“Poor thing. She doesn’t know…”
“I heard the Alpha comes here almost every day with Ella. They’ve already registered as mates. Doesn’t that make Sophia the homewrecker?”
Their words hurt me like icy claws on my back, but I didn’t stop. I didn’t flinch. I reached for my phone with shaky hands and sent a message to someone I hadn’t talked to in years.
Dad, I’m sleepy. I just want to go home.
My dad called me not long after I got home. It was a video call, not just a voice call.
We hadn’t seen each other in five years, and his hair was a lot more silver now than I remembered.
He said, “Sweetheart,” his voice tight with worry, “has David been mean to you?”
The knot in my throat came undone. I tried to keep it together, but my tears gave me away.
“I missed you so much, Dad…”
It felt like a lifetime ago that we fought and he yelled at me, “Get out! You’re no daughter of mine!” But there he was, still mad at me. Still in love with me.
He sighed, tired and long, but his eyes were full of warmth and regret.
“No matter what happens, this will always be your home. I’ll send someone to get you tomorrow.”
I couldn’t sleep after the call. Guilt kept me awake all night. I felt guilty about what I had done to my family and the choice I had made years ago to leave everything behind to follow David.
When I got up the next morning, David and Ella were already sitting at the breakfast table with Maya between them.
They looked great. A picture of a family that is happy.
And I… I was the smudge on that perfect picture, the person who ruined their painted happiness at home.
David was the first one to see me. He jumped up, and guilt showed on his face.
He quickly said, “Maya just moved in. She doesn’t know the place yet.” “She’s only staying for a few days to help Ella get used to things.”
Maya looked at me with suspicious eyes. Then she yelled, “I want Mommy and Daddy to sleep with me every night!” She held David’s and Ella’s hands together like she was tying a knot.
Ella looked at me with a small, sorry smile that didn’t reach her eyes and said, “Sorry, Sophia. Maya has trouble sleeping in new places. But you’re so understanding. You won’t mind, right?”
David’s face went pale. His mouth opened and closed, but no defence came.
A sharp, breathless pain stabbed through the numbness in my chest.
“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to sound light-hearted as I sat down at the table. “Of course I don’t mind. She’s just a pup. Being around people she knows makes her feel safe. Let’s all eat breakfast.”
Ella, always polite, picked up a piece of bread and gave it to me.
“I made this myself. Give it a try. I even put sweetgrass in it, which you like.”
She smiled and gave me a wink.
“David said you liked it. You have to finish it!”
I grabbed the bread. I knew the smell as soon as it touched my fingers.
It wasn’t sweet grass. It was something completely different.
I carefully put the bread back on the plate, my voice shaking with anger.
“I didn’t know you liked to bake with wolfsbane.”
Ella’s eyes filled with tears, and her lower lip shook.
“Sophia, you don’t have to accuse me like that, even if you don’t like it.”
David’s face became dark with disapproval.
“Ella got up early just to make that for you. Why would she poison you? Don’t be unreasonable, Sophia.”
I was just about to say something when Maya’s high-pitched voice cut me off and told me to go upstairs to watch her cartoons.
David put down his knife and fork right away. He said, “I’ll take her up,” and he was already getting up.
Ella’s tears disappeared as quickly as smoke in the wind when the sound of their footsteps faded and the door clicked shut behind them. She turned to me with a smirk on her lips and a sharp tone that made fun of me.
