The Broken Warrior’s Daughter

Chapter 0316

hate this feeling of helplessness. Worse, | hate the fear that comes when Eli isn’t around. I’d rather stay with him and risk getting caught together than being left alone. It was different when | was in the town where mom and | lived. At least there | had a home, a job and Benny. Here, without Eli, | have nothing. Nothing is familiar, the sights and sounds are all new and every sound makes me jump.

| tuck myself into the small cave that Eli found for me. I’m continually amazed by his ability to find places for us to hide while keeping us safe. | guess | shouldn’t be surprised, he’s been doing this most of his life.

‘He is a good mate. He is taking care for us.” Maia says.

| could tell she has not only fallen hard for Louis, but after last night and the amazing rub down Eli gave her, she’s a soppy mess. for him now too.

‘He didn’t have to do that. Not every mate would have realized how sore we were or taken the tto massage our muscles before going out and catching food for us. He’s thoughtful, considerate and a good provider.’

| have to admit, my wolf has a point. Eli hasn't tried to push the mate bond onat all. He’s been very considerate in our sleeping arrangements which have been less than ideal basically since we've met. And I'd be lying if | said that | wasn’t affected by the mate bond. Having Eli close tohas been comforting, but it’s also making it harder to be away from him.

“You should let him mark us.‘ Maia tells me.

I'd been contemplating letting him mark me. He’s not a bad man. He’s proven that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep Maia and | safe. | just haven't made the decision to trust him with the rest of my life. Once you’re marked, it can’t be undone except by the death of one of the parties.

| had seen a sign as we were running. We're in the Red River area. It’s beautiful here, but | can’t enjoy it. Every minute that Eli's gone makesmore anxious. | should try to relax and take a nap, letting my muscles rest but I’m nervous, on edge.

I'm looking out over the land, watching the clouds go by when Maia’s head pops 1. up. ‘What is it, Maia?

Through her eyes and in her mind, | can feel her narrowing her focus on the ground below us, in the direction we cfrom. She pricks up her ears, listening

+1G HONO

intently, and that’s when | hear it. | can’t see anything from here, but | hear the sounds of bodies moving through the forest floor below us.

‘Check the other directions, Maia. Are we surrounded?’ | ask her, my fear spiking.

‘Don’t panic, Grace. I’m strong, | can get us out of this if needed, but if you panic, they'll be able to hear our heart beating faster. Relax and lettake the lead."

| don’t want to be forced into a mate bond. | don’t want to end up with someone who sent their pack to huntdown and drag me back to them. Someone that wantsbecause | strengthen their pack by forcing their canines into my neck.

“There. Maia says and through her eyes, | can see what looks like 10 wolves, slinking through the forest floor. As we watch, the leader lifts his head and sniffs the air, then begins sniffing the ground again.

‘A tracker.’ Maia says to me. ‘We need to move. He will find us.” She slinks out of our cave and begins to move quietly over the landscape,

jumping across small gaps in the rocks, moving around trees and bushes to try to keep us hidden from view as much as possible.

‘Where are we going Maia?’ | ask, not having any idea what direction we're moving in.

‘Eli told us to head east. But first, we’re going south where | can smell water and we're going to run through the water and try to lose them.’

As we're coming off the hill where we were staying, Maia begins running. She’s fast and the trees and bushes in the area give us a lot of coverage. We haven’t gone far, when | hear the howl go up. They found our cave and are alerting those nearby that they are on the hunt.

What makes my blood run cold is the answering howls that seem to cup all around us.

‘Change of plans.‘ Maia says. ‘We’re heading east and | hope we can find swater to cross. | don’t know if we can outrun all of them.’

She takes off like a shot. Even though we've been running for days, Maia has no intention of getting caught, so she pushes through the pain. Unfortunately, the hunt will only incite the wolves and make them more determined to catch us. Without Eli, my only hope is that the Alpha doesn’t catch us, giving Eli tto find us.

As we're running, another howl goes up, this one is much closer than the last. Maia is pushing as hard as she can. When we find a small creek, we don’t even have tto run part way in it, we crash through and continue on the other side.

+15 BONOS As we rush out of the creek, | can hear the sound of panting and large paws pounding into the ground on our left. ‘Maia!

“| know.” She says and veers right. We’re running for only a short while when we hear the sound of paws coming from our right and behind us. She turns back toward the east, pushing herself harder than | thought possible. The further we go, the flatter the land is becoming. We don’t have tto decide on a better route, they are catching up to us.

I can feel them coming up on all sides now. There aren’t as many as when we first heard them howling, which means only the strongest are still following us. That also means it’s very likely that one of these wolves is the Alpha of their pack and is planning to mark me.

We've been running full out for nearly an hour and | know Maia is running on adrenaline only now. Eli will have realized that we've left and should be on our trail. At least | hope he is, | hope they didn’t leave other wolves behind to keep him from getting tous.

| feel a nip at Maia’s heels, tripping her. She falls face first into the ground, rolling over a couple of times before getting up and trying to run again. She only gets a couple of steps when she is nipped on her other heel. She kicks back, her paw smashing into the face of one of our pursuers. His yelp does nothing to makefeel better about our situation. We are hopelessly outnumbered.