♡︎ 𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐀'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ♡︎
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/ edited /
"Are you okay?" Zander quickly asked cautiously beside me, as we were on our way to the prison cells the next day, with my brothers walking a little ahead of us, and I chewed on my bottom lip.
"Yeah, I'm good, why?" I replied casually, trying to clandestine my anxiety through an adequate working voice, failing miserably after sounding a speaking in a higher-pitched voice.
"It's completely normal if you are scared baby, I'm going to be here with you the whole time, okay?" He asked hesitantly, which made me sigh out loud as I swung our intertwined hands a little bit, and he returned the same energy while doing it too.
"I don't have anything to be scared about." I mumbled quietly, looking away from his concerned gaze, and he just stared at my face for a few seconds while we were walking, before rubbing the back of his neck.
We didn't exchange any more words after that, as he knew that deep inside, whatever will be spoken in the next half an hour will affect me in some way. I tried to pep talk myself for many hours before encountering this, and it was not successful at all.
No matter how much I was trying to improve my thinking pattern, the same words keep playing over and over again, especially or torturing because I nebulously remember the day I was kicked out of the house.
I was just drawing with some crayons that day after seeing many of the moving trucks leave in front of the house, not getting any attention from my parents, as usual, only hoped that my creation of them holding hands with me on that piece of paper would gain something, and just stayed in my corner of the staircase, before being dragged by the arm and abruptly thrown out into the streets from my dad without an explanation.
I cried, tried to bang the door repeatedly, asking whether I did something wrong many times, getting no response other than the sound of the locking of doors, before seeing the shutting of the curtains from my mom, and nothing else.
Ever since that day, I have never asked anyone why I was thrown out of the house without any reason, it was too much for me to even listen to someone saying that they never wanted me in the first place, and that became an explanation to why my parents never accompanied me to the parents meet and greet during nursery and primary school, they didn't care, so I went alone, only to be bullied by other people over there.
It was fun.
Woohoo.
Zander wanted to come with me, not because he had the intention to lecture my parents, but to be there to let me know that if they said something wrong, it's not my apparent fault. He suddenly pulled me closer to him and just wrapped his arm around my shoulder protectively, making our footsteps match in synch, and I leaned on his side, accepting his way of comforting me, because I could see he was glaring into space.
I insisted that he shouldn't waste his time in meeting them with us, but he was too stubborn about it, and ended up coming anyway, which I couldn't be more thankful for.
"Just remember, if they say anything wrong about you, you will not listen to them." He spoke out loud, breaking the long silence between us, as we approached the cell block and saw many guards walking around us, as I looked at his jaw briefly before clutching the jean material in my fist.
"Okay." I curtly nodded, not having anything to say.
"I mean it baby, they don't deserve your attention. You're just doing this to confront them, and for your betterment. After that, you won't have to deal with them anymore. And I promise, I'll make it quick." He muttered assuringly, squeezing my arm gently, as a smile plastered on my am face automatically through his words, and I mouthed a thank you.
Of course, I couldn't wait to get out of here.
"They are in cell 67." A guard announced beside us, while opening a new section of prison cells to our right, first letting me and Zander enter, with now my brothers behind us all together.
I witnessed the huge numbers of criminals and bad wolves in here, and none of them were humans. All of them looked really intimidating and scary, some of them had rotten teeth, and some had bleeding hands. Many of them were clothed in a similar liveried uniform, with countless rings in their hands while having a prison number around their wrist, making me uncomfortably shift on my spot.
They tried to snarl at my direction to terrify me, or even just scare me for their own entertainment after seeing my vulnerable face, but when they realised that Zander was holding me, they murmured amongst each other, gasping at his presence, before backing away.
Zander held a very cold expression to himself, as he didn't spare a glance around him at all to warn anyone, since his aura itself was threatening, walking in specific directions to get a specific cell, pulling me with him.
