Chapter 602

Chapter 0602

My Lily bud is always here, watching over me and Cara. It changes things for me. It makes the days easier. I have no intention of letting my mate down, so I begin to plan what needs to happen to train my daughter and make her the strongest Guardian alive.

That does give me a moment of pause. Guardians are reborn, so where is Andra’s Guardian spirit?!

would look after her too, make sure she is safe. I need to talk to Anders about that, see if she’s popped

up somewhere and I’ve just been so lost in my grief that I didn’t pay attention.

The next couple of days, I make a plan to build a training ground for Cara. I make a list of all the

materials I’ll need and what I can do in the interim while I’m building. When I go to the store for my dinner with Anders, I grab some steaks, potatoes and green beans. I pick Cara up from school and send her to the table to do her homework while I start dinner. It’s Thursday and I have a lot to prepare before Anders

arrives.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Cara says, watching me from the dining room table as I bustle around the

kitchen.

“I have a lot to discuss with Anders tonight. I have some ideas for your training.” I stop and turn to her.” Are you and Artemis ready to begin your training, not only as a warrior of this pack but also as

Guardians?”

I watch as her face transitions from disbelief, to surprise to excitement. “You and Donovan are going to

train us?”

“No one knows how to train a Guardian better than another Guardian.”

“Dad!” She says, jumping up and rushing to hug me.

“Don’t get too excited. I’m going to work you hard, Cara. I’ll push you harder than you knew you could be pushed.”

“We won’t let you down, Dad.” She says, Artemis’s voice overlaying with my daughter’s. Donovan pushes forward, goddess it’s good to have him back, and we answer together. “I know you won’t. You are your mother’s daughter, after all.”

Cara pulls back, looking at me, a question in her eyes. “And that reminds me of a promise I made your mother.” So, while I make dinner, I begin to tell Cara about Lily and about our life together. I know I’ve been negligent in telling Cara about her mother. Now, she’s like a sponge and my stories are the water she’s soaking up.

Anders is understandably shocked when he arrives, and dinner is almost ready. The meal he brought with him is put in the fridge and we have a nice dinner together, the three of us. I continue to relay stories. of Lily to Cara over dinner, with Anders telling some of his own about my mate. When we finish dinner, before Cara heads upstairs to finish her homework, she comes over and wraps her arms around me.”

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Thanks Dad. Tonight was great.” She kisses my cheek and heads upstairs. I watch her go, realizing how much I haven’t been there for my little girl. That changes today.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Anders says to me. He clears the dessert plates, and we move into the living room. I grab my plans and take a seat across from him. “Lily came to me in a dream this week. Besides telling me that she’s always here.” I spread my arms to include this room, because maybe she is here right now. “she told me I have to train Cara to be a Guardian.”

“Okay.” He nods his head in agreement. “Does that mean you’re finally going to come back and participate in warrior training?”

“No. It means that I’m going to need your help getting the foundation of an indoor and outdoor training facility started. I can’t get it set into the ground, but I can do the rest.”

He’s looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. “And, just how to plan to build not one, but two training facilities for your daughter? And why can’t you just come train her with the other warriors?”

“To answer you first question, I’m a Guardian and I’m going to start rebuilding the strength in my upper body. I’ll do that by building these two structures.” I hand him my plans. “As to why I won’t train her with your warriors? Eventually, she can start training with them, she’ll need the sparring experience, but I’m going to get her started for the first couple of years, and I’ll always train her in the afternoons. She’s a Guardian and she needs to be trained like a Guardian.”

He looks over the plans I’ve made and whistles, looking back up at me. “Can I steal these when you’re done?”

“No.” He laughs, handing them back to me.

“When do you want to break ground?”

“Yesterday.”

builders co

He makes some calls and get the to be here on Monday after Cara goes to school.

We also talk about Andra’s Guardian spirit. Anders has never heard that another Guardian awakening.” She could still be underage, and being hidden, like we are with Cara.”

He’s right. It’s only been five years since Lily’s death. If the new Guardian was only 10 at the t still be a minor. “Please just keep your ears open for me. If we find her, I want to meet her.”

Before he leaves that night, he turns to me. “It’s good to have you back, my friend.”

“It’s good to be back. It’s good to feel like I have a use again.”

“You have always had a use in this pack.”

time, she

I shake m

my head. “No, I didn’t. I couldn’t be what I had been. As usual, it’s Lily that helps me to see that I need to look at things differently. And now that I am, I intend to make her proud of me, every day.”

I wheel myself to the front patio as he walks to his car. “Is Thursday night going to become steak night.

+15 BONUS

every week? Because I’ve got to tell you, you make a mean steak, Clint.”

“I’ll tell you what. Tell Calista she can make dessert and I’ll cook you a steak every week.”

“Deal!”

That night, when I go to bed, I tell Lily all about my plans, what Cara’s training schedule will look like, and I even remember a couple of things that I had forgotten that I used to do with Lily. I don’t know if it’s because she’s here with me that I remembered, but I’m assuming it is. Maybe she’s whispering in my ear, or maybe she’s just laying here like she used to, helping me to think. Either way, I fall asleep with a smile on my face for the first time in years. And the next morning when I wake up, my heart doesn’t feel heavy. I have a lot of work to do, and the first part is making myself strong again.

Cooper

Author

Clint is finally beginning to heal.

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Chapter 0603