Ch. 441..450

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 441-Eli became more insistent that he know where | was at all times after that. When we are together, he is affectionate and loving. We have always been physical in our relationship, but it was different now. It was as if he were desperate to let me know how much he needs me and loves me. He’s terrified that he’s going to lose me.

| understand why he’s feeling that way. I’m the key, the central point in the power source of the Guardians. Cara and Angel can pull from me, but without the strength of my mind link, they can’t go further than that. | can tap into the power of not only my sisters and their mates, but also every member of all three of our packs. | haven’t been vocal about that. | don’t want to scare anyone, but when | connect with them, it’s almost like candles getting lit in my mind. As each person in their pack connects to the link, the candles light and | can see them in my mind. It’s strange and it’s overwhelming. It also means that | can hear them. Between the three packs we have close to 1500 wolves. That's a lot of voices in your head at one time. It’s why I’m so exhausted after training. So, without me, they are strong and powerful, but only individually. With me, our strength pools together we become invincible. It’s why I'm not as concerned about the hunters as Eli is. | know that we can defeat them. | know there will be casualties and that makes me angry. These hunters coming to take away our lives, our happiness. And for what? Because we are different than they are? Because we intimidate them with our strength and heightened senses. They fear us, so they must destroy us?

It makes me angrier because we are having a baby boom in our pack right now. With so many recently mated couples, it’s not surprising. Amber and Carlos are expecting their baby boy in the less than a month. | think they probably got pregnant at the tournament just like Angel. She and Liam are expecting their little girl in the next month as well.

Sirona told me a couple weeks ago that she and Noah are expecting. She’s very excited and she and Amber love to talk about their pregnancies and baby planning every time they are together.novelbin I'm happy for them, truly | am. But, it hasn’t happened for me and Eli. It’s not for our lack of trying. Eli has been more than happy to practice baby making any and every time | want. I’ve talked to Sirona about it and she says that between all the stress that we've been under, the changes in our pack, getting off my birth control, and Guardian training, that it’s not surprising it hasn't happened. She’s told me to be patient and let it happen, but it’s hard. It feels like every day someone new is telling me that they are having a baby. And every day, I’m still not pregnant.

Just yesterday, Tula told me she and Thomas are expecting. That is only a week after Lelani and Lolana told me they are both expecting.

#15 BONOS It's like everywhere | look, the pack is in baby mode. Cammy and Melinda have the kitchen staff making baby food. Jeremy is busy making bassinets, cradles and toddler beds. Anna and her staff are making baby clothes as fast as they can for not just our pack, but the other two as well.

| know Eli can feel my sadness at our inability to conceive. | know he wants a child as much as | do. But | think it’s different as a woman. It feels like my body isn’t doing what it was made to do. Something that seems so easy for everyone else, is beginning to seem impossible for me. Everyone tells me I’m young, and | have plenty of time. And that’s true. But I’m an Alpha female. What does it say about me that everyone in my pack, including the sprites, are pregnant and having babies, but their Alpha and Luna can’t conceive.

And while | know that Eli is nothing like my father, and he has assured me that he will love me no matter what, somewhere deep in my mind, | fear that he will reject me if | can’t have a child. That fear is what keeps me awake at night. The fear that it doesn’t matter how strong | am, doesn’t matter than I’m an Alpha female and a Guardian, if | can’t have a child, would that be enough for him to leave me? So, while | lay awake at night, and try my best to cover my growing fear and sadness from my mate, | smile every day, making appropriate sounds of excitement to mother’s announcing their pregnancy. | make cooing sounds when | hold new babies, secretly sniffing their baby scent and feeling my heart ache to hold my own child.

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 442-As the days progress, the hunters begin to make their move. Eli has told me that Liam is terrified that they will come while Angel is pregnant. She was pregnant during the vampire war and he had to go days not knowing if she’d survive. Now that she’s nearly ready to give birth, he’s worried for both her and his little girl.

Thankfully, her delivery day arrives, and | get a mind link from Liam that momma and baby Leana Estella are happy and healthy. | announce the birth of their baby girl to the pack and later that night, our own Amber goes into labor and the next day, I’m announcing the birth of our Beta couple’s baby boy, Dillon Ricardo. They decided on Dillon because it also means hope.

Interestingly, the sprites don’t seem to have a problem carrying wolf babies. Although, they will be sprite/wolf hybrids, none of them seem to struggle with the shorter gestation period of the wolves, like humans do. | guess Ailduin was right, sprites and wolves make good mates.

