My Hockey Alpha by Eve Above Story PDF

Chapter 0780 Nina As soon as Enzo was led away by the guard, I felt a surge of urgency ripple through me. Quickly, I motioned for Luke and Tyler to followaround a corner and out of sight.

"That was too close," I muttered, ripping off the stifling guard helmet with shaking hands. "We need to regroup and figure out our next move." Luke nodded grimly. "Did you two hash out a plan in there?" he whispered.

Stealing a glance at Tyler to ensure he was listening, I quickly relayed the key details of Enzo's schstarting an uprising in the arena itself, turning the crowd against the guards while he and the panther shifter sowed chaos from within.

"That's one a hell of a gamble, Nina," Luke said when I was finished, his mouth set in a hard line. "But I suppose that was always going to be the case, taking the fight directly to Mila's doorstep like this." "Do you think it can work?" Tyler's quiet voice cut through the weighted silence, his brow furrowed in concentration. "Getting people riled up enough to flat-out rebel, I mean? And how do we avoid casualties if things really hit the fan?" I hesitated, chewing my lip as I considered his points. Rabble-rousing was a delicate art at the best of times- sowing the seeds of insurrection against a tyrant like Mila felt almost impossible.

Not to mention the moral implications of knowingly putting innocents in harm's way, assuming everything didn't go perfectly-which it certainly wouldn't.

"you make a fair point," I said at last with a weary sigh. "Which is why our first priority has to be identifying Mila's more unsavory thralls from those simply trapped under her sway through fear or coercion. The latter need to be our targets for rabble-rousing, while the former should be neutralized quickly before they can cause too much mayhem." Tyler arched an eyebrow at me, the first faint glimmer of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "You sound like you have a plan already, then, as always." I managed a grim chuckle, absently twisting a lock of hair between my fingers. "Maybe the beginnings of one," I admitted.

Bracing my hands on my hips, I exhaled slowly as I mapped out the tentative shape of an idea beginning to take form.

"Here's what I'm thinking," I began. "Luke, you and Tyler will have to blend into the crowd and start planting seeds of unrest, sowing doubt about Mila's intentions. But you'll need to be smart about it-start small, target pockets of people who look uneasy or conflicted already." Luke snorted wryly. "Anyone who doesn't look 100% on board with the 'let's all worship the deranged dragon queen' idea, huh?" Despite myself, I felt my lips twitch in the faintest of smiles. Trust Luke to find levity, even in the bleakest of situations. Shaking my head, I continued.

"Enzo said that there are plenty of people in there who have simply been forced into following Mila's rule through fear or intimidation. They just need a little... nudge in the right direction to embrace their dissent." My gaze fell on Tyler then. "Which is where your gift for reading social cues and body language is going to cin handy. I need you to be my eyes and ears out there-identifying who seems the most receptive to a message of resistance, and then using your words to fan those flames." I was gambling a lot on my brother's abilities here, I knew. But if there was one thing the years of illness and isolation had given Tyler, it was an improved sense of how to connect with people with his charm, how to read between the lines of what they said versus how their body language betrayed their true feelings.

Judging by the determined set of his jaw and the subtle steel hardening his normally soft features, Tyler was more than ready to rise to the occasion. He gave a firm nod of understanding.

"Consider it done," he said simply, and the quiet conviction in his tone made my chest swell with a sense of pride. My little brother was all grown up; he may have been scarred and hardened by a childhood of struggle, but he had emerged all the stronger for it on the other side.

Turning back to Luke, I sucked in a deep, steadying breath. This was it-the moment where our shaky plan would prove to be either steadier than we had anticipated or even worse than we could have imagined.

'To Luke's credit, though, he seemed to grasp the gravity of the moment, his expression grave and slightly haunted as he regarded me.

"Alright," I said, squaring my shoulders as I slipped off the bulky guard armor and dropped it in a nearby alcove, hidden in the shadows. Luke and Tyler followed suit. "Let's get this insurrection started." Striding forward with as much confidence as I could muster, I led the way through the oppressive heat and flickering torches of the corridors until we found the arena. Within minutes, the deafening roar of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of voices filled our ears.

Blending into the crowd in our plain clothes, we fell into step beside a steady stream of people all funneling toward the arena's entrance-schatting and laughing with abandon, while others trailed silently with haunted, shuttered expressions.

My blood turned to ice as I recognized the telltale signs of mind control in many of them, their glazed eyes and jerky, marionette-like movements. Those were the thralls, the ones whose fate relied on their more 'aware' cousins and neighbors.

The first thunderous blast of sound that hitupon emerging into the colossal arena nearly staggered me. Shouts and roars of raucous cheering washed over us in an incomprehensible wave, disorienting us.

But slowly, as my eyes adjusted to the blinding light of the flaming braziers ringing the pit below, I was able to make out the true size and scope of our surroundings.

I felt my stomach tighten as my memories of the last twe had been here flooded back in. The pobl of blood where Enzo had killed that bear shifted had long since sunk into the dirt, but I could still smell the acrid scent of musk and copper. The arena itself was a perfect circle of hard-packed earth encircled by towering tiers of stone bleachers that easily held thousands upon thousands of frenzied spectators.

In that moment, my heart fluttered nervously in my chest as I finally grasped how desperately outnumbered we were a terrifying prospect, even if we were successful in turning the crowd.

Without more than a simple nod to Up. I one another, Tyler, Luke, and I split up. I kept them in my periphery as I began to spread the whispers of dissent, watching as the people's expressions shifted and contorted. It was time.

But before I knew it, a series of ringing clangs reverberated through the cavernous space, and the m colossa Niron gates opposite us slowly began to grind open. I froze, my eyes widening. I thought I had more time... On one side, out stepped a large, weathered panther.

And on the other side, out stepped my husband.