#Chapter 295 – Morning in the Palace

Ella I groan when I wake up, but I don’t open my eyes. Not yet. I feel like I just closed them ten minutes ago anyway – my poor eyeballs need more rest. Instead, I take a moment to feel my body from the inside out, to check in with myself and see what hurts, what feels good. I’m surprised to find that I can feel remnants of my mother’s gift running through me – what feels like little sparkling tendrils of sunlight, working through my limbs, perhaps healing me. I smile to think of it, smile to think of my mother giving me something that lasts after so many years of her absence. She is a mother goddess, after all – the mother to us all, not just me. But still, as my actual mother, it feels nice to finally have…a piece of her. I hear my little baby give a little cry and my eyes fly open, searching for him. I sit up in bed, a hand going to my head, and look blearily around. My eyes are drawn instantly – unsurprisingly - to the huge werewolf standing across the room, bounc