My Hockey Alpha

Nina

Enzo and I almost kissed.

But we didn’t. He stepped away before we could. I understood why he did that, but it still hurt. At the very least, even though he left almost immediately after, I made him promise not to hurt James; I wanted to get to the bottom of this before we did anything rash. For all we knew, James wasn’t even planning on doing anything bad. We didn’t even know what the letter truly meant in its entirety.

That night, however, I had countless horrible dreams. In one dream, I was back in Edward’s tunnels and he was forcing me to drink my medicine. When he poured it down my throat, it turned into a thick sludge that made me choke. In another dream, I was running toward Enzo, but something was holding me back and I never reached him before he disappeared.

In my final dream, I saw Enzo standing in front of me. He was smiling and holding a woman’s hand. I couldn’t see her face because it was covered by a wedding veil, but when they turned toward each other and he lifted his veil and kissed her, I knew it was his fated mate despite still not seeing her face. I sobbed, trying as hard as I could to get between them and stop them, but as I did, Enzo suddenly grabbed me by my throat and throttled me. I struggled against him as he lifted me off of the ground by my neck, my limbs flailing while I clawed at his firm hands. The last thing I saw before I started to lose consciousness was the image of his glowing red eyes staring angrily at me.

Suddenly, I woke up to the feeling of someone shaking me and the sound of Lori and Jessica’s concerned voices.

“Nina? Are you okay?” Jessica asked.

I cracked my eyes open, then furrowed my brow. “What are you doing in my room?” It was still pitch black outside, and when I glanced over at the digital clock on my dresser, it was only three o’clock in the morning.

“You were totally freaking out,” Jessica said. “We heard you yelling and got worried about you.”

I frowned, sat up, and rubbed my eyes.

“What happened?” Lori asked.

“I keep having nightmares about what Edward did to me,” I said quietly. “They won’t stop. And they’ve been getting worse.”

Lori and Jessica both looked at each other in unison.

“You know,” Lori said, sitting on the edge of my bed, “the whole town knows about werewolves now. If that’s what was stopping you from turning Edward in to the police before, then it’s not stopping you now.”

my head. “It’s not just that. I don’t know what he’s capable of, and I still don’t know who exactly he, Ronan, Lisa, and whoever else are working for. Besides… I have no

were silent for a

said the tunnel has two entrances, right? Why not go

didn’t know if I could do it… The very thought of

and Lori both wrapped their

for you,” Jessica said. “Whatever

…

night. By six o’clock in the morning, I gave up entirely and just decided to wake up and get to

had to go to class, and by that point the effects of the sleep deprivation were really starting to take a toll on me. No matter how much coffee I

enough. Soon, my eyelids began to flutter as I rested my chin on my hand, and then before

to the sound of the professor dropping a textbook on my desk and

Harper?”

blinked, then rubbed my eyes. “I’m so sorry,”

“The exam is over, and it looks like you’re only halfway finished. I’ll be docking points for this; next time, try not to

to say that I wasn’t up partying, but what was I supposed to say after that? If I mentioned anything about the nightmares, I’d only get more ridicule, and by that point the professor had

swallowed my pride and left

my grades were slipping, and of course there was my relationship with Enzo, and James’ letter

go back to my

heading when I heard someone say my

around to

“Oh. Hey,” I said.

and the dark circles under his eyes.

talk for a few minutes?” he asked, pointing at the bench by the fountain. I nodded hesitantly and followed

want you to know that what happened in the cafeteria the other day was actually really helpful,” he said once we sat down. “I think it unlocked something in me, so

my brow. “What do you