Bitten by a Goddess

Exhausted

Seraphina

It's brisk and cold. All I can hear is my heels hitting the cobblestone path while I'm running towards the forest through a garden. I'm trying to get there so I can shift and run home. I can see it. I'm almost there. I can make it home in thirty minutes if I just shift. I'm feeling worse and like someone is right behind me, so I jump behind a hedge in the garden and ditch the dress and shift, making a run for it to the woods. That's when I hear it, the crunching of gravel behind me with a growl, and I'm tackled to the ground.

Jolting awake looking around Destiny is nowhere to be seen; probably headed to her own room. I look at the clock, and it's 430 in the morning. Running a hand down my face and holding my head. I'm absolutely exhausted. I haven't been able to get any decent sleep this last week. So I get up and get dressed. I need a run and to go beat the s**t out of a punching bag to get some of this frustration under control. Especially with the ball tomorrow, I don't need to accidentally snap someone's head off. I haven't had nightmares in a long time, and having them back to back is really pissing me off. After getting situated, I head out the door and pretty much barrel head first into Beta Trevor's chest.

He looks worried and grabs my shoulder, helping me balance.

"Woah, Kiddo. You okay, you look like you want to LITERALLY bite a wolf's head off. Why are you up so early?"

Shaking my head, I just walk past him and down the stairs to the kitchen, grabbing water and an apple. I look up, and he's staring at me with his arms crossed with a stern but worried expression.

"Just another bad dream, and I didn't wanna go back to sleep, so I was gonna go for a run and train to burn off some steam."

"Well, if you want, you can skip your run, and we can spar; put in some work on your technique since you missed 'soooo much training' going dress shopping."

He taunts, making these ridiculous hand gestures and eye rolls at me. I'm not gonna lie it almost got a chuckle out of me, and I'm feeling just a smidgen better.

I nod my head at him as I take a bite of my apple and head out of the kitchen with Beta Trevor following close next to me. We walk in silence to the training grounds outside of the pack house. In a few minutes, we get there. I finish my apple and throw away the core, taking a quick swig of water before I set it down and meet him on the mat.

"What do you wanna focus on today, Kiddo?

"Can we work more on those techniques you were showing me? You're one of the strongest warriors in the kingdom in hand to hand alone. We both know Amelia is a vicious fighter."

Beta Trevor has been recruited numerous times by the kings guard for his strength, but he has always refused the offer and stayed with the pack, and we let Amelia out to spar one time because Phil kept bullying Destiny, and I early into our training saying his wolf could put us out in seconds flat since our hand to hand was so sloppy. I guess Amelia didn't like that and ended up pinning his wolf Flint in under a few minutes after we shifted and were given the go-ahead. Amelia huffed in triumph afterward before shaking her fur out and walking away, kicking dirt at him.

Beta Trevor laughed at my statement, bringing me back into our conversation.

"Fair enough. I still crack up laughing at how much attitude she had from when you laid out Flint. It was refreshing seeing it, especially since her attitude balances out your quiet one."

He shakes his head before he drops and tries to take out my feet. I barely register it in time and jump back and a few inches before he's coming up again, going for my arms to flip me over onto the ground. Lucky me always taking training seriously, so I'm able to maneuver just out of reach of him and rebound his attack, catching him off guard. I grab his arm and turn around and yank forward, throwing him over and onto the ground before dropping with him and putting him into an arm bar.

We train for a few hours until the rest of the pack warriors start showing up for eight o'clock drills, and I'm tuckered out. I get up from the ground with his help. These last few times, he took me out first and knocked the air out of my lungs. I'm dusting off my legs when he says something to me that has me smiling and feeling better than I did when I woke this morning.

"You keep at it like that, Seraphina, and you'll have me beat before you know it."

I smile and thank him before I head back to the pack house. I feel gross, and ready for a hot shower. Heading into my room, I see Destiny sitting on my bed reading a book. I head into my bathroom and turn the shower on before going back into my room to grab my clothes for the day.

"Hey, how do you feel about just relaxing today and watching some TV, or maybe a few movies with some ice cream and stuff?" Destiny asks with an expression of pure excitement, but I can see a little worry in her eyes.

"Yeah, that sounds nice. Also you don't need to worry about me because of what happened yesterday. I can see it in your eyes."

Heading back into my bathroom, she followed me this time, climbing onto my counter and sitting with her book. As I step into the shower. The hot water feels nice on my sore back since I got laid out a few times. I'm washing my hair when she speaks up again.

"I'm just worried about you. That's another gift now that you have that we didn't know or account for. I just want to be there for you and have your back. You always close up when stuff happens and put everyone above yourself. It worries me, especially if what you saw was something dangerous..."

"Dezz, I'll be...."

I go to cut her off, but she won't let me get a word out

"Sera, I'm serious. I was reading an article this morning about the King and Palace, and I want to give you a heads up that his wolf is black like his father's. Supposedly, some of the characteristics of their wolves are different but not much. I want you to know because if he finds his mate, We'll be expected to shift for a run, and dad will probably try to figure out how to get you out of it.. but you'll still have to see him.."

I just hum a response at her. I finish my shower and get out. She's standing there with my towel. "This is why I offered up a movie day so we can relax and stuff." I hear my phone buzz, and it's a text from 'The best uncle ever'. He set that as his name when he bought me my first phone, and it's been that ever since.

I unlock my phone and read it

"Destiny told me about your movie day, but I need you girls to come down for dinner this evening to go over tomorrow's agenda."

Just like that, I'm even more exhausted than when I woke up this morning..