The Broken Warrior's Daughter

| pull back, looking into his exhausted eyes. “How long have | been out, baby?”

He

cups my face in his hand, his thumb rubbing across my cheek. “It’s been a month, love.” AMONTH! No wonder my mate looks awful.

“Oh Ell, I’m so sorry. But I’m here now. I’m back and I’m not going anywhere.”

| need to get closer to my mate. | want to reassure him that I’m okay and | need to reassure myself that he is okay. There are too many wires and lines connected to other beeping machines

and | can’t get close to him. In frustration, | pull a tube from my nose and start to pull lines from my arms before Eli grabs me.” Careful, baby. Those have been keeping you and our son alive.”

“Well, let's get rid of the others, then. | need to snuggle with my mate.” | tell him and he hops off the bed and maneuvers the lines around, removing the ones that are monitoring me, but leaving

the ones monitoring our son. Our son?

“How do you know we're having a boy?” | ask him again as he lays back down. | curl up next to him and sigh as the feeling of love, protection and comfort flood my system.

“I can smell him. | haven't let Sirona tell me. | wanted you to hear it at the same time, but Liam and Rik both said they knew based on smell, and | do too. He doesn’t smell like you at all He smells like what you said | smell like, sandlewood.”

I smile. We're having a boy!

Sirona kept me in the hospital for another week. She said she is positive that our little boy is doing well, confirming that we are having a boy.

I'd say | was frustrated with being kept in the hospital that long, but | had so many visitors and Sirona also went into labor. So, | got to meet her little girl in the same week that Tula, Lelani and Lolana brought in their little ones to meet me. The twins both had boys and in some odd twist of sprite weirdness, their sons were born at exactly the same time. Luckily, Alexander had Sirona place them in the same room so he could be there for both births. Tula and Thomas had a little girl and | found out from Fanella that she is having a boy. Angel brought Leana to meet me, and she told me she is pregnant again. Cara and | haven’t stopped teasing her about it. She just smiles happily. | can tell Cara is a little jealous, | know she wants another one and Rik has been holding out. I’m confident there’s another baby in her future.

| listened with rapt attention while they told me about their deliveries and holding their precious +15 RONGS

little ones for the first time. I’m so excited to hold my own child. Now, at least, my happiness for them is genuine with no heartache of my own. It’s not that | don’t trust Sirona, but Maia confirmed that our little boy is safely tucked away with her guarding him.

Paisley brought Levi to visit me while | wasNôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

in the hospital. She had been getting progressively stronger. | think | finally convinced her to come to a mate gathering. She hadn’t felt confident enough about it until now, but I’m glad she’s going to go. More and more werewolves who are looking for their second chance mates are joining the mate gatherings and several matches have been made. | also tried to convince Benny to join, but he says he’s too old for that.

After returning to the packhouse and Eli and | getting a couple nights of much needed sleep. things got back to normal. Now that the construction is nearly done, Eli, Carlos and Noah were back to their normal morning and afternoon training schedules. We set up transportation so the pups in our pack could be bused to and from school, and Cammy resigned as my Lead Omega to work in her diner with Benny’s assistance. Melinda took over the morning shift and she hired on another omega that she and Cammy agreed could take on the afternoon shift.

Eli and | set up a nursery next door to our bedroom. Jeremy made our bassinet, crib and changing table. Eli took some time to carve little wolves into the furniture once we had it set up in the room. Then he painted the night sky on the ceiling, and | added the moon and some stars for our little one.

| had Anna make all of my baby and maternity clothes. It's good to know a seamstress because in the last month of pregnancy. | felt like my little boy was growing like a weed and | was outgrowing my clothes almost weekly.

Eli and | had agreed that we would name our son after his father. And nearly four months after | woke up in the hospital, we welcomed our son, Emerson Cale to the world.

Cooper

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