Nina
The air was crisp and cool, the perfect early summer evening, as I stepped onto the campus.
Most of the students had left for the summer already aside from the few who remained during the off season, leaving the campus empty and quiet. But I didn’t mind. It was nice sometimes to feel like I had the place to myself.
As I walked past the library, I spotted Luke pacing near a large oak tree. His eyes were locked on the ground, and there was something in his expression that made his normally soft face look far harsher than it usually did.
“Hey, Luke,” I called out, and he looked up, momentarily startled.
“Nina! Hey,” he said, pocketing his phone. “You look intense. Everything okay?”
“That’s actually what I was going to ask you. Have you seen Enzo? I need to talk to him.”
Luke hesitated, his eyes dropping to the ground as if it might offer some guidance. “Enzo’s…around.”
“That didn’t sound convincing. What’s going on,
Luke?”
He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “You sure you wanna know?”
“I asked, didn’t I?”
Luke looked at me for a long moment before he spoke. “Enzo kinda lost it while questioning the burglar. Beat the hell out of him.”
The world tilted for a moment, and I grabbed the tree for support. “He did what?”
“Hey, listen, he’s not himself right now,” Luke rushed to say, as if sensing the storm of emotions raging inside me.
“That’s not an excuse, Luke. You don’t just… snap and beat someone up.”
“Everyone’s worried about you and how you’re holding up,” Luke said, his voice softening. “But maybe we’ve all been blind to how this is affecting him too. You’re not the only one who’s been going through a tough time.”
“I never said I was,” I retorted, my hands trembling. “But it seems like everyone is so preoccupied with my mental state that we’ve collectively dropped the ball on him. And I’m his wife. If anyone should have noticed, it should’ve been me.”
Luke sighed. “Don’t beat yourself up, Nina. You’re both under a lot of stress, and it’s hard to see past your own problems sometimes.”
“Where is he?” I asked, feeling a sense of urgency now more than ever to talk to Enzo.
“He’s with Matt. They’re playing some hockey at the university arena. Matt calmed him down like a charm.”
I nodded, already making my way toward the arena. My thoughts spiraled in a whirlwind of guilt and concern. Had I been so consumed with my own fears and apprehensions that I had forgotten to see my husband’s? I felt like a bad wife, selfish even.
When I reached the arena, the cold air greeted me, filling my lungs and stinging my eyes. I found a secluded corner in the stands, my eyes searching the ice for Enzo. There he was, his face intense, his stick in hand as he battled against Matt for control of the puck.
I watched as they darted around the ice, their skates carving intricate patterns into the smooth white surface. Enzo seemed to be playing more aggressively than I had ever seen, his body moving with a kind of frantic energy.
Matt, on the other hand, appeared to be keeping pace, but there was a look of concern in his eyes that he couldn’t quite mask. Some paragraphs are incomplete if you are not reading this novel on Jobnib.com. Visit Jobnib.com to read the complete chapters for free.At one point, he stole a glance at Enzo when he thought he wasn’t looking, and I saw it -the same concern that I felt deep in my bones.
I stayed hidden in my corner, my eyes never leaving Enzo. He was so engrossed in the game that he didn’t notice me. And for that brief moment, that was okay. I needed this unfiltered view of him, this glimpse into a part of his world where I was the outsider looking in.
As I watched Enzo glide across the ice, stick in hand, eyes focused intently on the puck, I felt a strange blend of fascination and worry. The Enzo I saw was both familiar and foreign —his movements so full of purpose, yet so tinged with desperation.
His passion for the game was always one of the things I had loved about him, but tonight, it felt like a double- edged sword.
He and Matt clashed sticks, the sound resonating through the empty arena. Enzo was particularly aggressive tonight, his skates biting into the ice as he attempted to wrestle control of the puck from Matt.
And then it happened. Enzo pushed himself too hard, and his balance faltered. I saw him stumble, try to regain footing, but it was too late. He fell hard, face first onto the ice, and the gasp that escaped my lips seemed to echo in the chilly air.
