#Chapter 109: The Peacekeepers
Nina
The infirmary was dimly lit and quiet when I woke up. It took a few long moments for my eyes to adjust before I finally realized where I was and what had happened. My mind felt foggy, although not nearly as foggy as it did when Edward gave me my medicine.
“Nina,” Enzo said softly, squeezing my hand. I looked up at him, a smile twitching at my lips, but as I opened my mouth to speak I quickly realized that my voice was too hoarse to get a word out.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You don’t have to talk. Tiffany is here and she’ll take care of you.”
I nodded weakly before looking up to see Tiffany approaching from behind Enzo. Her eyebrows were knit together with worry.
“Hey there,” she said softly “I’m sorry this happened to you. I promise we’ll find Edward and bring him to justice… Enzo was just filling me in on everything”
I looked over at Enzo once more, my own brows knit together now as I wondered if he had told her about werewolves. Realizing this, Enzo nodded. “Tiffany knows about werewolves. She has all along, apparently.”
“I’ll tell you all about it when you’re feeling a bit better For now, just get some rest, okay? Your body is healing at an accelerated rate, so you’ll be right as rain in no time.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what Tiffany meant; I knew I had a wolf now, but she still hadn’t emerged completely, and I wasn’t sure if she ever would after all of the poison Edward gave me. But Tiffany was right — now was not the time for questions. I had to rest.
Later, as the sun began to come up, I eventually felt strong enough to sit up. Tiffany gave me a t-shirt and sweatpants to wear, then checked my wounds, relieved to see that even the gashes in my stomach were making a rapid recovery. Soon I was able to stand and walk around in brief spurts with Tiffany and Enzo’s help.
Finally, once I was able to talk, Tiffany told me the story of how she knew about werewolves.
“When I was your age, in college, we had a hockey club here,” she said, holding my elbow as the three of us slowly walked back and forth across the empty infirmary. “The club consisted of myself, as well as several others.
Those others were your mother, Nina, and Enzo’s father. Edward, as well as Ronan’s father, were also part of the club, as well as our current dean — Cynthia and James’ mother.”
I was a bit taken aback to hear that almost all of our parents were part of this hockey club, but I chose not to ask about it just yet so that Tiffany could keep telling the story.
“Except… The club wasn’t really a hockey club. It started out as one, but eventually developed into something else when there was an outbreak of ‘ rabies’ on campus.”
“It wasn’t rabies, was it?” I asked, remembering that Tiffany had mentioned this before when she showed me the picture of the club.
Tiffany shook her head. “No. There were a few werewolves — sent by the leaders of the Crescent faction — who were going around campus and turning people into rogues. The dean at the time covered it up by claiming it was a rabies outbreak, but we knew better because we already knew about werewolves, since several of our club members were werewolves themselves.”
“Who were the werewolves that the Crescents sent to turn people?” Enzo chimed in. “And why?”
“I don’t know who they were.” Tiffany paused as we turned around at the end of the room and began making our way back toward the other side. By now, I was already feeling well enough to walk on my own, and was able to let go of their arms — but I still chose to hold Enzo’s arm as we walked, just because I needed to feel his warmth. “The Crescents wanted to take over
Mountainview,” she continued. “You see, at the time, the Crescents and the Fullmoons were currently warring over which faction should control the town.
Since it’s located right on the border of the werewolf realm…”
“…It’s the perfect place for control over both the werewolves and the humans,” Enzo interrupted.
Tiffany nodded. “So, while the Crescents and the Fullmoons were fighting and killing each other, the seven of us got to know each other as we bonded over our love for hockey. Some of us began to realize that the war was pointless, and so the hockey club eventually turned into a safe haven for young Crescents and Fullmoons who didn’t want to fight. We began to secretly refer to ourselves as the Peacekeepers, and would take every chance we had to bring more people into our club.”
“Humans, too?” I asked.
“Mhm. Cynthia, James’ mother, and I weren’t the only humans — well,
Cynthia is a hybrid, but she has no wolf or abilities. There were plenty more who wanted to advocate for werewolves, who believed that werewolves weren’t monsters”
There was a long pause. Eventually, we stopped pacing and sat down at the large table at the back of the room. Tiffany sighed, passing her hand over her tired face, and took a gulp of her coffee before she continued.
“It was great — for a while. We would hold regular meetings, have friendly hockey competitions between the two factions, and eventually began to plan out various protests against the older Crescents and Fullmoons to try to convince them to stop their fighting and live in harmony. But then…
Everything changed. The Crescent chief and the Fullmoon chief at the time both died suddenly during the same battle, leaving Ronan’s father and Enzo’s father as the sole heirs to the factions. We tried to stop them, but the power quickly got to their heads. They were too young and full of fire to have so much power, and the fighting only got worse. Eventually, the hockey club began to split up as the members of each faction felt loyalty toward the two boys who were not only their leaders, but their old friends. Soon, the only ones left were myself, Nina’s mother, Edward, the dean, and James’ mother. James’ mother quickly began to fear the werewolves now that we were low in numbers, so she ran away.”
“So there were only four of you left after that,” I said.
Once again, Tiffany nodded solemnly. ” Soon after that, however, Nina’s mother was discovered to be having a love affair with none other than Ronan’s father. But the thing is, Enzo’s
father was in love with her, and had been for years I still don’t know exactly what happened, but Nina your mother left suddenly. None of us ever heard from her again. I was especially devastated, because your mother and I were always close. When I heard that you were in the candidate pool to be my intern, I immediately picked you.”
I stared at Tiffany with wide eyes. ” Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” 1 asked.
She looked down at her hands and shook her head. “I don’t know. I was afraid, I guess. I didn’t know how much your mother had told you about her past, away and I didn’t want to scare you
Enzo, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke up. “What about Edward?” he asked. “What role did he play in all of this?”
Tiffany shrugged. “He stayed with Cynthia and I. All these years, he led us to believe that he was still a Peacekeeper Cynthia became the new dean, vowing to make the campus a neutral zone. I became the school doctor, so that I could always be here if there was another war. So I could protect the students And Edward”
“He was supposed to keep the humans from discovering too much,” Enzo said. “To protect them.”
“Yes.” Tiffany looked up then, and I saw that her eyes were full of tears.” Edward was always a little distant, aloof But I loved him. I never stopped loving him. I guess I let that cloud my judgment”
“It’s okay.” I whispered. I reached across the table and squeezed Tiffany’s hand. She squeezed back.
After another silence, Tiffany wiped a tear away from her cheek with the back of her hand and stood. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s take another look at your wounds. I’ll bet they’re almost healed by now.”
