Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 51

Sophia excused herself and ran to the bathroom. She leaned on the bathroom sink and looked in the mirror. Much like she used to when she was kept in the basement and tortured nightly. Much like she did when she loathed the dawn of every day, and hated the girl in the mirror. The difference was, she no longer looked at herself with disgust. She was no longer that girl, and she no longer dreaded every day. A few months ago, she would have cowered at going back, maybe even a few weeks ago. But that’s not who she was anymore. She couldn’t say she was excited for it, either. But she accepted what was.

The story from Scott and Connor replayed in her head. She had known that eventually her father would snap. The insanity radiated from his eyes and was displayed in his random acts of uncontrollable temper long before she had escaped. They had grown in intensity over the years. and even in her fragile mind, she had known it would only be a matter of time. That was the one thing that had always kept her from running away. That he would snap and turn on Leo. She had always feared that his psychotic tendencies would explode and not only would he turn on Leo, but that he would kill him. At twelve, Leo had no defense against the wraith. But what Scott and Connor had told her and Neil, well, it was worse than any horror she could have imagined. It was worse than she had confidence in their abilities to deal with. From what Scott and Connor said, it seemed that time was running out. The flicker that crossed Neil’s eyes when they were telling them couldn’t even be explained, but it was bad. Very bad. They needed to do something without delay. The urgency in the discussion was clear. Bella, Leo’s Bella, was at the mercy of her father. Sophia’s heart cracked at the thought of her father ruining that sweet girl. She knew that the damage he could cause, well, no amount of therapy could erase it. Leo cared about her, and she didn’t know how Leo would handle that. Would he try to stand against her father to protect her? Sophia knew the first love hit deep. Of course she knew. Hers was in the living room.

Yes, standing before the mirror that hung above a sink brought back memories. Rather than spitting at her own reflection in the mirror, as she had done in the past, she pulled her shoulders back. She held her head up. No. She’s not that girl anymore. Time was running out and she could not stand by and let others face the terrors that she had lived while she hid out in a safe house. She could not let Neil, Scott, and now Connor, fight a battle that was every bit as much hers as it was theirs, if not more so. Neil believed in her, he liked who she was now. She liked who she was now. Scott was proud of her, she saw it in his eyes.

She absently filled the cup that sat on the counter with water, never taking her eyes off her own in the mirror. Slowly, she sipped the water in her mouth. She swirled it around as she skimmed her reflection in the mirror. From her forehead to her chin, until she locked eyes with her reflection again. She tipped her chin at a sassy angle and swallowed.

“Not today asshole. Not any day, ever again,” she said.

She slammed the cup down on the counter and strolled out of the room with a confidence that wasn’t whole heartedly true, but she was damn well going to fake it until it was.

In the living room Neil, Scott and Connor sat talking quietly. She went straight to the couch and sat next to Neil. He absently reached for her hand, squeezing it tightly just once. She was unsure if it was meant to be assurance, affection, or something different. She decided it didn’t matter. She loved the way his hand felt in hers. Both Scott and Connor took notice of the natural way he had reached for her, and her easy acceptance. She watched them watching their hands, searching for a sign of approval. It didn’t matter to her, not really. But Scott was important to her and both of them were important to Neil. She got what she wanted when a slow smile spread across Scott’s lips. It didn’t last long, but it was there. Connor stayed indifferent, and that was fine. He didn’t really know her. Not yet, anyway.

“We can’t go yet. We have things we need to prepare.” Neil said to them, completely unaware that they had been momentarily distracted by his casual reach. Sophia was happy about that, she didn’t do anything to cause him to pull away. She fed off of his attention and wanted only to please him, if he pulled away, it would hurt. His eyes moved to Sophia. “We also need to allow ourselves time to heal. We won’t do anyone any good going in as less than...going in as less.”

Connor looked like he was going to disagree when Scott intervened.

“He’s right. We need to be in top form, not the walking wounded.”

Scott’s voice was so sad. Sophia knew it was as much as because of the loss of Victoria, as it was for the horrors that the Lucian pack was facing. Maybe there had been more between him and Vicky than physical satisfaction. Maybe there had been more than being bound by the military brotherhood and sisterhood. Oh, I’m so sorry for him, she thought. It saddened her to know that if she was his one, then he would spend the rest of his life alone. If she wasn’t his one, his mate, the loss had still hurt him deeply.

Connor knew when he was overruled. He sat back in the chair and sighed.

“So what’s the plan?” he asked.

“I’d like to train Sophia a bit. I need to know that she can at least defend herself, if not engage in a full-on attack, she needs to be able to keep herself safe. None of us will be able to afford distractions. And that includes her.” Neil said.

“We can leave her here. Or move her to another safehouse.” Connor said.

Sophia shook her head from side to side.

“No. No, you’re not leaving me here or anywhere else.”

“Sophia, you don’t understand. Vicky was trained. She was skilled. She knew what she was doing. And they still got her. You’re putting yourself at unnecessary risk with much less than the skills that were second nature to her, and virtually no experience except in being the victim.” Connor said.

Victim my ass, she thought. Sophia leaned forward but she didn’t let go of Neil’s hand.

“You don’t understand. Every day, since the time I was twelve years old, I was punished for a crime I know I didn’t commit. Every day, since I was twelve years old, I lived in darkness. I lived in fear. And I may have been a victim, because I never stopped it, but I’m stronger, because I fucking survived it. And I’m not that person anymore.”

Connor started to interrupt, but Scott flung his hand to the side to stop him. Neil also narrowed his eyes in warning. Sophia continued.

