A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Panic swept through me.

What had I just done? I‘d been so caught up in a stupid argument that I hadn‘t even noticed Myra arriving. My emotional reaction was possibly going to cause the death of an innocent girl.

Cai and I both immediately jumped to our feet and scanned the area. Straight away, we saw the four wolves surrounding her, just like they had in my vision. And though I was relieved to see her alive, inside, I was tormented, reliving the horrific sight I‘d seen in the classroom all over again.

I knew that at any minute now the brown wolf was going to jump and kill her within seconds; her blood be ing spilled for no good reason. Truthfully, I wanted to run, to break down, to give up… anything other than having to witness her die again.

But I had to keep going. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Take down the brown one first!‘ I yelled to Cai, snapping myself out of my fear.

He didn‘t even hesitate as he jumped from the bushes quickly, beelining towards the largest wolf.

The four wolves looked up, surprised to see that someone was charging at them, but they were too slow t o react.

Cai immediately tackled the brown wolf to the ground and they began a rolling dance for the upper hand. The other three immediately began to circle around the fight, waiting for an opportunity to take cai down. They snapped and growled at him as they paced, but he was too quick. He evaded them easily and was n‘t giving them any openings.

I took this opportunity to run to Myra whilst they were distracted. She was on the ground, clearly traumati sed by the situation. Her whole body was shaking, trembling to the point I was worried whether I‘d be able to get her to walk. This was probably the last thing she had expected when she came into the woods today.

“Myra,” I whispered, gently shaking her shoulder.

She looked up as if I‘d just shocked her with electricity and immediately jolted back from my touch.

“Myra, shhh,” I said, putting a finger up to my lips.

Recognition finally crossed over her face as she realised who I was. Immediately, tears started to stream down as she grabbed at my clothes, pulling me into a hug.

“No, not here,” I whispered, gently pulling away. “We need to get to safety first.”

Myra nodded her head shakily and I began to support her weight as she got to her feet. I could feel her b ody quivering against mine as a cold sweat formed on her skin. She was going into shock, her legs strug gling to walk with each step, but I needed to get her to safety as quickly as possible. I needed to get back to help Cai. He was stalling for time but I knew there was no way he would be able to handle all four by himself for long.

We‘d almost made it out of the clearing when suddenly her foot caught on a rock under her. It was such a surreal moment, something like out of a movie. One of those scenes where something awful is happening and you just see it all unfolding right in front of you in slow motion. I watched as Myra fell to the ground, crumbling in front of me… and m y body froze in place with the anticipation of what I knew would happen next.

Because behind me, the wolves went silent.

Legnili JIRILEN

I quickly grabbed Myra‘s arm and pulled her back onto her feet, holding her face in my hands so she‘d fo cus only on me.

“Myra,” I whispered, trying to sound calm. “…Run.”

Whether it was a shot of adrenaline or that she‘d finally come to her senses, Myra started sprinting throu gh the woods. I was relieved to see her go, knowing her chances of survival had just increased.

But behind me, I could hear the paws of at least one of the wolves coming towards me. They were close. Too close.

I knew it was too late to fight back in the current situation, and so I did the only thing I could. I dropped myself to the ground quickly, roughly falling flat ag ainst the dirt.

Barely even a second after my chest had hit the ground, the shadow of a sandy coloured wolf soared ov er my head as it missed hitting my body by inches.

They spun around to face me, their snout curled into a snarl. Seeing them up close now, I realised how very un prepared I was for the situation, but it seemed a little too late by this point to admit that maybe Cai had b een right.

However, there wasn‘t much time to assess the situation further as they lunged for me again. Swiftly, I rol led away and managed to bring my leg up, side sweeping their face with a sickening crunch on impact.

A loud, satisfying whimper escaped them and they limped off to the side to recover. I took the opportunity to get back onto my feet and ran further into the clearing to create some distance.

To my right, Cai was still fighting the largest wolf, Neither looked to have gained any advantage over the other yet, but Cai‘s m

ovements did seem a little slower. He was fighting off the brown wolf, all the while evading the other two. I wasn‘t sure how much longer he was going to be able to hold out.

