THE BROKEN WARRIOR’S DAUGHTER BY COOPER - Season 1 Episode 84

| slept well Tuesday night. It was nice being back in my own bed after so much time.

When | wake up in the morning, | hear the sounds of training outside. | head over to my window seat and sit. Rik had said that dad was training the warriors now, but | didn’t realize he meant here in our personal training facilities.

My eyes are immediately drawn to Rik. He is strong and fast. As | watch, | see him helping his warriors, assisting them when they might give up. I’ve never trained with him and | didn’t realize how much of a leader he is. He leads by example. He doesn’t complain about anything that my dad throws at them and he’s throwing a lot. He’s yelling at them, calling them pansies and basically acting like he’s a drill sergeant.

After they finish with the obstacles, | watch as Rik begins sparring with each of his warriors. His technique is different than mine, as it should be. As a warrior, you play to your strengths. Rik’s are muscle strength, height and speed. Mine are agility, speed and endurance. Although, based on how easily he seems to be putting his warriors down, endurance isn’t a weakness of his either.

| guess I’m cheating a bit, watching his technique before we spar, but | can’t look away. For all his size and strength, he is grace in motion. There’s an elegance in his movements that you don’t normally see in warriors who expect to use their strength to defeat their enemy. As | watch, | see him pulling his punches with his weaker warriors. | do the same. You want them to learn and get better, not feel defeated by being beaten every day. However, he goes all out with his stronger warriors. Trevor gives him the toughest battle, but he still wins.

Artemis begins purring in my head.

‘Really? Are you wasting your strength on watching Rik sparring? Shouldn’t you be resting or doing something to get your strength back?’ | ask my wolf, although I’m secretly happy to have her active in my head, even if it’s because she’s drooling over an Alpha.

‘Watching Alpha Rik makes me feel stronger. Maybe we should ask him to give us personal lessons, I’m sure I’d be feeling much better very quickly.”

| shake my head in disbelief. “Artemis, are you kidding me? You’re crushing on our Alpha? And I’m not asking him to give you special sessions so you can “feel better“. Forget it.”

She huffs at me. ‘If you loved me, you’d do it.’ +IS BONO

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“Wrong! | do love you but I’m not making a fool of myself to Rik.’ She sits back in my head but continues to watch, purring softly. As we’ve been having our conversation, I’d lost track of time and realized belatedly that the training had ended.

| watch as Rik listens to dad’s feedback for every warrior. Just as he was about to turn to leave, he looked up into my window and right at me. His mouth tipped up at the edges in a small smile and he winked at me before turning and heading back toward the pack house.

After the warriors leave, | head downstairs to make breakfast. Dad comes in and sees me in the kitchen. “Sweetheart, are you sure you should be doing that?”

“Dad, I’m not an invalid. Yes, | know I’m still healing. I’m still sore, but | can make breakfast. | promise I’ll take it easy today.” “Ok, I’m going to shower and I’ll come join you. Did you happen to see any of the training?” “| did. And | have to know, what did those poor warriors ever do to you?”

He gives me a wicked smile. “Oh, | haven’t even started yet.” And he rubs hist hands together like some evil villain in an animated movie.

| laugh. “I pity those poor unfortunate souls,” singing in Ursula’s voice. Dad flashes me a grin as he wheels himself into his room. My appointment is at 3pm. When we arrive at the pack hospital, | find out Dr. Harris not only wants to check my blood, but he

wants to give me an IV while we wait for the results. He has a nurse draw my blood and hook up the IV, and Dad and | sit and wait.

| decide to ask the question that Rik didn’t want to discuss last night. “Dad, what don’t | know about Eli Gunnar?” Dad looks at me intently. “What makes you think there is something you don’t know?” “I’m not stupid Dad, something is going on, what is it?”

Dad sighs and leans his head back, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m not sure | should be the one telling you, but | do think you should know.” He looks back down at me. “When you were taken and we realized that it was Eli that took you, Liam gave us some surprising information.”