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Chapter 7: Grace
Last Updated:
2022-08-18 18:13:17
CooperThanks everyone for being on this journey with me! I hope you are enjoying Eli and Grace's story so far. As with the first two books, I will be updating every day. I'm hoping to have a fourth book, a prequel telling Clint and Lily's story out in the next couple of weeks, so keep a look out! And as always, let me know your thoughts. I read all your comments and appreciate all of your feedback and support!
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I hadn’t intended to tell Grace my history, or at least not yet, but it seems to have opened her up. Maybe our similar stories will help her see that I’m not all bad and can possibly be trusted, if not as her mate, maybe as her friend. I’m thrilled that she asks me to run with her. I would have anyway, since I need to protect her, especially with the nearby packs. I didn’t like how close to their boundaries she ran last night. It puts her at too much risk. All they have to do is see her eyes to know what she is. Only Guardians have golden eyes. Louis is beside himself in his happiness playing with Maia. She’s definitely all in with the mate bond. He’s enjoying the chase, periodically nipping at her heels when we smell them. I hadn’t realized how close we’d gotten to the pack’s border, but there are three standing at the border, almost as if they are waiting for Maia to show up, and they probably are. If this is her pattern, they would have picked up her scent and would be waiting to
Last Updated : 2022-08-18The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 9: Grace
It’s exhausting constantly running, riding on bus after bus. We haven’t had a decent meal or shower in a week. Benny called the day after we left and let me know two ‘shady looking men’ were in the diner asking about a young woman.When Eli finally feels like we can stop overnight, we get a hotel room. At first, I was concerned about only having one room, but I’m too tired to argue. When we get to our room, I see that there are two beds.“Get a shower. I’ll be back in a bit.”“Where are you going?” I ask him.“I’m going to look around and make sure we aren’t being followed and then I’m going to get us something decent to eat. Do not open the door for anyone.”He comes over taking my face in his hands and kisses my forehead. He pulls back and looks in my eyes. “You’ll be safe. I won’t be gone long.”After he leaves, I grab my things and head to the bathroom. I turn on the water, letting it get warm before stripping off my clothes and getting under the stream of hot water. I lift my fac
Last Updated : 2022-08-19The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 10: Eli
I hate that I don’t have the money to support Grace. It’s really bothering me. I realize I’ve spent my life on the run and that I’ve been in one of Liam’s cells for the last six months, but it doesn’t sit right not being able to take care of our mate. What’s worse, she and her mother seem to have stockpiled money over the last six years since they ran from Grace’s father. How can Louis and I prove that we are worthy mates if I can’t even afford a bus ticket and a place to stay for longer than a week? I’m laying in the dark, staring at the ceiling and contemplating what I will need to do once I have her safely within the borders of Rik’s or Liam’s territories when I hear her voice. “Are you awake?” She whispers. I was pretty sure she hadn’t fallen asleep. Her breathing hadn’t changed to that deep breathing a person gets when the drift off to dreamland. I sit up on my elbow and look over at her bed. Whether she did it intentionally or not, she put herself in the bed farthest from the
Last Updated : 2022-08-19The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 11: Grace
I was serious last night when I asked Eli to mark me rather than let some stranger mark me. Better the devil you know, right? At least I hope so. I may not believe in the mate bond, but I have a better chance with someone who might actually care about me than with someone who only wants me for the strength I can bring to their pack, someone who will treat me like a commodity and a breeding machine. I know I’m a Guardian, and I’m supposed to be this strong wolf that all the Alphas want, but I’m terrified. I don’t know how to fight. Up until a couple weeks ago, I thought I was a human. A human that was doing everything I could just to survive, much less learn how to fight or defend myself. So, as much as I hate this feeling of dependence, I’m thankful that Eli is here with me. He makes me feel safe, or at least safer than I would feel if I was running alone. I wasn’t expecting to get any sleep last night, but after laying on his chest, smelling his intoxicating scent and listening to t
Last Updated : 2022-08-20The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 12: Eli
I have to hand it to my girl. Running all day is not for the weak. I pushed us hard, knowing the wolves were trailing us. I haven’t heard them howling in hours, so I’m hoping that we have some time to relax. When we get to a small hill near the Arkansas border, I find an overhang where I can put Grace to let her rest while I keep watch. I’m used to not sleeping for days or only sleeping lightly for a couple of hours. That is how my life has been, but that is not the life that Grace has lived. She needs her rest and she will be sore after pushing so hard today. I know we’ll have to go more slowly tomorrow, but once we pass out of red wolf territory, we should be safe to slow down. When Maia collapses, I shift and pull on some shorts before walking over and picking her up. She’s a big wolf, beautiful in her coloring, black but with streaks of different shades of brown. I’ve never seen another wolf like her. “I’ve got you, gorgeous.” I tell her as she whimpers when I pick her up. “You
Last Updated : 2022-08-20The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 13: Grace
