Chapter 34 Sophia’s Games
DANIEL'S POV
I interrogated Sophia in one of the lower meeting rooms, Nathan was with me, both of us furious at her latest manipulation. Sophia sat in a metal chair with her hands folded calmly in her lap, looking completely at ease despite the anger radiating from both Nathan and me.
The smile on her face made my hands curl into fists at my sides, my wolf demanding I make her pay for hurting my sister again.
"I am just speeding up the inevitable," Sophia said, her tone conversational like we were discussing the weather instead of her mischief. "Lisa and Ryan are wrong for each other. Anyone with eyes can see it. He will always doubt himself around her, second-guess every decision because he knows she is stronger and smarter than he gives her credit for. And she will always wonder if he is choosing her or just honoring a bond that destiny forced on them both."
"Shut your mouth," Nathan growled, his control slipping in ways I had rarely seen. Nathan was usually the calm one, the steady presence who kept his emotions carefully managed. Seeing him this close to losing it told me exactly how deeply he felt about Lisa.
Sophia turned her attention to Nathan, her smile widening. "You think you can have her, Nathan? You think confessing your feelings changes anything? The mate bond does not just disappear because you want it to. She will always feel pulled to Ryan, always wonder what they could have been if circumstances were different. And you will always be the consolation prize, the man she settled for when she could not have what destiny promised."
Nathan lunged forward fast enough that his chair crashed backward. I grabbed him before he could reach Sophia, my arms locking around his chest and holding him back with effort that made my muscles strain.
"That is exactly what she wants," I whispered into Nathan's ear hoping he would listen to me. "She wants you to lose control, to allow her to claim you are violent and unstable. Do not give her the satisfaction."
Nathan stopped fighting against my hold but his whole body vibrated with barely contained rage. I released him carefully, keeping myself positioned between him and Sophia just in case.
I turned my full attention to Sophia. "Here is what is going to happen. You are going to tell us exactly what information you claim to have about Viktor's loyalists. Every name, every location, every piece of intelligence you used as an excuse to manipulate your way back onto our territory. And then you are leaving Moonstone lands permanently with an official exile order that will be shared with every allied pack in the region."
"And if I refuse?" Sophia asked, still playing games even now.
"Then you leave with nothing and we handle the threats ourselves," I said flatly. "But know this. If you ever come back, if you ever contact Ryan or Lisa or any member of this pack again, I will kill you myself. Not as her Third but as her brother. And no one will stop me."
I saw her shift in her seat, the threat landed exactly where I needed it to.
She gave us the information she claimed to have over the next hour. Names of rogues who were still loyal to Viktor's memory, wolves who blamed Moonstone Pack for his death and were supposedly planning retaliation. Locations where they were gathering, weapons they had acquired, alliances they were forming with other disgruntled wolves.
It was useful intelligence, I had to admit that much. Information that would help us protect the pack from legitimate threats. But it was nothing that required Sophia's physical presence on our lands. She could have sent this information through official channels, through neutral intermediaries, through any method that did not involve manipulating Ryan and hurting Lisa.
She just wanted to create chaos and she had succeeded perfectly.
After Sophia was escorted to pack borders and exiled with formal orders witnessed by multiple pack members, I went looking for Lisa. I found her in her private quarters, sitting on the edge of her bed and staring at nothing. The room was dim, curtains drawn against the afternoon sun which wasn't something she liked.
She was not crying but her mood was worse. Lisa just sat there with dry eyes and a blank expression, like she had moved beyond tears into some numb place where feeling anything was too exhausting to manage.
"He let her back in," Lisa said quietly without looking at me. Her voice was flat, emotionless, dead. "After everything she has done, after every time she tried to destroy us, Ryan let her manipulate him again. How can I trust someone who falls for the same tricks repeatedly?"
I sat beside my sister on the bed, close enough that our shoulders touched. "Ryan is an idiot about Sophia. He always has been, probably always will be. She knows exactly which buttons to push to make him doubt himself and act without thinking."
"That does not make it better," Lisa said.
"No," I agreed. "It does not. But Lisa, I have watched him these past weeks while you were gone. He has been miserable without you. Completely lost. The mate bond is eating him alive, the separation causing him physical pain he tries to hide but cannot fully mask. That does not excuse his choices or his poor judgment, but the feelings are real."
Lisa was quiet for a long moment, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. When she finally spoke, her words shocked me more than anything Sophia had said.
"The mate bond is not as strong as it should be," Lisa admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. "I have been suppressing my side of it deliberately, pushing back against the pull every time I feel it trying to draw me toward Ryan. And it is getting easier. The bond feels weaker now than it did months ago."
I turned to look at her fully, concern flooding through me. "Lisa, that is dangerous. The mate bond is not something you can just turn off without consequences."
"I know," she said. "I have been reading everything I can find about mate bonds and rejection. There is research suggesting that mates can weaken their bonds over time through sustained emotional distance. It is rare and requires constant effort, but possible. Part of me wonders if I am trying to break it completely so I can choose freely. Nathan, Adrian, or even just myself without any bond influencing my decisions."