Chapter 189: Rhys
I stared at my mate as she glared daggers at me. Even after everything, I fought the smile that tugged at my lips but kept a straight face. My mate was feeling feisty, and it made me proud of her. And she was hella hot like this, all worked up.
“Grace, this is important, they should be here,” I tried.
“And school is important.” She argued. “They need to be there, so that they can learn the skills to adequately deal with this situation”
“Babe, there is no adequate way to deal with this situation.” I responded gently.
“Maybe not,” She conceded before continuing, “But they will learn problem solving skills and other important things that will prepare and help them at school.”
I frowned. There was more that she wasn’t saying, and I had a feeling wouldn’t say. This was bigger than just school or no school, but I wasn’t understanding, and she wasn’t going to say in front of everybody.
“Alright,” I relented. “You guys heard my mate; you have to go to school. However, I do think it’s important for you all to be a part of this, and join in, so we will meet back here after training. It will give us all time to think and come up with ideas and plans on where we go from here.”
Maizie and Michael both protested, but I held my hand up to stop them. “This discussion is closed. Let’s go to breakfast now.”
Both kids sighed, and I saw a small smirk cross Heather’s face, and I didn’t really have to imagine why. She had never seen me as the parent type, so she found this all to be a little funny. But also, I knew she was probably imagining that this was how her future would look to some degree. Her kids were still little, but eventually, her kids would be teenagers too. They would argue about going to school and hating every decision she ever made even if it was in their best interest. One day, in a much later future, they would thank her for everything, knowing that it made them better people, but for now they were still little, and I knew a part of her wished that they would stay that way forever.
We all made our way down to breakfast, and I enclapsed Grace’s hand in mine as we walked. My mate was putting on a brave face, but I knew she was scared. I could feel it through our bond, not that she would admit it.
“Aunt Grace!” Sammy squealed the second she saw us.
The next thing I knew she was launching herself off her chair for Grace to catch her. But Sammy had misjudged her distance from us, by a lot. We were too far away to catch her, and my heart pounded. Sammy was a werewolf, it really wouldn’t harm her, but it would still be a hard fall and hurt a lot.
Before I even had the chance to process, Grace dropped my hand and lunged for the small girl.
I blinked as Grace swung her around in her arms with relief written all over her face. My jaw dropped. How the hell had Grace gotten there so fast and in time to catch Sammy? I had never seen my mate move so fast... Hell, I was sure I wasn’t going to be able to move fast enough to catch her, and yet, Grace didn’t even look like it had been hard.
I looked around and everyone was staring at my mate, their mouths wide open in shock. Okay, so it wasn’t just me who was surprised and impressed.
“She’s impressive, that mate of yours,” Heather said from next to me. “I’ve never seen anyone move like that.”
“She’s Lycan, of course she’s impressive.” Maize answered as if the answer was obvious. “Most Lycan have speed that is faster than werewolves. It’s part of why this war you’re fighting is going to be hard as hell.”
“What other things do we need to be aware of?” I asked her as we moved to grab our food. I wondered why it had never really crossed my mind to ask her what we were up against before.
“Well, I suppose it would depend on who you are up against. The Lycan warriors are actually a very small group from what I can tell. I think that was done on purpose. Couldn’t give too many people the skills to fight well or they could rise up against them, ya know? So, the actual trained warriors is a very small percentage of who you’d be fighting. Then there’s the ones that are forced into it. Again, it’s a pretty select group of people. Those tend to be people who do not agree with what Leadership is doing. They train half-heartedly, but for them it’s a punishment. They don’t want to be a part of it, so they’re forced to. And then there are the kids from the program. We’re all trained to be warriors from the second we are placed in the program. The benefit for them is that if they get us early enough, they can brainwash us, but also, they threaten our families, so we comply. Clearly, it’s not quite effective enough, since we were all granted forgiveness here, and chose to stay.”
I gave her a small smile at that last part, but the rest had my brain racing.
“What about Lycan special traits?” I asked as we sat down at the table.
I placed Grace’s plate in front of her, and she gave me a grateful smile before turning her attention back to Sammy who was begging for it.
“Well, in general, Lycan’s tend to be a little bit stronger and a little bit faster. But every Lycan tends to have one specific gift on top of those. It depends on the Lycan, and the gifts vary. I’ve met people who can shapeshift into more than just a Lycan. There’s healing, but that’s rare. There’s further enhanced speed and strength. There’s air manipulation, energy creators, fire people, teleporters, telekinetics, mindreaders. I don’t know, if you can imagine it, it’s probably possible. Gifts tend to be stronger for people who are born Lycan vs created to be Lycan. And Grace is a rarity for having multiple abilities. I’ve never seen that before, and I was trained with what I was told was the best.”
I nodded taking in every word she said. We had talked about this a little before, but this was so much darker than I imagined. I had decent warriors, I mean, I had never lost a war. But this? This was a whole different level of crazy that we weren’t prepared for at all.
“Rhys,” Heather said seriously as she placed her tray hard down on the table.
“Yes?” I asked, turning my attention back to her.
“You know who would know the most about gods?” She asked, the look on her face told me she had been really thinking about this, but I wouldn’t like the answer.
“No.”
“We need to talk to Arlo.”