A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter 68

Chapter Sixty-Eight 

The rest of the meeting went without further incident and soon everyone disbanded from the meeting hall to congregate outside. It was sunset by this point and I could feel everyone‘s exhaustion around me as they waited for their sleeping arrangements to be made available for the night. 

Aleric and I stood to the side, avoiding further interaction after the events that had occurred. Not that I imagined anyone would be upset by that. If anything, they would be grateful for our distance, not wanting t o find themselves as the next subject of our focus for too long. 

V 

But there was one individual I had a feeling wouldn‘t pick up on that obvious social cue. An individual who had just left the building, their eyes beginning to scan the area around them. 

Without hesitating, I quickly pushed Aleric around the corner of the meeting hall building to hide ourselves from none other than Alpha Fredrick. 

Only he would be brazen enough to not let sleeping dogs lie. Or in this case, wolves. 

| peeked around, watching as he frantically searched the crowds of people conversing outside. Searching for something or *someone* in particular. 

“Why are we hiding?” Aleric asked quietly behind me. 

He was close, his body right next to mine so he could whisper and not draw further attention to our location. I was grateful given the keener senses of our peers around us. 

“Because Alpha Fredrick is going to try to speak to me privately,” I explained. “And he‘s going to demandt o know where I heard those rumours about him from; something he couldn‘t ask me in that meeting without looking further guilty in front of the other pack representatives.” 

“...And are they true? The rumours?” 

| spun my head around and smiled wickedly up at him. “Who knows? They‘re just rumours after all.” 

“Aria, what the hell,” he laughed. “It‘s a pretty serious thing to infer about someone.” 

| shrugged, turning back to see if Alpha Fredrick was still looking for me. “He deserves it even if they are false. And besides, I‘m pretty sure that fighting a rumour with another rumour is far better than attacking him, like what you wanted to do.” 

“I‘m sure that he is wishing right now that I actually had hurt him in order to save him from that social execution you just served him–.” 

Alpha Fredrick‘s eyes then started searching towards the general area we were hiding, perhaps catching our scent in the wind change. 

“Crap, time to go,” I said, grabbing onto Aleric‘s hand, and I ran towards the back of the building, all the while dragging him behind me. 

“Aria, wait,” he called out, intending to sound disapproving over my immature reaction but his laughter betrayed him. 

Behind the large hall was a grassy slope that led all the way down to a small pond at the bottom. Perfect for resting while I caught my breath for a minute; the lack of my own strength and endurance painfully obvious, courtesy of the collar. 

I doubled over, both hands on my knees as I breathed in deeply. All the while, Aleric simply watched over me. I could see the amusement in his eyes at my state, something that was probably bad for even human 

standards. 

Chapter Sixty Eight 

“Give me a break,” I whined. “I haven‘t trained, nor done anything even close to that in months.” 

“I‘m aware,” he said, walking past me to seat himself by the water‘s edge. 

I followed only a moment later once my breathing was back under control, plopping myself down on the grass beside him. 

here. The sunset, the fresh air... how the water glistened orange in the dying light. I felt I could stay here for hours, relaxing as I continued to

after a few minutes

“Is that so?” 

legs up to my chest and hugging them. “But which was your train of reasoning... fresh air

solving, Aria. During your Beta training days, I saw how you would get thrills from thinking of things in meetings

seemed

my input on those pack matters yesterday, including even those petty

the actual discussions today, I still got to see you in there. It was like you came alive again, Aria.

meet his eyes finally and found them full of only genuine concern. The orange-toned light around us had made the green in them appear as if they were more saturated. How

Which was why, physically the same or not, it was becoming impossible to pretend that this Aleric didn‘t care about me. In fact, it would be naive

to tell him, before making his own mind up. He might not be ‘under control‘, but perhaps I didn‘t need that after all. The fact he at least considered what I had to say was still

the previous timeline was incapable of kindness. It‘s just that his kindness had never been directed towards myself. He had loved Thea, loved the pack, loved his work… it was just me that

the line between fear and friendship now? It had become so blurred that I felt my uncertainty shift on any given day. Did I enjoy his company now? Yes... but at the same time, it was impossible to push aside my concerns. For all I knew, he could be a volcano

for worrying you,” I said, pulling my attention back to the pond. “It‘s just a hard adjustment, everything

focus on, mixed in with those quarters... it was like living inside my nightmares. Slowly, day by day, losing a

confusion but laughed a little. “Given how much time you‘ve spent in there, I would never have guessed.”

said with a small reciprocating smile, my chin resting o n

once more, and I flicked my eyes back to meet his now completely serious

me earlier, Ana,” he said with disappointment “A room is at least something negotiable. I can talk to Tytus about switching your room to another one and I doubt it would be that bigo fan issue. The only problem is you might need to

was one thing I

thing in the hundreds

was then almost completely down and a cool breeze came through, sending a small shiver through me. It looked as though the scarf came in handy for more than initially intended Funny as we weren‘t anticipating colder weather

were at the top of the list for being

out in front of me. They were

hand out for me and I happily took it grateful for the gesture

need to start training squats again at this rate,” he joked “Can‘t even get

gesture, and we started our ascent back up the slope towards where we‘d left everyone.

said slowly. I‘ve been meaning to talk to you about something

him as we were

it‘s about when”

as something then suddenly caught my eye behind his shoulder, immediately taking precedence over

figure i recognised

interrupting him. “Surprisingly, I‘ve just seen someone i

was referring to. Who is that? They

your thing later?” I asked but i was already walking to

“Aria, wait...” 

ran off without wasting any

was elsewhere. Or, more accurately, it was on the person

almost as it

her dark curls falling onto my face as she hugged

packs within the Winter Mist alliance. The

away, “I know that I came

“For me?” 

some sources that you were added last minute to the registry of guests staying

could have

worried sick. The one living Saintess goes missing one day and the only public updates provided were coming from the same sketchy Alpha some weird rumours were involved with. Do you realise how

three years ago, back when I‘d used her whereabouts during a kidnapping for my own financial benefit. Back when I thought running away was still a viable

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