The Broken Warrior's Daughter

| left Maia in the safest place | could find before heading into the town to get food. When | get close to the town, | shift and call Rik, letting him know that we were still running from the red wolves. | told him that I’m hoping we have enough of a lead on them that we will make it without any further issues.

As we're talking, my eyes are moving around, watching everything, and | see it. Three cars with men standing and looking around, sniffing the air like only shifters do, and waving toward the direction that | left Grace.

“Rik, | have to go. They've found us.” | tell him before hanging up and turning around. | run back to the tree line before shifting and running back toward Grace and Maia. I’m about halfway there when | hear the howl go up. They found her, or at least, they found where she was. The howl is the howl of the hunt, not a capture. | change course, hoping she followed my instructions and started running east. When | hear a second howl go up later, | divert south. She must be trying to maneuver around them but I’m guessing they have her surrounded.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

| come around a bend and see several shifters, in their human form, working to set up camp and starting a fire. | don’t have time for them, so | run around them. However, it tells me that their Alpha is here and he’s after Grace.

Louis starts running faster and when we finally catch up to them, what | see nearly makes my heart stop. Maia is being held to the ground by multiple wolves and she has a large wolf on top of her, pinning her head to the ground. | can feel his Alpha aura as he tries to get her to submit. He obviously has no idea that Guardians are immune to the Alpha aura.

Louis runs up, ripping first one wolf then a second off of Maia. This gives Maia a chance to run and she does before the Alpha pins her down again, snapping at her, trying to mark her.

‘Louis, take that Alpha asshole down.’ | shout at my wolf.

‘No one touches our mate and lives.‘ He says before jumping in knocking him off Maia then turning so we stand in between the Alpha and our mate.

The Alpha turns and | know this will be a battle to the death. | only have a moment to wish that Maia would take this opportunity to run, but | know she won't. Maia has been clear about her responsibilities as a Guardian, even if she doesn’t truly understand them.

I'm full on in the fight. This Alpha is like every other Alpha I’ve ever fought, he’s

fierce. Even though Maia has injured him, he’s coming at Louis with everything he’s got. I’m surprised that we're larger than this Alpha’s wolf, but it’s still taking every bit of training and a lifetime of battling with rogues to hold my own against this wolf.

When we get an opportunity, Louis jumps in and snaps his jaws on the back of the Alpha’s neck, shaking his head vigorously making sure the spinal cord is completely severed.

| feel feral when Louis gives me control to shift and | shout “Mine!” to the other wolves, letting them know that | will fight all of them for my mate.

When | see them all jump after her at once, | tell her to run and | shift quickly, taking one out immediately, then grabbing another from behind and slicing my claws from their ribs, through their stomach and down their flank. Louis wants to go for the kill, but we see Maia get tackled and Louis jumps at him, grabbing him by the tail and ripping him off.

| didn’t want it to be this way. | didn’t want to force a mark on her, but | have no choice and | gave her my promise. There’s no way | can guarantee that none of these wolves will get past me to mark her.