Later that week, I’m heading back to my room after learning that now Fanella and Christopher are expecting a child, when a sudden wave of nausea hits me and | race to the bathroom. | barely make it before everything | ate for lunch comes up. | sit back after I’m done, breathing heavily.

Where did that come from? “Baby, are you okay?” Eli mind links me.

“Yeah, | think | ate something bad. Are you feeling okay after lunch?” “Yes, do you need me? | can stop work and come take care of you.” “No, | feel better.” Sort of.

“Why don’t you take the rest of the day and rest, love. You've been driving yourself so hard lately and | know all the baby stuff has been affecting you.” “Did you hear about Fanella and Christopher?” “Geez, those two as well?” “We have baby fever here in Safe Haven.” | try to hide my sorrow, but he feels it.

“Baby. It will happen.” He says gently. “We can try every day, as many times a day as you want.” He says, making me smile, which | know was his plan.novelbin “| love you, Eli.” “| love you more than anything in the world, Grace. Never doubt that.” +15 RONDS The next couple of days, | continue to feel ill. | cover it as best | can as we've heard the hunters are on the move. We're reinforcing the pack bunkers and safe rooms, doing drills to make sure everyone knows where to go and that all of our pregnant mothers, young mothers, elderly and pups know where to go and we can make sure that as new pups are born, the safe rooms have the supplies needed if they have to stay in lock down for several days.

Since Amber and Sirona will be in the safe rooms, they are leads of their rooms, checking to make sure everyone arrives and letting me know if there are any additional supplies needed. We're putting all the pregnant moms that are close to delivery in the room with Sirona, in case they go into labor while we are fighting. Lelani, Lolana and Tula also agreed to be leads in their rooms and in true sprite fashion, their rooms miraculously have beautiful flowers growing in them.

It's after one of these drills that | have to run to the community bathroom on the first floor of the packhouse to vomit. I’m just finishing up when Sirona walks in.

“We're going to the hospital and I’m checking you out, Luna.” “It's nothing Sirona, just stress.” “Don't lie to your doctor, Grace. I’ve been watching you for the last couple of days. You've been vomiting at all hours of the day. Either come willingly with me now, or I’m going to Eli.” | glare at her. “He has enough on his plate.” “Exactly. So, let’s do this my way.” | reluctantly follow her to the pack hospital. She sets me up in a room and takes blood, has me pee in a cup and hooks me up to some devices that monitor my heart rate and blood pressure.

It doesn’t take long before she comes back into the room, smiling from ear to ear. “Well, Luna. you're exceptionally healthy.” “So, it's just stress, like | thought?” | ask.

She looks me in the eye. “You’re pregnant, Luna. Congratulations!” I'm pregnant. It finally happened. My hands go to my stomach, a huge smile stretching across my face. | can’t believe it. I'm ecstatic for two seconds before reality comes crashing down on me. The hunters are coming, any day.

| look at Sirona. “Don’t say anything to Eli. | want to make it special.” | tell her. But | also know that if Eli finds out I’m pregnant, he won't let me fight, and they need me.

| won't risk losing my mate. | won't let my pack fall because I’m pregnant. | can’t fail them. Three days later, the hunters arrive.

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 443-The hunters are coming. We know it, they aren’t even being secretive about it. Every day | become more fearful of losing Grace. | know she thinks she’s the key to us winning this battle, but | can’t lose her. | won't.

When | get the mind link that the hunters are nearly here, we’re ready. We've been planning this for weeks. | would never tell Grace this, but I’m glad she’s not pregnant yet. | don’t know if | could focus on the fight today if | knew | was not only fighting for my pack and my mate, but also my unborn child. My fear of losing Grace has made my protectiveness almost unbearable as it is. | know it irritates her that | need to know where she is at all times, so | can’t imagine how much worse it would be if she had gotten pregnant.

The hunters have chosen to attack us near our three borders, so we have an hour's run to get to them. The sprites had alerted our patrols and they are the ones that sent the mind link. We've chosen to stay quiet so the hunters don’t know we’ve seen them. This will help to keep our patrol wolves safe, knowing the hunters won't attack right away and our packs are on the way.

“Grace, I’m heading over with our warriors. Make sure the groups start their evacuation procedures then join us. Please be safe. | love you.” | mind link her as | shift and order the warriors to head to our meeting place.

“I'm right behind you.” She tells me.

