A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter Seventy–One 

I awoke the next day sometime in the mid-afternoon. Not that it was very surprising given the events that had occurred the night before. 

Confusion was my initial reaction, finding myself in a strange bed, before my mind finally caught up. It still all seemed so crazy that, had it not been for the aching in my body, perhaps I would have thought the entire thing was just a nightmare. Or maybe I could have at least pretended it was. 

I changed into some clothes that were left for me and made my way into the living room, my movements all still incredibly stiff... only I found the quarters to be completely empty. I knew it was unreasonable to expect Aleric to be here but a part of me was still on edge from almost being kidnapped. Had he left to speak to Tytus in my stead? 

A knocking then came from the front door, making me jump, and I approached it warily. 

“Yes?” I called out. 

Without any warning, the door then swung open to reveal Alexander behind it. He must have heard my footsteps from inside. 

“Afternoon,” he greeted. “Aleric had to go organise some things but I‘ve been placed on watch duty. I‘ll be out here if you need me.” 

“Oh. Okay,” was all that came out of my mouth. How was I meant to react to that? Didn‘t Alexander have better things to do? I felt like an inconvenience. 

“Don‘t look so forlorn, things could have been worse,” he added, mistaking my expression. “I took over the watch from Brayden about an hour ago so you could have had him sulking out here instead.” 

That sounded like Brayden. I could easily believe how annoyed he was at being put on babysitting duty; our relationship never having evolved past mutually putting up with one another. Not to mention that, for a Gamma, his ego was far too big. 

“Thanks, Alexander,” I said quietly. 

He smiled with a nod before closing the door again between us. 

I now stood alone once more in the empty room, unsure what to do with myself. Should I be out helping somehow? Organising some patrols? No, I hadn‘t done anything like that in months given I was no longer a Beta heir. 

Useless. I felt useless. Like a damsel in distress, locked in a tower. And none of it made any sense. 

What was Thea‘s plan with kidnapping me anyway? Had I triggered whatever the required event was without knowing, allowing for my demise now? But I couldn‘t recall impacting anything of importance recently. Was it the meeting with Alpha Frederick, stopping the deal for the casino? That didn‘t seem like such a momentous event though, and it was one I had no influence on in the previous timeline. 

So what was the real motivation here? 

I sat on the couch, mulling in frustration for some time, continuing to try and make sense of the night before. But every time I thought I might have a possible explanation, I would find some flaw in the reasoning. 

“Aria?” a voice then said from the door, snapping me out of my head. 

I looked up startled to see Aleric had returned, the windows now dark as night had fallen. I really had spaced out for some time. 

Chapter Sureny one 

Woah, it‘s just me,” he clarified at my reaction. “Sorry, I didn‘t mean to scare you. I thought you would have heard the door open.” 

I cleared my throat, my brow furrowing slightly. “No, no, it‘s all good. I was just lost in thought.” 

“How are you feeling?” he asked, walking across the room to peer out the window. 

“Fine, I guess? Better than last night... Did you talk to Tytus today?” 

Aleric then became distracted, as if concentrating on something else. 

“Something like that. No further punishment for you but I‘ll be taking all the bad patrol shifts for the next few months. They‘ll be adding stricter patrols at the packhouse from now on too... not that it matters.....” 

It could have been worse. Much worse. I was grateful that Tytus hadn‘t decided to move my marking date up in response to the intruder scare or my unplanned adventure out of the pack; though not technically m y fault for that last one. 

The insane part was that this was really my life. I was walking on eggshells around Tytus and praying that I managed to change my fate before he took my choice away. 

“Aria,” Aleric called, pulling my attention once more. “I know you‘re still tired but I need you to follow me.” 

I was a little taken aback by the abruptness of his request but assumed he must be wanting to show met o my new room for the night. The old quarters were now a security risk and had a broken door so it made sense to put me somewhere else. 

