A Gift from the Goddess

Book Two-Ch.# 37

“NO!” Kieran roared.

And right as the dagger pierced the surface of my shoulder, Daniel was promptly pushed off me.

“I said *don’t touch her*,” he growled.

The weight of his words fell over everyone in the room, and once again I experienced the tangible sway of his order.

“Kieran,” Daniel huffed out, unable to get back up to his feet. “She-.”

“No, enough! You’re hereby forbidden from moving until further notice,” Kieran said. ” That goes for you too Allison. Sit down. Now. And I don’t want to hear another word from either of you.”

Allison gritted her teeth but did as she was told.

“What… What is that?” I asked. “What did you do to them?”

Kieran looked defeated as he straightened back up, unable to meet my eyes. He simply stared at two people he held dear as they were trapped on the floor.

“An Alpha heir order,” he said. “It’ll only hold them long enough until a full ranked member arrives though.”

“Kieran-.”

“Leave… Rae,” he said quietly. “I can’t do anything else for you now.”

The pain in his voice was clear, an echo in it that stung me. I didn’t want to upset him further, and so, with one hand covering the shallow new wound to my shoulder, I hobbled back to my feet to grab the book and dagger.

“There’s a cupboard to your left which has an emergency hidden staircase inside it. Use that and follow it all the way down. It’ll take you to the car park outside safely without being seen.”

Just as he’d said, upon inspecting the cupboard, there was indeed a staircase inside. But as I stared into the dark passage ahead, I hesitated once more.

…This was the last time I might see him. Did I really want to leave things like this? With lies intended to push him away and a head full of questions?

“Kieran… I…,” I said, my voice trailing off.

So many things I wanted to say, to explain, to ask about. All of which would take too long to get through. And so, in the end, I settled for one thing.

Just one line.

“…I’m sorry,” I whispered.

And I slipped through the doorway without another word, beginning the descent down.

“This isn’t over, Rae,” he called out behind me. “I’ll find you. I promise.”

But I just wiped at the stray tear that had escaped my eye and kept walking.

There were a lot of promises that were made lately. Too many.

“Do yourself a favour for both our sakes, Kieran,” I said quietly. “…Forget about me. My survival might just rely on that very thing.”

I knew what awaited me now. The only remaining path left.

A path that would lead me to the one place I ever truly belonged.

Back into the shadow of my father.

But first… first I had a job to do.

the fact that my absence had been long. Perhaps too long for an impatient man such as my father. I knew it would be punishable to return like

through the motions. I wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge everything that had happened, simply just trying to get through the day without breaking down. To keep moving without remembering

think about Kieran anymore. He

it was only

Now, I’d need to work even harder to hide my presence, an entire species probably soon intending to hunt me down. Because if a war could span over fifty years because of one pack, then

Allison’s face still haunted me

are…,” I said to myself in the confines of a dark

from within the floorboard, promising to give me the very thing that had started all of this. What

never existed, I could have lived my life in ignorance until death came for me. That sounds better than this… than now living

fine. Just… a girl doing her job. And I pushed back the feelings

couple of minutes to crack into the lock, Miles clearly not investing enough in security, but soon enough I caught my first glimpse of the

documents my father had

I could see why.

transactions, photos and other pieces of evidence that would be enough to crumble my father’s business to dust. Yes… Miles was a smuggler, but at some point he must have switched sides. Probably working for someone who had it

Enough to risk it all to get back… even if it meant losing

that wasn’t quite like everything else.

passage pertained to an associate or partner in crime

am reminded of that fact every day by my fortune; with my business and my Raven. It is through her continuous instruction that I have loyally served and been rewarded for

the snippet, confused by who he was talking about. Because for as long as I could remember, my father had always been alone; both in business and in personal life. Never even so much as

he wrote here… it was nothing like the man I knew of. Not the cold-hearted, business focused father who I’d lived with for

Not Eric Reid.

snapped the folder of documents closed, no longer wanting to

through it to begin with, such a thing would get me in trouble. But I’d figured since I’d already broken every rule, that adding ‘snooping’ to the list wasn’t that

reasons. The new information merely added

And I sighed.

felt like the more I looked into the reality of my world, the more dark truths I discovered. Truths that would only lead me into situations

broken… evil… a

the passenger seat. My father could have them

down that the juxtaposition of my life

it fell next to the book

curiosity at the time but then somehow hung onto during the

for me to take, one that could

the two choices as they laid

or a book with a title topic I was slowly

front cover read. ‘A

Silver Lake’.

imagine the bias I would find inside upon reading. Though some information was better than nothing. Better than… being spat. at

to chase down another search into who I was?

for Kieran for the millionth time. It felt as though I’d had a part of myself torn away

My other half.

My… mate.

I lo-.

No.

down this path. Not again.

wasn’t Rae or Rheyna… I was Raven.

for me

what I

home greeted me as I entered the house, the place quiet now within the late hour of the night. This was my longest time being away and it felt almost…

A needed one.

shone brightly through, emanating from

was awake.

he be angry? Had he somehow discovered