Chapter 10
She glared at him. "It shouldn't be that simple," she argued, which caused him to raise a thick eyebrow, "after everything I did?"
Zafrix leaned forward on his seat. "I don't know what you still cannot understand, Marianne. You are my beloved. It is much expected from me to protect and save your life."
Sofia shook her head. She didn't know why she was expecting a different answer. But being here alone with him in his room suffocated her in a very tingling way. She shouldn't stay here any longer.
"Fine. I'm leaving."
"Wait," he stopped her. "I answered your question. Therefore, you should also answer mine."
She glared at him. She remained seated and waited for him to speak. She already knew what he was going to ask.
"Why are you so persistent in trying to kill me?" he asked seriously.
Sofia drew her gaze away from him and looked instead at his open window. She couldn't answer that question while looking at him. It was too painful.
"I want to make you pay for what you did." She couldn't see his reaction, and it was better that way. So she could give her answer properly. She didn't want to change her mind again about why she was there. "I'm here to get my revenge against you for killing my parents."
There was a heavy silence.
She barely felt him sit beside her on the seat and wipe the tears she hadn't noticed were profusely flowing down her cheeks. She wanted to pull away, but her instincts told her not to.
"Who are your parents?"
She shook her head. Everything was still too painful for her. "It's better for you not to know who they are."
"I don't just murder anyone, Marianne. And seeing how much anger and hate you can throw at me, I'm sure that your parents are one of the criminals that I have given the punishment of death."
Her heart and mind went numb as more tears leaked from her eyes that were blazing with fury. She still didn't look up. Her anger for him was just getting stronger. She couldn't accept what he was saying about her parents.
"You don't know what you're talking about." She moved away from him slightly. "My parents were good people. And you took them away from me! You don't know how hard it is to live and grow up without parents," she sobbed, remembering her sibling.
Things are getting too emotional. She should stop this before it goes somewhere else.
"I know what it feels like."
Sofia stopped when the man said that. She looked up and saw anger in his eyes. She saw how he clenched his jaw with anger. Of course. He's been living in this world for more than nine hundred years. That's understandable. But her situation was different because she wasn't a king of werewolves.
She felt him pull her into a tight hug. If it should be called a hug. She took a deep breath and pressed closer. Without knowing what she was about to do, she lifted her flustered and flushed tear-stained face to be kissed. For a moment, his passionate look held hers. But a moment later, it disappeared from his eyes. The old mockery crept back into his dark eyes.
"Flirting will not make me change my mind, my darling tigress," he whispered in her ear and drew away from her.
A stunned look swept over Sofia's face.
"I'm sure that your parents were criminals. I don't just kill with no valid reason."
Anger quickly surged in her chest. She deeply regretted what she had done. She will never forgive him. Never. She swore in stone that she would get even with him.
Oh, she could wait.
She summoned an air of cold indifference. She felt in complete control of herself now and ignored what just happened, as if nothing had occurred. She wiped the tears from her cheeks, feeling cold, and moved away from him. She couldn't believe she had done that.
"You better go now, not that I don't like what I am seeing. I'm actually fond of red." He impulsively caressed her red hair. "Red for blood, red for war, red for bravery, and red for you my fierce little tigress." He gazed deeper into her green ones. "And you know what red does to a bull." She caught the note of subtle meaning in his voice.
She threw him a gaze of loathing before she left the place with a heavy heart.
THE NEXT day, Sofia is back on her training routine.
Zafrix is leaning carelessly against the tree bark. He watched Sofia from under sleepy eyelids, while she pretends to ignore him and continued targeting the black crow perched on top of a tree with her bow. He took in every detail of her red hair that looks like blazing fire under the glare of the sunlight, complementing her fierce personality, to her toned stomach and legs that he longed to touch.
He had only left the young woman for a few days, but it felt like months.
Sofia venomously pulled the bowstring, and with one eye open, hit the oblivious bird across its abdomen. The poor creature fell on the sandy ground with a low crashing sound, its blood immediately staining the white sand.
"Quite a sharp shooter, eh?" the deep voice from the tree bark remarked.
With pretended unconcern, Sofia took another arrow. But in her mind, all of her pretense of indifference was in a state of turmoil. His presence alone could send her peaceful mind into complete chaos.
Oh, how she missed him truthfully?
But she was still annoyed at herself because of what happened last night. She could sense his dark gray eyes following every graceful movement of her body as each muscle worked with coordination as she stretched another arrow on the bowstring. And she was itching to scold him. However, she was determined to ignore him and not speak.
Whatever.
The only sign of awareness of his lazy scrutiny was the fact that her cheeks continued to deepen in color. She couldn't stop it. That automatic flushing of her face just because he was staring at her. Zafrix stood immobile and silent, just watching her aim at another bird from quite a distance. She suddenly felt frustrated.
What was he thinking?
Soon, she felt a heavy sensation in her chest. She could no longer bear the tension between them. She whipped around and let go of the string. The arrow went shooting out of the bow, almost unseen to ordinary naked eyes, aiming at the man's chest.
Effortlessly, not even breaking a drop of sweat, Zafrix stopped the incoming arrow as if merely catching a ball. He gazed back at her in complete amusement as she strode towards him, her eyes giving away the confrontation in her mind. She wanted to demand an explanation. But she didn't know about what. She also wanted to ask: why he left her there, why he didn't just take her with him, and why it took him days to return?
He could see her pupils almost dilating with burning hatred.
Sofia stopped in front of him. But as she stood too near in his presence, all her plans for a huge confrontation immediately vanished into thin air. Her tongue felt tied. She could do nothing but glare at him.
He bent down casually while she stood her ground, unwilling herself to break away. Because it would make her seem afraid of him again, that she was weak.
"Well," he drawled with a twist of amusement in his eyes, "aren't you going to say something?"
She looked at him coldly. "There are so many things that I would love to say to you," she answered with a sneer.
He stepped forward, his tall and lithe body advancing on hers. She felt that fear again, the same fear she had felt the night he almost touched her intimately. She didn't notice that she was backing away again until her bare back touched the roughness of a tree bark behind her.
The man placed a hand firmly on either side of her on the tree trunk, imprisoning her in his arms. Their bodies weren't touching. And yet, she was intensely aware of his proximity. Her gaze fell to his lips. She remembered the audacity she almost committed last night.
Even his lips are perilously near hers.
Suddenly, fear for him changed to fear of herself. She could feel her limbs turning weak as water. Despite her anger and hate, she knew that the moment he touched her, she would quickly give in. His simple touch caused her whole body to turn into fire. Utter confusion about herself possessed her mind and soul. Her desire to attack him was turning into a desire to be trapped in his arms.
"So?" the man asked again.
She blinked, and her mind returned to the present. She couldn't accept the conclusion that had crossed her mind. Seeing him now, made her no longer want to strike him.
Zafrix straightened up. Without warning, he released her. She felt confused. He had suddenly moved away.
That's when she felt another presence.
"So, this is the woman you were talking about," said a soft, melodious, and seductive voice of a woman from behind.