#Chapter 123: Beauty and the Alpha
Nina
Enzo and I spun on the ice and laughed together until we became so dizzy that we spun out of control and fell down. This only made us laugh harder, and as I regained my composure, I pushed myself up onto my palms and couldn’t help but smile down at Enzo.
He smiled back up at me as well. For a split second, everything felt okay, and it felt as though both of us temporarily forgot about his mate.
But that split second quickly ended. Our smiles faded. Enzo cleared his throat, then helped me stand up and placed me back on the carpet outside the rink.
“Thank you,” he said, averting his gaze to the ice. “I feel a lot better now.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. “Any time,” I replied. “I’ll be here to help as much as I can until you get your abilities back.”
The following night, it was time for the next game in the tournament. It was a frigid Saturday night, and was even forecasted to snow a little. Lori and Jessica were waiting for me when I emerged, and we walked to the arena together.
“Have you thought about what we suggested?” Lori asked, her breath coming out in little white clouds in the cold air as we walked.
I shrugged. “A little, I guess. 1 just don’t know if I can go down there.”
“What about Tiffany or someone else?” Jessica chimed in. “You said there’s an entrance to the tunnels in her supply closet?”
1 nodded, but then shook my head in disagreement. “I don’t wanna make her go down there. It’s horrible down there… I don’t want anyone to go without reason.”
“I think that finding evidence of Edward’s crimes is reason enough,”
Lori said sternly. She was right: it was important to gather enough evidence to turn Edward in. But, at the same time, there were two other things stopping me. For starters, Edward probably took off through one of those portals, and the police would never find him anyway even if they did find him, I highly doubted they could keep him locked up for long before he would find a way to escape. Second, while I trusted Tiffany, she did have an extensive history with Edward. I knew that she would never do anything to help him, but at the same time, I couldn’t be entirely sure that she would be willing to turn her old friend and someone she loved dearly in to the police despite his crimes. There was a good chance that she would try to protect him to some extent if I asked her to gather the evidence.
I didn’t have the energy to explain all of this to my friends, so I just nodded as the hockey arena came into view. ” I’ll think more about it,” I said.
As we arrived, there were more protesters standing outside. “Jeez,” Jessica said, shivering and rubbing her hands together. “They’re dedicated, doing this out here in the cold.”
I shrugged, keeping my head down and ignoring the snide comments from the protesters as we passed. All I could do at this point was ignore them and do my best not to give them more cause to hate werewolves.
The rink was a fair bit warmer than it was outside when we entered, but still cold. I said goodbye and parted ways with my friends to go stand at my post. Tiffany had been too busy in the infirmary lately with the cold and flu season upon us to join me at any of the games recently, but had entrusted the job to me. By this point, I knew what I was doing quite well — plus, I apparently had a healing ability now.
For a few more minutes, the thin crowd slowly finished flooding in. There were more students now than at the last game, although as I looked up at the stands, I could see that some of this increase in traffic was actually just more protesters coming in to hold up big anti-werewolf banners for the duration of the game. The red-haired girl was at the forefront of the group. She saw me looking and shot me a smirk and a little wave. I rolled my eyes and looked away.
Finally, the announcer began to call out our team one by one, ending with Enzo coming out at the back of the line. When he came out, the red-haired girl and her posse began to boo loudly, pumping their banner in the air.
But then, something interesting happened. The rest of the team lined up next to Enzo in the center of the rink. The crowd started to quiet down aside from the protesters’ booing. I watched as the team slowly began to join hands, then raised their hands into the air silently.
A small gasp escaped my lips as I watched. They stayed like that for some time, just silently showing their solidarity with Enzo at the center of the line. They stared quietly at the protesters until the protesters finally got escorted out by security.
The rest of the crowd cheered once they were all gone. I couldn’t help but smile, and as I looked back at the team, I met Enzo’s eyes from across the ice. Once again, peace won over hatred.
Next, the announcer called out the other team. I watched, biting my fingernails, as the other team filed out onto the ice and got into position. The captain also came out last, and as I saw him, my heart dropped.
He was massive. Enzo was tall and muscular, but this guy was somehow even bigger and broader. He skated out to his position like a human tank, his cold eyes fixed on Enzo as though Enzo was nothing but a piece of meat sitting on a silver platter. I expected Enzo to look shocked or uncomfortable, but much to my surprise, he wasn’t.
He was smirking. The game began. The other captain held back, letting his team do most of the work, but Enzo and Matt were fast. They flicked the puck expertly back and forth between the two of them, almost mockingly, and scored goal after goal.
“Matt’s gotten really good,” a familiar voice suddenly said from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Justin approaching with his hands in his pockets.
“Yeah,” I said, looking back out at the game. “I don’t know what happened. I mean, he was good before, but…”
“So Enzo won’t let me on the team for drinking the Mad Wolf serum, but he’s letting Matt stay when he’s clearly taken it now?”
I frowned, furrowing my brow at Justin’s sudden choice of words. “I don’t think–” I began, but my voice faltered as I watched Matt dodge another player like a flash of lightning and score a goal.
“I’m just saying,” Justin said with a shrug. “Seems suspicious. Maybe I’m wrong, though.” I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could, the buzzer signified the end of the first round and Justin walked away.
The second round went much like the first. The other captain held back, only participating occasionally, while Matt and Enzo breezed through and scored goal after goal. I began to get a little suspicious as I watched the other captain. Why wasn’t he playing? Could he even play hockey at all, or was this just another talentless werewolf who relied solely on the fact that he was a werewolf to win the game?
Then, the third round came. It went the same — until the last minute.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the other captain sprung into action. He seemed to have his sights set for Enzo, and not the puck. I watched in horror as he roared, then skated toward Enzo like a flash. He collided with Enzo and sent him sliding across the ice.
The referee blew his whistle and stopped the game. I held my breath as 1 watched Enzo; thankfully, he got up. The crowd all seemed to sigh in relief.
The other captain continued to snarl at Enzo, but the referee stayed between them. The referee then turned to the announcer and made a signal with his hands.
“Disqualified!” The announcer exclaimed. “It looks like that move just cost the opposing team the game. Not that they were gonna win, anyway…” The crowd laughed mockingly as the other team angrily skated off the ice, but I wasn’t laughing as I watched Enzo and the rest of our team skate toward me. Once he was off the ice, I could see now that he had blood trickling down his forehead. I rushed up to him and grabbed him, yanking him away from the crowd and into the locker rooms.
“What are you doing?” he asked as I flung the door open and shoved him inside, closing it firmly behind us. 1 simply shook my head and pointed to the bench for him to sit, which he did.
“That captain wasn’t here to win the game,” I said, tugging off his helmet to reveal a nasty cut on his for head. He was here to hurt you.”
Enzo didn’t answer. I crouched down, then pressed my fingers into his wound to start healing him. “Ow!” he exclaimed, pushing my hand away. I only frowned and went to put my hands on his face again, but before I could…
He kissed me.
