A Gift from the Goddess by Dawn Rosewood

Chapter Forty-Seven An intense fight ensued as we were quickly engaged by a group of wolves.

To my surprise, Aleric had already taken two down and was on to his third before even a few minutes had passed

But there were so many more to go.

The bottom line was that we weren’t going to win this, and we both knew it.

I had two wolves on me and I had so far been holding my own against them well. Neither of them had expected me to be able to fight so well underage and it showed. They moved as if assuming I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but they were wrong.

“Aria!” Aleric yelled. “I can hear there’s more coming. We need to go.” 

I knew he was right. We’d vastly underestimated how large this cave system was. With the number of wolves here, it seemed plausible that it expanded out more than what we could see here. Most likely, there were hidden tunnels somewhere which would explain how th appeared to be coming out of nowhere. Our best option was to run. Suddenly, Aleric screamed out in pain. I wanted to turn and check what had happened but the two on me weren’t letting me take my eyes off them for even a second. They were determined t o finally get a hit on me as their frustration had only been growing the entire time I’d been dodging them.

But I didn’t need to wait long in order to find out if Aleric was okay.

Because I soon heard the sound of someone shifting, followed by an encore of whimpers, howls, growls… and flesh tearing. A lot of flesh tearing. I quickly unsheathed my knife, waiting for the moment I knew would be coming, and was pleased he didn’t keep me waiting long.

The largest black wolf I ever saw then came bounding out of nowhere and tackled one of the two away from me, snapping towards his throat for a final blow. I’d only ever seen Aleric’s wolf a handful of times but it was always an impressive sight, as with any other Alpha wolf.

The second rogue naturally tried to turn his attention to Aleric in order to help his comrade, but that was a mistake. I moved lightning fast to kick him to the ground, pinning him in place with my legs... and instantly embedded the silver knife into his chest.

Finally exhausted, I leaned back and looked around me. It seemed like Aleric had killed off the entire room as the corpses around us began to shift back into their human bodies.

But it had been a complete massacre. I heard Aleric then whimper, drawing my attention back, and I knew what he was trying to say. He’d mentioned there were more coming and it was a reminder that we didn’t have long to leave. I nodded that I understood and looked down to retrieve my knife… only to find the wolf had reverted back to his human self underneath me.

Instantly, I felt my entire body freeze up at the sight of who laid there. But it was impossible, wasn’t it? Surely it was someone who just looked similar... 

mother one day. Aleric barked out loudly next to me but I was barely able to register him with what I was seeing. It literally didn’t make any sense. He couldn’t be a rogue because in two years he would be a doctor in our pack. It had to be someone else. Maybe his brother or another relative. Or maybe not anyone related at all and I just couldn’t see clearly in the dim light or with

n his face.

before I even had

ground cutting into my legs had been enough to snap me

stood up as quickly as I could, still shaken, but managed to

they would waste time chasing us but we continued to run regardless. I followed Aleric the entire time, trusting him to

amazing to see him in so much control though… or maybe it was just that Aleric and his wolf were both on the same page anyway in that moment. Nevertheless, it was still impressive given most people took at least a month to begin moving so fluidly in that form. But as I inspected him, I couldn‘t help but notice he was limping ever so slightly on one of his back legs. I assumed this was why he’d cried out earlier. It didn’t take us long to get back to the car and I immediately doubled over panting, now out o f breath from having ran the entire way. I looked up towards Aleric, only to find him staring at

least of concerns… and it wasn’t even a new thing for me. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen his entire body unclothed before in my past life. But I suppose he didn‘t know that. I exhaled quickly one last time in mild frustration before going to open the boot for him. He just continued to stare at me until I walked around to the front of the car to give him the privacy

a few moments to shift back but I could see his mood had

me because of what had happened in

to hurry,” he said, jumping back into the driver’s seat. “They will be clearing the entire place out before we get back.” Well, we could both agree on that at least. Aleric sped the entire way until we made it to the closest patrol tower, but he had been right. B y the time they did manage to get back to the cave,

the larger

given only the hour they probably had to pull it off. But this only told us that they must have had another shelter nearby. There was no other possible way they could have moved that many people and dead bodies over an

didn’t end up finding anyone. For now, the

go in there alone,” my

finished giving our report to the

forever, you know? I have a job and a responsibility to the pack now. If Aleric and I hadn’t

at getting answers. Besides, the report only said one rogue was sighted, not thirty. I didn’t

considering I’d literally done that once already. Did she know? Had my father ended up disclosing my

mind if she knew the truth but her expression seemed to be one of only a concerned mother, not of

worry did make me realise though that things could have been different in the past. Would I have tried to run away sooner if my mother

her words made me recount the past, it also reminded me of what I’d seen in the cave. “By the way...,” I said, thinking. “Do you know where I can find Doctor Andrews?” She frowned. “Doctor Andrews…? I don’t think we have a doctor by that

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