My Hockey Alpha



Chapter 0722

Nina

The first thing I felt was the sensation of soft carpet on my cheek. Then, I felt hands on me, lifting me up to a sitting position. The third thing I noticed were faces: Enzo, Luke, my mother and my brother.

"Nina?" Enzo murmured. "Nina, are you okay?"

I nodded stiffly, although my throat was still too choked up to speak. We were back in my father's mansion-in his study, to be exact.

My mother stooped down beside me and cupped my face in her hands. "She looks pale. I'll call the doctor."

"No." I finally found the strength to speak and rubbed my sore wrists. "I'm fine. Really, I'm fine. Where's Dad?"

Enzo and my mother looked back and forth between each other. I began to fear the worst, considering what I had seen just before the portal closed; but then, as if on cue, the sound of more fizzling filled the air. A moment later, my father stepped into the room.

And he was furious.

"You fool!" he boomed. He strode across the room without hesitation and picked Enzo up by the shirt collar, practically lifting him right off of his feet. "Your one job in life is to protect my daughter, and you—"

"No." Before my father could finish, Luke climbed to his feet. A servant was working at the lock on his collar, trying to pick it open, but he waved her away. "I was the one who led Nina there. I knew where we were potentially headed, and still I let it happen."

My father froze for a moment, blinking with astonishment, before he finally released his iron grip on Enzo's shirt. "You..."

"I'm sorry, Sir," Luke said, bowing his head. "I didn't think it would be so dangerous. Mila has changed considerably in the past hundred years."

"Wait." I stood now, my legs were shaky, but I let my mom support me on her arm. "You both knew Mila?"

My father sighed and passed a hand over his weary face. "It's a long story, Nina," he said, his voice a touch gentler now. "One that we cannot discuss right this moment."

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, Enzo stepped forward and took my arm. "Your dad is right, Nina. We're all safe, and that's what matters. You should rest."

"As should you." My father nodded and smoothed down his shirt. "I'm sorry for my outburst. It's just.."

"It's alright, Aldric." Enzo looked at my father squarely, and in that moment, there was an unspoken understanding that seemed to flicker between them.

I wanted to stay and discuss everything that happened, but I knew that they were right; I felt weak. Very weak. And both Enzo and I looked like shit, not to mention Luke, who was still having the collar around his neck picked at. "We will talk in the morning," my father said. He crossed the room to meet me, and took both of my shoulders in his hands. When he spoke again, his voice was barely more than a whisper. "I will explain everything then."

I swallowed and nodded stiffly. Without another word, my father pulled me into his strong, warm arms. I felt my mother and Tyler wrap their arms around me, too, and in that moment I felt as if nothing could harm me.

The hot, fragrant water burned my sore skin as I sank down into the bath opposite Enzo. But within a few moments, the pain began to fade. Whatever special oils my father's servants had put in the water really seemed to do the trick.

"It feels like a nightmare," I murmured as I moved my hand beneath the sparkling surface of the water. "Like we've been trapped in sleep this whole time."

Enzo let out a low, rumbling chuckle and sank a little further down. "I wish it were just a dream. But even if it were, I'd have to wonder what's so wrong with our minds that we dreamed all of that up."

I let out a soft sigh and picked up a nearby sponge, which I used to begin gently dabbing at Enzo's skin. He was in worse shape than I was, having had the silver ropes binding him for longer. His skin was blistered and bruised, and it made tears come to my eyes.

"All of this for a drop of your blood," I whispered. "For trace amounts of dragon DNA."

"A mad dream of Mila's," Enzo said softly. "She seems to be grasping at straws."

I bit my lip. In a strange sort of way, I almost felt a little bad for Mila. The last of her kind, desperately searching for a way to bring her people back to their former glory. But her path was sorely misguided. She had clearly gone insane at some point during her search.

"I wonder if she knew about you all this time," I said as I continued dabbing at Enzo's skin. "She worked with Tim and the others for five years, after all. It seems like she must have been working at this plan for all that time."

Enzo scoffed. "It seems like it. Why else would a fearsome dragon cult leader work as a doctor for a hockey team?" The thought of it made me laugh a bit, even though I didn't really feel like laughing right now. To think that Mila had been biding her time for five years with a hockey team seemed almost silly.

But it wasn't silly. We just barely got out alive in the end, thanks to my father. Mila may have claimed that she would keep us alive, but she seemed so disconnected from her own mind that there was no telling exactly what she might have done in the end.

"We have to do something about her, you know." I pulled back a bit to look up at Enzo. "We can't just let her-" "Hey." Enzo sat up and took both of my hands in his. There was an earnest look in his brown eyes. "Let's just rest tonight, okay? I think our planning and scheming can at least wait until the morning."

I let out a soft sigh. "I guess you're right."

"I tend to do that once in a while," Enzo said with a chuckle. I felt his hands move beneath the water then, coming to rest on my rounded belly.

We pressed our foreheads together as we sat there in the hot water, with the stearn rising up all around us.

I awoke to the feeling of soft sheets on my skin and a rested feeling that I hadn't experienced in what felt like forever. My body still ached, but considerably less-so now thanks to the ointments and medicine my father's servants had given us.

When I rolled over, though, my hand met cold sheets where Enzo belonged. I immediately sat bolt upright, a gasp escaping my lips as panic overtook me.

"Enzo?"noveldrama

A moment later, the bathroom door opened. Enzo stepped out, shooting me a quizzical look. "I'm right here, Nina," he said with a slight laugh. "Not going anywhere."

"Oh." I swallowed. "I thought you..."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," I called out. The door cracked open a moment later and a servant peeked in, averting her gaze.

"The Alpha King would like to speak with you now."