Chapter 165: Retracted
Nina
“I guess silver bullets really do work,” James said. “That sure nipped it in the bud, huh?”
The room fell into a shocked silence as he spoke. I felt my heart sink and a pit form in my stomach. The logical part of me told me that James was lying and only trying to get under my skin, but there was another part of me that wondered if he really was telling the truth. When he shot me, did the silver in the bullet somehow kill off what was left of my wolf?
Suddenly, the room flew into a frenzy. Before anyone could stop him, Enzo went into a rage and stormed over to James, pulling his arm back and aiming a forceful punch right in the center of James’ face, causing his already- broken nose to start gushing blood again. “Enzo!” I yelled. “Stop!” But Enzo didn’t listen. He went to punch James again, but this time, Bryce and Matt got in the way and yanked him away from James, who was now knocked out cold. Enzo struggled against them, shouting obscenities and snarling angrily. My heart practically beating out of my chest, I ran up to Enzo and put myself between him and James, my eyes pleading for him to stop as I grabbed a handful of his shirt.
When he saw me, he relaxed a little and wrenched himself free of Matt and Bryce, storming off to the other side of the room. He whirled around on his heel then and pointed at James with a shaking hand, his eyes red with fury. ” What are we even doing protecting him like this?” he snarled. “I say we let the Crescents have him. He’s nothing but a filthy little weasel.”
I walked over to him and stopped infront of him, just wanting to calm the situation down. “Enzo, it’s not worth it,” I said gently, taking his hand. “If you keep fighting with him, you’ll only give him what he wants.”
“He’s just trying to get a rise out of you, man,” Matt said from the other side of the room. “Let it go. He’s pathetic.”
Another low growl rumbled in Enzo’s throat. Finally, his eyes slid away from James and landed on me, softening as they did. “As soon as this is all over, I’m turning him in,” he said quietly. ” My father’s pack will know what to do with someone like him.”
I swallowed and opened my mouth to speak, but before anything could come out, we were all suddenly alerted by the sound of a loud, long howl coming from outside. It was close… The Crescents and the rogues were on our trail.
“Come on,” Matt said. “We’ve gotta move. Help me untie him.”
Bryce ran over and helped Matt untie James. Enzó and I watched as Bryce then slung James’ limp body over his shoulder.
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room. Lori and Jessica were still staring warily at Enzo, clearly frightened by his outburst. I hadn’t taken any time to consider that this whole situation was new to them; not only had they not been aware of James’ ‘family business’ with his father, but they had also been rogues for the past several days and had no recollection of anything that happened shortly after being bitten during the initial attack.
“It’s alright,” I said, walking over to my friends and putting my arms around them. “Let’s go.”
Lori and Jessica nodded. We all headed
for the door. The hockey team surrounded us on all sides protectively as Matt and Bryce led the way down the hallway. I glanced over my shoulder to see Enzo trailing along at the back, his red eyes fixed on me in the dark. I could only offer him a single comforting
glance; I knew he was worried, not just about James but also about my wolf, but we didn’t have any time to lose. The Crescents and the rogues would be here soon.
When we got down to the lobby, Matt peered out through the cracked door and checked to make sure that the coast was clear before opening it and ushering us through.
“Where are we going?” Jessica asked, her voice shaking.
“Your dorm,” Matt replied. “Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.”
Lori and Jessica clung to me as we carefully, but quickly, made our way across the quad to our old dorm building. Bryce led the way, still carrying James over his shoulder. The rest of the team, along with Enzo, followed suit.
Another howl carried across the air to us. Jessica let out a small whimper as we picked up our pace, but soon enough we were there. Matt and Enzo went ahead and checked inside quickly while we hid behind some bushes, our hearts pounding out of our chests. Finally, after a few moments that felt like hours, they poked their heads out of the door and waved for us to come in.
The dorm was dark and empty when we all got inside. The windows weren’t covered like Enzo’s dorm, but there was no time to take such precautions; all we could do was walk in complete darkness without so much as a flashlight as we rushed to our suite, but Lori, Jessica and I all knew the layout so
well that it wasn’t a problem.
Finally, we came to our suite. We used the key hidden under the mat to get in, and once everyone was inside, we locked the door tightly and shut all of the blinds.
Not even five minutes later, Lori, who was looking out the window through a slit in the blinds, spoke up and waved us over.
“They’re out there,” she whispered. I ran over to join her along with Jessica, Enzo, and Matt. Just as she said, the quad was filled with Crescents and rogues. The rogues sniffed the air like dogs trained for hunting animals, and the Crescents were like their masters. I watched in horror as one of the rogues seemed to pick up a scent and skittered over to the door of the building we were in only five minutes earlier; it
scratched at the door and whimpered causing one of the Crescents to walk over and kick open the door.
“How come they can’t smell us here?” Jessica asked, looking up at Enzo.
Enzo continued to stare pensively out the window, watching at the rogues and the Crescents filed into the dorm building. “Sometimes wolves can retract their scent when they’re in danger and need to hide,” he said quietly. “I’m guessing all of our wolves did that… And the campus already reeks of humans, so your scents aren’t going to stand out to them.”
As Enzo spoke, his words gave me a little hope. If wolves could retract their scent… Then maybe that was what my wolf did? She was already weak before, so maybe retracting her scent made her go into hiding entirely. Perhaps she was only hiding to protect all of us, especially if I was the Alpha King’s daughter…I hoped that that was the case. If not, then I would have to face the possibility that my wolf truly was gone forever. And if my wolf truly was gone, then Enzo and I could never be mates.
