Chapter 176: Rhys
I was breathing heavily, but the only person who mattered in this moment was Grace. I raced over to her, my hands cupping her face.
“Are you okay?” I asked, unable to keep my anxiety from my voice.
She looked up at me, her eyes wide with horror, but she nodded slowly as her eyes met mine. Her lip bleeding from her biting down on it so hard.
“Did he hurt you?”
She looked at me like I was crazy. “Did he hurt me?” She blubbered, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find the right thing to say. “You’re bleeding!”
I looked down at my arm where my sleeve was cleanly sliced, and blood stained the material in a horrific manner.
The door to the office swung open, and Sawyer’s frantic shout met my ringing ears as he rushed in with two other warriors.
“What the hell happened?”
“He tried to attack Grace and I,” I answered not taking my eyes off Grace, gently swiping the trickle of blood from her lip with my thumb. “He brought people with him. Put them in the dungeon and get a team together to guard them. I don’t want them out of anyone’s sight for even a moment.
The guard to Sawyer’s right, Xander, nodded, and took off. I knew from my own orders that they were already under my guard’s watch, but this outcome changed everything.
“Tell Kate, I need extra guards on patrol and to be on the lookout for anything else unusual. We need to pack it in tonight and anyone in our pack outside of a 10-mile radius needs to move inward to make it easier to guard. We don’t need any more surprises today.”
I didn’t know the other guard, but he nodded and made his way to his assignment, and Sawyer stood there staring at the dead body on the floor.
“Are either of you hurt?” Sawyer asked finally.
“His arm,” Grace answered, her lip quivering as she fought against the tears that threatened.
Sawyer sighed and looked at it from his spot across the room. “I’ll go get my med kit, that will need stitches.”
“No need,” Grace whispered, her voice shaking.
She gently put two fingers from her two hands on opposite sides of the wound and closed her eyes. I watched as the wound began to close itself, and the blood slowed. Her little party trick would never not be impressive.
The wound completely closed, but she didn’t take remove her fingers or open her eyes for several more minutes.
“Does your healing work for illnesses too?” Sawyer questioned.
She looked completely taken aback by his question, and I wrapped her up in my arms to protect her from wherever her thoughts were taking her.
“I uh- I don’t know. I’ve never tried.”
“Well, if it does, you’ve rendered me completely useless.” He tried to joke, Sawyer but his face showed every bit of the tension he was feeling.
Grace just looked at the ground, not saying anything, and I shot my brother a glare.
He cleared his throat and tried to talk again. “Let’s uh go to the upststairs office where there isn’t a dead body and get the gang together to try and piece together what just happened exactly.”
Grace wasn’t staring just at the ground... She was staring at the severed head that looked like it was looking at her. How could I have been so thoughtless? She needed out of here and that was the first thing I should have done once the immediate danger had passed.
She nodded at Sawyer. Her face was paler than usual, and she looked like she was going to be sick. My heart hurt for her. She was used to pain, but killing was still new to her. She was lucky in that regard, but in our roles, she would have to get used to it eventually. But she never would if I kept traumatizing her with it.
I guided her gently around the mess, and mindlinked someone to come clean up the mess I had made. Today had been a mess in every sense of the word. How did everything keep spiraling out of control when all I wanted to do was fix everything?
We climbed the stairs in silence. A part of me was glad though that I had decided to meet this Alpha on the first floor instead of my actual office. I didn’t have classified stuff just laying around, but it could have been a security breech, nonetheless.
When I opened the door to my office, Maizie, Michael, and Heather were all already there. Maizie was sprawled out on the floor in her usual manner, and Michael sat next to her, his knees drawn up to his chest. My heart twitched uncomfortably when I saw Heather in Leon’s usual spot. If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have said that was what I expected. I thought that they both would be my Beta’s, and we would all sit in this office working on stuff all the time. But Heather had chosen to step away from that life. She was now being forced into it because her husband was missing, if not worse, and that hurt to know. It hurt to know that she wasn’t doing this because she wanted to, but because she felt she had to.
I was grateful to have her on my side though. She had been one of my best friends for such a long time. We had let life get in the way of it, but I wouldn’t make that same mistake again. I would be there for her like I had in the past. And I wouldn’t force this life on her. If she wanted to be a part of it, she was welcome to, but I refused to be part of her problems.
“You guys look like hell,” Maizie commented, sitting up and looking us up and down. “What happened?”
“It’s a good thing we didn’t let you in that meeting,” I told her.
“Why?”
“Because he attacked us.”
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