I hate this feeling of helplessness. Worse, I 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 I was in the town where mom and I lived. At least there I had a home, a job and Benny. Here, without Eli, I have nothing. Nothing is familiar, the sights and sounds are all new and every sound makes me jump. I 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. I guess I 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. I 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 time to massage our muscles before going out and catching food for us
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A large red wolf runs up beside us and slams into our body sideways, knocking Maia off her feet. When she stands again, we are surrounded. There are six wolves that have us caged in, the largest is the red wolf that took Maia down. Maia stands panting, waiting to see what is going to happen. The red wolf, who is also panting, begins to shift. When he’s done, he stands, bent over at the waist, breathing heavily before looking up at Maia, smiling possessively. Maia bares her teeth at him, snarling furiously. He puts his hands up in a surrounding position, but I don’t trust it for a moment. He has us surrounded and he’s been hunting me for days. “You’ve given us quite a chase Guardian. But you’ve lost. My name is Alpha Brody, and I claim you as mine.” If possible, Maia’s snarl is even more ferocious, and she nips the air in between us and Alpha Brody. “Now, now. None of that. I’ve caught you and you can’t get away from me. Be a good girl and shift and let me mark you as mine.” Even
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I left Maia in the safest place I could find before heading into the town to get food. When I get close to the town, I shift and call Rik, letting him know that we were still running from the red wolves. I 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 I see it. Three cars with men standing and looking around, sniffing the air like only shifters do, and waving toward the direction that I left Grace. “Rik, I have to go. They’ve found us.” I tell him before hanging up and turning around. I run back to the tree line before shifting and running back toward Grace and Maia. I’m about halfway there when I 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. I change course, hoping she followed my instructions and started running east. When I hear a second howl go up later, I divert south. Sh
Last Updated : 2022-08-22
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The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Author's Note
Hello everyone. First, thank you for your support in my initial foray into writing. Your support has been amazing and has definitley encouraged me to continue writing. As you know, my book For the Love of a Guardian is out now. This is Clint and Lily's story which, as you may have guessed, will span to the end of this book. It will primarily focus on their life together and Clint's life without Lily, but it will follow until the end of this book. This book will move into the primary spot and will begin having daily updates this week. Also, I have started another series, The Elemental Dragons, and Book 1, The Arena went live today. This will be a completely different series from the Guardians but I hope you'll give it a try and as always leave me a comment and let me know what you think. That book will become my #2, updating Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until Love of a Guardian is complete. Many of you have asked if I will continue the Guardian series. I hadn't planned on having
The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Epilogue 2: Grace
Nine years later It’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the weather in early fall is cooling down and the kids are all happy, healthy and currently running around like crazy people. Cara, Angel and I all had our kids around the same time, so our total of 13 kids are being raised together. Most of them have paired off by age, except poor Richie, whoops, he goes by ‘Rich’ now that he’s a mature 10-year-old. He’s sort of the odd man out, being the oldest male followed by two females who are best friends. It helped that Liam and Angel kept having babies, so when Cara and I had space in between our three each, their kids filled in the age gaps. Of course, that doesn’t count for Reagan. That’s who Angel calls her “oopsie baby”. Oopsie my Alpha ass. That girl wanted another baby, and she made sure Liam gave it to her. After her difficulty with the twins’ delivery, I’m not surprised. She almost died giving birth and it terrified Liam, so he said no more. Three years later, Angel wins by g
The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Epilogue 1: Eli
One year later Life is amazing! After the hunter war, after everything settled down with the missing humans and after my mate woke up, things finally began to fall into place. The birth of my son, Emerson, was the most amazing moment of my life. Well, that is until today. Today, I am holding my baby girl for the first time. Emlyn Grace. She’s beautiful, perfect, just like her mother. And while I love my son more than I could ever put into words, there is something different about holding my daughter. A fierce protectiveness flows through me. It’s a feeling I’ve had with Emerson, but it’s different, more intense. There is something special about the father/daughter bond and I vow that no one will ever hurt my little girl. I lay her in my mate’s arms, watching as now the two most precious women in my life curl up and fall asleep together. I gently kiss them both on the tops of their heads before leaving them to rest. I head back to the packhouse, picking up Emerson from Carlos and Am
The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 88: Grace
