A Gift from the Goddess by Dawn Rosewood

Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three (AUTHOR NOTE: Just a reminder that single quotes’ are things only said in Aria’s head when they appear like speech.)

‘Stop them,’ my mind hissed at me as I watched the children laugh and jump all over Aleric. He had scooped a few up and was playing happily with them. They ran around him, tugging at his clothes while he pretended to be a scary monster. Every time he would roar, they would all squeal and run a few steps away, having the time of their life.

“He is a murderer,’ my mind reminded me. ‘He is dangerous. Don’t let him touch them.’ But the scene in front of me was baffling, freezing me in place. I had never seen Aleric around children before and so his affectionate behaviour towards them was shocking, to say the least. Would he have been like this in the past had he been given a child of his own? …If my body had been capable of such a thing? 

As the thoughts urging me to protect the children continued to hound at me, I did my best to push them away. I had to remind myself that a sixteen year old Aleric was not yet the man he would be one day. He didn’t have blood on his hands… yet. Myra could sense I was suddenly extremely uncomfortable at his arrival and gently touched m y hand. She probably didn’t understand but it was nice of her to try and comfort me regardless.

Finally, Aleric looked up towards the tree and saw us sitting there. I flinched as his eyes caught my own, hoping more than anything he would leave. 1 But, to my dismay, he immediately put down the kid that was thrown over his shoulder and started to walk to where we were. My heart started to race but I told myself I was more mentally prepared this time. I wouldn‘t let the trial ground memories haunt me like the last time.

I took several deep breaths, calming my mind, but with every step he made towards us, the more I began to doubt my ability to handle it. Would I actually be able to keep it together this time? It had been so many months now since I’d seen him… so many months since I had died. Would the memories still be as fresh?

But standing in front of me, I realised just how weak and insignificant I still was. As he towered over my small frame, I knew that, even with all of the training I‘d done over the last few months, it would still not even be remotely good enough to defend myself against him.

“Ariadne, Myra,” he greeted. His voice made my stomach drop and I instantly felt sick and weak. My name on his lips felt more like a curse.

Myra and I were both already on our feet by this point and we bowed our heads in respect upon his greeting.

“Alpha heir,” Myra said, welcoming him. “We are honoured to receive you at our event today. Thank you for coming.” I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth to return his greeting, my head pounding at the internal conflict happening within. I was sure he had noticed my silence though. He had to have. Aleric smiled. “It is a pleasure to be here and to finally meet you, Myra. My father extends his regards for the invitation and wishes to thank you for your family’s continued hard work at the facility.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look at his face, choosing to keep my eyes cast down. It was taking all of my concentration just to not visibly shake from just being so close to him.

“Thank you, Alpha heir.” Myra bowed again quickly.

have some matters to discuss with Ariadne right now. But I look forward to catching up properly and please let your parents know that I have arrived.” My breath stopped mid-exhale from surprise. Why would he need to talk to me of all people? I could

Alone.

an icy silence hung between

talk to me this time?” he asked, finally breaking the quiet. “Or should I call for

curtain. Now that it was only the two of us, he became closer to the Aleric I knew. Unnecessarily cruel, and occasionally sarcastic to the

to stop it from trembling. I needed to be stronger than this. I needed to b e able to least speak to

see him cross his arms together and shuffle on his feet. It was as if

he continued, “my father informed me of what happened with Myra and the Jade Moon pack. I realise now that I need to apologise for how I acted after you met with the council. So… I am sorry, Ariadne. You had been badly injured and it was no way for me to have spoken to you.” This caught me off guard. Aleric was… apologising to me? For something he had said? I couldn’t ever recall a moment in our past he’d done such a

request that you have tea with me.” My eyes then snapped t o his face, wide

all people, want to willingly have tea with me? I didn’t have to wait long for my answer

few hours before the main event for the fundraiser and he’s asked if you could lend

down again. “Sorry if I didn’t make it clear enough before,” he said, “but this wasn’t really a.. suggestion.. from my father. He’s actually insisted on this.” I then understood the meaning behind his words. This wasn’t an

was a bit of a surreal experience. The last time we had sat together, as just the two of us for a meal, was not long after our rise to Alpha and Luna... Though, back then, he had stared daggers at me the entire time and left after twenty minutes to go see Thea. A small area in the adjacent garden had been set up specifically to enable us

to this showed off a large array of tea and snacks that had been prepared. Surrounding us was also a mixture o f colourful flowers and fauna growing in the garden, all perfectly maintained. It really would have been beautiful, if it weren’t for the company I would be keeping.

spend time together so we’d hopefully ‘play nice‘ and become close. This was probably some weird version of a surprise date in the hopes I’d concede to becoming Aleric’s Luna one day. Tytus probably assumed, and correctly so, that I would decline to a real meetup, and so chose to force us to participate during a time we would both already be dressed up and nearby. I wondered how many more of these ‘dates’ I was going to have to endure before he finally respected my choice not

for your recommendation over handling the Jade Moon pack,” he started, breaking the silence finally. “It turned

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hanter Thirty Threpe commendable.”

“Thank you, Alpha

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