Chapter 293: Snowfall
Nina
When I looked up at the full moon peeking out from behind the clouds, I felt an
overwhelming urge to shift.
Even though we had somehow been standing in that spot for hours without
realizing it, I wasn’t ready to go inside just yet. I still had a decision to make:
would I return to Mountainview, or would I stay with my father?
“What do you say we stay out a little bit longer?” I asked Enzo.
Enzo grinned and nodded. We shifted together into our wolf forms. Our human
forms twisted and turned into wolves, our skin turned into fur, our eyes
glowed. We looked at each other for a few moments, taking in one another’s
non-human appearance as our newfound vigor and strength flowed through us.
Then, with Enzo in the lead this time, we leaped off into the darkening forest.
We ran for a long time without stopping, just feeling the cold air rippling
through our fur and the sensation of freedom in our legs.
The forest smelled
thickly of pine and the air smelled as though it was about to snow any minute.
As we leaped over fallen trees and small gullies, there was no destination in
mind; we just wanted to run. We wanted to run freely, with no shackles holding
us down, no fear, no pain. It felt good, yet oddly strange at the same time, to
run without having to worry about running into battle or being chased by the
forces of evil.
At one point, we broke through the woods to find ourselves in a large, open
field that was surrounded on all sides by trees. Grinning, I dashed forward,
feeling Enzo nipping at me from behind, and we raced around the field with
wild abandon. We tumbled on the ground together and play fought, nipping at
each other’s fur as our own human laughter echoed in our heads.
It still felt
almost unnatural to speak without really speaking in our wolf forms, to
communicate telepathically, but something about it also felt beautiful. To be
able to communicate without having to say a single word out loud only made
me feel even more connected to my mate, and I loved every second of it.
Finally, once we were out of breath and panting, we stopped play fighting and
running. We began to walk alongside each other, brushing up against one
another, and walked back into the woods, back in the direction that we came
from. By now, a light snow had begun to fall.
The dark green branches of the
pine trees started to become covered by a light white dust, brightening the
entire forest. I hoped that it would snow heavily, that it would blanket Selena’s
fresh grave, that we would wake up to several feet of snow outside in the
morning and that the snow would be piled so high against the doors of the
mansion that we would have a good excuse not to make our choice yet.
But I
knew that my friends were waiting for me back in Mountainview, and the
choice needed to be made.
Eventually, we returned to the little frozen stream and shifted back into our
human forms. There was a large boulder on one side of it, and we sat down
on it together. Enzo wrapped his arm around me as I leaned my head on his
shoulder.
“Have you made a decision?” Enzo asked quietly as he looked up at the sky.
I shrugged. “I don’t know… On one hand, I want to be here, amongst other
werewolves. I want to be near my dad. I want to get to know the place that
my mother and my sister used to know so well. I want to start fresh and put
all of the horrible things that happened in Mountainview behind me… But at the
same time, I love Mountainview and I love our friends. They’re my family, too. I
don’t know if I can leave them.”
Enzo was silent for a long time. With the snow falling around us, the forest
was completely silent. I always found it so peaceful when it would snow. The
way that the world fell silent when it snowed, as though the earth went to
sleep, was a welcome distraction from the noise. I just wished that my brain
felt just as peaceful and quiet as the forest did.
Finally, Enzo shifted in his spot and shook his head thoughtfully. “You know,
when my dad first told me that we were leaving the werewolf realm and that
we were going to live in Mountainview, I was furious,” he said with a bit of a
chuckle. “I loved it here. The thought of living with humans made me sick. I felt
like a prisoner.”
“Really?” I asked, looking up at him. “You’ve never told me that before.”
Enzo nodded. “Yep. I wanted to die, honestly. My dad made me have a
relationship with Lisa to get a positive influence at the school, and it made me
hate the place even more. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth about
shallow humans, about human society… But then I met you.” He looked over
at me then, and his brown eyes sparkled with the reflection of the falling snow.
“You changed that for me, Nina.
My eyes widened slightly. “Why?”
“Because.” Enzo looked back down at the ground. His cheeks looked a little
rosy, although whether it was from the cold or from sheepishness, I couldn’t
tell. “You showed me that humans are amazing, and they’re strong, and
they’re loving.
You introduced me to people who I never would have even
spoken to otherwise. You showed me that a pack doesn’t need to just be
wolves, so long as the people in the pack care deeply for each other… And
now, I don’t think that I could imagine a life outside of Mountainview anymore.”
As Enzo spoke, I felt my heart begin to race. I pictured all of the times that we
were saved by our friends, all of the times that we laughed and danced with
them. I remembered our camping trip as clear as day, when we played spin
the bottle around the fire and when Lori and Jessica kissed for the first time
and when we hiked up the mountain together.
Even despite the incident with K
and the fact that James eventually turned out to be a traitor, I only thought
about the good things about that trip. I wanted more of those trips.
Suddenly, I stood and looked at Enzo.
“You’re right,” I said. “I can’t imagine a life outside of Mountainview, either.”
Enzo’s eyes lit up slightly, although I could tell that he was trying to hide his
excitement in order to not influence me one way or another. But it was too
late; I had already made up my mind.
“So, we’re going home?” he asked quietly, standing and looking down at me.
I nodded, feeling my eyes fill up with tears. But they weren’t tears of sadness;
they were tears of joy. I took Enzo’s hand and smiled up at him, then began to
lead him back to the mansion to tell my father about my decision.
“Yes,” I said. “We’re going home.
