Chapter 226
Chapter 226
Avery’s POV
For the next few days I never left my mother’s side. Her stay in the Rogue King’s dungeon had left her weak, malnourished, and had aged in ways that were harrowing to see. I had faith in the pack’s healers, and my presence seemed to provide some measure of relief, whether from my healing magic or just the joy on my mother’s face when she saw me next to her bed.
“You do not need to be here,” she patted my hand, as I settled in with a mug of tea to return to my vigil my her bedside.
“And where else would I be?” I asked, acerbically, “You are my mother, and I would like to think that you need me p>
“Ah, but doesn’t he need you as well?” She raised her eyebrows meaningfully and I sighed. While I loved her, and was overjoyed that she had been returned to me, I hadn’t missed her more traditional views of pack hierarchy.
To an omega wolf like my mother, there was no greater honor than to serve an Alpha. Everything within her had reinforced that worldview for so long that Alphas and Lunas were like royalty to her. She couldn’t fathom avoiding, much less disobeying an Alpha, and would happily put her own well-being and needs below theirs.
I knew that she was selfless in this way, and to some extent I admired her for it. She was a genuinely kindhearted person, who never held a grudge.
That was also why she had been abused her whole life. Perhaps if we lived in a kinder, better world, I would be able to see these traits as virtues, not liabilities, but I had seen behind the curtain. I was a Luna now, myself, and I knew just how flawed and selfish those who sat at the top could be.
“You should go spend time with him. He seems like he’s making a real effort to earn your affection, my daughter,” My mother’s eyes crinkled with amusement as she glanced around the room full of flowers that Gideon had sent to ‘encourage her recuperation p>
“Even if he is, it is no less than you deserve,” I said, with a severe expression. Truthfully, I was a little touched by the gesture. The flowers were indeed lovely, but I was still processing the things that Gideon had said to me the night of her rescue.
“Think on it, daughter. He’s a powerful Alpha, and it seems like more than that, he wants to try to win your heart. There are few who would try, and he has much to offer p>
I flinched at her honest assessment. Was it so wrong to hope that a man might think I was worth his effort.
“I am not interested in what Gideon has to offer me, I only care about you getting well,” I told her, trying to shut down this angle of conversation.
I could tell that she wasn’t going to let the topic drop however, so eventually I stepped away, with the
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Chapter 226
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excuse that I would go find Gideon and listen to what he had to say.
Truthfully, however, I was not going to find him. Instead, I turned my footsteps towards the walking trails that ran for miles through the woods surrounding the pack village. I wanted to clear my head, and being in that perfumed room with my mother was not conducive towards getting my thoughts in order. 1
There had been a rainfall in the night, and the leaves underfoot were slippery as I picked my way through the forest. I hadn’t been back this way since the night I had attempted to commune with the moon goddess under the full moon.
It was daytime, and yet there was something similar to that night in the air. A sense of a great presence, hanging in the sky above me, calling to me. The sensation was so strange, as though there was something in my bones calling me to become other p>
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I closed my eyes, and let the feeling rush over me. It was the strangest feeling, as though every part of me had plunged through the surface of a mirror and when I opened them again, the world was different.
I was different.
The scent of wet leaves, rain, and the resinous pine trees filled my nose with their intoxicating aroma. I lowered my head and sniffed the ground beneath my paws. 1
Shock rushed through me. I had transformed!
‘I did it!’ I thought with exhilaration, ‘I finally shifted p>
‘You did!’ came the amused voice of my wolf, so much closer now in my mind than she had even b before, ‘And now we run p>
It was the strangest sensation, as we took off through the woods at a blistering speed. I both was, and wasn’t in charge of my/her body. She was in the forefront of my mind, she was the one calling the shots, and in some ways I was just along for the ride.
And yet, we were closer than that. We thought with one mind. I suddenly understood so much better what she had been trying to tell me over the last few weeks. The impression came not in words, but in a flood of emotions, instincts, memories, that flowed between our shared mind as we raced through the woods.
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