Chapter 516

Enzo

I hardly felt the sensation of the branches whipping against my face as I ran. I hardly felt my feet pounding on the forest floor, or my legs acting on instinct as I leaped over fallen trees and exposed roots.

All I felt that night was fury. Pure, unadulterated fury.

Truthfully, I didn’t know exactly why I felt so furious. I didn’t know exactly why it had been targeted against my closest friend and Beta, Matt, either. But that night, when Nina had leaned toward him and giggled at something that he had said right at the dinner table, I had just…

Lost it.

Now, after our fight, all I saw was Nina’s horrified face when she had put herself between us. She had looked at me like I was a monster.

Curses flew out of my mouth as I sprinted through the woods. I had left my friend’s bloody body behind, and with it everyone else—everyone who now likely saw me as the same monster that Nina had.

God, what had happened to me? It was as if, ever since I fought in Mila’s arena, something in me had… snapped. My anger became harder to manage. My wolf became more feral, more violent.

Was I going insane?

Once I was certain I had put enough distance between myself and the others, I slowed my pace and looked down at my hands. They were covered in blood, although I couldn’t be sure whether it was my blood or Matt’s, or even Nina’s.

“Did I hurt her?” I asked my wolf inwardly. “Did I hurt Nina?”

“What does it matter if you did?” he hissed, no longer the voice of reason but now the voice of pure malice. “She cheated on you with your Beta. Perhaps the baby in her belly isn’t even yours.”

I furrowed my brow at my wolf’s words. Maybe… How long had they been having an affair, I wondered? Days? Weeks? Months? Nina always seemed loyal to me, but it was often those who seemed the most loyal on the outside who wound up cheating the most.

As I slowed and came to a stop, the moon came out from behind a cloud overhead and illuminated the red, sticky blood on my hands.

Matt’s… Nina’s…

No.

It was my blood.

I looked down, shuddering at the sight of it: a large gash in my abdomen. I couldn’t be entirely sure if it happened during the fight or during my mad dash through the woods, but it didn’t matter. I was losing a lot of blood.

A lot…

And suddenly, everything went black.

…

“Hello, pet.”

I heard her voice before anything else. It seemed to echo around me, bouncing and reverberating off of the walls of my mind. And I recognized it immediately.

“Mila.”

“Did you think you could run?” she whispered. I couldn’t open my eyes, but I knew she was close; impossibly close, even. It was as if she had actually taken up residence in my mind. As if somehow, if my brain could reach out, it could touch her.

“Where are you?” I asked. “What do you want?”

“What do you think?” Mila’s voice echoed back without a moment of hesitation. “I want you.”

“Me? You can’t have me. I belong to Nina.”

Mila clicked her tongue, and the sound was like gunshots in my mind. “Is that what you really think?” she asked. “She’s fucking your best friend. What makes you think that she’s yours? What makes you think that the baby in her belly is even yours?”

I didn’t know what to say. My wolf had said the same exact thing—that maybe the baby in Nina’s belly was Matt’s, or maybe even someone else’s, and not mine. I didn’t want to believe it.

But I couldn’t help myself from thinking it now. It was as if a floodgate had opened in my mind, and visions upon visions of Nina with other men poured in like dirty water. How many others had she slept with? Matt? Luke? The entire hockey team, even?

“You see it now, don’t you?” Mila asked with a chuckle. “You see the truth now?”

I swallowed, if I could even swallow in this strange mindscape. “I think so.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know.” My head whirled with possibilities. I didn’t want to leave Nina, but… if she was cheating on me, then I had no choice. I wouldn’t lower myself like that.

“You know what you need to do,” Mila said with a surprising amount of calmness in her voice. “Leave her. Come to me instead.”

“But—”

“It’s non-negotiable, Enzo.” Her voice deepened a little; it didn’t get louder, but rather sank further into my mind, as though settling itself into the folds in my brain. “Our psychic connection has already been established. We’re connected now, Enzo.”

“Connected?” I asked.

Mila chuckled in a mocking way, but it was oddly soothing as though she were gently stroking the depths of my mind with her voice. Like she was petting me.

“Once a dragon has chosen its mate, the psychic connection cannot be broken,” she said. “You are mine. And I am yours. But that cannot be so unless you get her out of the picture.”

“And if I say no?” I asked.

“Simple. I will use our connection to drive you mad; and then you will kill her yourself. With your own bare hands. After that, you will come to me.”

I felt my mind shudder at her words. Killing Nina… I couldn’t kill her. No matter how angry and hurt I was, I couldn’t harm her. Even as I saw her protecting Matt’s body, holding her hand out to stop me, it had halted me in my rage.

“I know you don’t want to kill her,” Mila said softly, her voice soothing me again. “That’s why I’m giving you the option to simply leave. To return to me, of your own accord, and leave that life behind.”

There was a long pause as I pondered her offer. Neither option seemed ideal, but if I had to choose between leaving her or killing her with my own hands…

“Will you make me forget?” I asked.

“Pardon?”

“I want… I want to forget,” I murmured. “If I come to you of my own accord, I want you to make me forget. Not just Nina, but… everything. I don’t want to remember a single moment of this life that I left behind.”

Mila paused, as though considering my proposition, before she chuckled again. “Yes, my pet. I can certainly make that happen. Now… go.”

As though I had been physically shoved out of my mindscape and back into the real world, my eyes shot open. A gasp heaved out of my chest, like I had been holding my breath. Slowly, my vision flooded back in, and I realized where I was.

I was laying on a bed in a dimly lit room, lit only by the soft light of a single small lantern on the bedside table. When I tried to move my arms, I found that my wrists had been strapped down. Panic began to rise in me, but only momentarily before a soft, soothing sensation washed through my mind.

“Bide your time,” Mila’s voice echoed in the back of my mind, as though her presence had replaced that of my wolf. “Don’t panic…”

I drew in a deep breath, absorbing her words. Yes. I couldn’t panic…

But when I felt the pressure on my lap, I couldn’t help but look down. Nina’s head lay there, fast asleep.

And seeing her filled me with fury.