The Broken Warrior's Daughter

Dad and | head back inside to prepare for Alpha Liam’s arrival. While dad wheels. to his room to get a shower, | begin to make a bread pudding with bourbon sauce, which should go nicely with coffee after a hard workout and dinner. Does bread pudding pair nicely with bear? Not a clue, but I’ll find out. Once the bread pudding is in the oven, | start grating potatoes and cheese to make an au gratin. | find some spinach in the fridge and decide on sauteed spinach with onions and garlic to finish off our meal. | can wait to start that until dad has the bear meat started.

| head upstairs to change into my workout clothes. As | am heading downstairs, there is a knock at the door. | can smell Liam’s scent before | open the door. He smells of the forest after the rain, fresh and clean and wild.

| open the door and I’m surprised to see that he has a bouquet of wildflowers in one hand and not surprised to see a giant cooler in the other being balanced in his hand against his shoulder. | quickly grab the flowers from him so he can focus on the cooler. | step aside to let him in and he leans down to place a gentle kiss on my lips as he passes by on his way to the kitchen.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

I'm sniffing the flowers as | follow him into the kitchen. “Where in the world did you find flowers in late January?”

He turns to me with a smile. “They are called Winter Aconite and they grow wild in my territory. Every time | see them, the beautiful yellow color reminds me of Artemis’s eyes.” At that, Artemis pushes forward to show off the color of her eyes. Liam steps closer to me, putting his hands on my hips, his eyes darkening with Cyran pushing forward. “There they are, those beautiful eyes that | love.”

Before things can go any further, | hear dad wheeling into the living room. Alpha Liam | presume.” LL

As Liam steps away to greet my father, | put the flowers in water. | notice that Cyran stays forward as Liam walks to my father and extends his hand. “Warrior Nelson. It is an honor to meet you sir.”

Dad reaches his hand out and shakes Liam’s. “A polite and respectful Alpha. | like you already.”

“But, | hope you don’t think that means that I'll go easy on you Alpha. Since | found out yesterday that I’d get to train you, | have been thinking of ways to ensure you get the best workout of your life today.”

“The honor is mine sir and | would expect nothing less from the greatest warrior

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“Flattery will get you nowhere son. Are you ready to start?” Liam grins at dad and turns to me, “Ready when you are Cara.” “Then let’s go.”

For the next two hours, Dad put us through our paces. Training with Liam is a lot different than training with our warriors. Warriors are strong and know how to fight, it is their job after all. But there is a reason that Alphas lead the pack. Liam was incredible. Strong, powerful, fast, agile, but always in control. | wasn’t sure about Liam, but for me, this is the toughest workout | can ever remember having.

Dad is a great instructor. When Liam would best me, he’d stop us and talk it through, telling me how to get out of his grip or avoid getting caught again, playing to strengths and using Liam’s against him.

The same would happen when | bested Liam. Dad would give him pointers on how best to use his strength to escape a hold or avoid it altogether. Towards the end, we were both panting, trying to catch our breath.

Dad then decides it’s ninja warrior time. After we both guzzle some water, he calls us over to the obstacle course. | can see the gleam in Liam's eyes. He was hoping to try this out today.

Dad sets the expectation. We will both start at the same time. We will be competing to reach the end first but we both have to go through the same obstacles. The obstacles are designed to test your upper body strength, lower body strength, core strength, speed, agility, you name it, dad had it set up in this masochistic obstacle course.

After establishing the rules and how to win, dad asked if there were any

questions. Liam turns to look at me, “Yeah, how many times have you run this course, little badass?” I give him a fake offended look, “In the interest of fairness, Alpha, this is my first time.”

“Fair enough” and he reaches out to shake my hand. “May the best badass win.”

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