Called by the Goddess

Chapter 16: Breakfast

After a quick shower, I headed for breakfast. I was starving! I rushed into the kitchen, grabbing a plate, when suddenly I felt someone looking intently at me. I looked up at the big windows that were in the sliding doors that gave access to the back yard. And yes, there he was, like I thought. Boris the cat, looking sternly at me.

I chuckled. “Yes, I know, I promised, hold on…” I put my plate down on the counter and went to the fridge to get a few pieces of chicken. I reached for the leftover chicken from last night. I got a strange feeling like I grabbed the wrong thing.

“What?” I asked Boris. “You wanted chicken right?”

“Cooked chicken is for humans and apparently werewolves, strange beings that you are. It comes perfectly fine, just as is, don’t ruin it with your seasoning and heat. I’ll have it raw, thank you very much!” Boris' comment came into my head. I grinned. I loved that cat and the sense of humor and disdain for “us crazy beings” he could communicate to me.

“Ok, ok!” I quickly grabbed a drumstick from the left over chicken, to go with my own breakfast and then looked a bit further. If one creature knew the contents of the fridge, it was Boris, so I knew there must be some raw chicken there as well.

There it was! The leftover carcasses from yesterday’s chickens. I quickly put my drumstick on my plate and grabbed Boris’ bowl. I put in two carcasses, and went outside to give them to him. “Here, you spoiled kitty!” I said as he took one of the carcasses in his mouth and growled possessively.

“You know I don’t want them, right?” I chucked while going back inside. Boris sent me a feeling which was somewhere in the middle of “MINE!” and “Thanks!”, which made me chuckle some more. Crazy cat!

I quickly washed my hands, because, yuck, raw chicken, and went on to pile eggs and bacon on my plate to go with my drumstick. Let’s start with a hearty first course, I thought. I went to sit down with Granny, who was enjoying some coffee after her breakfast.

“Really, Kate? A skunk? That poor Henry!”, Granny reprimanded me, but with the twinkle I knew and loved in her eyes at the same time. I shrugged. “Served him right, he got a little over confident there, he actually thought we would not be able to detect him, but both me and Maya spotted him right away!” and as an afterthought:

“And mummy skunk needed to get stuff of her chest… or out of her anal glands”

Granny tried, but couldn’t keep a straight face at that last remark. She let out a chuckle. “Well, good thing we just had those gallons of tomato juice coming in. I had a feeling we might need it soon, glad to know I can still trust my feelings”, she winked at me.

That made me laugh. “Yes, you know, now you mention that, that might have actually brought the idea into my head”.

I filled her in on how the rest of this morning's training session had gone. She smiled at my report about Bowie, and how he had been distracted, thinking of Willow. She too had a soft spot for the two love birds.

Then I told her about visualising and projecting the ants and then myself. I also told her about not thinking through that it might not have been the smartest thing to make myself appear out of thin air. I really still felt stupid for not realising this before hand. That earned me a raised eyebrow, which I came to learn meant that she was impressed with me, but not so much impressed with how strict I was being with myself.

“You put way too much pressure on yourself Kate, you were never meant to be perfect and flawless, there would be no fun in that,” she had told me over and over again this last year.

Granny smiled at me. “I am proud of you Kate, you’ve come a long way this last year.”

I sighed. “Does not really feel like I am anywhere near ready to fulfil that blasted prophecy though!” I admitted, feeling the weight of the world pushing down at my shoulders, like it always did, when I was thinking of what it was I was supposed to do… Me… a girl who only just turned 17 and until a year ago thought her highest possible ambition is to slave the rest of her life away in the kitchen as an omega.

“I know, it is a lot to handle for you. And I would worry if you actually would feel ready to tell you the truth. But know that you are the one that is chosen by the Goddess, not me, not your mum, you. So let us put a little trust in her ability to choose!”

After she emptied her cup, Granny sighed and got up. “I have some things to do before we debrief about the exercise this morning! I will see you in the conference room in the training centre in an hour. Take some time to meditate on your achievements this morning before that!”.

I saluted her and said mockinly: “Yes ma’am, of course ma’am!” and in a more serious tone of voice: “see you there!”.

I finished my plate and went back for my second course: waffles and pancakes this time, with fresh blackberries and raspberries and whipped cream. I saw Angelica working up some more waffles and I waved at her. I really grew to like her very much over the last year. I’ve learnt she had worked as my mum’s replacement before she left the pack. That is why her cooking often made me think of my mum.

I loved that I could eat anything I wanted here, and still felt like being spoiled. I trained hard enough to not get fat either, and loved doing so. So sometimes I felt like my life was too good to be true. And then I remembered why that was, and I felt the whole weight of the world resting on my shoulders again. “Ah well. Nothing to be done about that. Just enjoy breakfast for now!”

I looked around and this time I went to sit down with Maya and Tasha, who had just arrived. We didn’t say much, because we were enjoying our breakfast too much. If there was one thing us wolves loved, it was good food! All three of us did look up when Henry came in, looking like he had been scrubbing himself from head to toe multiple times, squeaky clean! The three of us made elaborate sniffing noises, and started to giggle, like teenage girls. Well, I am a teenage girl, don’t know what the other two’s excuse is.

Henry gave us a dead stare and went to sit demonstratively on the other end of the breakfast area. I exchanged looks with Maya and Tasha and raised my eyebrow. Maya mindlinked the two of us: “You know, it is this petty behavior why he would never have become the chief warrior, even if men were allowed to. It is ashame, because deep down he is a good kid.”

“Yeah, maybe we should ease off with the teasing. But it is just so easy with him!” I replied. I felt a pang of guilt, I knew all too well how it felt to be bullied after all.

I forgot about Henry when I caught the smell of hot chocolate coming our way. And yes! There was Angelica, coming towards us with three big mugs of hot chocolate, with whipped cream and marshmallows on top and some s'mores to go with it. “Your mum's orders”, she told me, while placing everything in front of us.

“Thank you so much!!” I replied, and took the cup right in front of me and breathed in the heavenly scent. “Yep, living here sometimes definitely is too good to be true!” I thought to myself.