After a few more minutes of silent walking, we approached a very big sealed cell, with 2 guards in front of it, as they bowed at me and Zander, before stepping aside from the door.
"You all will do the talking. I won't interfere, but if they escalate and cross the limit, I won't hesitate to involve my wolf in this." Zander instructed this to my brothers, as they nodded in understanding, before opening the door and entering the cell first.
"You ready?" He asked me softly, and I nodded at him.
"Let's go." I muttered dreadfully, as he pulled me into the cell with him, and I adjusted my eyes to the sight in front of me, as it was darker than usual.
Both my parents were sitting on the cold pavement, surprised to see my brothers entering and got up on their legs very quickly. Their expressions held relief, until it changed after the gaze landed on me behind all three of them.
"What is she doing here?" My mom hissed, as I paid no attention to her and stood my ground beside Zander.
"She's here with us to talk to you." Xavier pointed out with a serious tone.
"No she isn't, we only want to talk to the three of you. She isn't part of the family." My dad spat.
"The only people who don't belong in the family are you two." Chase intervened.
"What are you talking about? We are your parents, and this isn't the way how you should talk to us like that." My mom snarled.
"You lost the right to be our parents the minute you threw her out of the house 10 years ago." Chase continued.
"Why are you defending that leach? She was not supposed to be alive in the first place. She had two chances of dying, but this bitch had the audacity to survive." Mom growled.
"You had the audacity to blame her existence to be the cause of all of your problems when you yourself failed her as parents. You were supposed to be the people to protect her, to care for her, to nurture her. Yet you left her out on the dirt." Xavier shot back.
"I don't want any fighting happening because of me." I quickly whispered to Zander by nudging him slightly, as his cold his softened as soon as he met my gaze after looking down at me.
"It's not happening because of you baby, they are your brothers. They'll fight for you in a heartbeat. Let them do their job." He whispered back, and I just stared at their backs that faced me with a frown, disliking the scene ongoing in front of our eyes.
"She's useless! Can't you understand!? We were not born wealthy and fortunate, we couldn't afford to spend a dime on her. What would she bring us? More debt? More problems? More burdens?" Dad protested.
Deep breaths Sofia, shhh. Don't listen to them.
You're...not..a burden. You..tried to not be.
That's what matters. You tried at least.
"You're no one to decide whether she's useless or not. It was your responsibility to take actions for your own mistakes." Chase grumbled.
"We didn't do any mistake. And yes, we get to decide how her life should be. We are the reason she was brought into this world in the first place." Mom growled.
"Exactly. It's you who created her existence, and that's not her fault. In fact, her existence is precious, and you actually did something good by not killing her with your claws. But in the end, you are the one to blame for her ruin." Xavier interjected.
"Her ruin? Her ruin? What about us? What if she ruined us? We tried as much as possible to get you a good position in the pack, a good reputation, a good life. And now, after everything we've done for you, you decide to go against us and care for this tramp?" Dad grimaced.
"Let's get this one thing straight. You never cared about any of us. Not me, not my brothers, and not her. All you cared about, is the respect you wanted by people. The love, the protection, the money. You used us as a tool to get a higher rank in the pack, so in reality, you didn't do shit for us." Aiden finally spoke, making everyone in the room gasp at his intensity.
Xavier told me that Aiden was the last person to talk back to our parents. He believed in the concept of respect, even though he was never shown love by them throughout his years of growing up, he was grateful to them for whatever things they have done for him.
But to see him talk back to them, was the most shocking thing for mom and dad.
And it was written all over their faces.
"Aiden! How could you talk to us like that!? Is this how you talk to your parents!?" Dad yelled at Aiden, who rolled his eyes at them, losing all the respect he had for them for years.
"I can and I will. Watch me. You are not my parents, and never will be. Because let me tell you, the only reason you wanted to talk to us, was so we could set you free. You didn't ask us how we were feeling, you didn't care whether Alpha might have punished us, no, you never cared. So in a way, we shouldn't care either. An eye for an eye." Aiden smirked.