When my pack arrives, we see Rik’s pack is already there and Liam’s is coming in right behind us. Cara and Angel shift, turning to me. “Where is Grace?” They ask in the mind link.

“She’s on her way.” | tell them, and honestly, I’m surprised she’s not here yet. Maia is fast and should have caught up to us by now.

As one, Cara, Angel, Liam, Rik and | turn our heads at what sounds like an army coming through the forest. | lift my nose in the air, trying to count like Grace does. She’s better at it than | am, but I’m easily getting thousands of hunters.

“Grace?” Grace opens the mind link to her sisters, their mates and me. “I’m nearly there. I’ve counted 5002 hunters. That puts us at nearly 1:5 ratio of werewolves to hunters.” She says and she sounds like she’s breathing heavily.

She's right, we only have about 1000 wolves in fighting condition with the baby booms we've been having in our packs. Five to one are not good odds. A strong warrior can take that many, but our weaker warriors can’t. Unless we can take them out quickly, we're going to have a hard time winning this battle today. “We need to spread out. We need to flank them. We can’t go head-to-head with that many hunters.” Liam says.

“My pack will stay front and center, you both take your packs and flank them on either side. Hopefully we can take out a bunch with a surprise attack.” Rik says…

“We'll stay here and wait for Grace.” Cara and Angel say.

“Our pack will need the most protection up front anyway.” Cara adds.

| send the order and we begin to quietly move around the left side of the hunters, creeping up on them. | never doubted Grace and her ability to ‘count’ based on smell but seeing 5000 hunters is completely different than hearing the number. For a moment, | let myself feel overwhelmed. Then |

reign it in. They are here to kill us. They are here to kill my mate. For that, they will die.

We get into position, effectively circling them and nearly connecting with Liam’s pack on the other side. We have them surrounded. This is our best chance for attack. The moment Kai, Rik’s wolf's, howl goes up, we attack. In the moment it takes for the hunters to realize that we have surrounded them, we are able to take down hundreds of them. As soon as they realize it though, they shift and turn their attention to attacking us.

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 444-Shots ring out all around us and in an instant, | know what they learned in their experiments on the rogues. They've figured out a way to not just incapacitate us, but to kill us quickly. | watch as a wolf beside me takes a shot to the shoulder. The silver bullet immediately ‘melts’, turning into liquid silver and spreading into his system. The initial wound takes him down, but as | watch, | can see the silver spread. The minute it gets to his heart, | feel his life snuff out through my Alpha bond.

Louis howls is anger and pain and we turn with renewed vigor back to the battle. Not only are we outnumbered, if any wolf takes a hit from a bullet, it will kill them. The Guardians and their mates have a resistance to silver, but | don’t think that will save us today. We are all going to die on this battlefield. But before that happens, I’m going to take down as many as | can.

The battle is bloody. Hunters lay dead and dying all around me. Louis slicing through their bodies easily with his claws. We’ve ripped arms from bodies, throats from necks and his fur is covered in blood, making his black fur look even darker.

From every direction, | hear wolves howling in pain as they take a hit from a bullet and I'm feeling my own pack members dying through my bond with them. It’s making it harder and harder to fight. Louis yelps as we're hit in the hind leg by a bullet. | feel the burning pain of the silver as it starts to melt and spread, causing him to limp. We now have to fight on three legs. It will take the silver awhile to get to my heart to kill us, but before that, I’m killing more hunters.

Somewhere in the fighting, | realize that Grace has joined. She and her sisters are taking out hunters, blowing them apart. But as fast as they are taking them out, more are appearing. There are just too many of them.

Louis and | move to get closer to her. Our need to protect her is so strong that it draws us to her in the battle. We won’t let anyone hurt our mate while we are still living. We can still feel the silver making its way closer and closer to our heart. | don’t know how much time we have left, but we will make the most of it.novelbin As we bring down another hunter, | feel a bullet hit my side, punching through our lung. The cilver leaks out making it hard to breathe. Louis coughs before jumping on another hunter. There are so many, and there are fewer and fewer wolves every minute.

| felt Alpha Christopher’s tether break a moment before Alexander’s. Noah's broke earlier, having taken the first wave of attacks against the hunters. Without a wolf, Carlos has been able to survive the bullets, but | can feel him fading in my mind, as my own tether to Grace starts to wane. | cant feel the agony of the mates in the bunkers at the loss of so many mates.

