My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 398

Nina

The little red bird transformed right in front of me. A moment later, a young woman with long red hair and striking green eyes stood in the clearing now, and my shock was palpable. She appeared no older than me, rubbing her arm where I had grabbed her, a mix of irritation and pain on her face.

“Hey! That hurt!” she exclaimed, her voice sharp. Her green eyes glared at me, fiery and alive.

I was still reeling from the sudden transformation, but my anger quickly resurfaced once I came back to my senses. “Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn’t have been spying on me!” I shot back, feeling my own eyes narrow in frustration. “I wouldn’t have grabbed you if you weren’t stalking me.”

The woman, brushing a stray leaf off of her short, huffed angrily. “Orders are orders, princess,” she retorted. “It’s not like I can just go around ignoring the Alpha King’s commands.”

Frustrated, I kicked a nearby stick in her direction, a useless and childish gesture of my irritation. “Then turn back into a bird and shoo off!” I said, my voice rising with every word. “Spying on someone during an intimate moment is disgusting… If you’re gonna spy, at least make sure I don’t see you.”

“Whatever.”

The woman turned to leave, her body tensing as if preparing to shift back into her bird form. But suddenly, she paused, hesitating. She looked back at me with those green eyes, her expression changing to something more serious.

“Wait,” she said, her tone now cautious. “There’s actually something else you should know.”

I crossed my arms, my anger still simmering just beneath the surface. “Why aren’t you flying off yet?” I demanded.

The woman looked around nervously before leaning in closer, as if sharing a secret. “You’re being watched,” she whispered.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I know.”

“No,” she said. “Not just by me, but by, someone else.”

My heart skipped a beat as recognition washed over me. ”

It’s the yellow-eyed wolf, isn’t it?” I asked, my own voice barely more than a whisper now.

“Yes,” she said with a nod, her gaze intense as she looked around. “They’ve run off just now, but… they were watching only a moment ago.”

I took a deep breath, absorbing her words. “You’re sure?” She nodded, her earlier nervous expression turning back into one of indignance.

“Positive. You’re welcome, by the way.”

With that, the woman turned on her heel again and prepared to shift. But I wasn’t satisfied; not yet, at least. ” Wait!” I called out, causing the red-haired woman to stop and throw me an annoyed look over her shoulder. “You’ve … You’ve been following me a lot, haven’t you?”

The woman turned to face me once more and shrugged, putting her hands on her hips. “Like I said, orders are orders. If you’ve got a problem with it, take it up with the Alpha King-not with me.”

“I only ask because you must see a lot,” I said, taking a step forward. “You watch me all the time, so you must… know things.”

The woman paused, considering my words before she nodded again, her eyes shifting to the ground. “That’s true,” she said. “Perhaps I know some things.”

“So tell me,” I said, “this wolf… is it around a lot?”

The woman glanced around again, looking nervously at our surroundings. “Look, if you’re just trying to ruffle my feathers—”

“No,” I insisted. “I’d really like to know. Has it been watching me? Watching my friends?”

She nodded. “It has. For quite a while, actually.”

“How long?”

“About three months.”

I swallowed, my mind racking to recall moments where I had felt watched over the past few months, when I had felt uneasy during my morning walks or when I would look out the window in the dead of night.

And then, my mind pieced together a moment more recently, a moment when nothing seemed to make sense: when the burglar somehow escaped from our headquarters. “Did you see if it was there the night the burglar escaped?” I asked, my voice taking on a more frantic tone.

She confirmed with another nod. “Yes,” she said. “It was lurking around.”

I sighed, feeling a mixture of frustration and intrigue. It was clear that this woman wasn’t quick to give up her information, but she certainly seemed to have a lot of it. ” What’s your name?” I finally asked.

“Daphne,” she replied, her voice softening ever so slightly.

“Daphne,” I repeated, rolling the name around in my mind and choosing to commit it to memory. “Well, Daphne, you seem to know many things. Like about the yellow-eyed wolf being around on the night of the burglary. Know anything else?”

Daphne shifted uncomfortably, looking at me with a sense of resignation. “I don’t know anything else about it,” she said. “Just that it likes to watch you and your friends.”

“What about Jessica’s accident?” I asked. “Did you-”

“My job is to watch you,” Daphne interrupted. “Not your friends. So I don’t know.”

I watched her for a moment, my mind racing. Daphne, a spy sent by my father, knew more than she was letting on.

And as she turned again and prepared to shift back into her bird form for the third time, I realized that I couldn’t let her go just yet.

“Wait, Daphne!” I called out just as she was about to take off. She paused, turning once more to look at me curiously. Annoyance flashed across her face, but there was something else there, too.

Intrigue.

“Oh, I don’t know-”

“Aw, c’mon,” Tyler said, pushing his lower lip out in that signature pout that I always found impossible to ignore.” The water’s nice. Besides, aren’t pregnant ladies supposed to exercise or something so they don’t get fat?”

“Tyler,” my mother scolded, splashing him. “That’s rude.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, alright,” I said. “I guess a little swim wouldn’t hurt.”

A little while later, dressed in my bikini, I was stepping into the cool pool water. The sun had risen high into the sky by now, and my mom had been right; it was a hot one today, and it was only going to get hotter as the summer went on.

My mother floated nearby, her hair fanned out around her like a halo. She looked so content, so at peace, that it made my heart swell. I couldn’t remember the last time l saw her this relaxed. Maybe never, honestly.

“You know, I can’t remember the last time we did something like this,” I said, swimming closer to her.

She smiled, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight. “I used to take you and Tyler to the YMCA all the time, you know,” she said.

I furrowed my brow, struggling to remember. My mom, noticing, laughed. “You were little. Tyler was a toddler.”

I nodded slowly as I paddled circles around my mom, holding onto a pool floaty.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked.

“Sure,” my mom replied. “What’s up, sweetie?”

“You… You seem so much happier lately,” I said softly while Tyler splashed around in the background, doing somersaults under the water like a little kid.

My mom opened her eyes, squinting against the sun. “Do I?”

I nodded. “You do,” I said. “I figured maybe it was Tyler’s recovery, or maybe my dad… But these past few days, being back in Mountainview, you somehow seem even happier than in the werewolf realm.”

My mother paused, considering my words. I saw something flash across her face, something that I couldn’t quite read, before she shrugged. “I always liked it here,” she said. “And besides, it’s nice to visit my daughter.”

“When will you go back to the werewolf realm?”

“Soon,” my mother said with a sigh. “Your father is probably quite lonely by now.”

“Yeah,” I sighed, resting my chin on my pool floatie. “Do you think… Do you think I was too harsh with him? I mean, after everything that’s happened…”

My mom sat up, treading water as she looked at me. ” Honey, don’t feel bad,” she said. “Your father has been through a lot, yes; but you’re not your sister. You don’t have to drop everything to try and become like her.”

Her words struck me to my core, made me realize something that I hadn’t noticed yet. Maybe, in a way, I had been trying to fill my sister’s shoes.To access the complete chapters for free, visit Jo b ni b.com. Despite everything, she was the perfect princess. If the Luna hadn’t wreaked the havoc that she had, then Selena would have made the perfect heir to the throne.