My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 120

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.”

I shook 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 evidence. It’ll be just like that time that I tried to turn in the stalker and they didn’t listen to me because she stole the only evidence I had.”

Lori and Jessica were silent for a moment before Jessica suddenly spoke up.

“Maybe you should get some evidence,” she suggested. “You said the tunnel has two entrances, right? Why not go back and get some pictures?”

My eyes widened at the prospect of going back in there. I didn’t know if I could do it… The very thought of going back in those tunnels made me want to vomit, and all of a sudden, I felt myself starting to cry.

Jessica and Lori both wrapped their arms around me.

“We’re here for you,” Jessica said. “Whatever you need. That’s what friends are for.”

…

I hardly got any more sleep that night. By six o’clock in the morning, I gave up entirely and just decided to wake up and get to the library early to work on my presentation. At least that could distract me.

Around eight o’clock, I 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 drank, I could hardly keep my eyes open… but I had an exam that day, and I couldn’t miss it.

I tried my best during the exam, but it wasn’t enough. Soon, my eyelids began to flutter as I rested my chin on my hand, and then before I knew it I was fast asleep on my desk right in the middle of the exam.

I awoke with a start to the sound of the professor dropping a textbook on my desk and quiet laughter around me.

“Tired, Miss Harper?” the professor asked.

I blinked, then rubbed my eyes. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t get much sleep--”

“There are no excuses in this class,” he interrupted. “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 stay up all night partying.”