Chapter 293Chapter 293: Snowfall
Nina
When I looked up at the full moon peeking out from behind the clouds, I felt an overwhelming urge to
shift.
Even though we had somehow been standing in that spot for hours without realizing it, I wasn’t ready to
go inside just yet. I still had a decision to make: would I return to Mountainview, or would I stay with my
father?
“What do you say we stay out a little bit longer?” I asked Enzo.
Enzo grinned and nodded. We shifted together into our wolf forms. Our human forms twisted and
turned into wolves, our skin turned into fur, our eyes glowed. We looked at each other for a few
moments, taking in one another’s non-human appearance as our newfound vigor and strength flowed
through us. Then, with Enzo in the lead this time, we leaped off into the darkening forest.
We ran for a long time without stopping, just feeling the cold air rippling through our fur and the
sensation of freedom in our legs. The forest smelled thickly of pine and the air smelled as though it was
about to snow any minute. As we leaped over fallen trees and small gullies, there was no destination in
mind; we just wanted to run. We wanted to run freely, with no shackles holding us down, no fear, no
pain. It felt good, yet oddly strange at the same time, to run without having to worry about running into
battle or being chased by the forces of evil.
At one point, we broke through the woods to find ourselves in a large, open field that was surrounded
on all sides by trees. Grinning, I dashed forward, feeling Enzo nipping at me from behind, and we raced
around the field with wild abandon. We tumbled on the ground together and play fought, nipping at
each other’s fur as our own human laughter echoed in our heads. It still felt almost unnatural to speakwithout really speaking in our wolf forms, to communicate telepathically, but something about it also felt
beautiful. To be able to communicate without having to say a single word out loud only made me feel
even more connected to my mate, and I loved every second of it.
novelbinFinally, once we were out of breath and panting, we stopped play fighting and running. We began to
walk alongside each other, brushing up against one another, and walked back into the woods, back in
the direction that we came from. By now, a light snow had begun to fall. The dark green branches of
the pine trees started to become covered by a light white dust, brightening the entire forest. I hoped
that it would snow heavily, that it would blanket Selena’s fresh grave, that we would wake up to several
feet of snow outside in the morning and that the snow would be piled so high against the doors of the
mansion that we would have a good excuse not to make our choice yet. But I knew that my friends
were waiting for me back in Mountainview, and the choice needed to be made.
Eventually, we returned to the little frozen stream and shifted back into our human forms. There was a
large boulder on one side of it, and we sat down on it together. Enzo wrapped his arm around me as I
leaned my head on his shoulder.
“Have you made a decision?” Enzo asked quietly as he looked up at the sky.
I shrugged. “I don’t know… On one hand, I want to be here, amongst other werewolves. I want to be
near my dad. I want to get to know the place that my mother and my sister used to know so well. I want
to start fresh and put all of the horrible things that happened in Mountainview behind me… But at the
same time, I love Mountainview and I love our friends. They’re my family, too. I don’t know if I can leave
them.”
Enzo was silent for a long time. With the snow falling around us, the forest was completely silent. I
always found it so peaceful when it would snow. The way that the world fell silent when it snowed, as
though the earth went to sleep, was a welcome distraction from the noise. I just wished that my brain
felt just as peaceful and quiet as the forest did.Finally, Enzo shifted in his spot and shook his head thoughtfully. “You know, when my dad first told me
that we were leaving the werewolf realm and that we were going to live in Mountainview, I was furious,”
he said with a bit of a chuckle. “I loved it here. The thought of living with humans made me sick. I felt
like a prisoner.”
“Really?” I asked, looking up at him. “You’ve never told me that before.”
Enzo nodded. “Yep. I wanted to die, honestly. My dad made me have a relationship with Lisa to get a
positive influence at the school, and it made me hate the place even more. It left me with a bad taste in
my mouth about shallow humans, about human society… But then I met you.” He looked over at me
then, and his brown eyes sparkled with the reflection of the falling snow. “You changed that for me,
Nina.”
My eyes widened slightly. “Why?”
“Because.” Enzo looked back down at the ground. His cheeks looked a little rosy, although whether it
was from the cold or from sheepishness, I couldn’t tell. “You showed me that humans are amazing, and
they’re strong, and they’re loving. You introduced me to people who I never would have even spoken to
otherwise. You showed me that a pack doesn’t need to just be wolves, so long as the people in the
pack care deeply for each other… And now, I don’t think that I could imagine a life outside of
Mountainview anymore.”
As Enzo spoke, I felt my heart begin to race. I pictured all of the times that we were saved by our
friends, all of the times that we laughed and danced with them. I remembered our camping trip as clear
as day, when we played spin the bottle around the fire and when Lori and Jessica kissed for the first
time and when we hiked up the mountain together. Even despite the incident with K and the fact that
James eventually turned out to be a traitor, I only thought about the good things about that trip. I
wanted more of those trips.Suddenly, I stood and looked at Enzo.
“You’re right,” I said. “I can’t imagine a life outside of Mountainview, either.”
Enzo’s eyes lit up slightly, although I could tell that he was trying to hide his excitement in order to not
influence me one way or another. But it was too late; I had already made up my mind.
“So, we’re going home?” he asked quietly, standing and looking down at me.
I nodded, feeling my eyes fill up with tears. But they weren’t tears of sadness; they were tears of joy. I
took Enzo’s hand and smiled up at him, then began to lead him back to the mansion to tell my father
about my decision.
“Yes,” I said. “We’re going home.”