Chapter 103: Rhys
I followed Maizie who was practically running through the halls. She had been fine a few minutes ago and then it had seemed like she remembered something, and she panicked. I had half expected to see Alana waiting in the hall outside the door for us, but she wasn’t there either. And Grace... Where had Grace gone? She had left to go find Maizie, but she had sent Alana instead. Did she finally acknowledge that she was tired? Or did something else happen?
My heartrate quickened at the thought of something happening to her again, but I needed to make sure Maizie got back to the other kids safely first, then I would go on a hunt for Grace.
The guards parted at the door, and Maizie visibly relaxed as she scanned over the mostly sleeping kids, and Michael did the same as he scanned over Maizie for new injuries. I scanned the room and noticed all of the kids seemed to have sleeping bags or blankets now. Most were asleep, and the few who weren’t sat in a way that surrounded the others in a protective circle. I smiled slightly at their choices. They didn’t trust us, and we didn’t trust them, and they knew it. They were smart, and I was glad to see it.
I sucked in a breath when I saw her. I don’t know how I missed her before. She was seated directly next to Michael. Her blonde hair falling out of her attempt at keeping it out of her eyes. Exhaustion seeped from her, but she stared at the other door as if she was expecting someone to barrel through it at any time.
“Grace?” I called out as I walked toward her.
Her gaze snapped to me with a focus I had rarely seen on her before. “Rhys,” She breathed a sigh of relief, and I drank her in. Even in the lowlight, and with exhaustion etched all over her face, she was beautiful, and she was mine.
“What are you doing?” I asked, taking her hand in mine. “You never came back.”
“I didn’t want to leave them unattended.” She answered, not meeting my eye, immediately clueing me into something happened.
“Why? We placed guards at the door, so everyone would be safe, and you are sitting in here with no protection. What if they had attacked you?”
“They aren’t safe.” She said so softly that I barely heard her.
“What do you mean they aren’t safe?” I asked in confusion, pulling her further away from the kids she was supposedly protecting.
She hesitated before finally saying, “Arlo came straight here after he expressed his concern about Sawyer... He wanted to go after Maizie. He said it was well within his right to challenge a prisoner for their freedom... I told him I wouldn’t allow him to challenge a child, and he told me to step aside, I couldn’t stop him, so I challenged him in place of the kids, and he walked away, but I think others feel that way and I’m scared for them.” The words tumbled out of her mouth so quickly that I barely had time to process what she was saying.
Arlo had tried to challenge the kids? Arlo had tried to challenge Grace?
“Did he hurt you?” I asked, lifting her chin and forcing her to look at me.
“No. No,” She answered, “He didn’t touch me.”
“Good. Nobody has the right to touch you but me, let alone challenge you. You should have come and gotten me.” I said, as guilt filled my soul. She shouldn’t have had to face that alone.
“You were busy with Sawyer...” She answered. “And I didn’t trust anyone else to make sure they were safe.”
I knew where her fear was stemming from. She didn’t trust anyone to take care of her either. I had failed more times than I could even count, and these kids came from the same world she did.
I ran my hand tiredly over my face.
“Why don’t we move them up to our floor?” I said finally. I didn’t love the solution. It made me nervous for them to have such unabated access to Grace, but she looked so tired that I feared she would fall over if I was steadying her, and I knew her well enough to know that she would not leave them unattended.
“What?” She looked at me in confusion.
“If they are on our floor, they have protection from the rest of the packhouse because of the security precautions. We don’t have enough guest rooms for them. And under absolutely no circumstances are they allowed in our room, and I will get Leon to add new security right now to it, but that way you don’t have to push yourself or challenge people to protect them.”
“You would do that for me?” She looked at me in awe, like she had never seen me before.
“I would do anything for you, Gracie. And if this is what it’s going to take so you can get some rest, then I’ll do it.”
“I’m not the one who needs rest,” She shot me a pointed look, but the exhaustion her eyes said otherwise.
I rolled my eyes. I loved that she was always willing to say things to me that no one else would. But if I looked half as tired as she did, I knew there was some truth in her words.
“Come on, let’s wake them up and move them upstairs, so we can go to bed.”
“Bed sounds nice,” She admitted.
I pulled at her hand and we talked to Maizie and Michael about our plan. I couldn’t tell if there was relief or more fear that they were being moved to the Alpha floor, but it didn’t matter if it made Grace feel better about things. She had dealt with enough in the past weeks that I would do anything to ease some of her stress.
My anger surfaced again as the thought of Arlo challenging her both in rank and physically. People were going to have their opinions, but my most trusted advisors didn’t get that same luxury. I would do anything to protect my mate, and there might be very little I could do about any of it, but I’d be damned if I didn’t do something. Arlo and everyone else who had those thoughts were going to think twice about crossing my mate again.
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