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.

like hell out of Ashwood, I was reminded of the fact that my absence had been long. Perhaps

went 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

anymore.

was only me vs…

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 I was sure that they weren’t keen to just let me die of old age naturally.

look of hatred on Allison’s face still haunted me every

you are…,” I said to myself in

thing that had started all of this. What my father had been desperate to get his hands on

Perhaps if you’d never existed, I could have lived my life in ignorance until death came for me. That sounds better than this…

fine. Completely fine. Just… a girl doing her job. And

clearly not investing enough in security, but soon enough I

my father had been

could

point he must

everything. Enough to risk it all to get back… even if it

wasn’t quite like everything else. It looked almost like a journal entry in my father’s handwriting, one dated a

written pencil notes around it, wondering if the passage pertained to an associate or partner in

it read. ‘What I have, I owe to her, and I am reminded of that fact every day by my fortune;

my father had always been alone; both in business and in personal life. Never even so much as bringing a casual one-night stand over to the house, let alone ever speaking about a woman with such adoration; not like in the

man I knew of. Not the cold-hearted, business focused father who

Not Eric Reid.

instantly snapped the folder of documents closed, no longer wanting to

gone looking through it to begin with, such a thing would get me in trouble. But I’d figured since I’d already broken

been wrong about that, if only for unexpected reasons. The new information

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 I

broken… evil… a

back into the car, throwing the documents on the passenger seat. My father could have them back and secure his business, just as he wanted. It was a testament to my

down that the juxtaposition of my life really came into

to

the Ashwood Archives. One I’d picked up out of curiosity at the time but then somehow hung

a new path of opportunity for me to take, one that could possibly lead to

two choices as they

book with a title topic I was slowly

of the Silver Mist’ the front cover read. ‘A history of

Silver Lake’.

bias I would find inside

really going to chase down another search into

the millionth time. It felt as though I’d had a part of myself torn away when I’d left, tearing

My other half.

My… mate.

person I lo-.

No.

wasn’t going down this path. Not

Rheyna… I

was time for me to

exactly what I did.

the place quiet now within the late hour of the night.

A needed one.

light shone brightly through, emanating

was awake.

him. Would he be angry? Had he somehow discovered what I’d been up to in my