Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 13

Sophia leaned her head against the cool window of the bus. The chattering behind her, a mix of groggy conversations and annoyingly high-pitched squeals and laughter from the more awake contingent. The spicy scent of musk wafted to the front of the bus from an overzealous female. Her eyes watered; the potency was so severe. Every bump jarred her body, but not nearly as bad as it could have been, not as bad as it should have been, having healed some overnight. The bus driver had been in an abhorrent mood, being antagonistic with everyone and bellowing toward the back of the bus. His eyes met Sophia’s briefly in the mirror above his head, placed just so he could observe the students on the bus without turning his head. When he snarled, she spun away. Sophia gazed out the window again and sighed, her breath forming a small circle of fog on the window. At least he wasn’t being an ass just with her, but she was not in the mood to deal with the aftereffects of whoever pissed in his cocoa cereal that morning. The wheels on the bus ate the concrete mile by slow mile. Houses blurred as they sped past her window, one after the other. Their white picket fences were an unfocused, chaotic vision of spikes sticking up out of the ground. Good thing they weren’t vampires. Sophia smirked at her own pun.

The horror of last night’s torture, of being whipped naked, still played in her mind, but the physical pain was bearable. She couldn’t believe her father’s order when it was expelled from his foul mouth. It wasn’t being whipped that had shocked her. It wasn’t even that he cracked the whip so many times that there was no part of her body that had gone unscathed. No, that’s not what made her fear completely different that morning. It was when he ordered her to strip naked before she was whipped that caused her mouth to gape open. With no choice but to follow his orders, she took her clothes off and succumbed to the most humiliating punishment fathomable. Every time she thought it couldn’t get worse, it was like the goddess took it as a challenge to prove her wrong. If that was her intent, she succeeded.

There had been one more stop left on the outskirts of town. When the bus lurched forward, her body ached a bit, but thank the goddess, it was nothing like the pain that she had been used to. The doors folded open, and the loud squeak jolted her back to the present. She sat up, surprised, and concerned when Leo walked from the back of the bus, grabbed the bar, and swung down onto the sidewalk, skipping the steps in a very jock move. She lost sight of him, so she stood up halfway and looked out the window on the opposite side of the front-row seat she occupied every day. While other students were lined up and climbing the three steps one by one, Leo was at the back of the line with the attractive young girl she had seen him with the other day. He gave her an awkward hug, and she blushed prettily. Sophia was proud of her brother’s gentlemanly courtesy when he scooped her books out of her arms and slung her backpack over his own shoulder. He must have seen it on the telly or borrowed a book from the library. He definitely hadn’t learnt it at home or from the asshat jocks of Tibald High. She lost sight of them again. He avoided eye contact with Sophia, and she couldn’t help but smile. Carrying her books and pack, Leo directed her to the seat he had saved in the back of the bus. The place where people who weren’t social pariahs sat. She moved with the grace and elegance of a swan. Sophia was envious, but not jealous. She sure was beautiful, she thought. After they sat, the bus jerked into motion. Sophia turned in her seat to watch Leo and the girl. Their heads were bent low, close together, and it looked like they were whispering amongst themselves, completely unaware of what went on around them.

Sophia smiled to herself. Leo and his girl. She’s so glad she got to witness that. The sweet innocence, the girl’s shyness. Her brother, her little brother who used to annoy her until she shut him out of her room. Little Leo who couldn’t say her name until he was four and called “Fee” prior to that. He was becoming a man. No, not just a man. He was a gentleman. And that made Sophia’s heart sing with pride.

“Face front, Tibald.” The bus driver yelled at Sophia.

Yeah, someone or something definitely pissed in his cereal.

They pulled in front of the doors to the school and the doors swung open. Students jostled amongst themselves to exit the bus. Sophia waited until the last person walked past her before grabbing her books off the seat next to her and heading into the hallowed halls of hell.

She stopped at her locker, but she never stayed long. Others smashed it into her face too many times to count. She grabbed her books for first and second period, checked in at homeroom then went to her first period class. Her concentration had been fully dedicated to getting from one place to the other without having to deal with Matthew. Or Joss. Ever since she had that dream...Joss scared her in a way he hadn’t when he was just Matthews’ brainless minion.

