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.

into the car and drove like hell out of Ashwood, I was reminded of the fact that my absence had been long. Perhaps too long for an impatient man such as my father.

ready to acknowledge everything that had happened, simply just trying to get through

think about Kieran anymore. He didn’t exist as of

only me vs…

were my naive days of the past. 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 I was sure that they weren’t keen to just let me

face still haunted me every

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

floorboard, promising to give me the very thing that had started

if you’d never existed, I could have lived my life in ignorance until

because I was fine. Completely fine. Just… a girl doing

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

documents my father had been after.

could see

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

all to get back… even if it meant losing his daughter. All to save

wasn’t quite like everything else. It looked almost like a journal entry

had written pencil notes around it, wondering if the passage pertained to

The woman came to me again last night and I basked in her glory,’ it read. ‘What I have, I owe to her, and I am reminded of that fact every day by my fortune; with my business and my Raven. It is through her continuous instruction

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 bringing

it was nothing like the man I knew of. Not

Not Eric Reid.

folder of documents closed, no longer wanting to read

shouldn’t have gone looking through it to begin with, such a thing would get me in trouble. But I’d

been wrong about that, if only for unexpected reasons. The new information merely added more questions

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 was better avoiding. Just like how chasing after Kieran

a mistake. Undeserving.

car, throwing the documents on the passenger seat. My father could have them

the juxtaposition of my life

fell next to the

up out of curiosity at the

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

stared at the two choices as they laid

father’s documents… or a book with a title topic I was slowly

of the Silver Mist’ the front cover

Silver Lake’.

told by Ashwood, at least. I could only imagine the bias I would find inside upon reading. Though some information was better than nothing. Better than… being spat.

down another search into

about it some more, my heart ached for Kieran for the millionth time. It felt as though I’d had a part of myself torn away when

My other half.

My… mate.

I lo-.

No.

down this path.

Rae or Rheyna…

was time for me

is exactly what I did.

house, the place quiet now within the late hour of the night. This was my longest time being

A needed one.

light shone brightly through, emanating from down the hallway. I

father was awake.

he be angry? Had he somehow discovered what