My Hockey Alpha
#Chapter 265: New Recruits

Nina

As we walked back to town, it seemed that what Luke and the others had said was true after all. All of the rogues had left when their leader howled, and thankfully, not much damage was done. People seemed shaken up, but other than that, no one was severely injured.

"If anyone needs medical attention, come to the infirmary,” I said, addressing the group of townspeople that still remained at our original meeting point. “I'll help anyone who needs it. The town is safe for now, though, so you can rest easy tonight.”

"What if they come back?” a middle-aged woman asked, her voice shaking slightly as she held on tightly to her husband's arm. “They could come back at any point.”

“If they come back, we'll be prepared,” Enzo said, stepping in. “The hockey team will be patrolling the perimeter of the town, and we have people posted in various places to watch for any returning rogues. For now, it looks like they ran off to regroup, and they probably won't be back anytime soon.”

Unfortunately, however, it seemed as though the townspeople didn't believe Enzo. I didn't blame them, either. The rogues were unpredictable, and whatever tactics they used earlier to sneak past our defenses were unlike anything that I had seen before. It was true that they could come back at any point, and with so few werewolves in town to fight, we wouldn't stand much of a chance if the rogues returned in greater numbers.

As we walked back to campus, I was silent. I kept trying to think of ways that we could prepare, because the rogues were bound to come back. And until we figured out how to stop both the Luna and the Crescents entirely, which very well could take a long time, we needed to know that our town was being protected in the meantime. At the end of the day, we simply didn't have enough werewolves to defend ourselves.

However, I suddenly had an idea. As we were crossing the athletic field to head back to the infirmary, I suddenly stopped and whirled around to face Enzo and the others.

“I have an idea,” I said. “It's crazy, but it would help us stand a chance against the Luna and the Crescents.”

"What is it?” Enzo asked, cocking his head slightly and causing his curly hair to fall into his eyes a bit. “I have the power of Claiming, remember?” I said, thinking back on the night that I turned the entire hockey team into werewolves. Although I had passed out afterwards from the stress of it all, it was a successful endeavor. And now that I had shifted and had my wolf's full power coursing through me, I was confident that my power of Claiming would be even more potent.

Enzo, immediately seeing what I was getting at, shook his head and began walking again. “No.”

My eyes widened slightly, and I jogged after him a bit. The rest of the group followed, although they were silent at first. "No?" I asked, grabbing Enzo’s arm. “That's it? That's all you have to say?”

“Yes,” Enzo replied. “That's all I have to say. No.”

I frowned, and looked around at my friends. “Well... What do you guys think?”

Matt, who had been the very first one to experience my power of Claiming, shrugged. “If you're implying that we should turn more people into werewolves to help us fight, I don't think it's the worst idea,” he said.

Enzo looked over his shoulder to throw Matt a stern glare. “It's too dangerous,” Enzo replied. “We can't just go around creating more werewolves all over the place. The only reason why I was okay with all of you guys getting turned was because I've known you all for years, and I trust all of you. It's a lot of power to give one person.”

I didn't want to admit it, but Enzo was right; it could be dangerous to give powers to the wrong person. But at the same time, the people of our town had just proven to us that they cared about Mountainview, and I didn't think that they would use their powers for evil.

"Enzo, the entire town just showed up to fight,” I said. “The people here are good people.”

"Okay, sure,” Enzo replied, stopping once more to face me. “But that doesn't mean that we should just turn everyone into werewolves.”

"Wouldn't it be voluntary, though?” Jessica suddenly chimed in. “We could put up sign-up sheets around town..."

"..And if anyone wants to turn back after the fighting is over, we can give them the antidote,” I said, smiling at Jessica. She flashed me a supportive look and nodded. I turned back to face Enzo then. "Come on, Enzo,” I said. “At least think about it. It's the only way that we can stand a chance at keeping our home safe.”

Enzo was silent for a moment. He was clenching and unclenching his jaw repeatedly, just like he always did when he was brooding. He was silent for so long, in fact, that I was on the verge of giving up and walking away — but finally, after a lot of thought, he nodded solemnly.

“Alright,” he said quietly, staring at the ground. “But it has to be voluntary, and I want to intensively train everyone before any fighting begins. If I see even a spark in someone that could indicate that they're planning on using their powers for evil, I'm forcefully injecting them with the antidote.”

I nodded, suppressing a smile. Even though Enzo’s method of making sure that no one would use their powers for evil felt a little extreme, he wasn't entirely crazy for wanting to take that route. After all, we did need to make sure that we weren't putting the town in even more danger by giving powers to the wrong people.

The next morning, we had put posters up all around town and campus by breakfast time. Every shop and classroom had a sign-up sheet, and by the time I headed back to campus after putting up my last poster, I could already see some people lining up to put their names on the lists. I was surprised by the amount of people who were so easily willing to make such a huge change for Mountainview, but it filled me with pride more than anything.

However, as I headed to the dining hall for breakfast, I ran into the last person who I would want to give werewolf powers to.

“Hey.” Selena’s voice was sharp and staccato as she stopped abruptly in front of me. Before I could even say hello in response, she shoved one of the sign-up sheets in my face. “What the hell is this?” With a sigh, I took the sign-up sheet out of her hand and folded it up. “It's a sign-up sheet for something that you're not invited to, unfortunately,” I said, trying to be stern without being overly mean.

Selena folded her arms across her chest and frowned deeply. “That's not fair,” she growled.

I shrugged. “Until you've given me a good reason to believe that you wouldn't use your powers for evil, you're staying human,” I replied. “Sorry, but you can't deny the fact that you caused a lot of trouble when you were a werewolf.”

For several moments, Selena just stared at me with a dark expression. Her lips were pursed, and she seemed to be struggling to come up with a response. But before she could say anything else, I suddenly felt an arm wrap around my shoulder and looked up to see Enzo standing beside me. "Hey, Selena,” he said.

Without a word, Selena turned on her heel and stormed off. All Enzo and I could do was look at each other and shrug.

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