A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter Forty-Seven An intense fight ensued as we were quickly engaged by a group of wolves.

To my surprise, Aleric had already taken two down and was on to his third before even a few minutes had passed

But there were so many more to go.

The bottom line was that we weren’t going to win this, and we both knew it.

I had two wolves on me and I had so far been holding my own against them well. Neither of them had expected me to be able to fight so well underage and it showed. They moved as if assuming I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but they were wrong.

“Aria!” Aleric yelled. “I can hear there’s more coming. We need to go.” 

I knew he was right. We’d vastly underestimated how large this cave system was. With the number of wolves here, it seemed plausible that it expanded out more than what we could see here. Most likely, there were hidden tunnels somewhere which would explain how th appeared to be coming out of nowhere. Our best option was to run. Suddenly, Aleric screamed out in pain. I wanted to turn and check what had happened but the two on me weren’t letting me take my eyes off them for even a second. They were determined t o finally get a hit on me as their frustration had only been growing the entire time I’d been dodging them.

But I didn’t need to wait long in order to find out if Aleric was okay.

Because I soon heard the sound of someone shifting, followed by an encore of whimpers, howls, growls… and flesh tearing. A lot of flesh tearing. I quickly unsheathed my knife, waiting for the moment I knew would be coming, and was pleased he didn’t keep me waiting long.

The largest black wolf I ever saw then came bounding out of nowhere and tackled one of the two away from me, snapping towards his throat for a final blow. I’d only ever seen Aleric’s wolf a handful of times but it was always an impressive sight, as with any other Alpha wolf.

The second rogue naturally tried to turn his attention to Aleric in order to help his comrade, but that was a mistake. I moved lightning fast to kick him to the ground, pinning him in place with my legs... and instantly embedded the silver knife into his chest.

Finally exhausted, I leaned back and looked around me. It seemed like Aleric had killed off the entire room as the corpses around us began to shift back into their human bodies.

But it had been a complete massacre. I heard Aleric then whimper, drawing my attention back, and I knew what he was trying to say. He’d mentioned there were more coming and it was a reminder that we didn’t have long to leave. I nodded that I understood and looked down to retrieve my knife… only to find the wolf had reverted back to his human self underneath me.

Instantly, I felt my entire body freeze up at the sight of who laid there. But it was impossible, wasn’t it? Surely it was someone who just looked similar... 

was Doctor Andrews, the future head pack doctor that would replace my mother one day. Aleric barked out loudly next to me but I was barely able to register him with what I was seeing. It literally didn’t make any sense. He couldn’t be a rogue because

n his face.

to drag me away from the body before I even had a chance to retrieve my dagger. “Okay, okay!” I finally said as I started to get a

ground cutting into my legs had been enough

but managed to make the rest of the

regardless. I followed Aleric the entire time, trusting him to know the way back even though it all

in so much control though… or maybe it was just that Aleric and his wolf were both on the same page anyway in that moment. Nevertheless, it was still impressive given most people took at least a month to begin moving so fluidly in that form. But as I inspected him, I couldn‘t help but notice he was limping ever so slightly on

pointed his nose towards the car boot and back to me. Oh. He must have had a spare change of clothes in there. ...And he didn‘t want to shift in front of me because it would mean I’d see him naked. Out of all the crazy shit I had just seen… Aleric’s naked body was by far the least of concerns… and it wasn’t even a new thing for me. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen his entire body unclothed before in my past life. But I suppose he didn‘t know that. I exhaled quickly one last time in mild frustration before going to open the boot for him. He just continued to stare at me until I walked around to the front of the

to shift back but I

directed at me because of what had happened in

into the driver’s seat. “They will be clearing the entire place out before we get back.” Well, we could both agree on that at least. Aleric sped the entire way until we made it to the closest patrol tower, but he had been right. B y the time they did manage to get back to the cave, all the rogues had left and managed to take most of their belongings with them. Even all the bodies Aleric

the

had to pull it off. But this only told us that they must have had another shelter nearby. There was no other possible way they could have moved that many people and dead bodies over an extended distance, without leaving a single trace or track. The search continued for

finding anyone. For now,

in there alone,” my mother

I had been sent to the hospital for a check-up as soon as Aleric and I had finished giving our report

and a responsibility to the pack now. If Aleric and I hadn’t gone

one rogue was sighted, not thirty. I didn’t even know

Her words hit hard considering I’d literally done that once already. Did she know? Had my father ended up disclosing my past? I‘d personally been avoiding telling her

didn‘t mind if she knew the truth but her expression seemed to be one of only a concerned mother, not

Would I have tried to run away sooner if my mother had still been alive? Would she have tried to

my face away. “I‘m sorry.” But as her words made me recount the past, it also reminded me of what I’d seen in the cave. “By the way...,” I said, thinking. “Do you know where I can

mort la