Chapter 0740

Nina

I flipped to the next page of the ancestry book, humming to myself as I took notes in a separate notebook.

"Interesting..." I muttered under my breath. I traced the text on the page with my other finger, thoroughly fascinated by the information I was uncovering.

Of course I knew that my father's family tree had roots that ran far and deep, but this sort of information was so much unlike the type of information one would typically find in an ancestry evaluation. I was uncovering old secrets, love affairs, hatreds and friendships.

Finally, though, I finished the book; or at least, I finished the current volume. It ended with my great- grandmother, but I was certain that there had to be other tomes elsewhere that depicted my family tree both before and after the generations outlined in this book.

Snapping the book shut, I leaned back in my chair with a sigh and clasped my hands behind my head. I glanced up at the towers upon towers of books all over this massive library.

It was going to be quite the journey to hunt down more of these books.

Over the next few hours, while the others were training outside, I pored over that library. The occasional sound of whistles and shouting caught my attention during their training, but for the first time in days, I was so fully enthralled with my research that I hardly felt left out at all.

It was when I was climbing the ladder to the top of a shelf, however, when something caught my eye.

I was muttering to myself, pushing books aside in search of another volume of the ancestry tome, when I saw it: a shape hidden in the back of the shelf.

Furrowing my brow, I stuck my arm in and groped around until my fingers made contact with smooth, dust covered leather. I grunted a bit as I pulled out the item, and what came out a moment later was a small, leather- bound journal.

"Huh," I muttered, turning the book over in my hands as I slowly made my way down from the ladder. "I wonder what this is."

When I was on the floor again, I carefully wiped away the thick layer of dust covering the leather. There was a faint embossment of a tree on the cover, but nothing else. I knit my eyebrows together and flipped open the pages, coughing as a plume of dust puffed up around me.

"What the..."

I narrowed my eyes, wondering for a moment if my mind was playing tricks on me. I didn't recognize this

language; no, upon further inspection, the 'words' that were written in the journal were hardly even a language at

all.

They were more like... symbols. But there seemed to be some sort of rhyme or reason to them, because they didn't appear random-rather, some of them were repeated, and there were spaces between 'words' as well as punctuation, as though these were intended to be full sentences.

With my curiosity fully piqued by now, I flipped through the journal. Each page was completely filled with the same strange writing.

Every. Single. Page.

When I came to the end, I expected some sort of cipher, but there was none. The book just ended with a single letter.

"C."

Suddenly, before I could even begin to wrap my head around what I had just seen, I heard the library door creak open. For some reason, out of instinct, I hid the journal behind my back. I couldn't explain why; it was like a primal urge, as if my muscles moved of their own accord.

"Nina? Are you in here?" my mother's voice called out.

"Uh, yes, Mom," I replied. "Need something?"

"Everyone is coming inside for lunch soon. Will you be joining us?"

I nodded, even though she couldn't see me amongst the stacks of books. "Yeah. I'll.. I'll be right there."

A moment later, I heard the door click shut. For some reason, I exhaled a breath I didn't even realize I had been holding and pulled the book out from behind my back. I stared down at it for a few moments, confused as to why I had felt it necessary to hide it-I wasn't sure.

But one thing was for certain: I was intrigued by this book And now I wanted nothing more than to uncover its secrets, whatever they may be.

The sun was warm and pleasant overhead as I picked at the grass, listening to the distant sounds of my father's training regimen. He really was somewhat like a drill sergeant with them, which was shocking considering his usually-jovial nature.

As I close my eyes against the warm blue sky, though, the sound of approaching footsteps caught my attention. I cracked my eyes open to see none other than Lori approaching, covered in sweat and panting

"Lori?" I said. "I thought you were training."

"I was." She plopped down next to me on the blanket with a heavy sigh and fell backwards, arms outstretched, chest heaving, "Not anymore."

"What happened?"

"I just can't keep up," she sighed. "I really wanted to challenge myself, but being the only human is... demoralizing."

"Oh, Lori." I reached over and gave her sweaty hand a squeeze, then grimaced and wiped the sweat off on my skirt. "It's okay. He's really intense."

"Yeah." Lori opened her eyes again and laughed a bit as she looked over at me. "And before you ask, my answer is

no."

"Huh?" I asked.

Lori chuckled again. "I just wanted to put that out there, in case you ask me if I want to be Claimed," she said. "I'd like to keep my human...ness."

"No shame in that." I laughed and laid down alongside her, rubbing my slightly protruding belly as I did so. "And besides, I'm apparently not even supposed to Claim anyone with the pregnancy, anyway."

Lori glanced over at me. "It seems like you're not supposed to do a lot of things with the pregnancy,"

"Ain't that the truth." I let out a sigh, still rubbing my belly. "But I'm coming to terms with it. Besides, it's given me the chance to learn a lot of things these past few days. Like my family history."

"And that strange book," my wolf interjected. But yet again, I felt strangely uninclined to mention the book. It was my little secret, at least for now.

"That actually reminds me." Lori rolled over and propped herself up on one elbow, looking at me intensely. "Are you alright? You and Enzo, I mean."

I furrowed my brow as I thought back on last night. It was awkward to fall asleep next to him after he rejected me, and he was already out of bed when I awoke this morning; not to mention at lunch, when he just ate his food and went back outside to continue training.

"He's.... intensely focused on this training," I mused. "That's all."

Lori was silent. I looked over at her, and I could see the burning question in her eyes; the same one that she hadnoveldrama

asked when Enzo had punched Matt. And the same one that Matt had given me that day in the kitchen.

"We're fine, Lori." I gave her hand a squeeze, noting that it was significantly less sweaty now. "Really. Enzo's just ...going through some stuff."

Lori looked at me for a moment, then nodded, squeezing my hand back. "I'm here for you, if you ever need me," she said softly. "You know that, right?"

"I know."

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