Chapter 155: Rhys
I leaned up against the wall in the hallway as Grace inspected me. She had left me at the bottom of the stairs to go grab something and had raced back with a black button up that she made me put on. She had hardly said a word, at least that wasn’t an insult. I was a little distracted by the way her mouth was moving and all the things I wanted her to do with that mouth.
“Focus, Rhys!” She hissed.
“I am focused.” I responded.
“Yea, I need you to not be focused on me.” She responded bitterly.
“No can do. My mate is hot. Especially, when she’s angry.” I teased, bopping her nose.
“You can touch me when you’re sober.” She snapped, and the glare she shot me told me that she really wasn’t playing, and she took a step back. Angry Grace was hot, but I was quickly realizing that I didn’t like that she was angry at me.
“Grace...” I pleaded. “Just one kiss?”
“No.” She answered definitively. “Come on, we’re late.”
“Late for what?” I asked. I couldn’t remember setting up any meeting for today. In fact, I specifically hadn’t wanted to do anything today. I mean, I had lost my brother and my best friend. No. I didn’t want to do anything.
“A meeting.” She said shortly.
“What meeting?”
“With Kate and a few others.”
“I don’t want to.” I whined.
“I don’t care. You are going. And you’re going to be quiet and let Sawyer and I take the lead.”
“But-”
“No buts, you shouldn’t have gone off drinking.”
“I was going to say, you don’t like talking.”
“Well, you didn’t leave me a choice.” She retaliated. “Now, let’s go.”
I followed her down the hall like a sad lost puppy. She wouldn’t even give me her hand to hold. Damn. I would have to remember to stay on my sweet Gracie’s good side.
Gracie opened the door to the conference room like she wanted to be anywhere else. Like she was trying to be a fly on the wall. But she was a Luna Queen. She should walk into every room with confidence, damn it! I would have to make a call when I was sober. Grace would need help to fully acclimate to this role, and I would give her all the help I could. She would get the chance to learn from the best. At least that was my opinion.
Everyone was staring at us. I felt much more free than I usually did in these situations, but that was the alcohol clouding my judgement at the moment. Grace held her head up high, but I could see her hands were shaking as we walked to our seats. I reached for her hand, but she moved it just out of my reach. I pouted a little. Message received little mate. No touchy till sober. But then if that was the case, she couldn’t look so hot.
“Is everything okay, Alpha King?” Someone asked as we approached the desk.
“Yes,” I replied. “Everything is fine.”
“Anyways,” Grace started before I was even done talking as she shot me a sideways look to be quiet. “Let’s begin. Kate, report please.”
“The attack in the woods appears to be an isolated attack. They followed us to our first barricade, but they didn’t engage once we got past the line. They just turned around. We had that group of warriors follow them, however they just receded into the Wild Lands, and after what happened to Caleb and Leon, we made the decision not to cross the border, but set up survelience in the area. Observations from the skirmish we encountered on our land: they were waiting there for us. It appears that they knew we would come for Leon and set themselves up accordingly. We have hidden cameras now all along the border as well as a surveillance team which has to specific tasks – watch the cameras as well as in person surveillance.”
“Anything else?” Grace asked as Sawyer grimaced from his spot at the table.
I was surprised to see him at this meeting, honestly. I thought he would be off grieving our brother.
“Yes,” Kate nodded. “There were creatures in the skirmish that did not appear to be Lycan or Werewolf.”
“And your thoughts on the matter?” Grace prodded, but I knew she already knew this piece of information and had already reached the same conclusions as Kate.
“This leads me to believe that there are more supernatural shifters out there then we were previously made aware of. We didn’t know about Lycans until they attacked us, I’m afraid there are more things out there that we don’t know of than we do.”
Grace contemplated something. I could tell she had her own thoughts on the matter, but she just nodded.
“What is the next move you’d like to make Alpha King?” Ryan, a guy from Kate’s team, asked.
I gestured to Grace, swaying slightly with the movement, gripping the table to steady myself, hopefully without drawing any attention to it.
“We need to start training everyone to defend themselves. We are a strong pack. We have the most elite warriors in the country. But we are only as strong as our weakest links. We are not asking children to go to war. We are simply asking that they be able to defend themselves to some degree. The children we have recovered from the cruelty of the Red Blood pack, have been training, and they may be able to help in this critical time. It might be too late to get very far with it, but we have to start somewhere, and this will set us up for the future as well. But pack training is now mandatory.”
“I will work on scheduling this and finding a space for us to hold different meetings.” Someone from the other end of the table called out. Fuck, I couldn’t remember his name, but we had gone to school together way back when.
“Thank you. We will continue to research the different supernatural species, and we will loop you guys in as we learn more. For now, even alliances hold a threat to us. Be careful out there. You are all dismissed.”
Everyone looked to me for an official dismissal which irritated me. Grace’s word was as good as mine, but no one would take it as that until I made it official with the Luna Ceremony, despite that ring on her finger. But I guess I had had others before her, and none of them had ever held any power.
I nodded to confirm that they were dismissed and looked at my soon-to-be wife as she stood there as still as a statue.
Sawyer slowly made his way around the table to us.
“Well done, Grace,” He said as he looked around the room, making sure we were alone before looking me dead in the eye and demanding, “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
