Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter

The car traveled down a dark, tree lined road. Sophia and Neil bumped and jostled in their seats jarring their cuffed arms and wrists that were still restrained behind their backs. Even when their shoulders smashed against each other, Neil still wouldn’t make eye contact with her. She thought about trying to talk to him again, then disregarded it. He was unresponsive the few times she had tried, and she had gotten yelled at by the officers in the front seat. She had felt Neil tense next to her when she had gotten yelled at and threatened, yet he still ignored her like she wasn’t even there. She leaned toward him, just a little to see if she could get his attention. Nothing. He was emotionless, expressionless, and void of any interaction. This scared the crap out of her. Where had Neil gone? She needed him, damn it.

After miles of miles of driving down the dirt road, she was barely able to contain the hysteria that had been building since the moment they were surrounded. It had grown worse in the car because of Neil being so vacant. Make no mistake, hysteria was what she felt. She could have faced anything with Neil by her side, even impending death, but he had emotionally disconnected from her. A disconnect that she had never felt from him during any of the times he had shoved her away or held her at an emotional distance. Sophia didn’t know what to do, what to think. She looked out the window, fighting to calm her shaking limbs and to prevent herself from losing it. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry. She wanted to kick the seat in front of her until they let her out of the car. She couldn’t, she knew she couldn’t. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to think. Her tongue felt thick, and her throat and lips were dry. She needed to pull her shit together, and she knew it. The only way would be for her to compartmentalize. To get lost in her own mind and to distance herself from what was happening in that moment. She let it come. She let it float over her and pulled her mind away from the now. She let her thoughts spiral wherever they would go. She tipped her head back against the headrest, her chest pushed forward and her back arched to accommodate for the cuffs. Why didn’t he shift? If he shifted, she could try and they could get the hell out of here.

When they pulled up to what could only have been a high security facility, the car slowed. She jerked back to the present and her eyes took in her surroundings. Her stomach rolled, and she thought she was going to throw up. Twelve feet high, metal, fully enclosed fencing ran the entire perimeter. A plain, cold, concrete building sat in the center. On the top of the fence were rows of coiled wire that sizzled with electricity. Barbed wire was strung along the fence and the electric coils. If you looked closely, you could see a blur in the air above the spindly circles, and blood on the tips of the barbed wire. What looked like hunting towers with large, blinding, fluorescent lights ready to be beamed and pointed in any spot at a moment’s notice. These towers sat at all four corners of the enclosed area, high enough to offer a clear view of the entire facility. Inside them were armed men. Heavily armed men. Their weapons rested on their shoulders, bigger than anything she had ever seen. More deadly too, though how she knew that she couldn’t say. They wore goggles that had red cross beams that shot out to wherever they were looking, little red beams pointing to the red x on an object.

She slid her gaze over to Neil. He showed no emotion. There was no sign of what he had been thinking, if he even was. There was no sign of what he had been feeling, if he even was. His teeth were clenched, and his eyes were straight ahead, looking at the back of the headrest of the driver’s seat. His jaw didn’t tick, like she was used to seeing when he was angered. His eyes were emotionless, something she rarely saw. Even cold indifference would have been preferred to this vacancy. He was empty, and she knew it. It was almost like his soul had left his body, and was lost, but he wasn’t even searching for it. She wouldn’t be able to reach him, not if he kept blocking her out, and she was sure that was what was happening.

The driver pulled up to a security booth directly outside of the gate. He showed his credentials and then he was asked a question. He whispered in his partner’s ear then opened the door and stepped out. He had left the door open, and the air smelled dirty, like stagnant water and raw sewage. Now, Neil, Sophia thought. Now, let’s go. We can run. He still didn’t move so much as a finger muscle. What the hell? They talked for a moment, with the officer gesturing at them in the back seat. The guard bent at the waist so he could peer into the back seat. The corner of the right side of his mouth snarled and he looked at Sophia first, disgust on his face. When his gaze shifted to Neil, hatred showed from his eyes. His nose bunched on his bridge and a slow hiss escaped his mouth. He stood back up and waved the officer back into the car. In seconds, the rattling sound of metal gates being electronically opened rattled the otherwise quiet. They slid open barely enough for the car to make it through. They wound around the side of the building to a car port and another gate, this one to walk through. It was guarded by two security officers, and in their hands was the chain that held two of the most massive werewolves she had ever seen. Saliva dripped from their canine teeth and their eyes glowed green, yellow. Their noses were wrinkled along the bridge and the fur on the scruff of their necks stood up. They growled and their teeth snapped as they lunged for the car. The guards pulled back on the thick linked chains. That did get Neil’s attention, though it was very brief. Sophia was wondering if these were the dogs that guarded the gates to hell and was trying very hard to not show her fear, and Neil flicked them a look, raised one eyebrow, then went right back to staring directly in front of him.

