Page 40 of Rejected By a Wolf

“What’s going on in your head?” Sophia rolled onto her side, leaning her head against the palm of her hand.

He shrugged. There was no way he’d let her know what had just been running through his mind.

She sighed. “Earlier you looked like you wanted to kill me. Then you look like you wanted me. Now you just look lost.”

Valid points. All true. “I’m battling a lot of demons.” More like one demon in particular, but that demon was a heavy load to carry.

“I know.”

He looked at her questioningly. “You know?”

She pursed her lips together, nodding. “I lost you for a bit there earlier, kind of like how you lost me this evening.”

“You…” He was at a loss for words. It wasn’t often that someone recognized how lost he really was. The slaughters he committed in his past were never blamed on the beast inside Antonio. They were always blamed on Antonio himself. He sighed, supposing everyone was right to place the blame on him. It was his hands that killed all those people, no one else’s.I’m the monster,he thought before saying, “You’re mistaken, I wasn’t lost.” What he did, the fear he placed in Sophia’s heart, it was his fault and his alone.

She shrugged. “Agree to disagree.” Then, she proceeded to pull pieces of grass from the ground as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

Crazy fey.

“I don’t understand how you can be relaxed after… that.” At one point she was terrified, running from him as if her life depended on it.

It probably did.

She sat up, dramatically examining her body. “Well I’m not hurt, am I? Unless you see something I don’t.”

He clenched his fists. She shouldn’t being acting so nonchalant about what just happened. “Youcould’vebeen.” A fleeting thought crossed his mind,And I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if she was.

“So you’re admitting you might’ve hurt me? I guess I’m gonna need someone else to watch over me, aren’t I?”

“I wouldneverhurt you.” There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d trust anyone else to watch over her during this tournament. She was better off having no reason to be scared of him, because for the next few days he had no plans to let her go.

She cast him a shrewd eye as a cunning grin spread across her face. Now he wanted to know what the hell was going on inhermind.

“Let me get this straight. You’re claiming you’d never hurt me while also admitting youcould’vehurt me earlier?”

He gripped at his pants in frustration. If she was looking for some excuse to get out of staying with him, it wasn’t going to happen. “I said what I said, and both still stand. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I believe you.” When she said that, relief flooded through him. He didn’t realize how important it was for him to hear her say that until now. “But I also think what you said makes absolutely no sense. It’s contradicting.” When he opened his mouth to defend himself, she stuck up a finger, telling him to wait. “Unlessyou really lost yourself earlier, which I already know you did. I’m just waiting for you to admit it.”

“Why are you confident I did?”

She rose to her knees, meeting him at eye level as she cupped his face. She intently looked into his eyes as if she was searching for something. Something no one cared enough to search for before.

“Because your eyes give everything away. I know when it’syouin there, and I know when it’s not.” She looked at him this way a second more and he swore his heart almost stopped beating. Then, she dropped her hands to her sides and plopped back down. “I can’t explain it, I just know I’m right. I call it your beast.”

His eyes widened. She had no idea how spot on she was, and he had no idea how she managed to be so spot on. “Beast?” She nodded. “Whybeast?”

She began playing with her braids, which were now neatly put together at her side. She must’ve fixed her hair while she was laying beside him because her hair definitely didn’t look that way before.

As the image of her laying beneath him, her hair wildly splayed out, rose into his mind, it took everything in his power to stifle a groan.

“I guess because it makes you look so angry, and I’ve never known anything that was considered a beast to be anythingbutangry. Except for Belle’s beast, I guess.”

“Angry?” Of course that’s how he looked, if not worse. No wonder she looked so horrified earlier.

“More like murderous, but I’m not complaining.” She gave him a playful wink. “Anyway, you know how I just said Belle’s beast isn’t ever angry?” He slowly nodded. “Well, I’m actually going to take what I said back. That guy had serious anger issues the entire movie. He was definitely deserving of his title.”

Did she just find a way to compare his wretched curse and source of undying misery to a character in a Disney movie?