“You have no idea the horrors I lived through every single day. The ridicule. The anger directed toward me. The fear. And that wasn’t just my father, that was from everyone. They were his orders. The torture was tolerable because it was physical pain. And I got used to it. I got used to being punched, dragged across the floor, and beaten. I got used to being whipped by a belt with metal studs on it. I got used to being kicked down flights of stairs. I even got used to having to strip naked while I got whipped. I lived that. Every day. I lived with two changes of clothes and was only allowed to use the wash once a week. I lived without having access to a shower, or the normal comforts that every human deserved. I lived sneaking about in the house I was born and raised in. And every single fucking day, I climbed those stairs and walked in the kitchen to face the memory of my mother lying bloody and dead on that floor. And having no fucking idea what happened next. I will not, I will not, stand by and allow him to do to others what he had done to me. I will not be his victim. If I hide from this, if I hide from him, I’m still the victim. Not anymore.”

Pride shown in both Neil’s and Scott’s eyes, and she straightened her back.

“Whatever I need to learn, I’ll learn. But I’m going.”

Connor looked at her with a new respect then leaned forward resting his arms on his knees.

“Okay. You’ll learn.” He said with a nod.

“So, what do you think, Neil? We don’t have much time to get her ready.” Scott asked.

Since none of them had good enough health to physically train her that day, Neil gave it some thought. He mumbled as he thought, something Scott and Connor must have been used to, as they both just sat back and waited. He knew time was of the essence, but would one day matter? A day that needed to heal anyways, and when she had so much to learn.

“Let’s start by describing what she will learn. PP’s are your specialty, Scott. Then Connor, you can review defensive skills with her. If she can defend herself, or disarm her opponent, even if she can’t confidently attack, she can tire them out, or we can get there to assist.”

“And you?” Connor asked.

“I’ll be taking her out.” He narrowed his eyes.

Sophia felt there was a secret meaning in that but decided not to dwell on it. Connor interrupted the silence that followed.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“A good idea? Probably not, but it’s necessary. It can make a difference, not just for her, but all of us.” Neil said.

“No time like the present, to at least begin reviewing, educating. I’ll start.” Scott said as he pushed himself to his feet and gestured for Sophia to come to him.

He reviewed what PP’s or rather, pressure points were, and how they worked. Sophia listened attentively and committed it all to memory. The first was the sciatic nerve; the nerve located between the groin and the knee in the inner thigh. Hitting that was supposed to cause pain, even shock or dizziness. The second was the jaw. Scott told her that if she hit it with the back of the hand, the person can lose consciousness or get the tremors because their brains are shaking inside the skull. He used his own hand and touched his arm, pointing to the area on his bicep. He told her that would cause temporary paralysis of the arm, if they were holding a weapon, it would drop. Using the same hand, he moved it to an area near his armpit. He told her that this one was hard to hit, but that it could make the hand go numb, and even break the collarbone. She snickered when he told her next was the groin, and that she didn’t need help figuring that one out. They reviewed the eyes and the hands with Scott gesturing. Neil and Connor watched her closely. She wasn’t sure why. But when Scott finished up with the tibial, the lymph node, and the hand, he ended by telling her that she would practice each one of them the next day. And keep practicing until she hit each pressure point without thought. Then she would learn how to use it in action. How to think fast, how to respond to her attacker within an instant. She was excited, but also a little bit proud at how she was committing it to her memory so fast. Now she only had to put it into action.

“Okay, my turn.” Connor got up and paced the room while he talked. A slight limp was definable in his gait. “The most basic is SING. Do you know what that is?”

She shook her head no.

“It’s an acronym. It’s the four vulnerable areas. You may not be able to hit a pressure point right away, or the point you hit is slightly off, not having the effect it was supposed to. If that happens, then you SING. Solar plexus, instep, nose and groin. Show me them. Show me where they each are.”

He waited for her to display she knew basic anatomy.

“And if you have time for a final strike, there’s one more. It turns the acronym to singe,” he gave a careless shrug, “but the eyes. Never forget the eyes, because it’s hard to do anything while stumbling around blindly.”

He gestured for her to sit back down, and she slid back next to Neil.

“Tactical Defense Training, or TDT, if you will, has only one purpose, Sophia. It’s to teach you how to defend against anyone who is trying to cause you physical harm. It’s to prevent you from being a victim. You will learn to control that pistol that Neil says you have stashed away. It will teach you self-defense. And most importantly, you will learn how to defend yourself against someone that has a weapon they are using on you.”

He reviewed some of the details and ended his verbal instruction with a warning.

“This is hard. Sophia. Because it’s not just learning your own skills. It’s learning how to follow your instincts and read what the attacker is going to do. It’s about knowing the speed and velocity of bullets, the strike zones of blades. In short, it is the one stop shop for keeping yourself alive.”

Sophia visibly shivered.

“I’ll learn it. I’ll learn all of it.”

“Okay then. We start tomorrow.” Connor got up and went outside. Within seconds the orange burn of a cigarillo glowed through the window.

When he came back in, Neil stood.

“I think we should call it. Tomorrow’s going to be long, and while everything you teach her throughout the day, she will need to be well rested for what I have for her training. You both know, she will need that.”

Scott moved slowly to his room and Sophia wondered if he was remembering going to his room with Victoria. Connor grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and lay down. At the door to Neil’s room, he stopped.

“I’ll wait a moment so you can get changed, then I’ll be in.”

Sophia nodded, wondering if she was going to get any sleep that night.

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