My feet moved before I could think, taking me down the stands and onto the rink. The cold of the ice bit through my shoes as I ran towards him, managing to stay upright after months of running on the ice as the team’s doctor.
Countless practices, games, and scrimmages had been spent running around like this, checking on injuries, and so I was prepared. But not for this. I slipped as I ran up to him, falling to my knees by his side.
“Enzo! Are you okay?”
He was pushing himself up when I reached him, his hand coming away from his face smeared with blood. Matt skated over, concern etched on his face.
“Dude, are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Enzo snapped, getting up.
But the look he gave me was one of frustration. ”
Nina, what are you doing here?”
“I was worried about you,” I said, standing and reaching for his face to examine the cut.
He recoiled, pushing my hand away. “I said I’m fine!”
His shove was stronger than he intended, I could tell, but it sent me staggering back. I tripped over my own feet and landed back on the ice, pain shooting through my arm as it took the brunt of my fall. I looked up at Enzo, my eyes meeting his, and I saw a flicker of something —remorse, maybe, or regret.
But it was quickly veiled by that same wall of frustration.
“Nina, I didn’t mean —”
“Save it,” I cut him off, holding my arm where a red mark was beginning to form from where he had shoved me. “Just save it, Enzo.”
I pushed myself to my feet, the tears that I’d been holding back now spilling over. “You don’t get to push me away, both metaphorically and physically.”
“I didn’t mean to —”
I didn’t wait to hear the rest. I turned my back on him, on Matt, on this slice of Enzo’s world that I had invaded, and I ran. My footsteps sounded heavy, each one echoing my growing sense of isolation.
As I made my way back out onto the quad, my arm throbbed in sync with the pain in my heart. How could the same hands that had once held me so tenderly be the source of my pain now? Luke was right: this wasn’t like Enzo. Not at all.
I burst through the doors of the arena, out into the cool night. I ran, letting my feet carry me away from the ice, from the blood, from everything.
Nina
The cool air and the quiet campus had always been a comfort to me. But even the cool evening breeze couldn’t lift the heaviness weighing down on me as I fled the hockey arena.
I wasn’t even entirely sure why I was running, but I knew I had to. My feet carried me across the empty athletic fields, and it wasn’t until I broke through the line of trees that I finally slowed to a walking pace.
Eventually, I came to a small stream that was located along one of the many walking trails that the campus boasted. It was flowing in full force thanks to the summer rain, and it offered a bit of solace.
I plopped down on a fallen log, my eyes stinging as I fought to hold back a new wave of tears. This was too much. Even with my werewolf healing, the red mark Enzo left on my arm remained as a vivid reminder. It was a painful imprint not only on my skin but also on my heart.
“What the hell was that? You think that was okay?” I muttered, urging my wolf to respond, to offer some kind of wisdom that I sorely needed right now.
“He didn’t mean to hurt you, Nina. Sometimes
Alphas snap.”
“Snap? That’s not an excuse,” I shot back, surprised at the bitterness in my own voice. “That’s not Enzo. He’s never been like this—never. I don’t buy that for one second.”
My wolf fell silent, and right now, I was glad for it.
I didn’t need any justifications as to what had just happened. Enzo had shoved me, his pregnant wife,and that was all that mattered right now.
My fingers found the wet trail my tears had left on my cheeks and wiped them away. I stared at the stream in front of me, its water cascading over rocks, a natural course altered by obstacles but never stopping. What was the saying? That you never saw the same river twice?
If only the solution to emotional pain was as simple as the physical: a little bit of accelerated healing, a dab of supernatural ointment, and I’d be good as new, like the new waters flowing over the rocks.
But deep down, I knew that the hurt I was feeling was a lot more complex than that.
I sighed as I looked out over the stream. I had become so wrapped up in my own fears, my own pain, that I had almost forgotten that Enzo was a person too.
A person with his own fears, his own past, his own PTSD from our war with the Crescents. We had both seen things, done things that we couldn’t take back, that lingered like dark clouds over our lives. Things that we couldn’t tell the world, things that had to be kept a secret from so many people around us.