Across the battlefield, my eyes connect with Grace. She can feel me dying. Her eyes are wide as she stares at me, horrified. Beside her, | see Cara on the ground, hovering over someone. It takes me a moment to realize it’s Rik. He’s lying dead in her arms. It seems Cara’s grief is providing a buffer to the Guardians as the three of them seem uninjured. I’m glad to know my mate is safe.

Even if | couldn't be the one to do it.

As | watch her, | feel a bullet hit my chest. The liquid silver melts into my heart and with my last breath, | reach out in the mind link. “I love you, Grace.” As the darkness sets in, and my surroundings fade, | see more than hear Grace screaming.

Cooper Author That was intense. Don’t pull out your pitchforks just yet. | promise an HEA. And | wouldn’t be so cruel to leave you with this as a cliffhanger.

6

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 445-I'm glad when Eli says he’s heading to the battle and for me to join him after getting the evacuations set. | can’t shift being pregnant. I'll have to run in human form to get to the battlefield. Eli would know something was wrong if he saw me.

It takes me longer to get to the battle than it would if Maia was running. We're much faster on four paws than two feet. As we get closer to the battle, | smell them. I’m counting them in my head when Eli reaches out to me. | open the mind link and let them know I’m nearly there, and how many hunters there are.

When they decide to spread out, | know | won't be fighting beside Eli. | have to be with my sisters. That’s the only way I can make sure we win today.

Before | arrive, | hear Kai’s howl for the battle to begin and immediately all hell breaks loose. Almost instantly, | feel tethers from our pack breaking.

“Maia, we have to hurry. We can’t lose our pack.” Maia’s pain at the loss of our pack members is as strong as mine, especially since Noah is one of the first to die. Instantly, we feel Sirona’s pain at the loss of her mate.

When we finally arrive on the scene, | realize that Eli's fear was justified. It's not that we’re outnumbered that is giving the hunters the advantage, it’s the silver. | slow my run as | look at the dead around me. | can see the silver leaking out of their bodies from the bullet wounds and | know we're in trouble.

I rush to my sisters, breaking their connection and grabbing one of their hands in each of mine. I’m the focal point of our strength, | need to be in the center, pulling from both of them. They have been giving Rik’s pack as much protection as they can since they were at the front of the battle with no cover.

As soon as | join, we throw out our joined aura. We obliterate hundreds of hunters at a time, but they continue to come. Their bullets are flying faster than we can kill them, and every time one of our wolves dies, we feel it.

I'm not used to Angel's aura, having only felt it once before. It takes me a few precious minutes to tap into her strength and feel her aura. | have to separate her blue strength from the yellow of her healing. Having worked with Ailduin, | pull on her healing power too. I’m not sure that it can do anything, but I’m keeping hold of it, just in case.

| pull our auras together, creating the purple color that | used at the tournament. This time when | push our combined auras, we take out even more hunters. As we focus our attention on the hunters, the protection that Angel and Cara were giving to Cara’s pack lessens and she begins to feel her pack tethers breaking. Angel already has tears running down her face for her lost pack members.

| don’t have time for tears. | have to save our mates, save our packs and save my child.

| throw out another combined aura taking out hundreds more hunters. There are so many of them that it feels like we’re barely making a dent. We've taken out nearly a thousand and it feels like the wolves have taken out nearly as many, but it also looksnovelbin like we've lost close to half of our warriors. They are either dead or dying on the ground around us, the sounds of their pain agony to our ears.

I'm not paying attention to the surroundings as | start to pull on Cara and Angel’s power again. But it's at that moment, that a hunter takes aim at Cara. As the bullet is about to hit her, Kai jumps in front of her and takes the bullet meant for her.

7

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 446-“Nooooooo!” She screams, pulling away from our group as Kai shifts back to Rik. | can see the silver slivering to his heart. He takes her face in his hands, but | don’t hear what he says before |

feel his tether break. Cara’s grief pushes out, her aura strong and providing a buffer for Angel and | from the hunters as she holds Rik in her arms, begging him to come back to her.

As | throw out another aura this one weaker with the loss of Cara’s strength, | look up and see Louis. Our eyes meet on the battlefield and | can see that he’s injured. |

his tether to me fading. Pull on my bond and feel No! No, no, no! This can’t be happening! | was supposed to save everyone. | am the key. | am the one that can pull the power and strength. But there are too many of them. Too many for us to take out and the death of our pack members is weakening us all.

