Chapter 203: Rhys
“Excuse me, I’ll be right back. I’m just going to get something to eat.” Grace excused herself.
I watched her go as the group hardly even noticed her departure. I wondered for a moment if I should follow her, but I realized she probably just needed a moment to breathe. We had been more social than we had been the entire time she had been in my pack, and Grace really wasn’t the social type.
Luna almost immediately approached her, and I frowned. A large part of me wanted to go rescue Grace from whatever Luna was going to say, but I stayed where I was. Grace was a big girl. She could handle petty.
My attention was brought back to the conversation as they began to ask about the safety of the city, since I had limited our access to it for only supply runs for now by military personnel. Anybody who worked in the city was to work from home, and we had come up with different solutions to still be accommodating to other packs that still needed our services.
I assured the group that these were all just short-term solutions, and we were in the process of building a plan that allowed everyone to go back to living their lives normally. Obviously, those plans would take time, but we were working around the clock to make it all happen sooner rather than later. There was so much that they didn’t know, and yet, I also believed in honesty. It was a hard line to walk sometimes.
When I glanced back up, Grace was no longer at the food table. I glanced around looking for her. Maizie was talking with Carly and a couple other kids, I was glad she was having fun, but I was surprised Michael wasn’t with her. I scanned the crowd for him and noticed he was slipping into the woods. I frowned. That was a little odd. Maybe he just needed space. The picnic was loud and fun, but if you weren’t used to this sort of thing, you might feel the need to escape. Or maybe he was sneaking off with a girl... They were too young for that, but I would understand. It was odd, but I didn’t have much of a chance to wonder about it before someone was asking another question.
Time slipped away from me, but I was having a wonderful time. It was so rare to have the pack be so comfortable like this. It was so rare to not have to worry about anything.
“Rhys!” Someone screamed my name from somewhere in the distance. “RHYS!”
“Excuse me,” I told the group with a polite smile, and walked toward the screaming.
“WHERE’S RHYS? I NEED RHYS!”
“Slow down, child!” An elderly man yelled as Micheal almost barreled right into him. “You should show him respect! He’s the Alpha King.”
That was unimportant on any day, but the fear in Michael’s voice made it even less.
“I’m here,” I answered, finally catching sight of him.
He was carrying a screaming Sammy, and his eyes were wild with pure terror.
“Michael???” Maizie called out, finding him as soon as I did. “Are you hurt? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Grace! She needs help!” He shouted. “My dad, he’s in the woods. He shifted. She’s all alone!”
I reached for our bond, but I hit a hard ass wall. How long had she even been gone? It couldn’t have been that long, right? I took off toward the woods, mindlinking the warriors on duty to scour woods.
“Which way?!” I demanded, already taking off at a run. He tried to put Sammy down, but she was screaming in protest.
“I have to help them find her!” Michael tried attempting to hand her off to Maizie.
“NO! NO!” She shrieked at each effort.
I took off in the direction that Michael pointed, Maizie hot on my heels. She didn’t technically have her Lycan yet, but maybe she could sense Grace. I didn’t know if it was a liability to have her with me, or a blessing. She kept pace though as I raced through the trees. I pulled out my phone and pulled up Grace’s location, wondering why I didn’t think that first.
“Why did you stop?” Maizie asked.
“I’m trying to track her.” I answered.
“You can do that?!”
“Not exactly. But I can track her phone’s last known location.”
And that was it, we were off again in the direction of where her phone was. I frantically mindlinked everyone the general direction, and which ways to block the perimeter. It didn’t take long for us to reach an area that made me believe they had been there.
“My god, Rhys, look, there’s blood.” Maizie exclaimed, but I had already seen it. There were patches of blood all over the area as if there had been a fight. Goddess, please protect Grace. She couldn’t take on a Lycan. Not alone. Yes, she had been training, but this was different. This was real.
“Come on, we have to follow it!” But I didn’t have to say that, Maizie was already on the move, but she paused.
Grace’s phone laid in a pile of shredded clothes.
Maizie looked at me with wild eyes. “Did she shift?”
“I- I don’t know.” I answered. “But come on, we have to go.”
The woods were now flooded with warriors. The picnic still going on in full swing in the distance. I could hear the music, but I knew they were all safer together, and there were warriors stationed in all the areas surrounding them.
I followed the small trail of blood, until it stopped. Right at the border. There was nothing left. No path to follow. No trace of her. Nothing.
My heart screamed in agony. She was gone. She was gone and there was nothing I could do about it. We would search for her for as long as it took. I would scour the whole earth for her. But right now, I felt like I had lost it all, and it took everything I had not to shatter on the spot.
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