Check-Mate

12. Nightmare

Warm POV

I can't sleep a wink. How am I supposed to? I had seen with my own eyes how terrifying the powers of an enigma can be. How I can put myself at ease when such a person had forcefully become a part of my Nong's life?

I try my best not to twist and turn on the bed as I know that if I do, I will end up waking up Chain who had somehow fallen asleep.

I close my eyes trying to shut my brain off all the overthinking, which as a professional over-thinker is impossible.

I feel Chain's body twitch next to me. I turn on the bed lights and see that he is sweating profusely, mumbling something incoherent.

It looks like he is having a nightmare again. I place my hand on his forehead and cast a sleeping spell on him.

His face turns peaceful as he drifts off to dreamless sleep. The spell can make him sleep for another few hours. 

The sleeping spell was taught to me by Aunt Lita, the head sorceress of our pack. 

Aunt Lita is a very respected elder of our pack. She is the most powerful sorceress, whom I am supposed to succeed. She had chosen me as her successor 

 She is the only one other than the four of us who knows Chain's identity. It was all thanks to her that we managed to hide Chain within our pack. 

When Chain was brought in with us, she was the one who convinced the pack that he was my twin when most of the pack members expressed their doubts.

Chain often used to have such nightmares when we were young. When I say often, it's more like almost every night.

Back then, we used to live in a much smaller house, so I and Chain shared a room. So, I know better than anyone about his nightmares.

Mom and Dad took him to Aunt Lita as the nightmares continued to haunt him for a prolonged time. 

As a sorceress, she was well verse in both medicine and psychology. It didn't take her long to figure out what was going on.

She told us that there are high chances that Chain had witnessed his packmen being killed with his own eyes, before escaping the place.

You can imagine how such a sight would impact on a child. It must have left a deep trauma in him. I have seen some news reports of the incident back then and I am sure that everyone who got murdered there, died a brutal death.

I don't know how she did it but Aunt Lita somehow managed to suppress those memories in his brain. He stopped having nightmares on normal days but on days when he is really stressed out, those nightmares will come back to haunt him.

Aunt Lita had taught me the sleeping spell for such occasions. 

The magnitude of stress that he is in right now was clear from the nightmares alone. The last ounce of sleep that I had in my body left me. I get up and turn on the reading lights.

I had borrowed every single book in the sorceress library that mentioned Enigmas when I got back. I overheard that enigma and friends that he would be staying in this province for a while.

Even though I have no idea what his intentions are I can't help but be vigilant. If he decides to attack our pack for some reason, what are we supposed to if we are caught off guard then?

Our pack mainly consists of omegas, out of which only a few of us are sorceresses. The number of alphas in our pack is significantly low. If there is an incoming attack, it would be difficult for us to hold the fort.

That was why I have been reading about enigmas in the few days. I wanted to find their weaknesses so that I could use it if needed. But now that I have to find its weakness. I can't let Chain be taken advantage of.

I pick out the thick book with the black cover. This book contained information about mating in between werewolves. I am sure that it has information about enigma mating as well. I just hope I can find something that might be useful to Chain.

I just don't feel that marking him without asking for his consent was a good move from that enigma's side. After all, markings are supposed to be permanent and would affect his whole life. Chain's willingness is a must in that case.

Hours pass by as I read the book.

"Warm?" I hear Chain call out to me. 

I look over and see him getting out of the bed.

"Did you not sleep all night?" Chain frowns.

I smile guiltily. I convinced him to sleep and I myself didn't sleep at all. "I found somethings that you might find useful. Go freshen up. I will tell you after breakfast."

Chain nods and heads back to his room to freshen up. I too close the book and head to the washroom.

I complete my morning routine and head downstairs. Mom had already prepared fresh breakfast and is setting up the table.

"Can I help, Mom?" I ask.

"Go call your Dad and Nong for breakfast." Mom orders.

I didn't have to call Dad as he is already here. I head to Chain's room to call him.

I enter the room and see him standing in front of the mirror, looking at the mating mark on his collar bone.

"Chain?"

He turns to me "Warm, how do you think mom and dad would react if they saw this?"

I understand his fear. They would definitely flip if they here that he was forced into a relationship without his consent.

"Don't worry, they won't" I assure him. "They won't be able to see it."

"What do you mean?"

"Yours is not a normal mating mark. It is a mark made by an enigma. Ordinary werewolves like mom and dad cannot see it. Only you and that enigma could see it. The only reason I can see it is because I am the successor of the Great sorceress."  

He relaxes. "Let's go have breakfast."

We head downstairs. Our parents were waiting for us to begin.

Four of us sit around the table and have our breakfast. Everything is similar to any ordinary day.

We clean up the table after breakfast as our parents leave for work.

"Warm? What did you find out?" Chain is clearly nervous.

"Let's sit down and talk" 

We head to the indoor garden. We both settle on the cozy couches.

"So, first of all I will tell you what I learned about enigmas" I begin. "According to the books I read, Enigmas are descendants of Vampire-werewolf hybrids." 

"Vampires exists?"

"I think so. If we werewolves can exist, then why not Vampires? The enigmas get their extra power from their vampire lineage. They even have a life span of about thousand years!"

"A thousand years?" Chain is completely shocked.

An omega's lifespan is about two hundred years. A beta's is two fifty and an alpha's is three hundred. It was really shocking that enigmas have more than three times the lifespan of an alpha.

"Yes, a thousand years. That is why they take in so many mates." 

If they were to only take a single mate all their life, they would be lonely. Powerful beings like enigmas always had higher amount of lust than ordinary werewolves. There is no way they would stay lonely in such cases.

"The mating system of the enigmas is very different from that of the other werewolves. They can mate with several mates simultaneously." I explain. "That means, even though the enigma had just marked you, he can still mate with someone else in the very next moment he finished the marking."

Chain fiddles with his tee, not saying anything. I can't guess what is going on in his mind.

"There is one more important thing you have to know about enigma mating."

He raise his head to stare at me.

"Normally, enigmas aren't supposed to mark an Omega." I say softly.