Page 101 of Rejected By a Wolf

Nothing. She was nothing.

Sophia didn’t react when the cell door shut behind her. She could find no reason to.

“If it helps,” Drusilla began from the other side of the door, twisting the key to lock it in place. “Because of your help, that wolf’s soul will be mine. Find peace in knowing the man who betrayed youwillsuffer, I vow it. Remember, I’m on your side. You’ll be released after I’ve acquired his soul.” Sophia couldn’t comprehend what the witch was saying. She could only comprehend the darkness devouring her. “But please… figure yourself out before I release you, or else the unnatural world will eat you alive.”

Sophia could barely register Drusilla’s receding footsteps as she walked off, leaving Sophia as alone as she felt.

All the world ever did was eat her alive. “What does it matter?” Sophia asked no one. Tears welling in her eyes, Sophia sat on the cold floor and held her knees tightly against her chest, her fingers pressing into her back as she rocked back and forth. “There’s nothing for me out there. I’m already dead.”

Then, reassuring words from a prisoner in a neighboring cell promised her, “There’s a whole world for you out there. You just need to find enough courage to see it, and I know you enough to know you’re absolutely capable of doing that,Soph.”

Chapter Sixty-Two

Antonio Payne

All around him, Antonio’s world was crashing.

Drusilla, a witch set on destroying him for a past he couldn’t take back, just vanished with his mate to gods fucking knew where.

She’d hurt Sophia, he was sure of it. And what was worse? He knew he fucking deserved for his world to crumble, deserved every bit of Drusilla’s hatred. Hell, he probably even deserved Sophia’s hatred. Heknewthat.

He alsoknewSophia didn’t deserve for her world to crumble as well. Sophia did nothing wrong.

Drusilla’s coven had once been the cause of his first mate’s death. Now, the last surviving member of that coven would be the cause of Sophia’s. Of course his past would come back to haunt him the moment he learned to find happiness again.

But this was different from when he lost Giselle. It was so fucking different.

Antonio hadn’t known Giselle, not really. Other than the mate bond that bound him to her, he hadn’t felt much for her. Sure, he cared about her. Sure, she didn’t deserve to die. But he didn’t love her, not like he loved Sophia.

Mate or not, Sophia was the one who showed him happiness again, who showed him it was possible to overcome pastmistakes. Sophia’s strength, perseverance, and undying hope for everything and everyone she loved was all he needed to see in someone to finally believe he deserved to live again.

Mate or not, he loved Sophia. And this woman he loved so much was breaking inside. She was hurt, perhaps beyond repair, because ofhim.

And that damned witch was about to make her life worse. Because ofhispast mistakes, not Sophia’s.

He needed to fix this. Hehadto fix this. After he saved her, he didn’t give a damn if she wanted nothing to do with him, so long as he knew she was okay before they went their separate ways.

“Breathe, brother.” It was difficult to hear or see Lance beyond the ringing in his ears and the red dotting his vision. “Breathe.”

“Iamfucking breathing!” Antonio roared, clawing at something beside him and slashing it in two, though he didn’t know what it was.

“This can be fixed.” Beneath the outward calmness in Lance’s voice, Antonio could sense his panic. He knew his friend was panicking over losing him more than losing Sophia. His panic was misplaced.

“Let’s focus less on me losing my mind again and more on helping someone whoneeds our help!”Something else broke beneath his fist.

“We are. We’re going to find her.”

“Are we?” Antonio’s following laughter was sardonic as he wildly pulled at the hair on his head. “Can we even begin to pinpoint where she could be?” For all they knew, she wasn’t even on this planet! They knew nothing about her whereabouts and had no way of knowing anything more than absolutely nothing. By the time they did it would probably be too late.

Shit, he didn’t want to think about it. To think that far into the future… No. They needed to figure this outnow.

Gods, he had no idea what Drusilla planned on doing to Sophia, but he saw that wicked glimmer in her eyes the second before she whisked Sophia away from him. Possibly away from him forever.

“I don’t even give a fuck if she’s mine, don’t you understand that? I don’t need her to bemine.” Unlike Giselle - in his mind, she had been like a possession he needed to keep close. Sophia, on the other hand… “I only need her to beokay.”

How could he ensure that if he couldn’t find her?

“It seems you two know this witch,” Conall’s worry for his friend was clear, only expressed differently than Antonio’s. “Do you know enough about her to know where she might reside? Maybe we can start there.”

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