Chapter 148: Rhys
I took off as fast as I could. That tiny piece of fabric had been stained with dried blood. My wolf moved with urgency. He was struggling because he loved the idea of Grace riding us, but also, Leon was his best friend too. Our wolves had run together since the first time he shifted. We had hardly been apart since then, rarely shifting without the other. It felt weird to be on this mission without him. To need to rescue him. He shouldn’t need to be rescued.
We were all shifted now. Everyone except Heather who was carrying the phone, telling us how to reach his. It hadn’t moved since we had started tracking it, which was not reassuring to me in the slightest. He had either dropped it, or was unconscious with it, and neither seemed to be good options at this point.
I let myself reach for my bond with Grace, grateful that she was here. I was calmer because she was with me. I would be losing my mind without her. However, when I reached for her, I was surprised to find her still fuming, and my wolf got a kick out of that.
“Why is she mad?” I asked him.
“She’s mad because you were surrounded by a lot of other women, and you were naked. Yet she has special clothes, so people don’t see her naked.” My wolf laughed at me.
I mentally sighed. We were in the middle of searching for my best friend who was missing, and she was fucking jealous? How and when did this become my life? And did I like it?
I tried to send soothing vibes down our bond, but I’m not sure it was doing anything for her. Her anger seemed impenetrable, but I wasn’t sure why. It’s not like any of the women around cared that I had been naked in front of them. I mean, it’s not like it was the first time any of them had seen anything, and they were always respectful about nudity, the way most werewolves were.
“You’re lagging behind,” Sawyer’s mindlink came through bringing my attention back to the situation at hand. “Focus.”
My wolf shot him a look, and I didn’t stop it. Leon was my best friend, but Grace came first. Always. Just her anger didn’t actually truly matter right now. She was okay. She was safe. She was here. And she was holding on to me tight. She might be mad, but she was still here. She was still mine.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this.” Grace whispered as we moved closer to where Heather had tracked the phone to.
I wanted to tell her I knew that. I wanted to tell her I understood. That I too felt uneasy. But the words wouldn’t come. The air felt heavy. And my wolf was very on edge, something that rarely happened.
Grace gripped my fur tighter, but she didn’t say anything. I moved faster toward the last known location of the phone. I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t noticed when looking at the screen, but we were getting close to our nearest border, the one that led to the Wild lands.
Caleb, who had been toward the front of our group in wolf form, slowed down, falling into step with me.
“What is it?” I mindlinked him.
“I just feel like you need me.” He answered, but his tone was tight with anxiety which made mine worse.
Grace peeked her head up, but if she wasn’t riding on my back, I’m not sure I would have noticed. I felt through our bond that she was focused on something now which confused me a bit.
I slowed down as Heather gestured that we were right on top of the area of the missing phone. I hoped that the GPS precision would be enough to help us find it.
Grace jumped off my back, and I shifted to human form as Sawyer threw a pair of shorts at me. I was grateful he had read the situation earlier so well.
Everyone spread out to try and find a sort of needle in a haystack. We were in what appeared to be a small clearing, nothing much growing, but an abundance of sticky mud that my wolf hadn’t minded, but now that I was barefoot, I did.
“Alpha King.” Katie’s voice called out as she knelt down to look at something.
My heart started to pound. I didn’t see a body in the ground, and I didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing. And then I saw it. The shattered screen sticking out like a sore thumb, so much that I wondered how I had originally missed it.
“Where is he?” Heather asked desperately, her eyes scanning the woods.
“Rhys,” Grace breathed as she came up behind me. “Don’t make any sudden movements. Pretend I’m comforting you.”
I did as she said, leaning into her touch, but my anxiety was rising.
“We’re being followed. The trees.” I could barely hear her, but I trusted her.
It took everything in me to not make any sudden movements. I could hear a rustle in the distance, but where it was coming from, I didn’t know.
“Where?” I asked as Heather dropped to her knees, no longer holding back her tears. I knew it had to be so hard for her to be hanging on the way that she had. But now we were here, and there was nowhere to go.
“Act like you’re hugging me, over my left shoulder and up.”
I turned toward her, wrapped her in my arms, doing my best to actually look distressed, and discreetly looked in the direction she told me. I didn’t see anything conclusive, but there was movement in the distance.
“Are you sure?” I breathed back.
“Very.”
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
I could feel her trying to organize her thoughts. I knew what I wanted to do, but I was afraid I was being blinded by my fear for my Mate. My mate who I had brought into a dangerous situation, once again thinking that it was the only option.
“It could be two things,” She said finally. “It could be that they are just tailing us to make sure we aren’t getting too close. Or they could be leading us into a trap. I counted three different people from our last stop to now.”
I sucked in a breath. If she was right, we were vulnerable. Just sitting ducks with no protection anywhere near here.
“What do you think we need to do?” I asked her.
And with a confidence I didn’t know she had she stated, “We need to go to the border.”
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