Bonded To The Dysfunctional Alpha

Chapter 10: Brandon

Sophie’s POV

The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was that he was still there.

I blinked, convinced I was imagining it, but no, Tyler was right beside me, shirtless, still asleep, his chest rising and falling slowly, and I just lay there for a moment completely stunned because the last time I had woken up he was already gone, so this, him actually still being here, was not something I had prepared myself for.

I propped myself up slowly and just looked at him.

The line of his jaw, his shoulders, the way he looked completely unbothered even in sleep, and something warm and stubborn settled in my chest as I stared at him, a quiet decision forming somewhere underneath all the confusion and hurt of the past few days, because his dysfunction had not affected what happened between us, not once, and if that meant what I thought it meant then I was not letting this man go to anybody, I didn’t care what it took.

“You going to stare at me until I wake up?”

I yanked my gaze away so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash, heat rushing straight to my face, and I sat up and swung my legs off the bed and stared very hard at the wall in front of me like it had said something interesting.

“I wasn’t staring,” I said.

He said nothing to that, which was somehow worse.

I turned back around because I needed an answer, I had been needing one since yesterday morning and I was done waiting for it, “what are we Tyler, after everything, what is this, what am I to you?”

He was quiet for a moment and I watched his face and I already knew, could already see it coming, because that expression, closed off and distant, was one I had memorised by now.

Then he stood up, looked at me. “We are cool.”

The statement knocked the words clean out of my mouth, and then he walked out of the room without looking back.

I sat there blinking at the empty doorway.

He hadn’t pushed me away, not really, but he hadn’t claimed me either, just left me sitting in the middle with no ground under my feet, and I turned that over for about thirty seconds before something in me went very quiet and very decided.

Fine. Tyler could run his green light however he wanted, but I had made up my mind and I was keeping it, he was mine, I was going to make sure of it, and whatever wall he kept hiding behind I would find my way through it eventually because I was not the kind of person who gave up on something real.

I got up, showered, changed into the first decent thing I could find and went downstairs for breakfast.

Ava was at the table.

The moment she saw me she stood up and left.

I watched her go and pressed my lips together and told myself not to follow her because Ava was still angry and chasing her right now would only make it worse, but it sat heavy in my chest anyway because I had never seen Ava like this, not with me, we had disagreed before and moved past it within hours but this was different, this had a coldness to it that felt deliberate, and the thing that made it worse was that Ava knew me, she had always known I was not into women, and yet she was treating this like I had done something unforgivable and it was exhausting on top of everything else I was already carrying.

I was staring into my cup thinking about all of it when the front door opened.

I looked up and a man walked in.

Very tall, broad shouldered, with a face that was genuinely unfair in the way it was put together, the kind of face that made you forget what you were about to say, and he moved through the doorway with an ease that said he was comfortable taking up space, comfortable with being looked at, comfortable with pretty much everything.

I stared at him for exactly two seconds before my stomach dropped.

Dylan!

This had Dylan written all over it, sending someone here because he couldn’t drag me out himself, sending someone handsome thinking that would make it easier, thinking I would just go quietly if the messenger was attractive enough, and the nerve of it made something hot move through my chest immediately.

“Tyler!” His name came out louder than I intended, “Tyler please come down here, Dylan sent someone, he sent someone to get me, Tyler!”

Footsteps from upstairs, more than one set, and then Tyler came through into the sitting room with Ava right behind him, both of them taking in the scene, the man standing near the door, me on my feet with my jaw tight.

Tyler looked at me, “where is Dylan?”

I pointed at the man, “that is Dylan’s work, he sent him to get me, I’m not going, I don’t want to go, Tyler please….”

Ava released a breath beside me, long and frustrated, and turned to leave.

“Seriously?” I turned to look at her, “you’re going to walk away right now? We are already fighting and you can’t just stand here with me on a day like this, you can’t just….”

She kept walking.

“Ava!”

She was already gone.

I stood there feeling the frustration of it everywhere when the man near the door spoke, his voice calm and easy, “that’s not Dylan’s doing.”

I turned back to him slowly, “what?”

“Dylan didn’t send me,” he said, and there was something almost amused in his expression, not unkind, just relaxed, “I’m Tyler’s Beta.”

I blinked in shock.

He crossed the room toward me and stopped a comfortable distance away and held out his hand, “Brandon, and it’s very nice to meet you.”