My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 335

Nina

My hands trembled as I slammed the door behind me, locking it in a desperate attempt to keep the world— and the enigmatic shadow entity —at bay.

Leaning against the cool, wooden surface of the door, I struggled to catch my breath, my heart pounding like a drum inside mychest. I closed my eyes, trying to dispel the haunting image of the shadow entity.

Why now? Why tonight, when I was surrounded by joy and love?

In a flurry of frustration, I kicked my high heels off with a clatter and began pacing the room in my bare feet, clutching the ends of my hair nervously. Some paragraphs are incomplete if you are not reading this novel on Jobnib.com. Visit Jobnib.com to read the complete chapters for free.”Talk to me,” I muttered to my wolf, who was always waiting in the wings, watching, observing. “Please help me make sense of this. I can’t take it anymore.”

But even she seemed just as confused as I felt.

“I wish I knew, Nina,” she said, her voice uncertain. “But I can’t even make out if the shadow entity is real or fake. I can’t see it.” My eyes widened. “You can’t?”

“No,” she replied. “I can’t. I believe that you see it, I really do.

But if it’s real, it’s like whatever it is is… blocking me from seeing it. And if it’s not real, then maybe it’s a machination of something going on in the very depths of your own mind,something that even I can’t see.”

I stopped pacing and stared at my reflection in the full-length mirror. I hardly recognized the woman staring back. Her eyes were wide, tinged with fear, her cheeks flushed.

This wasn’t me. I wasn’t a coward; I was a fighter. Yet here I was, trembling over something I couldn’t even comprehend.

Jumping at my own shadow, quite literally.

Just as I was about to spiral further down this rabbit hole of angst, there came a soft knock on the door.

“Go away!” I called out, feeling my fists clench out of instinct.

“Nina, it’s me.” It was Tyler’s voice, and hearing it instantly made me soften.

I hesitated, glancing at the door, then back at my distressed reflection.

“Hang on,” I called, quickly wiping away a stray tear and composing myself as best I could. Unlocking the door, I pulled it open to find Tyler standing there, his eyes filled with a mixture of concern and curiosity.

“Where’s Enzo?” was the first question that escaped my lips.

Tyler stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “I told him to wait downstairs. I wanted to talk to you first.”

His words hung in the air between us, filled with an unspoken understanding. Tyler, of all people, knew when I needed space and when I needed family.

“Tyler, I..” My voice trailed off, unsure how to verbalize theinsanity that had gripped me.

He sat on the edge of the bed, patting the space next to him, inviting me to sit. I did.

“Talk to me, Nina. What happened back there? You scared everyone, especially mom.”

I took a deep breath, searching for the right words. “I… I saw something, Ty. Something horrible. And it’s not the first time I’ve seen it.”

“A vision?” He leaned forward, his eyes searching mine for clarity.

“No, not a vision,” I corrected him, my eyes dropping to my fidgeting hands. “More like… an entity.”

His eyebrows shot up, intrigued yet cautious. “An entity? As in, something real?”

A wry chuckle escaped my lips. “I don’t know what it is, whether it’s real or not. It’s this… this shadow, Tyler. A creature with horrible, sharp teeth, long fingers that keep reaching for me. It’s like it’s mocking me. I’ve been seeing it lately, but never like this. Never during such happy moments.”

I felt Tyler’s hand grip mine, grounding me. “Nina, this is serious. Do you think it’s a figment of your imagination? Stress, perhaps? Or could it be something real?”

I sighed, my eyes meeting his.

“I wish I knew, Tyler. Part of me hopes it’s all in my mind, but another part… Another part things it’s all very, very real.”

We sat in silence, letting the weight of my confession fill the room. Tyler’s grip on my hand tightened, as if he could somehow squeeze the fear out of me, and replace it with the courage I so desperately needed.

“I don’t know what this entityis, Tyler, but it terrifies me,” I finally admitted, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Nina, have you considered talking to someone about this?” Tyler broke his silence, his words cautious.

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. “A therapist, you mean? You really think some human shrink can make sense of what I’m going through? They’d hear everything I have to tell them and they’d think I’m crazy.”

Tyler sighed, his fingers brushing through his tousled hair in a rare display of agitation. “No, not a human therapist. But there are people out there trained to deal with… well, unique situations like yours. People who understand both the human and the supernatural aspects.”

My eyes narrowed, pondering the possibility. “You mean a werewolf therapist?”

“Yes. Or at the very least, someone from the werewolf realm. I could do some research for you, help you find someone reputable.”

A werewolf therapist. The idea had honestly never crossed my mind, seeing as how I had spent most of my life believing thatwerewolves didn’t exist.

“Idon’t know, Tyler,” I said, shaking my head. “It just feels… pointless, sometimes.”

Ah. That kind of run.

Rushing to my closet, I slipped out of my dress and into leggings and a sweatshirt.

We tiptoed through the maze-like corridors of the mansion, dodging family members and avoiding the areas where I knew my parents and their guests would be congregating. Finally, we reached the back door, slipped outside, and it felt like we could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

We barely exchanged a word as we darted into the forest behind the mansion. Once we were far enough from prying eyes, we stopped and looked at each other.

“Ready?” he asked, his eyes full of concern and something else— anticipation, perhaps?

I nodded. In the next moment, we shifted, our human forms melting away as our wolf forms took over. I felt an overwhelming surge of freedom, as though this was the most natural way to live.

With a quick glance at one another we took off, running through the forest like we had been locked up for years. The wind howled in my ears as we darted between trees, leapt over logs, and splashed through streams.

For the first time in weeks, I felt at peace. The oppressive weight of the visions, the dread, the confusion — it all seemed to evaporate, leaving me feeling astonishingly free.

We ran until our legs could carry us no further, and then we stopped. Shifting back to our human forms, I looked around and realized where we were. The place was all too familiar, but I hadn’t visited it in a long time.

It was Selena’s grave.

It felt like she had just been buried, like it was the day of her funeral all over again. And yet, the grass had grown over her grave, the leaves on the trees had returned, and there was the scent of fresh flowers in the air.

Her grave was a small, carefully maintained clearing in the forest, hidden away from the rest of the world. A simple stone marker stood in the middle, Selena’s name and dates etched into it. It was a place of sorrow, but also one of remembrance.

“I thought you might need to be here,” Enzo whispered, as if reading my thoughts.

His words hung heavy in the air, and I felt my eyes brim with tears. Büt then, something odd happened. A faint stir, a delicate flutter, deep within my belly. I instinctively placed a hand on my abdomen, my eyes widening as I met Enzo’s gaze.

His eyes were soft, searching, almost hopeful. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice filled with a note of concern.

But the sensation was gone just as quickly as it had come, leaving me to believe that it was just in my imagination.

“Yeah,” I managed to say, my voice a little shaky. “I think 1 am.”

“Come here,” Enzo said, holding his hand out for me. “Let’s sit.”

I took his hand and followed him to a stone bench that my father had placed nearby her grave, beneath a weeping willow tree. The long fronds of the tree swayed gently in the early summer breeze, rustling soothingly.

Sitting there, beside Selena’s modest yet beautiful grave, with Enz”s hand gripping mine as if he could shield me from the pain with just his touch, I felt an overwhelming urge to spill everything.