Chapter 211: Maizie
“Mate.”
I looked at Sawyer, alarm bells going off in my head. His timing was impeccable. This was not the time for lovey-dovey mate shit. There was no time for lovey-dovey mate shit. Would he understand? Would he hate me for it?
I was surrounded by pictures of dead bodies and tortured children, but I still whispered the word I knew he was so desperate to hear. “Mate.”
“Maiz? Are you okay?” Michael asked, the worry on his face reminded me that I still had to be me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rhys shift Sammy in his arms and rub the bridge of his nose tiredly.
“It’s your birthday?” Rhys asked, clearly already knowing the answer.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“And we’re spending your birthday looking at dead bodies?”
Sawyer frowned, but I tried not to pay attention to him. My birthday for as long as I could remember were nothing special, and I planned to keep it that way. Especially with Grace gone? No. No thank you. Nope not dealing with this right now.
As much as I found Sawyer to be perfect, it didn’t matter. He could be perfect later. We could deal with our mate bond later. Now, I wanted to keep going through the other 5 envelopes sitting there calling my name, so I could see if there was anybody else I knew.
“And alive ones,” I answered Rhys’ question, but my voice came out shakier than I intended.
“What?” Rhys looked at me in surprise as I continued to ignore Sawyer’s stare.
“In each envelope except the Grace one, there a single, small photo of a kid.” I answered, handing him my smaller pile.
“I don’t recognize these two kids, but the one I gave you before they walked in is Michael, and this one is Carly’s brother. We entered the program together.”
Michael and Sawyer both approached, looking at the pictures I had on the floor.
“These are from the envelopes?” Michael asked, looking up at Rhys, his eyes begging for something that I didn’t understand.
“Yes,” Rhys said gently, and I was surprised that he seemed to understand whatever Michael had been asking him.
Michael’s face paled, and I frowned. I realized that I really didn’t understand, but a quick glance at Sawyer told me he didn’t either. His lips were pursed into a thin line and his brow was slightly furrowed.
‘Stop staring at him, Maizie!’ I scolded myself. ‘We can stare at him later. Now is not the time!’
“Are there more?” Michael asked.
Rhys looked at me for an answer, and I nodded. “Those were only the one I had opened. There’s still these.” I gestured toward the 6 or so ones still unopened.
Michael sat down next to me and grabbed one from the stack, ripping it open with a vengeance that I didn’t understand.
“You said there was one about Grace?” Sawyer questioned. He was looking between Rhys and me, unsure what to do about me barely acknowledging him as my mate.
Rhys gave him a sad smile, but I knew he understood both sides of it. He felt sorry for his brother, but also, he knew that I couldn’t just drop this project. Especially not when it was so close to home for me.
Rhys showed him the picture that made me feel sick, as Michael stared at the dismembered bodies. I had forgotten to truly warn him that there weren’t just little pictures in these big manilla envelopes. There were these terrible images of dead people that I would never be able to get out of my head.
Michael swallowed hard, and I knew he was trying not to throw up. He wasn’t squeamish normally. I had seen him deal with his fair share of blood and vomit from the other kids. He had helped me many times patch them up, at least until he got caught, and they started truly using his siblings against him. But this was different. This was their kill count in the worst ways.
I took the dead bodies from Michael’s hand and shifted our focus to the smallest photo as the brothers talked over the Grace photo. Like all the other envelopes, it was a child who looked to be about 7, and I hated that they could be so heartless to do this to such a small child.
“That’s Jack’s twin,” Sammy’s small voice said as she looked at the terrible picture that Michael was holding as she stood at his shoulder.
My first instinct was to hide the pictures from her, but I stopped myself as everyone in the room turned to look at her. Rhys looked surprised that she was no longer in his arms, but she was like that. She had lived in the program too, even if it was for only a short time. She had seen the brutality in person. She had lived it. And as much as I wanted to shield her from this part of life, I couldn’t.
“You don’t have to look at these photos Sammy,” Michael told her gently. “They’re hard to look at.”
She took a deep breath and shook her head at us. “It’s okay, are there more? I can help.”
One by one, she named everyone in the small photos. Michael tore through the envelopes to get more. When we showed her Michael’s photo, her eyes welled with tears, but she didn’t cry, she just wrapped her arms around him, and he held her close.
The pattern was obvious though.
“Maizie?” Sawyer tried as Sammy announced the last picture was of my sister in the worst condition I had ever seen her in. “We can take a break, love. It’s okay.”
I shook my head, my heart breaking for everyone I had left behind in that god forsaken place. The photos were meant to scare us, and it was working.
“The kids' photos are all related to every program child now living in the Alpha King pack.” I announced now that my theory was proven true with Sammy’s help.
I looked Rhys dead in the eye before continuing, “We have to get them out before it’s too late.”