As | watch, | see a bullet hit Louis in his chest. | feel like my heart stops when | hear Eli’s soft voice telling me he loves me before Louis collapses and begins shifting back to Elis human form. Almost at the same time, Angel drops beside me, clutching her chest. “LIAM!” She screams.

| look out over the battlefield. We have lost. Our packs are dying. Our mates are dead. | feel numb and everything seems to be happening in slow motion as | take in the horrific scene around me.

My hand goes to my stomach. My child. The child | wanted so desperately will never get live. And it is this thought that makes my anger spike. These people, these hunters will not win. They will not take everything from us.

| close my eyes, pulling on Cara and Angel's auras. | reach beyond and feel rather than see the candles lighting in my mind as each member of their packs lights up in my head. | know when | pull on their power, it will weaken them. | take Angels healing power, the yellow in my mind and separating our strength power, | add yellow to half of it.

“Maia, you know what | want to do?’ “Yes.” “Protect our child. I'll do the rest.” | tell her, before pulling on the strength of every member of all three packs.

| take a deep breath, drawing all of their strength, their power, their grief. | pull it all into two large balls of force — one to kill and one to save.novelbin As | release the power, | feel Maia tuck around our baby, protecting them from what I’m about to do. | scream as | release the power and it feels like my body is tearing apart from the inside out.

+15 BONOS My dark purple force blasts through the hunters, killing them on contact, exploding them where they stand. It rolls like a wave, taking them out.

My yellow/purple power stretches out to every wolf, even the ones whose lights have gone out. | can feel the healing encircling the silver in their bodies, pulling it from their systems. | continue to push my power, and the strength that | have left into the bodies of every werewolf in the packs, those that have died, those that are injured and those that are suffering in their grief.

| drop to my knees as | push the healing strength as long as | can, knowing that the only way to save everyone is to continue healing them. | know it’s working when | hear Cara’s exhausted gasp beside me, Angel calling softly to Liam, and | feel Eli's tether reconnect between us.

| push, until | feel every light ignite, one by one.

When | know Eli can hear me, | reach out in the mind link. ‘I love you too, Eli.‘ | tell him, a moment before | collapse.

Cooper Author What do you think of Grace’s power? She saved everyone. Hopefully you don’t feel murderous towards me now. One more day of regular updates and one day of epilogues. Just a warning, my home is in the path of a hurricane and it’s possible that | will lose power. | will do my best to make sure you get the last two days of updates on time.

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 447-I gasp, and air fills my starving lungs. I'm alive. How am | alive?

‘Louis?” He doesn’t respond. My body feels heavy, and | try to remember the last thing that happened. | was on the battlefield. | was looking at Grace, telling her | loved her, before the silver from the last bullet got to my heart.

Wait? Am | dead? | don’t hear any sounds of fighting. | hear moaning all around me, but nothing that sounds like death and dying.

‘| love you too, Eli.‘ | hear Grace say. Her voice is soft, exhausted, like she’s burned herself out. “Grace!” | yell in my mind. But as | reach out, | feel her consciousness going dark. | push myself up. “Grace!” | call out, looking around for my mate.

| see her, slumped on the ground. Angel and Cara have just turned to her. They are calling her name, shaking her shoulders. “Grace!” | hear them yelling at her.

| try to stand, but I can’t, so | begin to crawl over to where Grace is lying on the ground.

“What happened?” | ask when | get there. | see Rik is conscious and also trying to sit up.

“| don’t know. We had lost. Everyone was dead or dying. You, Rik, Liam, you were all.” Angel chokes on a sob. | pull Grace’s body into my lap, rocking her. She’s not dead, her tether is there, but it’s very faint.

Liam stumbles over, falling down beside us and pulling Angel into his lap, burying his face in her hair. She wraps her arms around him, telling him to never leave her again.

He lifts his head, looking at Grace. “What happened?” He repeats my question.

“| think…” Cara starts, looking at Rik. “I think she pulled mine and Angel's strength to kill the hunters, but she must have also pulled Angel's healing power to heal the packs. It’s not just us, | think she healed everyone. | can feel all the tethers that broke during the battle.” As she says it, | realize she’s right. | can feel every member of my pack as well.

Thomas stumbles over, having heard the conversation. When last | checked, he was injured, but not dead. “It wasn’t just your powers, Lunas, she pulled from all of us. We all felt it. She drained. us all of whatever strength we had left. I’m glad she killed the hunters first because none of uscould fight after what she did.” “Everyone?” Rik asks, as shocked as the rest of us.

“Did you know she could do that?” He asks Cara and Angel.

“No. We knew she had connected briefly, but we didn’t know she could pull from everyone in the packs.” Angel replies.

