My Hockey Alpha
#Chapter 292: The Moon’s Clarity

Nina

“Let's go for a walk,” I said to Enzo. I nodded my head toward the forest, past where the groundskeeper was filling in my twin sister's grave with moist dirt. Over our heads, the wind was howling fiercely and the sky was darkening at a rapid rate while a freezing, sharp rain was beginning to fall.

Enzo looked a little surprised at my request to walk in this weather, but he didn't protest. “Lead the way,” he said. I took his hand and led him past the groundskeeper, into the thicker part of the woods where the wind and the rain were less prominent. It felt a little silly to be walking through the woods in that weather while wearing a simple black dress, which had actually belonged to Selena, but I felt too compelled to walk and I didn’t want to go back to the mansion.

"Where do you want to go?” Enzo asked curiously.

I shrugged. “Nowhere in particular. I just want to think clearly.”

My father had just presented me with the option to stay in the werewolf realm and live in the mansion permanently. If I lived there, I knew that I wouldn't have any worries for the rest of my life. All of my needs would be well taken care of, I would never need to worry about money again, and I could always be near my father. However, it wasn't home. Mountainview was my home. It was our home; mine and Enzo's. I didn't want to leave my friends, my town, or my campus just yet. And I was certain that Enzo felt the same way.

We walked for a long time in complete silence, holding hands and listening only to the wind whistling overhead and the trees creaking against one another. The frost that lay on the hard ground crunched lightly beneath our feet, and altogether these sounds created an oddly comforting chorus of noise.

I didn't keep track of how long we walked for. It felt like hours, but neither of us cared. As werewolves, the cold didn't bother us very much. In fact, the cold made me feel invigorated and free, and filled me with an overwhelming urge to shift. Beside me, I could somehow sense that Enzo wanted to shift, too. It almost felt as though our wolves were sniffing each other out and urging each other to come out and play. It was an odd feeling, but a strangely happy one on such a sad day.

At one point, we came to a small stream in the middle of the woods. The water was frozen, causing the rocks to look slick and shiny in the dim light. As it flowed downwards, the little waterfalls that were once there in the warmer weather were now frozen in time, like little white drips of wax sitting on the side of a candle. I imagined that this would be a nice spot to sit and read during the nice weather; and somehow, as I stood there and looked around, I suddenly got the sense that Selena did just that while she was alive. It was as though our twin bond gave me the ability to sense her energy here. I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined her laying on a blanket in the forest with books surrounding her. Not much was known about Selena and her real interests, but I liked to imagine that she was an avid reader. She probably spent a lot of time reading romance novels, which was why she was so taken with Enzo and adamant about making him her mate. She seemed like the type to romanticize things in her life, despite the fact that the Luna was secretly controlling every aspect of it.

But, once again, I didn't know anything about Selena. I only ever saw flashes of her true self come out when she occasionally broke through the Luna's spell. Other than that, the Selena that I knew was just a fabricated image, a facade. A puppet to do the Luna's bidding. And yet, in the end, she still managed to break through it and stop the Luna, even if it ended in her death.

Suddenly, I felt Enzo’s arm slip around me. His hand slowly slid up the side of my shirt and ran along my skin; not in a sexual way, but a comforting and loving way. He had hardly spoken all day, but his touch gave away all of his emotions. I could tell that he was more deeply sad about Selena’s untimely death than he let on, but that he was also deeply relieved that everything was over — for the most part. For us, it was over. My father would handle the Crescents. Perhaps Enzo could eventually get his revenge on Lewis for disrespecting his father, but other than that, we didn't have any part left to play in this. It was time for a real army, my father’s army, to take down the Crescents. Now, we could just go back to being normal college students, just like I always wanted.

That was, assuming that I chose to go back to Mountainview.

As much as I loved Mountainview, there were a lot of horrible memories there. Every way I turned, I saw the horrors of what had happened that semester; I saw Edward, Tiffany, Justin, Lisa, Ronan. I saw the blood-soaked floors of the hockey arena after the rogues broke in. I saw all of the needless fights that I had with Enzo. I saw Richard's weak, dying body laying in Enzo’s arms in the forest. In a way, moving to the werewolf realm was a way to have a fresh start. I would visit Mountainview, of course. But maybe it was best for it to be just that: a place to visit.

Enzo ran his finger along my waist again as we continued to stand there and look down at the frozen stream. I shivered slightly beneath the cold touch of his fingers, and looked up at him in the low light.

“It's been six hours,” Enzo said matter-of-factly.

My eyes widened. “Six hours?” I asked. How had we been standing here for six hours? It hardly even felt like twenty minutes.

Enzo just chuckled and shook his head. “Grief does funny things to supernaturals like us,” he said quietly. As he spoke, I looked up to see that the sky was indeed dark now, and the tempest had ended. The forest was quiet, no longer filled with the sound of the whistling wind. In the sky, dark gray clouds floated lazily across the yellow full moon — the moon that was always full in this strange place.

And as I looked up at the full moon, I felt that the urge to shift was even stronger now. As I looked up at the moon, I felt the urge to run freely through the woods before I could bring myself to return to the mansion and give my father my decision.

"What do you say we stay out a little bit longer?” I asked Enzo, feeling a smile begin to spread across my cold lips.

He grinned, and we began to shift together.

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