"That's bullshit! We taught you better than this!" Mom cried.
"Exactly, you taught me better than this. And you taught me to fight for my loved ones. That's exactly what we're doing." Aiden chuckled, making our parents look at me in horror.
"You're protecting your loved ones!? Where huh!? I don't see you fighting for our freedom." Dad yelled again.
"Who says we love you now?" Xavier smirked, before mom glared at me.
"What have you done to them!? What kind of shitty deeds did you do to manipulate them like this!?"
Geez, with everyone thinking I'm manipulating people.
Give me a break.
"She didn't do anything. In fact, you don't deserve shit. You will never get out of this place, and even if you do, we'll make sure you would not get death as a mercy for what you've done to her. Mark my words." Aiden's wolf growled, earning a gasp from my parted lips.
Did his wolf just defend me?
"She even manipulated their wolves! How could you!? Do you have no shame!? I knew it, I should've killed you when you were when I had the chance," Mom growled while facing me.
Not the first time hearing this from someone.
You're doing great Sof, really, really great.
Breathe in, breathe out. Do not crack. It's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay—
"Heck, you even tricked the infamous Zander Knight into thinking that you're his mate. How could you make him stoop to your level!?"
'This bitch is going to get it.' Evie growled in my mind.
'You won't do anything.' I lectured.
"Like seriously, you made sure one of the Gods became stupid enough to help you. Tell me Alpha, does she even treat you right? I bet she'll only be with you for your money." Mom rambled.
'Okay, THATS IT.'
'I swear Evie you better not take control and shift. Do not. Do that.'
I visibly felt Zander's body become taut and tensed up after hearing her words, clearly offended with the disrespect reeking off of her personality, as he growled beside me after seeing my uneasy figure, almost as if Atlas wanted to emerge again.
'WHY!? I'm not sitting here and letting her talk to us and mate like this.'
'Evie, just don't—'
She then forced me to give up my control by coercing me to the back of my mind, as instantly my body responded to her command instead and my eye colour changed, which made my mom shut her mouth once she saw my emerald orbs.
Before Zander could lose his cool, I placed a hand on his chest to stop him, and then I stepped in front of my mom in a threatening way and she backed away in fear.
"I've had enough of you treating Sofia and our mate like shit. You, out of all the people don't get to call him stupid, nor do you get to comment on a person like Sofia and her apparent tricks to manipulate people. You didn't give birth to a mistake, you gave birth to a warrior, and I'm done seeing all of us tolerate your presence. If it weren't for Sofia's hope to make you proud one day, I would've killed both of you with my bare claws 10 years ago when you kicked us out with no remorse. So be lucky that because of Sofia, you both are alive,"
Evie completely went bonkers on this one, while I was spooked in the background, as both my parents stared at me with fear creeping down their spines, and my brothers gaped at me with surprising eyes, while I could feel Zander smirking behind me pridefully.
"She will always survive, because she deserves the best. I came into her body a decade ago, not for myself, but for her. To comfort her and to be with her when no one else was. She is the most loving person you could ever meet, and trust me, it's your loss that you left her to fend for herself, or else, she would've been the best person in your life. Fuck you mom and dad, and fuck your wolves. I stopped giving a shit years ago, but you've taken Sofia's hope for granted, and even when she might be peaceful and naive, I'm not that. So gladly, insult her more. I'd like to see you try. Because trust me, my paws are aching to scratch your flesh to oblivion,"
At this point, even the guards outside were watching the scene, as both my parents quivered in fear with the dominance in Evie's voice, and I could feel Atlas howling in pride from a few meters away from him.
"No matter how much you try to degrade us, Sofia is and will forever be more worthy than you. She deserves the best, and I won't let your words stop her from getting the best. Try to break her again, and believe me, you won't be dealing with the wrath of an Alpha, or the wrath of wolf brothers, you'd be dealing with me."
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