“I need to get her home. She needs to see Sirona and find out what’s going on with her. | know she’s alive, but barely. Can any of you feel your wolves yet?” Cara and Angel nod yes. Rik and Liam shake their heads, no.

| have Thomas find Carlos and put him in charge of helping our pack get back and making arrangements for those that need extra assistance before | begin running as fast as | can, carrying Grace back to our pack.

It's slower than I'd like it to be. Between my own weakness, my lack of Louis’s presence and carrying Grace, I’ve just hit our pack lands, when Sirona pulls up in a car looking for us.

“How? How did she do it? | felt Noah die.” She says, helping me get Grace in the car before tearing up the bumpy ground toward the pack hospital. I’m sitting in the back, holding Grace on my lap so she doesn’t bounce around in the car.

“We don’t know. We think she pulled from Angel’s healing power. I’m not sure what’s going on with her. She’s alive but her tether feels very faint. We can’t let her die Sirona.” | tell her, my heart in my throat. | was okay being the one to die. | don’t know that | could live without my mate. “We'll check the baby first. My guess is Maia is protecting the child and therefore isn’t healing Grace.” My whole world stops. “Baby?” Sirona’s eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror. Hers are wide. “She didn’t tell you?” When | shakenovelbin my head, she continues. “She said she wanted it to be special. | just assumed.” “It's not your fault. She knew what she was doing. She knew I'd never let her fight if | knew she was pregnant. And if she hadn’t been there, we’d all be dead.” | see Sirona shiver at the thought of not having Noah. Too many people in my pack know exactly how that feels right now. As we pull up to the hospital, Sirona asks, “What happened to the hunters?” She opens the door and | carefully step out, holding my mate and my child close against me.

“None of us are sure. It looks like a massacre. We know it was Grace that killed them, but we know exactly how she did it. It will take days to clean it up. We need to burn what's left of the bodies. There were so many of them, there’s no way their presence will go unnoticed by the humans.”

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 448-Liam and Rik will have to take care of that. Thanks to my mate, their mates are fine. My only focus is on getting my mate strong again.

One month later “Anything?” | ask as Sirona comes back into the hospital room. It’s been a month and Grace is. still unconscious.

She shakes her head. “There’s nothing physically wrong with her that | can find. Is your bond getting any stronger?” “Barely. And now | don’t know if it’s my bond to her, or to our child.” Sirona had asked if | wanted to learn the gender of our baby, but | didn’t want to know without Grace. Honestly, I’m pretty sure | already know. Grace smells like cherry blossoms, but her stomach has taken on a decidedly masculine scent. She told me once that | smelled like sandlewood and cedar to her. Sandlewood is the scent that I’m getting from her stomach.

Grace is hooked up to so many machines. We're having to feed her intravenously, so the baby stays healthy. She’s getting IV fluids, so she and the baby don’t dehydrate. There’s a monitor attached to her stomach so we can monitor the baby’s heartbeat and there’s one for Grace as well. Since her breathing has been shallow, she has an oxygen hose going into her nose.

Everyday, | get as close to her as | can. | want to sleep in the bed with her, but there are too many wires, and | won’t risk her or the baby. So, | sit in a chair, my head laying beside her stomach and | talk to our child. Then, when | need to stand, I'll move up to Grace’s head and I'll lay my head beside hers and talk to her for a while.

In the beginning, Sirona tried to get me to leave to eat, or to go back to the packhouse to sleep, saying she'd stay with her. But | can’t leave them. So, | shower here at the hospital. Either Noah or Carlos brings me food and updates me on what’s going on with the pack.

The hunter bodies were burned. The authorities came around a couple of times, wanting to search the forest around our packs. We explained that we would have known if that many people had been in the forest. They tracked their movements to the edge of our property, but they didn’t have enough to get a search warrant and Liam and Rik refused to give them access to our lands. There would have been no way to hide the war, and since we would never tell them we are shifters, they would have arrested some or all of us for murder.

| got Louis back a couple of days after the battle. Everyone that had silver in their system took several days and up to a week to get their wolves back. When he came back, | had him search for Maia. He said she was there, but unresponsive to his prodding.

Benny, Cara and Angel come to see Grace nearly every day. Cara and Angel feel guilty that Grace saved everyone and is in this state while they are fine. Angel is even pregnant again. | usually use their time with her to go shower or I'll just lay in the bed I had brought into Grace’s room and try to get a little sleep while others are there talking to her.

