Chapter 185: Lost Hope
Nina
A few more days passed, but I couldn’t get Enzo out of my head no matter how hard I tried. I knew that something was wrong; I could sense it. Luke never returned, either, and no matter how many times I wandered the campus and the town in search of him, I couldn’t find him.
I didn’t know what happened to him exactly, but I somehow suspected that Selena had something to do with it. Was she watching me? Did she know that I planned to get to the werewolf realm, and made sure that my chances of accomplishing that were destroyed?
Finally, I decided that I had had enough. I needed to talk to the Fullmoons; Richard was still their Alpha, and Enzo was their Alpha’s son. They needed to find both of them before it was too late. Even though Enzo insisted that Selena didn’t have the capacity to kill anyone, I wasn’t so sure.
When I arrived at the Fullmoon camp out at the cabins one afternoon, I was shocked to find that all of them were sitting around the fire. No one seemed to be patrolling, which was what they were supposed to do. Did they really think that we were so safe here? Did they honestly think that the Crescents couldn’t return at any time once they got wind of the fact that the Fullmoons ‘Alpha was missing?
As I approached, Lewis looked up and his face went dark. “Hello, Nina,” he said, taking his last bite off of the chicken leg that he was eating and tossing the bone into the fire. “Can I help you?”
I stopped in front of the fire and folded my arms across my chest, willing myself to have the confidence to stand up for myself. “Enzo and Richard still haven’t returned,” I said, staring down my nose at him. “Aren’t you concerned? We need to go after them.”
Lewis only chuckled. A few of the other Fullmoons chuckled along with him, which astonished me. “They’ll be fine,” he said, sounding amused.” They’re with the Alpha King. In fact, they’re probably drawing up plans as we speak. You don’t need to worry.”
My eyes widened with incredulity. “You have to be kidding,” I replied, dropping my arms and balling my hands up into fists at my sides. “You’re not even a little concerned? Seriously?”
“Don’t you have something better to do?” Lewis said, standing. Even standing, he wasn’t much taller than me, but he was still intimidating. “I thought you and your little ‘pack’ were gonna take things into your own hands. If you’re so concerned, why don’t you go and look for him yourself?”
My gaze slid over then to Myra, who only stared at me with wide eyes from the other side of the fire. It felt as though she was the only one who didn’t approve of Lewis’ sudden takeover of the pack. “Maybe we will,” I said, tearing my gaze away from her to stare up at Lewis with confidence. ” And when Richard returns, you’ll be in a whole lot of trouble.”
Lewis only scoffed, but I didn’t care. If he was going to mock me and be so indifferent toward his own Alpha, then he could rot for all I cared. The New Peacekeepers had taken things into their own hands before, and we would do it again. Without another word, I turned on my heel and stormed off into the woods, back to the place where Myra last opened the portal for Enzo. Somehow, I knew that she would follow me.
And I was right. I was standing there for barely twenty minutes before I heard the sound of dry leaves crunching underfoot, and looked up to see Myra approaching. She seemed hurried, and kept glancing over her shoulder in a paranoid manner.
“We have to be quick,” she said as she walked up to me. “I’m going to help you. I’m just as worried as you are.”
I nodded, feeling relieved at least that someone was on my side in this. Myra took a deep breath as she stood in front of the open space between two trees, then began to make the swirling motion with her fingers to open the portal.
But nothing happened. She tried again, and still nothing happened. The portal wouldn’t open. “What the hell?” she muttered, staring at her fingers.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes wide with concern. Myra shook her head. “I don’t know. I can’t open a portal for some reason. This has never happened before.” Slowly, she looked up to meet my gaze.
We stared at each other for several long moments in shock. First Luke going missing, and now this? Selena was surely doing something to keep me from getting to Enzo. I was sure of it. I felt utterly stranded and hopeless.
Soon, a week passed. Then, another week. Before I knew it, it had been three weeks since Enzo left, and no matter how much I tried to find a way to get to him, all of my attempts were stopped in some way. My pack, the New Peacekeepers, were just as baffled as I was. Even Matt and the others tried to learn how to open portals, but all of their attempts failed. We truly were stranded here with no way to get to Enzo.
But even so, there was still much to do. The Fullmoons were clearly not planning on helping our surrounding towns, and there were even rumors floating about that they were planning on leaving soon, which would leave us mostly defenseless. The New Peacekeepers and I would be the town’s only source of protection, and we were extremely low on Tiffany’s antidote.
Every day, I spent my time from sunrise to sunset in the infirmary. Not only did I have to take over Tiffany’s job, but I also had to try and figure out how she made the antidote, and my only guide was a small, handwritten note that she had left. The notes were incomplete and hard to read, and her laptop had been destroyed during the attack, so I couldn’t look through her digital files for any help.
Because of this, my attempts to replicate the antidote consistently failed. As time ticked on, I slowly began to grow more and more hopeless. Enzo was gone, Luke was gone, Tiffany was gone, and my wolf was gone. Even though I still had the love and support of Lori, Jessica, Matt and the others, I still felt alone.
At least Tiffany would have been able to help with all of this; but we couldn’t even find her body. I just wished that I could build a time machine and go back to the beginning of the semester, before all of this began. But I supposed that even then, the Crescents still would have come and tried to ruin us all. There was no stopping that.
And especially now, with Lewis clearly taking over the Fullmoons- who were supposed to be our one last hope, our one last chance at saving everyone with no real intention of actually helping, we really were out here like sitting ducks, just waiting for the Crescents to return.
And yet, night after night, I didn’t dream of the Crescents returning. I only dreamed of Enzo, and woke up every night where that portal last opened, praying for his return.
