#Chapter 260 – No Boys Allowed

Ella “I’m ready,” I reply, straightening my shoulders and sitting up, away from my mother, who is also the Goddess. “What do I need to do?” “You must go,” she urges, her eyes clear and untroubled despite the turmoil in mine. “Into the desert beyond this temple. There, I can communicate more clearly, more fully. I will make your path clear to you.” “Seriously?” I cry, wrinkling my nose in distaste and looking over my shoulder to where the desert surely waits. “Out into the desert? It’s not something that we can do here, in the comfort of this really nice temple?” My wolf inside me howls at the idea – she wants trees and shade and cool damp places, not the hot desert sun. The Goddess smiles at me and shakes her head lightly, her glowing blonde hair shaking over her shoulders. “No, my child,” she intones. “You must learn the lessons that this earth has to teach you, and it’s not something you can glean from a structure built by man.” Her eyes drift, then, to my stomach, where