Bonded To The Dysfunctional Alpha

Chapter 6: Fifteen Calls

Sophie’s POV

He stepped back, just like that. One second he was there, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off him, close enough that my brain had completely stopped functioning, and then he wasn’t. He turned and walked away with that same straight back and unhurried stride, like nothing had happened, like he hadn’t just pinned me to a wall with his body betraying every word coming out of his mouth.

I stood there for a moment with my back still against the wall.

Then I pushed off it and went inside because standing in the side yard staring after him was not a dignified option.

I spent the rest of the morning being useless.

I tried reading. I tried sitting by the pool. I tried eating something at lunch and managed about half of it before my appetite gave up entirely. Dylan’s words kept circling back no matter how many times I pushed them away, quiet and persistent, finding gaps in every distraction I attempted.

Ask him about his condition.

I turned it over and looked at it from every angle, and I still didn’t know what to do with it. Because Tyler’s body had told me one thing very clearly this morning and Dylan’s words were saying something else entirely and I couldn’t make them fit together in any way that made sense.

I needed the truth.I promised myself that quietly and with complete sincerity. I would not let this sit. I would find out what was actually going on if it was the last thing I did.

What I could not do, apparently, was get within ten feet of Tyler to ask.

He disappeared after the driveway. I saw him once crossing the yard around noon and moved in his direction and he changed course so smoothly it almost looked accidental.

By two o’clock I stopped trying to talk to him.

I sat in the chair by the window in my room and stared at nothing and let the mood settle over me like weather. I was not sad exactly. I was something more restless than sad, something that wanted to move but had nowhere useful to go.

By four I gave up on the day entirely and got into bed when I suddenly heard a knock.

Ava pushed the door open and the sight of her made something in my chest loosen immediately. She was bright in the way she always was, hair loose, wearing something orange that suited her in the effortless way everything suited Ava, and she was smiling when she came in.

“You’ve been hiding inside,” she said.

“I’ve been resting.”

“Same thing.” She dropped onto the foot of the bed and pulled her legs up. “Talk to me, did you enjoy earlier?”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again because the first place my mind went was this morning, Ava’s hand inside me, and a different kind of discomfort moved through me. I looked at the window.

“I’m fine.”

“Sophie.”

“Ava, I really don’t want to talk about earlier, okay?” The words came out faster than I intended. “I’d rather just move past it.”

I looked back at her. She was watching me with an expression I couldn’t fully read, something sitting behind her eyes that was more serious than her usual register.

“Okay,” she said quietly. “Different topic.”

But she didn’t offer one. She just sat there and the quiet stretched and I knew that look. I had known Ava long enough to know when something was sitting in her chest waiting to get out.

“What is it,” I said.

She picked at the edge of the bedsheet. “I have something to tell you.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to say it for a while.” She paused. “I kept telling myself it wasn’t the right time. But I don’t think there’s going to be a right time, so.”

I sat up slightly. “Ava, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

She looked at me.

“I have feelings for you,” she said. “Real ones. Not just the way I mess around with everyone. Actual feelings, Sophie.”

I stared at her. Then I laughed.

It came out before I could stop it, short and startled, because my immediate instinct was that she was winding me up. This was Ava. Ava who had been my best friend for years, Ava who knew everything about me including the part that I liked men exclusively and had never once looked at a woman and felt anything resembling what she was describing.

“Stop,” I said.

“I’m not joking.”

The laughter faded. I looked at her face and she wasn’t smiling. “Ava…”

“I know,” she said quickly. “I know you like men. I know this isn’t, I know. I just couldn’t keep it in anymore.”

I sat all the way up. “When did this even…was it because of earlier today? Because what happened was just…”

“It’s not because of today.” Her voice was firm. “It’s been a long time, Sophie. I’ve been sitting on this for months. Longer maybe. I just.” She exhaled. “I needed you to know.”

I looked at her and felt the weight of it, genuine, real, carefully carried. This wasn’t impulsive. She meant it.

“I can’t,” I said gently. “I’m sorry. You know I love you. But not like that. I don’t feel that way and I can’t pretend I do.”

Something moved across her face. She nodded once, slowly, and I could see her working to keep it steady.

Then she looked at me steadily . “Is it because of Tyler?”

My stomach tightened. “What?”

“Are you saying no because of him?” Her voice had changed, something underneath it now that was sharper than hurt. “Because if Tyler is the reason you’re turning me down, Sophie, I swear I will make sure he is out of your life. I will personally….”

“Ava.” I said her name carefully.

But she was already standing. Already moving toward the door with her jaw set and her eyes bright in a way that had nothing to do with her usual warmth.

“Ava, wait.”

The door clicked shut behind her.

I sat on the bed and stared blankly.

I had known Ava for years. I had seen her happy and reckless and dramatic and bold and every version of herself she’d ever been in my presence. I had never seen her look like that.

I pressed my fingers against my temples and told myself to breathe.

I couldn’t sleep, I lay in the dark and the ceiling stared back and my brain refused to quiet, cycling through Tyler and Dylan and Ava and back again in a loop that exhausted me without offering any resolution. I checked my phone. After midnight. I turned it face down.

It buzzed. I ignored it.

It buzzed again. I picked it up to check the caller. It was Dylan.

I put it back down face first and closed my eyes.

It rang again. And again. And again, each one cutting through the quiet of the room, relentless and flat. I watched the missed calls stack up in the notification bar. Five. Eight. Eleven. At thirteen I sat up. At fifteen I picked up.

“What, Dylan.”

“Come home.” His voice was tight. “I am not asking anymore Sophie. Come home or I'll tell our parents.”

My grip tightened on the phone. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

I opened my mouth to reply but the door opened.

I turned fast, my heart already jumping, and Tyler walked in. He didn’t knock. He just came through the door like he had every reason to be there and stopped when he saw me sitting up in the dark with the phone against my ear.

He looked at me for a moment.

Then he crossed the room, reached down, and took the phone from my hand.

I let him. I don’t know why I let him but I did, my fingers releasing it without resistance, watching him look at the screen and see Dylan’s name still on the call.

He put it to his ear.

“Don’t call her again.” His voice was quiet and completely without heat, which somehow made it more certain than anger would have. “She’s my mate. She leaves when I say she leaves.” A pause. He listened to whatever Dylan said and his expression didn’t change at all. “Try it Dylan.”