A Gift from the Goddess novel Chapter 74

Chapter Seventy–Four 

‘Was last night real?‘ I asked myself, staring up at the ceiling in bed. 

So many things had happened, so many truths had finally come out. 

...And I felt... lighter. 

I‘d woken up after deep sleep, unsure how long had passed, but my body had been grateful for the uninterrupted rest. 

Though a part of me was angry at myself for taking the risk of their reaction, I would be lying if I said I wasn‘t happy with the outcome. Or I at least meant that in Aleric‘s case. Cai… well, I had to believe that what I did was for the best. 

The fact that I wasn‘t locked away in a hospital right now pending a psych evaluation meant that Aleric had actually believed me. It was something I‘d been worried about the entire time I‘d been back. I knew how insane it sounded when being told the first time. Some days even I still couldn‘t believe it. 

I slowly got out of bed, my body still aching in several places, and got changed into some clothes. There would be things I‘d need to start working on and I needed food and water before I could begin anything. 

But as I walked out into the living room, I was surprised to see Aleric on the couch reading documents. H e looked comfortable as if he‘d been there for some time. It was strange since I thought he would have been out for the day. 

“...You‘re finally awake,” he greeted without looking up. “Was starting to wonder if you fell into a coma.” 

I frowned, still groggy from sleep. “How long was I out for?” 

My voice felt raw as I spoke, causing me to cough from the dryness in my throat. The amount of crying and yelling had probably taken its toll there. 

“A bit over a day,” he replied, leaning over to hand me one of the two coffees sitting beside him. 

I took it from him and was instantly grateful for the small relief it provided after having a sip. Water probably would have been better but I wasn‘t about to turn down the caffeine. It was nice of him to have gotten me one. 

“How did you know I was going to be awake now? The coffee is still warm.” 

He laughed a little. “I didn‘t. They were both mine.” 

I stared at the beverage in my hand and suddenly felt a little conflicted given the recent revelations. Truthfully, it felt a little weird between us. He had confessed to me and I‘d turned him down, called him a murderer, and now I was sharing his coffee. And yet somehow he was acting as if nothing had happened, his expression not revealing that he felt phased in any way. 

“Aleric-” 

“Relax,” he cut me off. “I hadn‘t drunk from it yet.” 

Instantly, I felt a little stupid for even worrying about something as minor as that and quickly pushed it aside. It shouldn‘t have been a big deal anyway. Though I wished I knew what he was thinking. One of the most frustrating things about Aleric was that he was so unreadable. 

“Have you been here long?” I asked, trying to focus on anything else. “I‘m a little surprised to see you‘re still here.” 

He snorted and finally looked up at me, amusement in his eyes. “Still? No, I left for a whole day, came 

Chapter Seventy–Four 

back and you were still passed out. I‘m just taking a shift for guard duty since I was going to be working in my room down the hall anyway.” 

My cheeks immediately burned a little from embarrassment, having made an assumption once more.. Really, I just felt a little bad because of the circumstances. I didn‘t enjoy the feeling of having to be constantly babysat, as if I were a burden on everyone. 

I cleared my throat and tried to brush it off once more, deciding to take a look at what he was so focused on instead. I quickly walked behind him and leaned over, scanning the pages over his shoulder. 

It looked like a status report on a new Alpha who‘d recently succeeded his father; Harvey Gallagher. Though no one really knew anything about him here yet, I could recall from the past that the boy was around our age and far too naive for the position he held. Mostly, I just remembered how easily he surrendered to an alliance under us when propositioned. 

“You could reach out to him,” I said, inputting my suggestion. “Unlike his father, Ruben, Harvey is a complete pushover. Not necessarily a bad thing but he was never really cut out to run the pack on his own at such a young age. If you were to extend a hand out and send him someone experienced to help him through these first few years, then he would be indebted to you. Though, I should warn you now, the value of their resources never really increases by much.” 

He looked up over his shoulder at me and was momentarily confused. “How–? Nevermind. Sorry, I‘m still getting my head around... all of that.” 