Chaos. That’s all I can feel. Utter chaos. There are sounds and voices all around me. I can’t make out what they are saying, there are so many of them and they are talking over each other. I try to tell them I can’t understand them, but my voice is drowned out by theirs. I try to find Maia in my mind, but if she is there, I can’t hear her voice over the cacophony in my head. It’s overwhelming and it never stops. I bend down, covering my ears with my hands, trying to lessen the sounds, but it doesn’t help. Initially, I felt like I was going to go crazy. But eventually, the noise becomes almost background noise in my head, making it easier for me to think. I remember what happened, how I tapped into nearly 1000 wolves that were still alive and pulled their energy and strength into my aura before pushing it out to kill the hunters and save our packs. And that’s when I realize what the noise is. I connected to every pack member from three packs, and now I don’t know how to disconnect mys
The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 87: Eli
I gasp, and air fills my starving lungs. I’m alive. How am I alive? ‘Louis?’ He doesn’t respond. My body feels heavy, and I try to remember the last thing that happened. I was on the battlefield. I was looking at Grace, telling her I loved her, before the silver from the last bullet got to my heart. Wait? Am I dead? I don’t hear any sounds of fighting. I hear moaning all around me, but nothing that sounds like death and dying. ‘I love you too, Eli.’ I hear Grace say. Her voice is soft, exhausted, like she’s burned herself out. “Grace!” I yell in my mind. But as I reach out, I feel her consciousness going dark. I push myself up. “Grace!” I call out, looking around for my mate. I see her, slumped on the ground. Angel and Cara have just turned to her. They are calling her name, shaking her shoulders. “Grace!” I hear them yelling at her. I try to stand, but I can’t, so I begin to crawl over to where Grace is lying on the ground. “What happened?” I ask when I get there. I see Rik
The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 86: Grace
I’m glad when Eli says he’s heading to the battle and for me to join him after getting the evacuations set. I can’t shift being pregnant. I’ll have to run in human form to get to the battlefield. Eli would know something was wrong if he saw me. It takes me longer to get to the battle than it would if Maia was running. We’re much faster on four paws than two feet. As we get closer to the battle, I smell them. I’m counting them in my head when Eli reaches out to me. I open the mind link and let them know I’m nearly there, and how many hunters there are. When they decide to spread out, I know I won’t be fighting beside Eli. I have to be with my sisters. That’s the only way I can make sure we win today. Before I arrive, I hear Kai’s howl for the battle to begin and immediately all hell breaks loose. Almost instantly, I feel tethers from our pack breaking. ‘Maia, we have to hurry. We can’t lose our pack.’ Maia’s pain at the loss of our pack members is as strong as mine, especially sinc
The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 85: Eli
The hunters are coming. We know it, they aren’t even being secretive about it. Every day I become more fearful of losing Grace. I know she thinks she’s the key to us winning this battle, but I can’t lose her. I won’t. When I get the mind link that the hunters are nearly here, we’re ready. We’ve been planning this for weeks. I would never tell Grace this, but I’m glad she’s not pregnant yet. I don’t know if I could focus on the fight today if I knew I was not only fighting for my pack and my mate, but also my unborn child. My fear of losing Grace has made my protectiveness almost unbearable as it is. I know it irritates her that I need to know where she is at all times, so I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if she had gotten pregnant. The hunters have chosen to attack us near our three borders, so we have an hour’s run to get to them. The sprites had alerted our patrols and they are the ones that sent the mind link. We’ve chosen to stay quiet so the hunters don’t know we’ve se
The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 84: Grace
Eli became more insistent that he know where I was at all times after that. When we are together, he is affectionate and loving. We have always been physical in our relationship, but it was different now. It was as if he were desperate to let me know how much he needs me and loves me. He’s terrified that he’s going to lose me. I understand why he’s feeling that way. I’m the key, the central point in the power source of the Guardians. Cara and Angel can pull from me, but without the strength of my mind link, they can’t go further than that. I can tap into the power of not only my sisters and their mates, but also every member of all three of our packs. I haven’t been vocal about that. I don’t want to scare anyone, but when I connect with them, it’s almost like candles getting lit in my mind. As each person in their pack connects to the link, the candles light and I can see them in my mind. It’s strange and it’s overwhelming. It also means that I can hear them. Between the three packs w
The Banished Beta's Saving Grace Chapter 83: Eli
It’s been a couple of months since Benny joined our pack. It's is really coming along now. Most of our pack members have homes that are either complete or in the final stages of completion. Main street stores are complete, and we’ve started building another set of stores in the expansion portion of the pack, making it easier for those members that chose to live farther away from the packhouse to get supplies when needed. Grace and I started having monthly pack meetings, keeping everyone up to date, providing any announcements and using that time to add new members to the pack, whether they are wolves coming of age, or people who have come to our pack looking for a safe place to live. Ailduin comes for training every two weeks. He brings Anastasia so she can see her father. Alpha Christopher spoke to his Beta when he returned with Fanella. He set up an Alpha challenge and his Beta’s son won, as expected. He took a month to help transition the duties to the new Alpha and then he and Fa
