Chapter 129: Rhys
I knew it was bad when Alana’s mindlink came in shaky.
“Alpha King?”
“Yes?”
“I was just in the forest with Grace and Maizie, and there was an incident and Grace took off running. Maizie went after her, but I couldn’t keep up.”
“What sort of incident?” I growled angrily. I had let her out of my sight for an hour and here she was getting herself knee deep in some shit already. I swear, if she wasn’t my mate, I wouldn’t put up with this shit.
Alana whimpered, but answered weakly, “I will tell you once you find her. She was quite upset, and I’m worried.”
“Did she shift?” I asked.
“No.” Alana whispered.
I slammed my work down on my desk, furious that Leon had talked me into letting her go be with her friends. He had told me she would be fine. This wasn’t fine!
“Get up. We have to go.” I shouted as I swung his office door open, letting it slam into the wall behind it.
Both he and Sawyer looked up in surprise, clearly, they had been having a meeting about something without me.
“Go where?” Leon asked tiredly.
“To find my mate that you convinced me was going to be fine without me.”
“What happened?” Leon asked as they both stood up.
“I don’t know. Alana only said that there was an incident, and Maizie was trying to keep up with her, but she couldn’t, and she was worried about Grace.”
“Maizie was there?” Sawyer asked, his voice laced with panic.
I nodded, already on the move, both of them right behind me.
“Was she hurt?” Sawyer questioned.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything other than what I just told you. Alana was not forthcoming with information. She just said that Grace took off running after something happened.”
“That’s not much to go on.” Sawyer frowned, his footsteps keeping pace with mine.
“It’s all I have.”
I reached for Grace through our bond for the hundredth time since she had disappeared on me, but there was still nothing. I hated that she was blocking me.
I quickly organized several search parties through mindlink, and we raced toward where Alana had said she had lost both Grace and Maizie.
The brush was thick in this part of the forest. We all split up in hopes of finding my mate sooner rather than later. Where would she go? How had she run through this part of the forest the way she had? Alana had stated that they were barefoot.
“Grace?!” I shouted into the abyss.
My words echoed off the trees, and for the first time I truly worried that these woods were not in my full control as they once had been. I didn’t want ANYONE to know I was looking for her. That I had lost my mate. I couldn’t imagine how that would spread in the worst ways. What would they do to her if they found her first?
I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to move quietly, shifting so I could hopefully catch her scent.
My wolf was as anxious as I was. He kept urging me to move faster. Not stopping to look at any fallen branches or marks on the ground. I couldn’t think straight and neither could he. Why would she have ran?
“I think I’ve found their trail!” Sawyer shouted through the mindlink.
Thank fuck. I immediately took off toward my brother using our pack bond. I would hopefully catch him. I knew I was faster than him, but I didn’t know quite how far away he was from me.
“Gracie, come on, where the hell are you?”
“Their trail leads up here,” Sawyer mindlinked as soon as I came into his sight.
He was following a stream that led up to some big hills and rock formations. There was a waterfall up this way if we were to keep going, but Grace had never been here before. I had never taken her, and it was too far from the pack house to explore by herself. And Maizie had eyes on her always, there was also no way for her to know what was up there either. I mean, I had only been this way a few times in my life. I didn’t like to come up here. There was something about it that was eerie to me, not that anything would stop me now. I mean, Grace was in trouble. I couldn’t go there. At least not right now.
I shook my head trying to clear my head. I kept catching Maizie’s scent on occasion, telling me I was going the right way, but she still seemed so far out of reach.
Sawyer stopped beside me, and I wondered why for a moment before he mindlinked, “Look.”
My breath caught in my throat, and I tried to breathe. The waterfall was pounding into the small pond, but it was in the space behind the waterfall that I caught sight of a small figure with blonde hair and her knees drawn up to her chest. Even from here, I could see the sobs that were wracking through her body. Goddess, what the hell had happened?
I shifted back to my human form and grabbed the pair of shorts that Sawyer threw at me, glad he was prepared as always.
“No. No. No.” Sawyer started, his eyes wide, looking not at Grace, but at the edge of the waterfall where another figure was balancing on the slippery rocks edge as she moved toward Grace, her ponytail flopping around behind her.
“Maizie!” He shouted as loud as he could over the roar of the falls. “Get down from there!”
In true Maizie fashion, she looked down at him and gave him the finger before continuing her balancing act, moving toward Grace.
“What hell is she doing?!” He muttered, looking at me with wild, panicked eyes.
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know. Why would Grace willingly go up there? Was she scared? Was someone chasing them? Was Maizie not as trustworthy as I had thought? Oh fuck. If she was going to kill Grace, it would be so easy. One little push... I would never make it up there in time to stop it. Anything could happen, and there was nothing I could do about it but watch in horror as Maizie got closer to my small mate, my mate moved to and then, they both disappeared from sight.
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