Chapter 229: Never Leave My Side
Nina
“There’s the side door,” Enzo said, pointing ahead at a small wooden door that was located on the side of the mansion. “The guards should switch over soon. When they do, we can get inside if we run quickly. But all of us can’t go in there.”
I nodded. “You’re right. It would be too obvious if six of us went in all at once.”
“I can keep watch out here,” Matt said. “Maybe if Selena comes, I can distract her. Lori and Jessica, maybe you two can stay with me.”
Lori and Jessica both nodded in agreement. I was glad, because I felt as though it was more dangerous inside the mansion. At least out here, they could easily run away if they needed to. Then, that just left Enzo, Luke and I to
go inside. Enzo knew the layout of the mansion well, so of course he needed to go in. And if Selena was inside waiting for us, I wanted to be there to fight her if I needed to. As for Luke… When I looked at him, I knew that he wouldn’t
let me go in there without him. He was originally supposed to be my bodyguard, after all. He wouldn’t have come this far just to let me wander into the monster’s lair without him there by my side to protect me, regardless of whether Enzo was with me or not.
“Okay.” I looked back and forth between all of my friends. “We’ll be fast. If you guys see Selena coming, text me so we know she’s out here. When we get Richard, we’ll come back and I’ll open a portal for us and get us all the hell out of here.”
The rest of my friends nodded. Suddenly, Enzo shook my shoulder and pointed again.
“Look,” he said. “They’re switching over again.”
I could see that the current guards that were patrolling the front of the mansion were now turning and heading back inside. At the front door, I could see more guards coming out. Now was our chance; we only had a tiny window of unguarded time to run across the road and over to the door, and so without even having the time to so much as say goodbye to our friends, Enzo, Luke and I took off across the road with Enzo in the lead.
He ran fast, keeping low. I followed suit, always keeping one eye on the guards. Luke ran behind me.
When we finally reached the row of hedges that hid us from the guards, we only had a second to spare before they stopped at their posts. But they were going to begin patrolling, so we couldn’t stop here in case one of them
came over to our area. Enzo, still staying low, crouched and ran up to the side door. He took one glance over his shoulder at Luke and I, checking to make sure that we were behind him and we were right on his heels – before he quietly pushed the door open.
Much to my surprise, the door opened with ease. I was shocked that this side door wasn’t locked at this hour, which only made me even more anxious that Selena was inside the mansion, and that she intentionally kept it unlocked knowing that we would walk straight into her trap.
And yet, when we stepped inside into a dark, narrow corridor, no one was there.
It was extremely dark inside with no lights on. I reached for my phone to flick on the flashlight, but Enzo stopped me and slowly shook his head. He had hight vision abilities, and without my wolf, I could hardly see anything. But he was right; using a flashlight could alert someone to our presence. I would just have to hold onto his arm and trust his night vision to guide us until my eyes adjusted enough to see just a little bit.
Slowly and quietly, the three of us began walking down the corridor. I held firmly onto Enzo’s strong arm with both hands, feeling as though I was as blind as a bat at first. Finally, my eyes adjusted a little and I could see somewhat better. We turned down another hallway that was a bit wider, and there were doors on either side.
I could hear the sounds of snoring coming through some of the doors. Enzo did say before that the side door led to the servants’ quarters, so I figured that the servants’ bedrooms lined this hallway. Eventually, we came out into the dark kitchen. There was a skylight that allowed the light of the full moon to shine through, illuminating the kitchen in a pale blue hue. It was a pretty kitchen, very old-fashioned, and I normally would have been excited to see such a beautiful house. But now, it just felt like a maze that could have danger lurking around every corner.
However, as we continued down
another hallway, it really did seem as
though no one was stirring. If Selena was here, she was hiding herself well. No servants were awake and moving about, and only once or twice we quickly ducked into a different hallway or into an empty room when a guard walked past. It was surprisingly calm and quiet, and it seemed that security inside the building was a lot more relaxed than outside. I couldn’t deny the fact that my heart was racing a mile a minute, though. I was certain that Selena would jump out at any moment and kill all three of us, which made me only hold onto Enzo even more tightly. His strong arm felt firm and steady beneath my grip, and when I glanced up at him on occasion, his eyes were glowing slightly red as he used his night vision. His face was solemn, and he was completely focused on navigating us through this maze.
At one point, we ducked into a small room to avoid a sleepy guard walking past, and we waited there for a few moments to get our bearings. The room seemed like a small library, with the walls made of bookshelves, a stained glass window on the far wall, and a table with chairs in the center.
It felt strange being this close to my biological father. All my life, I always thought that my real parents were
dead. I never even thought for a
moment that even one of my parents could still be alive, let alone the Alpha King of the werewolves. Maybe that was what urged me to say what I said next; or maybe it was because of the fear that Selena could show up at any moment, and I wanted to employ the help of my father.
“Maybe I should find the Alpha King,” I whispered suddenly, shocked even at my own words. Luke and Enzo slowly turned to face me, their brows furrowed with confusion.
“What are you talking about?” Enzo whispered, his voice almost a growl. ” You want to go off on your own?”
I shrugged. “The mansion is quiet. Maybe now would be a good time to show myself to him and get his help. I have a good feeling that, even if Selena does have a spell on him, I can break it as his daughter.”
Neither Enzo nor Luke said anything for a few moments. I watched as they stared at me with wide eyes in the darkness, then glanced at each other.
Suddenly, Enzo’s head whipped around to face the door. All of us held our breath as we heard footsteps approaching; had someone heard us talking?
Quickly, like ghosts in the night, the three of us scurried into the darkest corner of the room and waited there. It felt like an eternity as the heavy footsteps outside the door slowly approached, then stopped for the longest time in front of the door.
I could hear the doorknob rattle, like someone put their hand on it, and I clamped my own hand over my mouth in fear. My eyes were wide, and my chest felt full of guilt as I realized that I had alerted someone to our presence by talking all because of a stupid idea that I came up with in the moment because I was too emotional over knowing that my biological father was near.
But, thankfully, the footsteps receded. Whoever that was never opened the door, and once we could no longer hear the footsteps, we all let out a collective sigh of relief.
And yet, when I looked up at Enzo, he was still staring at me with rage burning in his eyes.
“I won’t let you leave my side,” he whispered.
