Chapter 194: Grace
I was one of the last people to enter the office, but to my surprise, Rhys wasn’t there. Maize was in her usual spot, sprawled out on the floor with Michael next to her as they looked at some magazine together. Alana sat in her kitchen chair next to the door, and Arlo stood next to her, unsure if he should be there or not. And Heather was standing on the opposite wall, glaring in Arlo’s direction, and I wasn’t sure if she had a reason to be mad at him or if her anger was misplaced.
“Where’s Rhys?” I asked after doing my initial headcount.
“I don’t know.” Maizie answered, not bothering to look up. “Sawyer’s missing too.”
“Has anyone seen them?” I questioned as my heart began to race a bit. It wasn’t like Rhys to be late to anything. He was too type A for that.
“No.” Heather gave me a sideways glance. “I haven’t heard from them either. Maybe they’re both upstairs?”
“Yea, maybe,” I answered hesitantly as I took my place behind Rhys’ desk. “I guess we’ll give them a few more minutes.”
I sat there nervously. Maizie and Michael continued to flip through their magazines. Arlo began to pull things out of his bag and place them on the desk in some sort of organized manner. Alana just sat quietly, and Heather just continued to glare at Arlo.
A minute passed. Then two. Then five. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I stood up and went to search for them. If it was an emergency, he would have at least mindlinked Heather, right? There was no reason to think the worst, yet here I was beginning to spiral because my mate was a few minutes late.
“Where are you going?” Alana asked when she noticed me making my way to the door.
“I’m just going to find Rhys,” I answered, trying to keep my voice normal. “It’s not like him to be late, he might have fallen asleep or something since last night was rough.”
It was the wrong thing to say, Arlo’s interest in the matter immediately piqued. “What happened last night?” He asked.
I rolled my eyes. Of course he wanted to know. Did he need to know? I wasn’t sure. He was here to help us learn about the gods and the land of the gods. Would it help him to know that we went there? At the moment, I didn’t see the relevance, so I just ignored him.
“I’ll check the kitchen and the clinic, if you want,” Alana offered.
“That would be great, thank you.” I replied, unable to keep the relief from my voice. Alana was such a good friend. She always seemed to know what I needed before I needed it. “Meet back here in 5 minutes.”
She nodded, and we both took off to try and find the missing members of our group. I took the stairs two at a time, and punched in the code with a vengeance, but I forced myself to walk through the door calmly. I didn’t want to alert any of the kids that something was wrong. Especially if my mate was just asleep in our bed, and I was worried for nothing. I tugged on the bond but found myself blocked out the way Rhys had explained that he was sometimes. Or at least, that’s how I envisioned it was anyway.
I threw open our bedroom door, hoping to find him lounging on the bed, but my heart sunk when I realized he wasn’t there. I immediately raced to Sawyer’s wondering if they were maybe having a brotherly moment that I would hate to interrupt, but I needed to calm my racing heart. Oh goddess, please be in here.
I knocked on Sawyer’s door with an urgency that if he was in there, he couldn’t ignore. But he didn’t answer. I jiggled the handle, hoping to just take a peek in, but the door was locked much to my dismay.
I leaned against it with a sigh. Maybe Alana had found them in the kitchen or in the clinic. Oh goddess, what if Rhys had been hurt? We had only been a part for several hours, but a lot could happen in such a short time.
“Aunt Grace?” Sammy’s sweet little voice called out.
My eyes popped open, and I forced a smile. “Yes, Sammy?”
“What are you doing?” Her nose crinkling with the question.
“I was just looking for you Uncle Rhys and Uncle Sawyer, have you seen them?” I answered honestly.
“Nope.” She replied, popping the p. “Do you need help looking for them?”
“That’s okay.” I told her gently. “But if you see them before I do, tell them I was looking for them, okay?”
She nodded, and I started to walk back down the small hallway to leave when she called me back.
“They aren’t lost like me daddy, are they?”
“No, sweetie,” I answered, hoping that I wasn’t lying to her. “They’re here somewhere, there’s no need to be worried.”
She accepted my answer and ran off to play with her friend Jack who was waiting patiently for her at the other end of the hall.
I smiled after them and headed back down to the office floor to find Alana and Heather both standing outside Rhys’ office with the door shut.
“Any luck?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.
“No.” Alana sighed. “I didn’t see them anywhere.”
“I swear to god if they are where I think they are, I’m going to kill them.” Heather grumbled and she started down the hall.
I hurried after her, but I had no idea what she was talking about. She led me to a door that I had never been through/never knew existed and barged in.
The room was dimly lit, but spacious. I was surprised to see gym equipment. There were weight machines of various types, treadmills, a punching bag, and in the middle of all of it, was a sparring mat. And in the middle of that mat was my mate and Sawyer beating the shit out of each other.
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