Page 73 of Rejected By a Wolf

She swallowed, fear pricking her.

“Sophia, can you stop?Now.”

Before she had a chance to shoot him some sardonic response he had gripped her wrist, pulling her to a stop and forcing her to face him. When she looked into his gray eyes, she immediately realized something wasn’t okay. He looked…lost.

Not only was he so clearly lost, but his face was marred by exhaustion. Something wasn’t right at all.

As if on instinct, Sophia brought her hand to Antonio’s face, caressing the blue circles under his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “There’s a lot I want to talk to you about. I plan to, but I’ve been so caught up in my thoughts…”

She nodded in understanding. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he had been distracted. It was written all over his face.

Still, she worried. What thoughts plagued him? Maybe he was trying to find a way to tell her he had made a mistake and realized he wanted Giselle.

“Do your thoughts have anything to do with Giselle?”

His brows furrowed together. “No. They have everything to do with your parents.”

“Oh.”She didn’t expect to hear that. He looked this beaten up because he had been worrying about herparents?Gods, he really did care about her, didn’t he?

“You didn’t think I wanted to be with Giselle, did you?” He groaned. “I thought we went over this.”

She sheepishly bit her lower lip. “We did, but I thought since I’m too much to deal with-”

“Too much to deal with?” His tone was deepening, his irritation more than evident.

“Ah, never mind. Forget I said anything.” She wanted to pretend all of this never happened, wishing she could take back everything she said.

He must’ve read something in her expression, because his face softened. “Sophia, I want you because of who you are, notbecause you’re my mate. You being, as you say, ‘too much to deal with’is one of the qualities that makes you, well, you.” He cupped her chin. “But please never say you’re‘too much to deal with’again. It’s infuriating to hear, because you’re not.” He dropped his hand, muttering something under his breath that sounded a lot likeperfectly imperfect,but she couldn’t be sure.

Sophia knew she was blushing like crazy. She wished her hair wasn’t so tightly braided at her side, desperate to hide her face beneathsomething. Hearing Antonio’s true thoughts about her meanteverything. She was so much more than his mate. He wanted her because ofwho she was.

“I won’t, promise.”

He nodded, seeming to believe her. But she frowned, unable to get past the exhaustion that marred his eyes. Before she could bring up her worry, Casper suddenly appeared at Antonio’s side.

Sophia took a step back, shocked at what she saw. Casper looked just as depleted as Antonio. What was going on that she didn’t know about?

“Soph, I know you don’t want anything to do with me, but I had to see you before your match. I’d hate myself if…” His voice trailed off, his eyes glistening.

“I’m going to be fine.” They both looked so broken. She tried to convince herself it had nothing to do with her fighting in this tournament, but something told her it hadeverythingto do with it. “But are you fine?” She looked between the two of them. “I’m worried about you two.”

They exchanged glances. “We’re fine, Soph,” Casper assured her, but she wasn’t buying it.

“We’ll discuss everything soon,” Antonio added. “I just want to have a more refined plan in place before I relay it to you.”

“A plan for my parents?”

“We’re going to find a way to save them,Fia.”

She understood what he was saying, she really did, and she was so incredibly grateful for it. But she believed she should be involved in making these plans. Perhaps if they accepted her help they would finally be able tosleep. “I can’t thank you two enough for thinking about my parents, but you should have included me in these plans of yours. I only want to help, can you understand that?”

“You don’t need to worry about this,” Antonio assured her.

Wrong. She definitely needed to worry about this. “Why shouldn’t I when this haseverythingto do with me?” She couldn’t understand why these two were excluding her from everything. She deserved to be involved, having already proven time and time again that she was absolutely capable of handling her own problems.

Antonio scratched his head, his face tightening. “Can we talk about this after your match? I’d feel much better knowing you’re not distracted by all this nonsense.” Desperation tormented him. “We’ll talk after, I promise.”