Darien's POVI stared hard at the infuriating girl in front of me, the irritation making my jaw clench. I had finally dozed off only to be rudely awakened by the loud banging. I growled in annoyance, springing from the bed with the full intention to strangle her. I hardly got any sleep on a normal day, and when I did, I did not like to be disturbed.As I got to the guest room, still seething, I heard her trying the doorknob in a feeble attempt to open it. Was she daft? It was obviously locked. My irritation threatened to turn to anger. I wondered where Jordan picked this one from. She was acting like this was her first time being sold? What did she think it involved? Rainbows and roses? I slammed the key in the lock and pulled the door open before she could bang on it again. The action must have surprised her, because she nearly fell over. She recovered herself quickly, lifting her head to fix me with angry eyes. Before she could speak, I pulled her forward by the neck and pressed
Sophia's POVI was frozen at a spot. Even if I tried to make any move, I'd have been unable to at that moment. I took a deep but shaky breath, trying to figure out if I'd heard right. I could recognize Alpha Jordan's voice anywhere after months of being around him, so I was certain he was the one on the phone. I stared at the man across the table from me; Darien. Everything I was hearing was news to me. I had no idea why he decided to return me, but it was a huge relief. I wondered briefly why he had changed his mind about me, but my curiosity didn't care enough to start overthinking it.As if that wasn't enough, Alpha Jordan jumped right in with another one. "I decided I'll just let her go and pick up that fucking idiotic stepfather of hers." Those were his exact words. For a moment my breath ceased. It felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice all over my head. My hands shook uncontrollably, and for the first time in a long time, hope struck deep inside me. He was going to le
Darien's POVGlee threatened to leak out of my insides as I ended the call with Jordan. I could feel the sudden gloom descending. Very good. Deliberately, I made a show of locking my phone and gingerly placing it down on the table with a straight face. Finally, I looked down at the whimpering girl. Sophia looked small and helpless kneeling in front of me. Exactly as I wanted. The girl was a piece of work, to put it lightly. Usually I would not go to this extent, but she was damn well getting on my last nerve. She needed to learn her place if her stay here was going to be peaceful. And if that meant dangling her freedom like bait to a shark, then so be it. She would learn what happened when you dared disrespect Darien Gray. "Please…" she suddenly let out, nearly choking on her words. "Please let me go…I never did anything w-wrong. My being here was a mistake..a-a mix-up. You heard Alpha Jordan say so…I beg you.."Her eyes were wide and moist with unshed tears. I cocked a brow in am
Sophia's POVI was struggling to breathe.It felt like the whole world was spinning around me, making my stomach churn from the uneasiness that I felt. I was numb all over, and in an effort to feel something, I dug my fingers into my palm. Hard. I needed to feel something…something that would let me know that I was here. That this was truly happening. Perhaps I was also looking for confirmation that this was not a dream. Wake up. I tried to shake myself out of this subconscious state of mind. This could not be happening. I could not be this close to freedom only to have it snatched out of my hands before I could grasp it. My chest constricted even tighter at the thought and I could feel the back of my eyes beginning to burn. 'This cannot be real,' I continued repeating the words in my head. My hands were beginning to tremble and the back of my throat was so clogged with anxiety that I could not breathe. Tears that I could not hold back if I tried sprung into my eyes but I veheme
Darien's POV"Another family dinner?" I ask, already displeased by the words of the other person. "Now, why on earth would they want to do something like that? Especially at a time like this?"it was highly unreasonable, in my opinion, and I could not fathom why they would want to put themselves and us through any of that. Cursing under my breath, I brought the speaker of my cell phone back to my lips."Are you coming?" I asked the person on the other end of the line. If I was going to be subjected to this unpleasantness, I would prefer to have at least one reasonable being who could hold a normal conversation.My sister laughed dryly. "Well, it's not like I have a choice, so you know what the answer is. The only reason I'm coming at all is because you're going to be there."I only grunted, although I was glad. "You are going to be there. Right?" She repeated, and I knew she was looking for confirmation from me. I smiled wickedly, remembering the time I had told her I would be presen
Darien's POVWork breezed by much faster than I had expected it to, especially since the workload at the office turned out to be a lot more than I anticipated. I had to use extra hands in the form of my secretary and two other employees to enable me wrap up the entire thing before it was late. It turned out that there were some imbalances in the projects the company was currently undertaking, and the contracts we had just signed with a partner company were found to have some issues. So we had to tackle that, and it took about two hours to completely wrap it up. I hated to overwork my employees unless they truly deserved it, so I felt a little uncomfortable that they worked overtime. To compensate for that, I made sure they had adequate amounts of coffee breaks, and when we were done with the work, I ordered takeout for all of them. There was no need to get some for myself since I was going to have dinner in a few hours. Plus, the drama from the mansion would fill my stomach in no ti
Sophia's POVMy jaw dropped in horror as I watched Darien walk out of the guest room with a smirk on his face. His words replayed in my head like a record on loop, and I suddenly felt a little scared. There was absolutely nothing I hate more than being left in the dark and not knowing what could possibly come next. It made me feel anxious and tiny, and like I did not have a say or direction in my own life. And this is exactly how I had been feeling for the past few months. It is how I have been feeling my entire life, to be honest.It had been three days since the incident with Alpha Jordan happened, and it did not hurt any less than it had that night. I still thought about it quite a lot. I still replayed the event over and over, wondering if things could have played out differently if I had acted on his command. No matter how much I tried to push it out of my mind, I still turned right back and went through the motions of blaming myself for everything. Being so close to freedom a
Darien's POVI turned off the ignition of my car and sat in my car, staring at the mansion in front of me. I had succeeded in containing myself till I got here, but now I was actually here, the same sour taste had come back to rest on my tongue. It was sickening. I had half a mind to turn my car around and leave. Plus, no one had to know I had ever been here. I could easily just say I could not make it because of work, and that would be it.An evil smirk formed on my lips at the thought. I could only imagine what Eloise would do. She would attempt to murder me, I was sure of that one. I couldn't blame her though: being in the Gray mansion, especially with all the Grays present, was a fucking chore. As much as I wanted to, I knew it wasn't as easy as it sounded. Father was the Alpha. He could easily use the Alpha command on any of us who refused to be present, and that would be the end of it. That was the thing with him; he did not ask, he ordered. I held back a curse that was on the