Chapter 266: Maizie
The car ride was both too short and too long. My anxiety for returning to my former pack on my own freewill was a bit more than I wanted. Sawyer, Michael and I had been up nearly all night talking about whether or not it was safe for me to come. The answer was no, but I needed to do this. I needed to do it for all those kids I had left behind when I chose to protect the kids I had been forced on the mission with me. It didn’t matter how much time had passed, it would always be too soon to come back. I would be happier never having to have stepped foot in this pack again, but we were here.
“Okay, we’re on foot from here,” Sawyer stated, he was staring at me so hard that I almost thought he could tell what was going on.
The breakfast I had managed to get down was threatening to come back up, but I could ignore that. I was good at pushing through the feeling of nerves.
“There’s something you aren’t telling me,” Sawyer said in a low voice for just me to hear.
“I will tell you, when this mission is over, and we’re safe.” I told him.
He frowned. I knew he wanted to know now, but I needed time to process. Also, there was no way in hell he would have let me come if he knew what was actually going on, and there was no way I wasn’t coming. Everything that would come after this final stand, felt distant and far away. It didn’t feel real, and I needed to make sure I got the chance to feel that real.
“We’re wasting time,” I told him when he didn’t move.
We were tracking the second target that Grace had sent. Leon and Caleb were tracking Grace and had veered away from us a while ago. We were tracking where she said the kids were located, and I guess the Pyxis, though that wasn’t our job. We were here for the kids. To get them out safely, and hopefully quietly, though I wasn’t actually sure that was possible. But I knew of one kid who could open portals... I just hoped he wasn’t in as tight security as I feared he would be. His abilities had just been tapped into when we had been chosen for our mission against the Alpha King. He was too valuable for them to lose...
“I don’t like that you’re keeping secrets, Maiz.” Sawyer told me seriously.
“Can we not do this right now?” I asked in frustration. I loved my mate, but he was a little pushy at times, and there were things that I wasn’t ready to address, and I needed him to be okay with that. Especially when I was still trying to figure out my own feelings on it.
I touched the mark on my neck before I even realized what I was doing. I had finally relented a days ago because Grace had mentioned that her and Rhys could mindlink after they completed the markings and mating. I had thought that would be pretty convenient for war, and I did want my mate in all the ways. I knew he would never leave me or hurt me in anyway. He was the best person I knew. He’s my forever. But nothing prepared me for how intensely we’d be able to feel each other.
And right now, I could feel his bitterness and frustration.
We walked in silence for a while, following a little dot on his phone that was leading us to a GPS coordinate that Grace had marked as an entrance. It was a lot farther north than any of us had expected though. It wasn’t even in Red Blood pack, which didn’t make sense to me or make me feel confident about anything.
“Does any of this look familiar?” Sawyer asked after a while, when it felt like we were surrounded by nothing but tall grass.
“No.” I told him. “Last time I was moved from here, I was on our way to ambush you, and I was blind folded and thrown in the back of a truck. We didn’t eat for a day or two, and then we were given our mission. Each of us had a section of your land. We were told to kill anyone that crossed into it.”
“Why didn’t you?” Sawyer asked.
“I tried, didn’t I?” The memory of the time I had hurt him flashed before my eyes, and I hated myself for it.
“You tried to maim me, not kill me.” Sawyer corrected.
“What?” I turned to him in complete surprise, wondering where he got that idea.
“Maizie, you are one of the toughest women I know. You could have killed me. You didn’t go for the kill shot. You pulled up. I felt it. You didn’t mean to drain my energy. You panicked. I know what happened that day. You didn’t want to be a killer, even if that’s what they trained you to be.”
“I didn’t know you knew that...” I whispered.
He grabbed my hand, and for a moment it was just us. “I am not afraid of you, Maiz or of what you can do. I knew what I saw and felt that day. I know you can hold your own. But I do worry about you because your mine. And this mission is dangerous. If you don’t want to go, I will not make you. I will not unnecessarily put you in danger.”
I smiled slightly. Goddess. Have I mentioned that I love this man?
“I need to be here, Sawyer.” I told him. “No matter my feelings. No matter what. I have to help them. And you need me to help you get around.”
“There is more than one way help them.” Sawyer told me, honestly.
“I know.” I touched his face gently. “But I have to do this.”
A slow clap met my ears, and I spun around to see a man smiling cynically at us.
“How touching,” He sneered.
Just like that we had let our guards down for just a few moments, and now we were surrounded. And all I could think was... fuckkkk...