The baby boom in our pack has continued. Tula, Lelani and Lolana all had their babies while Grace has been unconscious. Sirona is due any day and thankfully two of her aides have gotten their medical degrees and can deliver her baby and look after Grace while she’s recovering.novelbin One evening, it’s just the two of us. | can’t take it anymore and | move her wires and crawl into. bed with her, laying my arm over her body, my hand on her stomach, feeling my little one moving.

around inside her.

“Grace, please baby. It’s been long enough. I’m going to lose my mind if you don’t wake up. Baby. you promised me that you would be okay. This is not okay. | am not okay. Our baby needs you, | need you. You have to wake up now. | need to hear your voice. | want to hear you laugh, | want to yell at you for what you did and tell you how amazing you are for saving everyone. Please Grace. The only good thing in my life has been you. You have made everything | went through before | met you worth it. | would do it all over again if it meant | had you in my life. | can’t do this without. you. | don’t want to raise our son alone. He needs his mother.” By the time I’m done, there are tears streaking down my face, | lean my forehead against the side of her head, just letting the tears come.

“How do you know it’s a boy?” My head jerks up and I see the exhausted eyes of my mate.

“Grace!” Her hand comes to my face and | kiss her palm before kissing her on every part of her face | can reach.

“Oh Grace.” | say before | completely break down, sobbing at finally having my mate back.

Cooper Author Grace is back!

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 449-Chaos. That's all | can feel. Utter chaos. There are sounds and voices all around me. | can’t make out what they are saying, there are so many of them and they are talking over each other. | try to tell them | can’t understand them, but my voice is drowned out by theirs.

| try to find Maia in my mind, but if she is there, | can’t hear her voice over the cacophony in my head. It’s overwhelming and it never stops. | bend down, covering my ears with my hands, trying to lessen the sounds, but it doesn’t help.

Initially, | felt like | was going to go crazy. But eventually, the noise becomes almost background noise in my head, making it easier for me to think. | remember what happened, how | tapped into nearly 1000 wolves that were still alive and pulled their energy and strength into my aura before pushing it out to kill the hunters and save our packs. And that’s when | realize what the noise is. | connected to every pack member from three packs, and now | don’t know how to disconnect myself from them. Maia is watching over our child, so I’m on my own to untangle this web of voices. If what I did worked, I'll have to untangle over 1500 voices in my head before I'll be able to get out of this mess.

The first couple of times | try, it's too overwhelming and | shut it down again. Then, one day, | see one strand light up. | can see the thread of the voice as it weaves in and around others. | pull on it and untangle it from all the others. Eli. It’s his voice that is now separated. | keep it close so | can listen when he talks to me.novelbin Cara, Angel, Sirona and Benny are next. I’m not sure if | have a stronger connection to them, or if they are actually somewhere close to me talking so | can hear them, or in this case, see their voices more clearly.

Once | figure out how to untangle a voice, | start with my pack. | focus on one voice. Amber, Noah, Carlos, until | find their voice and | untangle them from the others. It’s slow going and exhausting work. When | can’t do it anymore, | pull on the thread of Eli’s voice, laying my head beside it and listening to him. | hear him as he talks to our child and then as he talks to me. | hear him tell me to come back to him. Soon, my love. As soon as possible, | will be there.

| have no idea how much time is passing. There is no day and night here in my mind. Only an intricate web of voices. | finally untangle my pack’s voices from the others then start working on the ones from the other packs that are more familiar to me, Liam, Rik, and their ranked members. One by one, | unravel the massive ball of knots that is in my head..

Eli has begun to sound desperate. I’ve been away too long and he needs me to come back. | can only imagine how he is suffering. If our roles were reversed, I’m not sure | would be holding up as well as he is. I’ve also realized that when Cara and Angel are talking to me, it helps me to decipher their pack members, making it easier for me to pull their voices out of the mess.

As | get closer to the end, I’m able to untangle faster, pulling more and more threads out of the chaos. The voices in my head are quieting down and it makes it easier for me to hear Eli.

When his light shines brightly, I’m on the last group of threads. | can hear his desperation. | can hear his tears and it makes me move faster, trying to get these last voices separated so | can get. back to my mate.

As he finally tells me that our son needs his mother before | hear his choked sobs, | untangle the last knot and it frees my mind from the chaos. | open my eyes and maybe it shouldn't be my first question, but really, how does he know we're having a boy?

