flick of the tongue, each suck, each nibble, but it instantly vanished the moment he sunk his teeth into her there.

Sophia’s eyes wide and fearful, looked at the attractive male with astonishment written all over her face, but he just gazed up at her for a moment, his eyes hooded with the heat and passion he still felt, which had run for the hills in terror within herself already. She knew she should have also done the same by now, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Mine,” he growled, dipping his head back down to that place between her breasts again as he licked the blood coming from there. “All mine--”

Jerking herself out of the thoughts that had pulled her into the dream she’d had the night before, as well as many others before that, she could tell her face was flushed and her breathing uneven. But what she suddenly realized was that she and Matthew were alone in the classroom!

Had she missed the whole part where the bell went for recess, and every shifter jumping up from their seats to get out of the class as quickly as possible?

All Sophia could do was helplessly watch as Satan, with his malicious sneer, stalked over to her as though he owned the bloody whole world. She kept her eyes in front of her, remaining seated as she waited for him to do whatever he thought he wanted to do to her. Maybe he wouldn’t be tempted to punch her in the stomach or throw her to the ground if she stayed like that.

She was right, he didn’t do any of those things. Instead, Matthew grabbed her at the nape of her neck and pushed her down against her desk. Her cheek had hit against the oak wood with such force that Sophia was certain she would have another angry mark and bruise there within the hour. Like so many times before, she bit down on her lip to the point of bleeding, but she refused to make a single sound of fear or pain at his unexpected attack.

He kept pressing her down as he bent forward, lowering his face down to her own. She decided to meet his gaze head-on then. “Sophia, Sophia,” he repeated her name as if he was reprimanding a child. “Do you want to know what I have in store for you next?”

“Not really,” she surprised herself when she answered him with a wicked smile curling her lips. “But I’m sure you’re going to tell me anyway.”

He lifted the pressure from her neck then, but only to slam her back harder against the surface of the desk. Again she refused to make a sound at the unexpectedness of it, but her eyes squeezed shut as the force of it reverberated through her skull and spine.

He chuckled to himself. “I’ve already organized it, and everyone has agreed that it will be the best punishment I have come up with for you ever…”

Then he brought his mouth over to her ear that wasn’t being smashed against the table, and he told her exactly what her new form of torture at school was going to entail in the near future. Her mind went utterly blank and motionless.

Just when she had thought that things couldn’t get any worse. It just had. Much, much worse…

Her eyes stock-still and staring at the door where the devil himself had just exited the room. He hadn’t done anything else to her as he had released his hold on her with disgust and simply walked away without another word or glance, leaving her in the wake of that awful promise.

Sophia had no idea how she made it from her desk, hurling herself out of the classroom and running down the hallway toward the exits. Not the front one, but the secret back one almost no one knew about.

Her mind in a haze and her only instinct to get away from this hell as fast as she possibly could, away from the evil overlord that ruled it, was the only driving force able to carry her forward as she fell against the metal door leading outside, and to the forest behind the school property. It beckoned to her as she clumsily stumbled toward it.

Out of nowhere, a hand grabbed her arm, making her whirl around, “Leave me al--”

She came up short the moment she saw a very different face to the one she had been expecting. It wasn’t Matthew who had come after her. No. It was the man from her dreams. She stared at him in utter disbelief and saw how his angry eyes turned soft the moment they had come face-to-face with each other. He had wanted to say something to her too, but he had clearly been struck speechless as she had been as well.

His eyes searched her face as though he recognized her, but the molten bronze there turned angry again the moment he saw her bruises and wounds, not to mention the new one she had just gotten on her cheek where Matthew had banged and pressed her against her school desk not two minutes ago, which she could feel swelling already.

He’s real. He’s real. He’s real. It was the only thought able to penetrate her consciousness as she stared at him. He was just as beautiful as he’d been in her dreams, with his long dark hair swept up into a wavy bun. And the sexy goatee. However, this version seemed to be sporting some additional tattoos and piercings, which the dream version of him hadn’t. But it was him.

Relief swept through her tired and aching body. The sweet sensation was unfamiliar to her, but it was quickly replaced by another feeling she knew very well. The one that told her she needed to get away from here. To get away from him.

Completely overtaken by this need, the moment he was about to say something, she pulled her arm from his grasp, and he glanced down at his hand, seeming to wonder if he had shocked her with it or something.

“I just want to be left alone,” Sophia was able to croak out.

She vaguely noticed that the stranger was wearing a uniform the security guards at the school usually wore, but she wasn’t exactly in the frame of mind to think about or come to terms with that just yet. Sophia still needed to get away. That was her one and only concern right then.

Without another glance at the stranger, trying not to think about the dreams she’d had of him, or the discovery that he had been a real person all along, she made her legs carry her forward.