A Gift from the Goddess by Dawn Rosewood

Chapter Twenty-Three Once I managed to convince my mother to let me go home, I began to think through my options. There was a lot of risk involved and I didn't exactly have much knowledge in the area.

Unfortunately, I didn't end up having much time to myself though as my father came home and immediately told my mother what had happened in the meeting.

..Naturally, she was furious.

I wasn't sure if it was anger directed at my desire to not be Luna, or maybe just due to the fact I had completely kept them in the dark about the whole thing, but they were frustrated over the entire ordeal. By the end of the argument, I realised that the only thing I took away from the conversation was that it had cemented my decision to not tell them my plan. The plan to take up new training. They also tried to ask me about my Goddess mark, but I remained purposely vague and uncertain with them about it all until they eventually dropped it. It was something I would need to keep closely guarded and would likely be something I'd never be able to tell them. I loved my parents deeply and were so thankful for them, but there were some things they wouldn't be able to understand if I told them.

School resumed as normal with the exception of my new social interactions, or in some cases lack of. Myra had now taken it upon herself to become my new number one fan and sat with m e in the library every day. Having her around me all the time was uncomfortable at first, but I knew she didn't mean any harm. After a while, I even began to get used to having her around. She came off as a genuinely sweet girl and so her positivity was sometimes just what I needed i n my day.

That being said, as much as I liked her as a person, a part of me was still refusing to open up to her. I attributed it to my friendship with Sophie in my past life. It felt like I always going to have some sort of a wall now and never truly be able to open up to someone again. Luckily, my guarded nature was something that didn't seem to phase Myra in the slightest.

Cai, on the other hand, was someone I found myself going out of my way to avoid as much as possible. I caught his eye now and then in the hall, to which he waved at me, but inside I was struggling with being able to face him. I couldn't shake the words he'd said to me after the meeting with the Alpha. He'd wanted nothing to do with me and wanted for us to go our separate ways. I was sure he'd only acted so nice to me afterwards because of the whole Aleric interaction; possibly was only still acting in a friendly manner due to it.

Every time I saw his face, I was overwhelmed with guilt and shame. He was only taking pity on me because he'd seen me in such a mentally fragile state. If he'd never witnessed that then I was sure he wouldn't even be acknowledging me at school. I was doing my best to respect his wishes, even if he was too polite to outwardly say it. Apart from Myra and Cai, I also noticed many at the school were starting to treat me differently; even some of the teachers. I heard whispers now and then as they tried to discreetly stare at me, their expressions varying from that of worry to irritation. Words such a s “Saintess”, “Goddess”, and even Aleric's name were thrown about frequently. As a result,

I found no one ever dared to come close to me as they feared me too much over my new mark. It was even comical at times to see the lengths people were going to in order to stay away. For example, I'd decided to wait in line to buy something from the cafeteria one day and there was easily a two metre radius of empty space around me as if I were in a bubble. I had to remind myself that they were still children and their opinions didn't really matter. And whilst the teachers were at least more tactful, I could still sense their uneasiness. My plan for training had also begun almost immediately after I'd returned to my normal schedule. Id told my parents that I was going to be studying in the library after school from now on but instead I was using the time to sneak into one of the old school gyms that were rarely used anymore. I mostly hit and kicked at a punching bag, did push-ups and occasionally lifted weights, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. And so, before long, I attempted to push myself beyond my physical limits. I assumed that if I was having to work harder to move, then my muscles would grow quickly to compensate. In the end, the results were slight, but I could feel I was easily fatigued. Having to push myself to train all afternoon and finish schoolwork until late at night, I could definitely begin to feel the tax it was taking on my body. Another two weeks passed since I started my extreme training and school had just finished for the day. I was excited as today I was going to attempt to add more weight to my weightlifting. Per normal, I gathered up my things and headed straight to the gym.