The guards moved the werewolves away from the door, holding tight to the chain as they lunged and pulled against their restraints. The one guard signaled, and the officer turned the ignition off. Both officers got out and opened the back seat doors. Sophia was shoved forward, gripped by the cuffs, and yanked out of the car. The growling grew in tenor, their teeth snapping as they pulled at their chains. Neil was yanked out the other side by his man bun, then grabbed by his cuffs. If Sophia had thought the werewolves wanted a piece of her, it was nothing compared to how badly they wanted Neil. The guards struggled to hold them and had to wrap their chains around holds that were dug into the concrete. The officer shoved Neil from behind and Sophia started pushing her toward the gate. There was a loud pop coming from where the guards and werewolves stood, and Sophia was afraid to even look as the chaos and yelling sank into her head. Shit, she thought. Death by rabid werewolf. Neil turned and glared like Sophia had never seen. His eyes turned dark black and then gleamed bright yellow. Brighter than the sun. He growled, just one time. It sent chills down her spine and made her knees shake. The werewolves stopped in their tracks. Sophia had turned to look and saw that they had pulled the holds out of the concrete and were on their way to attack, to kill them, when Neil’s look, his growl, had sent them into high pitched yelps and retreated to the guards, who had been standing there looking stupefied.

Well, Sophia thought. At least he did something. And he did it before she became supper for the feral beasts. She watched, sad, as his vacant look came back into his eyes. Nothing, he was gone again. Sophia knew he had only snapped out of it to save her. He didn’t give a damn if he was torn limb from limb.

The gates slid open, and they were shoved inside. They were escorted down a very short hall and then shoved into a windowless office. The stagnant stench from outside was inside as well and Sophia gagged. A plain metal desk sat in the center of a 6x6 room. A woman sat at the desk. She had jet black hair with a silver streak in it that fell along each side of her face.. Her nose was tiny and tipped up at the end. Her pale skin was freckled, and her eyebrows were arched with silver piercing in each. She was not dressed as a guard, or how Sophia thought a warden would be. She wore striped denim jeans that were slightly baggy and hung loose on her legs. A black belt wound its way around a tiny waist until it met at her navel with a silver moon buckle. She wore a black half top that hung off her right shoulder, a fire breathing dragon plastered across her chest. On the desk sat a pack of cigarillos and a lighter.

The officers step out of the room and two armed guards take their place. The one shoves Neil from behind, but he barely moves. He addresses the woman.

“Is this the right guy?” He asked the woman.

“It is.” The woman replies.

Sophia stands there next to Neil, largely ignored, as the woman had eyes only for Neil. What the hell was this? she thought. Was this his mate? Was this who ordered their arrest? Was she military like Vicky was? If so, then why the hell didn’t she help? Sophia felt jealousy and anger seep into her. It took her a moment and she staunched it, but then insecurity set in. Was there something between them?

Neil and the woman locked eyes and there wasn’t so much as muscle that moved on either of their faces. There was no sound in the room, and neither showed any emotion. Sophia shifted, uncomfortable watching what surely some kind of deep level intimate scene. The movement made her suck in a breath when darts of pain shot up her arm. She needed out of these damn cuffs. Neil breaks eye contact with the woman and drops his gaze to the ground. His feeling of hopelessness encompassed Sophia as if she had been feeling it herself. That’s the only feeling he was having, the rest of him was dead. She had connected with him, without even trying, without conscious thought and she knew, he felt hopeless, and dead. He had given up. Sophia didn’t like that this woman could make him feel like that and she glared at her. This bitch, she thought, better check herself. She didn’t stop glaring until they were led out of the office, and down one gated hall after the other until they reached a row of cell blocks, with iron bars trapping the prisoner inside.

“Sophiiiaaaaaaa.” Sophia heard from a couple cell blocks down.

She stumbled and was pulled upright again. She knew that voice. That voice belonged to one of only two voices who could put that level of fear in her.

“Come to Daddy, Sophhhhhhiiiiiaaaa.” He sang her name like he was trying to coax her but the insanity in his tone, it made her shiver. She trembled, wondering if she was going to be delivered to her father’s clutches…

The guard opened a cell, then spun Sophia around. With a click, he uncuffed her and shoved Sophia inside, pulling it shut and double checking the lock.

“He’s three cells down, he can’t get to you.”

He opened the cell next to her, and both guards shoved Neil inside, like they expected him to put up a fight. He didn’t. He stumbled inside then moved straight to the cot in the corner that stood opposite of the open toilet that each cell had. Sophia couldn’t see him, but she could hear his movement. She was sensing his thoughts, which were nonexistent. She heard him lay down to the sounds of her father calling her.

Sophia gingerly rotated her shoulders and tried to bring her arms back to the side or front of her body. It hurt like hell. She coughed as her eyes watered. She wiggled her fingers, rotated her wrists, that were red from the cuffs being too tight. She had to keep moving, until her blood flowed through them and she got feeling back, any feeling, other than the numbing pain she had right then.

“Sophiiiiaaaa, come play with Daddy. I have surprises for you. Muahahahahah.” Her father ended with an evil laugh.