No more secrets between us. Felt weird to finally be able to speak freely without needing all the excuses for how I knew what I did. Strangely as though I‘d removed restraints, allowing me to work as efficiently a s possible now. 

| sat down on the couch beside him and grabbed the documents from his hand to look at them more closely. All the things he was looking into weren‘t that major and all of them could be easily resolved. Though, I could probably write up a few pointers to nudge him in the right direction and give insight into how certain paths would sway... 

“So, are you going to finally tell me what happened with Cai?” he suddenly asked. 

He‘d posed the question just as I‘d taken another sip, causing me to almost choke on the coffee. 

I coughed violently, struggling to clear my airway for a moment, all the while the thick smell of caffeine filled my nose in an unpleasant way. 

‘I should have stuck with water,’ I thought bitterly to myself and patted my clothes down with a tissue. 

“Aria?” he prompted after I continued to ignore his question. 

“Nothing happened,” I said to which he just looked at me, waiting for me to tell him the truth. 

I then sighed and leaned back into the couch, hugging my legs to my chest a little. 

“...He found his mate,” I finally admitted. 

“Ah.” 

He would know what that meant, know how it would affect me. Even if Aleric supposedly had feelings for me now, he already knew about my prior relationship with Cai. How could he forget? He‘d literally caught u sin bed together. 

“I‘m sorry, Aria,” he said. “I didn‘t know. I just figured it would make the most sense to contact him urgently since... well....” 

Since we were romantically involved. 

“Yeah... I know.” 

Chapter Seventy–Four 

In my head, I started recalling the whole ordeal with Cai and my chest ached a little. I missed him. I shouldn‘t... but I did. Was it wrong of me to even feel that much? Would it be okay if I still wished, even just a little bit, that I could still be with him? 

After everything we‘d been through, it felt so... abrupt. Final. Though maybe that‘s how things were always fated to end between us. With painful finality. 

A quiet humourless laugh then escaped me thinking back on it all. 

“What‘s so funny?” 

“...No, not funny,” I clarified, a small smile on my lips. “Just… It‘s crazy how things turned out. The very fact I was involved with Cai at all is bizarre.” 

“What do you mean?” 

I then turned to look at him, my expression turning more serious. 

“Because we were the ones who killed him in the other timeline.” 

His eyes widened a little before turning into a small frown. “What? Why?” 

I shrugged a shoulder. “As your first major act of Alpha, you decided to kill his father, Tobias, during a meeting being held in the Winter Mist. Tobias came to negotiate the alliance tax given their large increase in pack size but your only counteroffer was his head. Never made any sense to me... Though that didn‘t stop me from helping you to finish his son off anyway.” 

I could tell he was uncomfortable hearing about it but he was trying his best to understand it anyway. Who could blame him in his position? It was probably a form of morbid curiosity. 

...And so I proceeded to tell him everything. 

I started at the very beginning from before we were even officially mates, then moved on to Thea, the Goddess, about our time together and what we did, and finally about some of the things I’d done up until now since coming back. But unlike the first time I told Cai about the past, I didn‘t hold anything back from Aleric. 

I told him about every horrible detail as if finally confessing my sins... and it felt weirdly liberating; natural even. Though not technically the same person, it was easy to blend them into one when it came to recalling our history. And whether he hated me or not afterwards, it didn‘t have nearly the same weight as when I‘d feared Cai‘s judgement. Cai had been an innocent, his death a byproduct of my own naivety, but the person it all started with was the very person sitting next to me on the couch... or rather, his other self was. 

And when I was finally done, we sat silently for a few minutes, both of us needing a moment to take in everything I‘d just told him. 

“...And what did you want to know?” 

“I need you to tell me why...,” I said slowly, wincing at the thought. “...Why you hated me so much growing 

But I put a hand up to immediately stop him. “I‘m not talking about right now or comparing you to him. I‘m talking about #you* and how *you* acted towards me when we were kids. You think I didn‘t notice how you never seemed to like me, even before I was sent back the second time?”