The gym was tiny which was part of the reason why no one used it anymore. There was also basically no equipment so many chose to use one of the newer facilities on the school grounds instead. This suited me perfectly as I preferred to not have an audience. I could definitely see how the little area had seen better days though, several cracks lining the walls and dust collecting in most areas. As I arrived at the gym, I could feel that my head was feeling especially dizzy already but I knew that results didn't come cheap. I strapped on my boxing gloves and began to punch at the bag with all my strength to warm up. However, after only five minutes of training, I was beginning to feel faint, my vision becoming obscured by black dots. But I pushed through it, forcing myself to keep going. Every time I felt like I was going to stop I would just picture Aleric and all the times he'd hurt me, all the pain I'd endured, and a small burst of energy would push me to keep going.

But then, suddenly, my hand missed the punching bag... and I could feel myself falling forward.

It was only at the last moment that I managed to throw my hands out, grabbing onto the bag t o prevent my body from hitting the ground. I'd been merely seconds away from hurting myself. "What the hell are you doing?!" a voice then yelled out from the entrance. I tried to look up but my vision was so blurred that it was hard to make out. “..Cai?" I asked wearily. “You stupid girl,” he said, running up to my side to support my weight before I fell. “You're

going to kill yourself if you keep that up.” He helped me walk to a nearby chair and sat me down, crouching in front of me.

"...Why are you here?” I asked.

“I followed you. It's not often that I cross paths with you, but I saw you walking to one of your classes today. You look sick, Aria.”

I looked sick...? But I'd been training so much, I was getting stronger. Shouldn't I be looking healthier?

“You can't just ignore me for over a month and expect me not to notice you slowly destroying yourself. You've lost so much weight and become so pale. Honestly, I'm not even surprised you didn't see me today, you looked about ready to pass out in the hall. It seems it was a good idea to follow you. You need to stop this.” “No... I'm training. I'm getting stronger,” I argued feebly. “By pushing yourself this hard? You're going to hurt your body to the point of permanent damage if you keep that up.”

I looked at him and saw his expression was furious. He was angry at me for doing something h e thought was detrimental to myself. Just another thing to add to the “feeling bad for me’ friendliness, But if Cai was saying that what I was doing was wrong, then didn’t that mean it had to be true? Alpha heirs were trained from the moment they could walk. You wouldn't be able to find anyone else that would know what they're doing more than an Alpha. So, had I really been hurting myself that badly? He handed me a bottle of water and I drank from it, allowing myself to rest and clear my vision.

“I just... I don't know what I'm doing...” I admitted with defeat, unable to look him in the eye. “I couldn't ask my father and there was no one else to go to.”

“No one else?” he asked, sounding a little offended. “If you hadn't been so busy avoiding me, you could have asked me to help, you silly girl.”

..Asked Cai? The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. Someone like him would be way too busy to waste time training me.

“Aria,” he said sternly so I'd look up at him. “Why are you avoiding me? Did I do something to upset you?”

"What? No!” I said immediately. “No, you didn’t do anything. Of course not. It's just... I thought you were only being friendly because you pitied me over the whole Aleric thing.” “What..? Why...?" “Because before any of that happened, you told me that you wanted us to go our separate ways. It was the conversation we had just after the meeting with my Alpha. I just thought you were being too polite to tell me you didn’t want to see me.” “Arrghh,” he said, rubbing his face with his hand. “No, I'm sorry. I was just momentarily

angry and said some dumb shit. I didn’t mean it.”

He hadn't meant it? Then that meant I'd been worrying over nothing the entire time. “Oh... okay...," I replied. "Um, I'm sorry for avoiding you.” I wasn't sure what to do with this confession from him since, for over a month now, I'd been acting according to what I thought he wanted.

He smiled gently at me and stood up.

“Well, if I'm going to be training you then I think we need a fresh start, don't you think? Something to clear up the previous misconceptions and start anew.” He held out his hand for me to shake it. "Hello, Ariadne Chrysalis, daughter of the Beta from the Winter Mist, my name is Caius Knight, Alpha heir of the Silver Lake pack. It's nice to meet you.” And, instantly, I could feel my entire body freeze over as I stared at his outstretched hand, unable to move. I couldn't believe the words he'd just spoken. There was no way this was real. Because it turns out that I actually knew who Cai was. In fact, I knew him extremely well. I knew him because in my past life... I'd killed him.

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