A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter 69

Chapter Sixty–Nine 

‘Reach for it... 

‘Stretch... 

I dug deep within myself, searching where I had felt that familiar energy first stem from. Before it used to always feel like it was just out of arm‘s length, as if only the tip of my fingernail could graze it, but now it felt as though I needed several more appendages just to get anywhere near it. 

But it was there. I had to believe that it hadn‘t just been my imagination. 

Stretch just a little further...‘ 

But then I exhaled quickly in release, panting from the strain it had caused to my body. 

I‘d been sitting on my bed practising ever since arriving back at my guest lodgings. However, since starting over an hour ago, there had been little to show in progress. 

I knew there had to be a trick to this, some sort of internal cue to summon it. Elder Luke had mentioned that this energy was something that could be trained but I was now trying to accomplish it with a severe handicap. So naturally, a part of me was kicking myself for not learning this prior to the collar. 

I threw myself backwards on the bed, laying down in defeat. This was becoming infuriating, not to mention exhausting. How was I meant to practice something if I couldn‘t even begin to grasp it? This 

stupid energy that was a byproduct of my curse. 

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried again once more, digging as deep as physically possible. 

Grab it already. It‘s there. It‘s literally right there.’ 

Just grab it! 

... And then I felt it. 

My eyes immediately flew open as I felt the energy weakly pulse inside me. 

Just a dim flickering. Not much, but just enough to know it was there. 

‘HOLD IT. 

| gritted my teeth, fighting against all the different forces working against me... the collar, my now weaker body, the pure effort required to just utilise the energy itself... but it wasn‘t enough. 

| exhaled once more in release, heaving at the air around me. 

It was gone. Gone just as quickly as it had shown itself. 

But I couldn‘t discredit the noticeable differences and how they were definitely better when compared to my past experiences. There was no dizziness... no nosebleeds… no nausea. Not yet at least. It was mostly just aching and exhaustion from the attempts. 

What had been the trigger? My frustration? ...Emotion? I supposed that made sense. All the times it had come to me in the past were under circumstances of higher emotional investment. But would knowing that actually make it any easier? 

For now, I just needed to repeat this over and over again until I trained my body to grasp it on will, each time trying to hold it for a few seconds longer. 

And so, even though I knew how much it was probably going to hurt, I smiled at the excruciatingly slow grind ahead of me. 

How naive of me to think that at one point i‘d thoughi squats were bad 

“What the hell happened to you?” Aletic asked the next morning, eyeing off my appearance 

1 yawned but managed to bow my head in greeting per protocol 

“Good morning,” I said sleepily. “I didn‘t get much rest. Sorry for all of the fuss.” 

“I thought you were dead,” he said with all seriousness 

I‘d ended up staying up all night practising, pushing myself to my limit, before finally passing out sometime in the early morning My exhaustion had been so bad though that an attendant had to enter my guest lodgings with a master key after I‘d failed to answer the door. Apparently. Alenc had nearly smashed it down from knocking and had thought something had happened to me 

In actuality, I was just dead to the world sleeping. 

“I‘m sorry,” I repeated, though this time trying to make it sound more genuine. 

He sighed but his shoulders didn‘t relax. “It‘s fine. Grab your stuff and let‘s get going.” 

I wondered whether this had scared him off from ever bringing me with him again but I went back inside t o pack without questioning it. Truthfully, I wasn‘t even sure if I ever wanted to go to another meeting like this again but knew it was best not to push my luck whilst he was like this. I could tell that what I‘d done had really struck a nerve with him. 

the morning but my sleepless night was quickly catching up to me. Every inch of my

left to resist, I eventually drifted off to sleep in the car.

voice called out

didn‘t want to move, my eyelids heavy with exhaustion.

it repeated.

myself awake to see Aleric in the car beside

can sleep inside,” he said, unbuckling his seatbelt and getting out.

him, my moves sluggish. Though part of my reluctance siemmed from weighing up whether it would be better to stay

plethora of questions that I didn‘t care to answer. Instead, I followed silently behind Aleric

I went back in there?

off sceptically. I felt

up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

he won‘t care whether you remain in the Luna quarters and we can get you moved out

Chapter Sixty Nine 

fault, his presence probably wasn‘t making the situation any better given the circumstances of why I hated

was it that this place continued to drain me more than anything else these days? Ironically, it felt as though the quarters were living

it,‘ I finally decided. ‘I am not her and

then and took a second to take it all in. The

far back as

authority of a goddamn Goddess, then there was no way I was going to let a room destroy

goal was to get stronger. And

could also prevent an apocalypse in the process. It was just baby steps. Should be easy enough, right?

tone dismissing him. “I‘ll be

if weighing up whether he should insist on staying or not, but he finally nodded, accepting my request.

door. “Have a good rest and I‘ll see

coming around so often and I‘ll start thinking

smiled. “Unfortunately, just one

This trip had been a nice reminder of what it felt like

I‘m not going there.‘

quickly and threw my bag down by the door, walking towards my

that she*, my past self, had been right about, it was that getting involved with someone romantically had ended up being a mistake. I‘d been broken already once and had stupidly dragged myself back into that pit of pain willingly. Just for a touch, a glance,

“I‘m telling you that you were right. At least about one thing. Are you not

up my head anymore but I wasn‘t under any false pretence. Even though my make–up covered up the worst of m y exhaustion, I knew she would still be there somewhere. She was always there.

to train. No good wasting time with my looming birthday only

no matter how much

Chapter Sixty Nine 

had to continue with the harder of the

energy inside me for longer periods

sometime after dark. I‘d had two nights of minimal sleep and my

barely any strength left inside... I passed out.

is until I was suddenly awoken by the sound of my front door

instantly went to check the time

the morning. Why would anyone be here this late?

threw a robe over my nightgown. If this was an attendant then they were

called

Silence. 

“...Aleric...?” 

of someone‘s footsteps

bad. This was really bad.

be able to see me

What were my options?

Order them to stand down?

Aleric was in his room, he would be able to hear

and quickly inhaled as much as I could within my lungs.

“ALE–.” 

my mouth quickly shut, a wall of muscle encircling around my body. He‘d appeared from thin air; my

but I knew it was pointless. By even werewolf standards, this guy was built impossibly large. Maybe even larger than some of our pack‘s best warriors. And right now

the hell was

mouth from making any further attempts to call for help. There was nothing I could do, nowhere I could move, and so he was

Chapter Sixty–Nine 

shoulder without any issue

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