Chapter 186: Strange Familiarity
Enzo
Weeks passed by, and my highly anticipated wedding with Selena ticked closer. We decided to hold off a little bit until New Years’ Eve; Selena didn’t specify why, exactly, she wanted to wait, but I didn’t complain. I was just happy to be getting married to the love of my life.
One day, I was sitting in a chair by the big window in my bedroom when Selena came in with a grin on her face. “Hey, handsome,” she said, coming up to me and sitting on my lap. I smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Well…” She paused for a moment, her eyes studying my face. “I was thinking it might be fun if we went on a little trip together. Just you and me. I thought it might be nice to get away from the mansion for a little bit.”
“Sure,” I replied, my smile widening.” Where do you want to go?” Selena pursed her lips, thinking for a moment, before she seemed to have an idea. “Have you ever heard of a town known as Mountainview?”
I furrowed my brow. The name was somewhat familiar, but… “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it.”
Selena grinned and jumped up from my lap. “Perfect, then,” she said. “It’ll make it even more fun. But, there’s a catch.”
“What is it?” I asked, cocking my head. I watched as Selena paced back and forth a little bit. She tapped her chin as she walked, thinking, before she finally stopped and turned back to face me again. “We’ll have to wear disguises,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to know that I’m the Alpha King’s daughter. It might draw too much attention and ruin our fun.”
“Okay…” I leaned back in my chair and intertwined my fingers on my lap curiously. Selena hadn’t expressed concern over being recognized in public as long as I had known her, but maybe this town of ‘Mountainview’ was different in some way.
“Of course, they’ll be magical disguises, so we’ll still look the same as we always do to each other,” she said in a sing-song voice. “But no one else will recognize us. Oh, and let’s use fake names, too. I’ll be… hmm… I’ll call myself ‘Sadie’, and you can go by ‘Eli’. Does that sound good?”
I was still admittedly a bit confused by all of these precautions, but I wasn’t going to argue with my fiancee. If it would make her happy to hide our identities like that, then I would do it for her. I nodded and smiled in agreement, and with that, our plans were set.
A few days later, Selena and I were all packed up and ready to go to’ Mountainview’. We were going to stay for a couple of weeks, which I felt was a long time, but I didn’t complain. The mansion did get stuffy at times, so I was excited to go. Besides: Selena explained to me that this town was known for hockey, which was something I always enjoyed. I hadn’t skated much in years, but I used to skate all of the time as a kid…
Or, wait, I thought as we prepared to leave. Didn’t I play on a hockey team recently? I shook my head. No. It must have been another one of my moments of confusion from all of the fighting. I hadn’t played on a hockey team since high school.
Either way, I was excited to go. Selena, who also wore a wig for reasons unbeknownst to me, prepared our disguises with a potion that we both drank. I felt a tingling sensation in my body after a few moments, which meant that it must have been working.
Even though I still looked exactly like myself in the mirror, Selena assured me that no one would recognize me. Apparently, the potion would change my scent as well. Once again, I thought that extra precaution was a bit odd, but I decided not to think about it too much. Instead, I chose to just be excited for a vacation with my fiancee.
Once we were ready, Selena opened a portal. We stepped through the portal and out into a small apartment.
The apartment was oddly familiar. I furrowed my brow as I looked around at the kitchen and the living room, but that sense of strange familiarity grew even more as I stepped into the bedroom. A strange scent filled my nostrils there, leaving my head feeling dizzy. And for the briefest of moments, I pictured myself here, living my life as a college student.
But… That couldn’t be true. I never went to college, and I had never seen this apartment before. “I know it’s not the fanciest,” Selena said, opening the curtains and looking out the window over what looked like a college campus. “But I figured it would be fun to immerse ourselves here for a little while. You know… To really feel like college students. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
I nodded and walked up behind Selena, wrapping my arms around her as I looked down at the brick quad below. The campus seemed a little shabby, as though it had recently been struck by some kind of disaster. Maybe the Crescents came here at some point? Either way, it looked fine now.
And for some reason, seeing that this strange campus seemed to be alright comforted me. In fact, the more I thought about it, the happier I became; it was as though I had been hoping all along that this place would be okay, as though I had been worried about it. But that was silly.
That evening, Selena got dressed in one of my favorite outfits: a tight sweater, a short skirt with tights, and her hair up. I loved when she dressed like this, and I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping my arm around her waist as we walked to the hockey arena, where there was supposedly going to be a game.
We purchased VIP tickets and made our way up to the box seats. As we got settled, I couldn’t help but feel another strange sense of familiarity, but I brushed it off as just having nostalgia for my time on the hockey team when I was in high school.
“Oh, how cute,” Selena said, nuzzling into the crook of my arm as we sat and watched the hockey team skate out onto the ice.
I nodded, but I couldn’t deny the lump in my throat. For the briefest of moments, I swore I recognized all of the players. I recognized them well, as though we were old friends. And, during those moments, I felt Fio – my wolf -react strongly inside of me, as though he recognized them, too.
But that moment quickly faded. The game began, and Selena and I were on the edges of our seats, watching intensely.
Something else caught my eye, however. Something other than the game; a girl. She was standing by the side of the rink with a medical bag by her feet, and the longer I looked at her, the more I realized that she looked almost exactly like Selena…
And when she looked up at me and caught my gaze, I swore I knew her.
