#Chapter 128: The Guardian Wolf
Nina
Enzo kissed me. He didn’t pull away suddenly, or kiss me by accident. He kissed me softly and deeply, with his hands cupped around my cheeks. His scent overwhelmed me, making me relax into his body. It felt as though we were floating on a cloud, and everything else fell away.
When we finally pulled away, it was reluctant. We rested our foreheads against each other, breathing deeply. I closed my eyes, taking in his scent as much as I could.
“What made you turn around?” he asked as he led me to his motorcycle. I stared at the ground, unsure as to how to answer. But I wanted to be truthful. “It was your scent,” I finally said. “I knew I had to turn back then.”
He nodded quietly. I wondered if he picked up my scent, too, but he didn’t say. As we climbed onto the motorcycle, he caught a glimpse of the baby blanket in my hand and pointed at it. “Is that…”
I nodded, holding it up. It was small, a bit tattered around the edges, and the pattern was faded, but it was the same blanket from the pictures.
“My mom said it’s the only link to my past… I think it might help me figure out who this woman is that keeps sending people to capture me.”
As I held it, I felt a slight tingling in my fingers. It was almost as though the blanket held some sort of magic, but I knew that was ridiculous. I pocketed it, then helped Enzo strap my suitcase down to the luggage rack on the back of his motorcycle. When we were finished, he handed me a helmet before we climbed on and drove away.
That night, Enzo took me back to a motel room that he had rented before all of this happened. It was a cheap, run -down motel along the side of the highway. Apparently, he’d planned on spending the night there until my mother calmed down, and then he was going to come back to try to talk to us and figure out what was going on.
I explained everything to Enzo as we made our way into the motel room, including the curse that his father hired a witch to cast on my brother. When I was finished, he sat on the edge of the bed with a confused expression on his face and wrung his hands.
“My father is a jerk, but I really can’t see him cursing a baby,” he said thoughtfully. “Sure, he might make threats, and I could see him bribing your mother to take you out of the country to get away from me… But I just know that he’s not that violent.”
1 sighed. There were two small beds in the room, and I sat down on the other. “I don’t know. But either way, I promised my mom that I would find a way to let her come back. If I could strike up a deal, maybe–”
Enzo shook his head. “Let me handle it,” he said solemnly, then gestured toward the baby blanket in my hand. You’ve got enough on your plate.”
I looked down at the blanket and nodded. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.” “For now,” Enzo said, standing, ” we’ve got an early morning tomorrow, and it’s already two o’clock in the morning. We should get some sleep.”
I agreed. We got ready for bed, then got into our own beds; despite our kiss, there was still a lot of confusion surrounding the arranged marriage, and we decided it was best to sleep separately. As I fell asleep with the taste of Enzo’s lips still on mine, however, I couldn’t help but notice that he kept the red scarf in his hand. while he slept.
At some point during the night, 1 awoke with a yelp. I sat up abruptly in bed, panting from my most recent nightmare that involved Edward’s torture. Enzo shot up, too, startled by my sudden outcry.
“Are you okay?” he asked from across the dark room. I sighed, holding my hand over my racing heart. “Yeah. Sorry… Just a nightmare.”
He was silent for a moment as I laid back down. I thought he went back to sleep, but then he spoke. “You’ve been having them, too?” I frowned, turning my head to look over at him. Even in the darkness, could see his form in the bed next to mine.
“Yeah,” I whispered, shutting my eyes. “I guess we both are.” He was silent again for some time. Then, without a word, I heard his bed creak and opened my eyes to see him approaching me in the darkness.
Neither of us spoke as he lifted up the blanket on my bed and crawled in with He slowly wrapped his arms around me, pulling me so close I could feel his heartbeat through his shirt. It felt so natural like this; it reminded me of the night we spent together at the lodge in the woods. The room was silent, filled with nothing but the quiet sound of our in-sync breaths as we slowly drifted off into a dreamless slumber together.
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of cars outside from the highway. I rolled over and cracked my eyes open against the light to see that Enzo was no longer in bed. In fact, as I sat up, I realized that he wasn’t in the motel room at all.
“Enzo?” I called, my heart starting to pound as I wondered where he went. Had he abandoned me? Had something happened to him in the middle of the night? I felt myself begin to panic — but then, suddenly, the door opened.
Enzo stepped in, carrying a take-out food bag and a cardboard coffee carrier with two cups of coffee in it. He smiled gently as he saw me.
“I was hoping to be back before you woke up,” he said, coming over and setting the bag and the coffee down on the bedside table between the two beds. “I hope I didn’t worry you too much.”
“I only panicked a little,” I said, relaxing now that I knew that he was okay and not missing. “What’s this for?” I nodded toward the food.
“Breakfast, duh,” he replied. I watched as he sat down on the other bed and dug into the bag to retrieve two breakfast sandwiches wrapped in paper. He handed one to me, then unwrapped his and took a big bite. “I know it’s not exactly gourmet,” he said, “but there isn’t anything around here except for fast food joints.”
I chuckled and unwrapped my sandwich. “Yeah. Growing up here was pretty boring.” I took a bite, relishing in the greasiness of the sandwich. Between this and the peanut butter sandwich from the night before, I felt as though I was starting to get my appetite back. Sleeping peacefully with Enzo certainly helped as well, although I found myself blushing whenever our eyes met.
When we were finished, I stood and walked over to my suitcase to rifle through it for some clean clothes. I finally produced a pair of jeans and a sweater. Enzo turned his back while I changed.
“You’ve got another game already tomorrow, right?” I asked. He nodded. “Yeah… Then just one more after that before the final match.”
“With Ronan.” I felt my heart sink as I mentioned the rival captain– the very same one who plotted to ruin my image and push Enzo and I apart in order to serve his plan with Edward and ‘The Sister’, whoever she was. Suddenly, Enzo stood and came over to I felt my heart skip and my eyes widen as he wordlessly pulled me into a tight hug.
“I won’t let him hurt you,” Enzo said quietly. I looked up and blushed to see him looking down at me intently. At that moment, I wanted to kiss him again so badly. Our relationship felt so confusing now after spending the night together; the way he’d held me, making my nightmares go away like my guardian, made me feel more connected to him than ever. But at the same time… What sort of relationship could we have if he had a mate out there? And even more than that, how could we be together if his father was still hell-bent on keeping us apart for whatever reason?
But then, suddenly, he pulled away and averted his gaze. “Make sure you wear a warm coat,” he said. “It’ll be cold on the motorcycle.”