When he lifts his head, | can see exactly how much of a toll my unconscious state has taken on him. His face is lined with stress, his eyes look like he hasn’t slept in weeks, and he looks like he’s aged. How long have | been unconscious?

| touch his face, wanting to comfort him but instead he breaks down, sobbing and all | can do is hold him. As he sobs, | take inventory of my surroundings. I’m in the pack hospital, | don’t smell good, and my stomach has a small bump where my baby is.

Wait! | was less than a week pregnant when we went to war with the hunters and now my stomach has a rounded bump? I’ve been out much longer than | realized.

As Eli finally gets control of his emotions, he wipes his eyes and nose before reaching down to kiss my softly on my lips. The tingles rush across my lips, making me sigh. | was worried that his tether breaking might impact our bond, but it hasn’t at all.

The Broken Warriors Daughter Chapter 450-| pull back, looking into his exhausted eyes. “How long have | been out, baby?” He cups my face in his hand, his thumb rubbing across my cheek. “It’s been a month, love.” AMONTH! No wonder my mate looks awful.

“Oh Ell, I’m so sorry. But I’m here now. I’m back and I’m not going anywhere.” | need to get closer to my mate. | want to reassure him that I’m okay and | need to reassure myself that he is okay. There are too many wires and lines connected to other beeping machines and | can’t get close to him. In frustration, | pull a tube from my nose and start to pull lines from my arms before Eli grabs me.” Careful, baby. Those have been keeping you and our son alive.” “Well, let's get rid of the others, then. | need to snuggle with my mate.” | tell him and he hops off the bed and maneuvers the lines around, removing the ones that are monitoring me, but leaving the ones monitoring our son. Our son?

“How do you know we're having a boy?” | ask him again as he lays back down. | curl up next to him and sigh as the feeling of love, protection and comfort flood my system.

“I can smell him. | haven't let Sirona tell me. | wanted you to hear it at the same time, but Liam and Rik both said they knew based on smell, and | do too. He doesn’t smell like you at all He smells like what you said | smell like, sandlewood.” I smile. We're having a boy!

Sirona kept me in the hospital for another week. She said she is positive that our little boy is doing well, confirming that we are having a boy.

I'd say | was frustrated with being kept in the hospital that long, but | had so many visitors and Sirona also went into labor. So, | got to meet her little girl in the same week that Tula, Lelani and Lolana brought in their little ones to meet me. The twins both had boys and in some odd twist of sprite weirdness, their sons were born at exactly the same time. Luckily, Alexander had Sirona place them in the same room so he could be there for both births. Tula and Thomas had a little girl and | found out from Fanella that she is having a boy. Angel brought Leana to meet me, and she told me she is pregnant again. Cara and | haven’t stopped teasing her about it. She just smiles happily. | can tell Cara is a little jealous, | know she wants another one and Rik has been holding out. I’m confident there’s another baby in her future.

| listened with rapt attention while they told me about their deliveries and holding their precious little ones for the first time. I’m so excited to hold my own child. Now, at least, my happiness for them is genuine with no heartache of my own. It’s not that | don’t trust Sirona, but Maia confirmed that our little boy is safely tucked away with her guarding him.

Paisley brought Levi to visit me while | was in the hospital. She had been getting progressively stronger. | think | finally convinced her to come to a mate gathering. She hadn’t felt confident enough about it until now, but I’m glad she’s going to go. More and more werewolves who are looking for their second chance mates are joining the mate gatherings and several matches have been made. | also tried to convince Benny to join, but he says he’s too old for that.

After returning to the packhouse and Eli and | getting a couple nights of much needed sleep. things got back to normal. Now that the construction is nearly done, Eli, Carlos and Noah were back to their normal morning and afternoon training schedules. We set up transportation so the pups in our pack could be bused to and from school, and Cammy resigned as my Lead Omega to work in her diner with Benny’s assistance. Melinda took over the morning shift and she hired on another omega that she and Cammy agreed could take on the afternoon shift.

Eli and | set up a nursery next door to our bedroom. Jeremy made our bassinet, crib and changing table. Eli took some time to carve little wolves into the furniture once we had it set up in the room. Then he painted the night sky on the ceiling, and | added the moon and some stars for our little one.

| had Anna make all of my baby and maternity clothes. It's good to know a seamstress because in the last month of pregnancy. | felt like my little boy was growing like a weed and | was outgrowing my clothes almost weekly.

Eli and | had agreed that we would name our son after his father. And nearly four months after | woke up in the hospital, we welcomed our son, Emerson Cale to the world.

Cooper Author