Chapter 165: Grace
I reached for Rhys’ hand as we meandered our way down to the training field. I loved that we were getting to a point where we could be independent, but I did miss him at times. I liked that today we were getting a little bit of extra time, since this past week had had us in mostly different places.
I scanned the training field. Most of the kids looked uncoordinated and lacked proper form. I imagined that was how I looked when I trained. But the good news was that they were learning, and the more they trained, the better they’d be.
It wasn’t until my eyes fell on Maizie who was holding a screaming and flailing Sammy, did I remember why I was truly here. I immediately dropped Rhys’ hand and hurried toward the inconsolable child.
“Sammy,” I called out when I was close enough. “Sammy, hunny, I’m here.”
The small girl let out a relieved squeal, scream thing, and jumped out of Maizie’s arms and threw herself into mine.
“I’m here,” I whispered. “I’m here.”
“Thank goddess your here,” Maizie cried out in exasperation. “I don’t know how much more of that I could have taken!”
“I thought the bad guys got you!” Sammy sobbed. “You were there and then you weren’t!”
“I’m sorry I scared you.” I told her gently. “No bad guys, I just had something I had to do. But I’m here now. You’re safe. And I’m safe.”
Sammy clung to me like she was afraid I’d disappear again. I hadn’t meant to scare the poor girl. I felt terrible. I should have known that she was going to freak out when she couldn’t find me. I should have prepared her better. I had been in such a rush to make sure Michael was okay, I hadn’t thought about how Sammy would feel.
“I thought the bad guys had come for you!” She said again. “They want you so bad.”
I frowned. How did she know that? We had worked so hard to keep the kids out of things, except the two oldest who seemed to need to be involved. I stole a glimpse at Maizie, but she looked just as confused as I was. Where was Sammy getting her information?
“There you girls are!” Rhys’ chipper voice cut through the weird moment. It was almost like he knew we needed a change in subject.
“Uncle Rhys!” Sammy squealed, leaping out of my arms into his. How she did it, I had no idea. My body wouldn’t move on that.
Rhys started asking Sammy about how school was, and Sammy fell for the distraction, but I was still stuck on her words, and a quick glance at Maizie told me she was too.
The rest of the evening passed without any more weird occurrences. We finished the kid training, joined the adult training, which Rhys led today. He was shirtless within the first 20 seconds which whoa mama is my favorite thing in the world, even if every other woman around thinks the same thing. He was mine, and everybody knew that.
After training, we grabbed dinner and headed to the office. The debrief wasn’t much today. We were losing a lot of money which long-term would be a problem, but for now, it was under control. At least that’s what my mate told us. We didn’t often talk business, but this seemed to be a direct link to what the Red Blood pack was doing. Everyone was surprisingly quiet throughout the meeting. I wondered if they found business stuff boring, or if they just had other things on their mind.
We ended our usual meeting early. I think, honestly, that everyone just needed a break. Everything had been so go, go, go, lately, we were in survival mode. But in order to be the best, we needed more than that. We needed to be at our best.
I trekked up to the Alpha floor with Rhys just behind me, and Sammy pulling at my hand just a step ahead of me.
“Let’s do something fun tonight.” Sammy said. She had calmed down a while ago, but she hadn’t let go of my hand in hours. Even during my meetings, she had just sat on my lap quietly.
“Like what?” Rhys asked, humoring the little girl.
“Like a movie night! With everyone!” She exclaimed.
I smiled. This little girl had big dreams, and I loved that for her. I looked over to Rhys, and gave him a little shrug as to say, I’m down if you’re down. Rhys nodded back to me before jumping in front of me and grabbing Sammy to tickle her. Sammy squealed and I laughed at their shenanigans.
“On the steps? Really, Alpha King?” Alana sighed, coming up on us. “That’s so dangerous.”
Rhys shook his head and took off running up the rest of the stairs, leaving me and Alana in the dust.
“Sammy wants a movie night tonight, and I think it’s just the medicine we all need. Help me set it up?”
Alana frowned. “Do we have everything we need? What kind of snacks? Should I send someone to the store? Kid movie nights can be intense, we should pick the movie first or at least give two options, so we don’t have any fights on our hands over what to watch.”
“This is a lot more work than I thought it would be,” I muttered. “I thought we would just put on a movie.”
“We could do that,” Alana agreed. “But it will be a lot more fun, if we have snacks and extra blankets and pillows for comfort.”
I laughed. “Of course, should we set it up in the ballroom and invite the whole packhouse?”
“Well, that does sound splendid,” Alana laughed too. “Come on, we have to hurry if we want to pull this off before it gets too late.”
We both took off at a sprint down the steps. We needed something for morale and this was it. We just needed a few good snacks, and a good movie and everything would be okay. We could make it happen. I was sure of it.
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