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 follow me around 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 scheme starting 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."

at the corners of his mouth. "You sound like

lock of hair between

I mapped out the tentative shape of

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

"Anyone who doesn't look 100% on board with the 'let's all worship the deranged

faintest of smiles. Trust Luke to

of people in there who have simply been forced into following Mila's rule through fear or intimidation. They just need a

Tyler then. "Which is where your gift for reading social cues and body language is going to come in handy. I need you to be my eyes and ears out there-identifying who seems the

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

and the

ready to rise to the occasion. He gave a

was all grown up; he may have been scarred and hardened by a childhood of struggle,

moment where our shaky plan

credit, though, he seemed to grasp the gravity of the moment, his expression grave and slightly haunted as he regarded

in a nearby alcove, hidden in the shadows. Luke and Tyler followed suit. "Let's get

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

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

telltale signs of mind control in many of them, their glazed eyes and jerky, marionette-like