The Broken Warrior's Daughter

The next time | wake up, not only do | feel stronger, but | have a minute where Artemis is forward. She let's me know that she’s countering the venom but it will be another week before she’s back to full strength, but she has effectively eliminated his mark from our neck. The bruises will take longer as she has been focusing on healing other things first.

When | open my eyes, Lacey, Jason and my father are in the room. Dad's attention immediately snaps to me. “Honey, you're awake. How are you feeling?”

“I'm better. Artemis says she’s winning the battle of the venom and that Eli's mark is gone. Is that true?” | pull the hospital gown to the side and see everyone's eyes go wide. Lacey jumps up, pushing my neck to one side before pushing it to the other, and pulling the other side of my gown away from my body. “Oh my goddess! Your wolf is amazing! All the marks are gone!”

“Wait. ALL the marks? How many were there?”

They all look at each other uncomfortably. It’s my dad that answers my question. “Honey, you had multiple puncture wounds on both sides of your neck. It appears he was trying to put as much of his venom into your system as possible to force your body to shut down so he could cement the mate bond.”

I'm shocked, although | shouldn't be. “I'll remember to tell Artemis how awesome she is then.”

| ask about what has happened in my absence, how they found me and | listen as they fill me in on all the details, Liam’s and Rik’s roles in helping to find me and bring me home.

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My dad leaves to go get me some real food from the packhouse. | take the opportunity to ask Lacey and Jason what has been weighing on my mind. I'm a bit surprised to hear that Liam and Rik played such a central role in my return but | haven’t seen either one of them. | know they are busy, but | thought that Rik at least, after everything that happened, would have come by.”

They look at each other. 1/ “What?” | ask.

It's Jason that responds. “Well, your dad may have gone all Guardian on them.” “Yeah,” Lacey picks up the conversation, “They apparently had some sort of pissing match in your room and your dad kicked them out and told them they weren't allowed to come back.”

+15 BONOS Jason jumps back in, “Yeah and that if they wanted to get to you, they’d have to go through him.” He says with awe in his voice.

| don’t know what to say. First, that whatever happened between Rik and Liam in my room seems to be similar to what happened in school on the day Liam brought the bear. And that my dad got all protective and basically pulled rank on two Alphas.

“Alpha Anders didn’t say anything?”

“Nope, he gloated that his old Guardian was back. Did you know that your dad is training warriors?”

“What?? What else did | miss?”

Lacey responds, “You mean besides the fact that your father is trying to kill us all with his ridiculous training? I've never been so sore in my entire life.”

I'm laughing when my dad and Dr. Harris walk in. “Well, that’s a great sign.” Dr. Harris says seeing me laughing.

“Hi doc. So, what's the verdict? When do | get to leave?”

He begins checking over vitals and nurse notes. He looks back up at me. “You and Artemis are pretty amazing. | can’t believe that you are healing so well. At this rate, | think you can leave tonight.”

lam so excited. | don’t want to spend another minute in bed. | need to be outside. smelling fresh air, sleeping in my own bed, healing in my own home. “What do | have to do?” | ask.