When she sunk into her chair at her assigned desk in the first period, she let her mind wander. She knew the minions were in the back of the class, whispering and talking about her. By the end of class, there’d be spitballs stuck in her hair, or worse. She just couldn’t care. Leo and his crush were adorable. Excited butterflies flitted in her stomach, happy that Leo would get to experience everything she had not. Sophia had just gotten into that phase of adolescence when her world flipped on its axis. She had just been to where her texts with her friends were no longer a play-by-play of whatever sitcom was the big hit, or what song they liked. The fan-girling of movie stars had turned to real people. People their own age, in their own school. They had filled sleepovers with late night talks about who they liked, who they didn’t. Their crushes’ last names got added to their first and were written in a fancy scroll on secret pages hidden in their notebooks. Sophia envied that innocence. She envied that sweet beauty of the first crush, and when that crush turned into a reality. Innocence. Ha. Sophia had been stripped away from her in seconds, the brutality of the real world, of the pack, a rude awakening. She would make damn sure nothing messed things up with her brother and the little girl, and that included her father. Hopefully, Leo would just keep it to himself. Nobody should have to deal with her lunatic of a father, and most definitely not some sweet 12-year-old girl.

She blinked twice and dug her way out of her thoughts when she heard the teacher call her name.

“Your homework, Sophia. Where is it?”

Had there been homework? Sophia couldn’t remember. She shrugged her shoulders.

“You don’t know where your homework is, Miss Tibald?”

“No.” Sophia said. Simply. Tiredly.

“I wonder how your father would feel about that.”

Sophia shrugged again. Obviously, he would know her homework wouldn’t have been done, being that he had been busy humiliating her and whipping her until she was close to passing out. Somehow, she didn’t think he’d be surprised.

“Harumph.” The teacher made an awkward sound and turned to the blackboard with her pointer.

Yeah, no, there was no way Sophia was going to make it through the day.

She struggled valiantly through the second period. She held her head high but kept her eyes cast down. She carefully navigated the halls. She avoided all conflict. Since her shift, or maybe even the night before her shift, she felt funny when the heathens had made her too mad. Like there was a part of her that was ready to strike, to destroy. She feared losing control.

By third period, her ‘give a damn’ had been completely busted, and she lay her head on the desk, fighting to keep her eyes open. When the bell rang, she grabbed her stuff and was on her way to the door when the teacher addressed Sophia.

“Don’t let my boring little class disturb your sleep, Sophia.”

“I won’t.” She darted out the door. Sarcasm begets sarcasm, after all.

While looking for a place to hide out for the next period, or two, or three, or the rest of the day, Sophia came across Neil. Her heart still stopped at the sight of his beauty. The dream still popped into her head in minute detail. Her palms still sweat when she thought of his lips on hers. She knew, though, that it was foolish to allow such things. They were not meant to be and no amount of willing it, hoping, or praying would change it.

“Sophia.”

She nodded her head in greeting, her eyes locked on his. He seemed very alert that day. Observant. He looked at the whip marks on her arms, on her legs. Yes, even on her face. They were fading, but they were there, all the same. He took a step closer and lifted her hair up off her neck and his eyes narrowed. Alarm flicked in the irises of his intense eyes.

“Sophia, are you okay?”

She nodded, still not speaking. Why she suddenly went mute, she would never know.

“Are you sure? I think you need to get these looked at. Infection is festering in some. They must be painful.”

Sophia unwillingly snorted. If only he knew that this was nothing compared to what it was last night.

“Talk to me. Tell me what happened.” Sympathy was in his eyes, but not pity. That was good, because Sophia hadn’t wanted the man she desired to pity her. No, that wouldn’t do at all. Sympathy was fine, pity was not.

“I’m fine. I promise.” She turned around and walked the other way, though she felt his eyes on her until she was out of his sight. There was no way in hell she would tell him what her father had done the night before, or any other night. She was embarrassed enough without him knowing that her father had made her strip her clothes in front of him. That he had frothed at the mouth while she stood there, shame crossing her face. Then he cracked the whip with glee. And when he felt she had been embarrassed enough, he whipped her naked body until her leg muscles had given out and she crumbled to the ground, bloody and red. No way in hell.

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