The situation was utterly perplexing for Sophia. If he had committed a sin, why did he tell her to ask Victor about it?
She turned around and made her way to the door.
He walked in her direction. She assumed he would leave her room.
Instead of doing so, he paused to the side of her near the door to the room.
“You are being too disrespectful to your head Alpha. You need to learn some manners. If nothing else, you ought not to behave that way toward me in public.”
Sneering, she turned to face him.
“I am a bad woman. Now, what will you do? Punish me?”
A small grin formed on the left corner of his lips. She could not believe he would be back in this mood after the way they had ended the conversation.
He stepped close to her and whispered,
“Punish you? I can’t tell you how badly I want to punish you, baby girl. You have grown too bold in a single year.”
“S-Shut up.”
She could not help but stutter as she remembered the past and realized what kind of punishment he was talking about.
He stood firm and raised his hand. He began to stroke her hair slowly but gently. She glared at him but did not push him. He ignored her anger and muttered,
“I can’t tell you how I kept myself from chopping his fingers whenever he touched you.”
He paused for a moment, then met her icy gaze. His eyes grew darker as he spoke.
“I noticed that you were also touching him. I wanted to punish you for that. If you keep doing it, I am not sure how long I will be able to control myself.”
“What will you do? Kill me?”
He did not respond to her questions. His hand, which was stroking her hair, slowly moved to her cheek. He caressed her cheek with his knuckles and murmured,
“Stop overthinking.”
Sophia stared at Bryan. Her wolf was feeling his every touch. She had the intention of pushing him, but she believed that her wolf was preventing her from doing so.
In this world, the matebond was a strange phenomenon. One mate did not value it, and the other mate could not get over it.
Fate was really unfair to her.
In front of her was the man who she had loved the most in the past. But now, she hated him. She hated that her body and her wolf reacted to him. If you are not reading this novel on J o b n I b . c o m, some sentences are incomplete.She despised how he was controlling her wolf and keeping her frozen in place.
“You can only bother me for two weeks, because after that, I will leave forever,” she said.
His eyes turned red as he asked, “Do you think I will let you go?”
This time, she pushed his hand and replied,
“You are not the one to stop me. I am not obliged to fulfill your desire forever. You claimed to have freed me a year ago, so why are you here now?”
As he moved closer to her, she leaned her back against the door in order to keep some distance from him.
“What about you? Did you set me free, Sophia Berge? I let go of every mistake you made, ignored your disrespect, did not punish your brother for how he reacted, and let go of all the humiliations I had to endure in the business world for you. But now, I can’t let go of one thing. And that’s you.”
There were no words that Sophia could utter. She recalled all the things she had done in this one year.
‘This man is the master of manipulation. I can’t get into his words,’ she said to herself.
Her recollections of the past came to her in the form of flashbacks. The night she first told him about her feelings, he made fun of her. On his birthday, she gave herself to him with the hope that he also had feelings for her, but all she got in return was a reminder of the old deal, which she had completely forgotten. He left her all alone on her birthday, breaking her heart before she could even cut the cake. When he got engaged to another woman, he did not even consider returning to her or going to see if she was all right.
How would she forget these things? They penetrated her mind like arrows. How could anyone ignore what she had gone through?
“Your game is over, Alpha Bryan. I am no longer that Sophia anymore. You came here only after you realized your rival was winning over you. I am fully aware of your intentions. You will never cancel your marriage and lose that half pack, so you came here to persuade me to cancel mine. How selfish you are!”
She moved him away from her and opened the door so he could leave.
He looked at the door and said,
“My marriage to Mila is an agreement that I must keep no matter what. My hands are tied, but not yours. I can not see you getting married to another man. I will never let you do that.”
“Cage? You mean your hands are tied to have another pack in your name forcefully? Oh, my God! I mean, you really think I am that dumb? You are making so many excuses to get me to cancel the wedding, as if you have feelings for me,” she said mockingly.
“What if I tell you that I do have feelings for you, and that is why I don’t want this wedding? Will you believe me?”