The sandy wolf then growled, bringing my attention back to him. He was angry and I could tell he wanted payback for the cheap kick I‘d landed on him. Quickly, I braced my legs and prepared myself to move… only for him to do exactly as I thought he would. He attempted to lunge at me once more.

I was ready this time and managed to dodge smoothly out the way. But, unfortunately for me, he didn‘t gi ve any opening to attack, instantly flipping around to go on the defensive instead. He was now ready for any move I could try against him.

This went on for a while, soon becoming a repetitive battle of the sandy wolf lunging, and me dodging. The more I avoi ded every move with a surprising amount of agility, the more he would become increasingly more aggres sive.

The issue was that neither of us were making any ground in terms of offensive attacks against the other. Before long, it was just a dan ce of lunging and spinning inside the clearing, similar to the situation Cai himself was in

“You need to run!” I heard Cai yell out after a few minutes had gone by.

“And leave you here to die?” I called back. “Yeah sure, why not?”

Sandy wolf‘s jaw came awfully close, taking advantage of the fact I‘d been distracted. I could feel his teet h slash through my clothes, almost grazing my skin.

Luckily, I jumped back several feet just in time, and created a safe distance between us again.

“Do you even realise what will happen if you get killed here?!” he yelled again. “And not just what will hap pen to me for letting the Beta‘s daughter get killed, but you could literally start a war because of Aleric.

I wanted to scream that Aleric wouldn‘t give a crap if I got killed, but it really wasn‘t the time.

unapie Sixteen

“Stop worrying about me and just focus on yourself!” I shouted back irritated, the sandy wolf‘s attack com ing dangerously close once more.

I could feel I was running out of stamina fast but I kept going nevertheless. At this point, I‘d basically give n up on any hope of attacking and was just trying my best to not get killed. It felt like my lungs were burning inside as every muscle in my body ached. And whilst I could tell my opponent‘s m ovements were getting slower too, I knew he could outlast me twice over easily with his full wolf abilities.

“Don‘t be stupid, Aria! You don‘t want to be treated like a child and yet you‘re acting incredibly selfish!”

“Selfish?! I‘m trying to help save your life, you idiot! Do you want to make it all four wolves on you?! Beca use you‘re not looking too good, budd—,”

But I couldn‘t finish my sentence as I began screaming out from a sudden pain to my shoulder.

Fangs were imbedded deep into my flesh, pulling me down to the ground. My natural reaction was to turn my head to see the new wolf that had grabbed me but I didn‘t have time.

Sandy wolf started to jump towards me again from the front and I instinctively did my best to calmly asses

He lunged and went to strike at my neck but I intercepted him, lifting my lower body up to catch his head b

But I still had the upper hand over him.

Without hesitation, I took advantage of his position and wound my legs around him as much as possible t o pin him to the ground.

It was then that sandy wolf looked up at me with wide eyes, realising the situation he was in. He started t o

Behind me, I could feel as the second wolf realised what was going on and began to bite down harder, ev make me let go. I cried out at the pain, tears streaming down m y face, but I still held on. Though only just

I knew I needed to end this. Now. Before it was too late.

With one swift movement, I mustered up all the remaining strength I had left and grabbed sandy wolf‘s face tightly.

I grabbed his face, looking him in the eye one last time… and then snapped his neck, killing him instantly.

The wolf behind me let my shoulder go immediately, howling out a piercing wail as he saw his pack memb

| quickly rolled out of the wolf‘s attack radius and tried to get up, but my legs weren‘t responding. Every time I tried to get up, they would just shake before making me fall back

I cursed internally. It seemed I really had used all my remaining strength to take out the sandy wolf, my body now feeling useless.

Whilst the exhausted limbs were bad enough, the most concerning part was the blood. The bite into my sh stop it, I covered m y neck with my hands and applied as much pressure as possible to the wound.

But this ended up being the least of my worries as something far more worrisome was then brought to my attention. Something that fil

Chapter Sixteen

Because I could hear footsteps coming closer. Closer and closer the steps came until I was looking up into the eyes of a dark grey wolf, his murderous blue eyes boring into mine. There was no mercy in them, no chance of compassion.

This was it. There was no way for me to escape this time. 2

I closed my eyes and awaited his fatal blow.