Silently, I got up and trailed behind him, letting him lead me through the packhouse. 

...Only we kept going down the floors without stopping. 

Not just that, but the packhouse was also eerily quiet with no one in sight along the route we took. Didn‘t Aleric say that they were going to be increasing patrols here? 

paused in my spot once we reached the ground level, now completely perplexed. “Aleric... What‘s going o

n?” 

me gently forward. “I‘ll answer your questions

to put my trust in him that he wasn‘t about to lead me down another misadventure. Only that hope quickly dwindled further as he eventually

sense. Was there a different building that they were going to

I didn‘t stop or question it further, following him into the car

and I could feel the tension coming off Aleric. And the further we went, the harder it became not to press him for information, especially since we were still

would be too late. “We‘re clearly heading towards the border,

view as they walked into the middle of the road, waiting to screen the car at the border exit. There was no way they weren‘t going to alert Tytus

replied, driving

car then slowed down as we approached and I anxiously anticipated some sort of argument

app evenly the 

peered in through the window.

it never

between the two, before h e accelerated once more, driving past the exit and over

seriously, what‘s going on?” I stressed, now deeply concerned.

sight of a bag on the back seat. It was my bag. The one I would

you done?”

If you don‘t get killed by some other means then I‘m sure Tytus will drive you to that point. I can‘t silently sit back and watch it happen anymore.”

e would face. Did he even stop to think about what the fallout

of the road where it dipped out of sight. A small nook mostly obscured by trees. It was maybe five minutes down

us was quiet, I watched as he reached down and handed me something wrapped

the help you can get until you can get the collar

and quickly uncovered it, revealing that it was a silver dagger. Possibly even the same one. My stomach

realise Tytus is going to know it was you, right? It‘s going to be very easy to work that out even if he doesn‘t just order the other warriors involved to confess.”

back on the steering

He‘s going

“I know that.” 

can just order you to tell him where I am, right? That tomorrow morning they‘ll realise I‘m gone and

know that, Aria,”

snapped back. “Because I‘m struggling to understand why you‘re jeopardising your entire future for this, Aleric. It doesn‘t make sense that you‘re going to potentially risk

off. “No... It doesn‘t matter.

just as irritated. “I‘m sick of you not telling me what you‘re actually thinking about. I‘m sick of the silent treatments or snippets of info. Just, tell me Aleric. Tell me why the hell you‘re

pain. “You want me to sit here and tell you that when we both know it‘s not a mutually reciprocated feeling? To make

Chapter Seventy–One 

o goddamn pointless?” 

This wasn‘t real,

having some sort of weird dream or vision or nightmare.

words from Aleric in the past? How long had it taken before I accepted it was futile to keep faith I ever would?

night. Because there was absolutely no chance that I‘d gone through everything I had, spanning over two lives together at this point, for him to tell me

slowly opened my mouth in an attempt to speak, to say something, anything, to him... but no words came out. Where would I even

anyway. Suddenly, the noise of a motorbike approaching

up towards the sound, able to see better into the darkness than me, and tsked

a tosser,” he whispered, disapprovingly.

working overtime to try and comprehend everything that

no mistaking the situation.

it

the sound of metal clinking against the dagger broke me out of my trance. I looked

his seat belt. “The bike will be too conspicuous. Can‘t believe he brought that.”

mutely as he then opened the car door and got out, immediately walking back in the direction o f the Winter Mist. I followed unsteadily out of the car after him, however, I

I yelled out to him, rubbing my forehead to try

around though, instead yelling back over his shoulder as he walked towards a thicket of

as only more uncertainty filled me. I didn‘t want to leave things how we had. Regardless of what he’d said, I didn‘t want this to

wait a s–.”

me. “Have a great rest of your life. I hope for your sake that we don‘t meet again too

gone. Into the trees and probably

circumstances. With just

husky voice then called out from behind

with everything that had happened just now and with everything that had

destroy the last bit of strength I had