Chapter 237: Grace
I woke up slowly. The bliss of the night before still fresh in my mind. I had slept better than I had in weeks. A comfy bed, a warm blanket, and more importantly, Rhys, keeping me tucked safely under his arms. I knew we weren’t back in the Alpha King Pack, but it felt like home. Which is why even though I was awake, there was 0 chance I was moving any time soon.
“Good morning, beautiful,” I heard Rhys’ voice in my mind for the first time.
I jolted into a sitting position and turned to look at him. “We can mindlink?!” I asked aloud.
He smirked, but didn’t say anything out loud. “Try it for yourself.”
“Hi.” I thought toward him.
His smile grew, and he looked genuinely happy, which in turn made me happy. I couldn’t help the smile the spread across my face. I couldn’t believe we could mindlink. Lycans didn’t seem to have that ability, but maybe a Lycan and a werewolf together could share their abilities or something.
“What’s going through that pretty little mind of yours?” Rhys asked, brushing a loose strand of hair from my face with his gentle fingers.
I frowned slightly. I didn’t have a clue about what was going on in my head. It felt like a mess. I couldn’t believe we had escaped. I couldn’t believe the girl they had tried to use against me was Michael’s sister. Had that just been a coincidence? I mean, it couldn’t be... They knew as well as I did that Michael had chosen us, and they had taken a gamble that I would recognize her.
“I just want to stay in this moment forever,” I admitted.
“I know.” He replied tiredly. “I wish we could too.”
“What are your plans for the day?”
“I would like to get away from their border,” Rhys confided. “I know we’re here and there’s an alliance and all, but I don’t fully trust them. And we have work to do.”
I sighed, resting my head on his shoulder. I knew he was right, but I was still tired. I didn’t want to think about anything. I didn’t want to be in charge. I didn’t ask for any of this, but I could do it. As tired as I was, I was ready. If I didn’t protect those people in the Red Blood pack, who would? If I didn’t protect those kids, who would? Those kids we rescued were trusting us to protect not only them, but their siblings that they left behind. The ones who they had left to protect, who were probably facing retaliation like Claire and Iris, and probably Mark and Aaron, and Maizie’s sister, Blaire. I couldn’t know for sure, but I assumed.
“Can we just stay here for another 5 minutes?” I asked. “Before we go out and save the world?”
“We can do whatever you want, love.” He answered. “I’ll gladly let the world burn if that’s what would make you happy.”
I chuckled, leaning into him a little more. The peace I felt in this moment was worth everything that would come in a bit. It didn’t stop me from wanting this for forever. But if we did our jobs right, this could be our forever. We just had work to do.
A loud clang of who knows what met our ears, shattering our momentary peace. Both Rhys and I immediately rolled out of bed, and began shoving our limbs through whatever clothes we could find before rushing out of the room.
“Maizie?” A kind of familiar voice kept repeating. “Maizie?”
I rushed toward the voice. I really hadn’t been paying too much attention to the way Sawyer had brought us earlier, but I used the voice and the echoing silence as my guide. Worry filled me and hurried my pace.
I saw the woman first, she was standing next to a pulled chair staring at the ground. I followed her gaze and found Maizie on the floor picking up pieces broken breakfast plates.
“Maiz?” I whispered as I crouched down in front of her.
“Gr-Grace?” She stuttered, staring at me like she couldn’t believe I was real.
“Hi friend,” I said gently. “Are you okay?”
“I dropped all these breakfast plates and made a bit of a mess.” She laughed nervously, but at least sounded a little more like herself.
“I see that,” I answered. I would let her take the lead. She was so strong and brilliant, it was rare to ever see her so frazzled. “Let me help.”
She gave me a small smile of gratitude. “Thanks,” She whispered. “I kinda got stuck in my head for a moment.”
“What happened?” I asked carefully. I knew what it was like to spiral like that, and I didn’t want to be the one to send her back into one.
“That woman,” She nodded at the woman who had been calling her name before I entered. “She’s my mother, and I have no idea what to say or how to act. I haven’t seen her in years, and when I saw her, I was that small child being ripped away from her all over again.”
“Did she send you to the program?” I questioned. It didn’t really matter. The only thing that mattered was how Maizie felt about the whole thing, but I wanted to know if she gave her child up willingly or if she was just as desperate as so many others were, and was just following orders, not knowing what exactly she was sending her kids too.
“She wasn’t a great mother,” Maizie admitted, “But she did the best she could. I can still hear her screams when me and Blaire were taken from her. I promised her I would protect Blair, and now I don’t even know if Blaire is still alive.”
“Hey, that’s not your fault. It was never fair to ask of you. You did the best YOU could. You were sent on a fucking suicide mission, and you did it to protect her. Your mom will understand that.”
Maizie and I both stood up now that the mess was all cleaned up, the floor just needed vacuumed and mopped, since syrup was everywhere and we wanted to make sure there were no more little pieces of glass.
“Hi,” I said as we approached the woman. Looking at her now, I could see the resemblance. Her eyes were tired, and her hair was greyer, but her and Maizie shared the same nervous tick of touching their hair. “I’m Grace, and we sort of met in the cells, didn’t we? You helped us with the plan to get out, right?”
The woman’s smile turned cold before she said, “I know exactly who you are, Grace Cairstairs.”
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