Chapter 105: Rhys
Grace practically dragged me out of the gym toward the hospital. I knew she would be eager for him to leave there, but I hadn’t expected her to be quite so adamant about it happening right this second. I mean, we had been working out of his hospital room for two weeks now. I was ready to stop dragging all of my work around and having to run back to my office every time I forgot something.
Between Sawyer, Grace, Leon and I, we had made good progress on a lot of things. We had managed to completely cut off all contact with the Red Blood pack. They no longer were receiving any intel on us as far as we could control it. Our security has been updated, our soldiers trained to look in trees, and how to spot Lycan. They had no access to our bank accounts or any supplies any of us or our allies had been supplying them. We had upgraded our weaponry, and with the help of Maizie and Michael, we had started pack wide training. If 6 months ago, you would have told me I would be relying on children to help run my pack, I would have laughed in your face, but they were trained in that pack. They had become our secret weapon. I also probably would have laughed at the idea of actually finding my mate. I had long since given up, but I was glad I hadn’t and trusted my instinct. I just wish I could have helped Grace more in the beginning. But now, we had come so far, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. She was my strength and my weakness, and I was surprisingly okay with that.
I opened the door to Sawyer’s room and was surprised to see Maizie sitting on the edge of his bed, just casually chatting away, since she was usually very focused and intense.
“Hey,” I announced our arrival, hoping we weren’t interrupting anything.
“Oh!” Maizie squealed, jumping off the bed, her face turning red in surprise. “Alpha King, Luna Queen, I’m sorry, I just came to check on Prince Sawyer, I didn’t realize you guys would be coming here after training.”
I raised my brows and gave Grace a look as she stared at the two of them trying to figure something out. I had thoughts myself, but none that I was ready to share in case I was wrong.
“No big deal,” I waved her off. “I’m glad my brother got to have some company for a bit that wasn’t us.”
“I’ll uh just be going,” Maizie stammered. We might spend a lot of time together these days, but I still made her quite nervous, and I couldn’t help but relish in that fact.
“It’s okay,” Grace told her gently. “You can stay; we actually came to take Sawyer back to the Packhouse officially. You will probably be seeing more of him since he lives on the Alpha floor.”
“You live on the Alpha floor?” Maizie squeaked in surprise as she whirled around to look at Sawyer. It was the most unsettled I had ever seen her, she usually had emotions completely in check.
“Well, yea,” Sawyer let out a small chuckle. “I am Rhys’ brother.”
“Rhys’ brother,” Maizie mumbled under her breath as she processed what was happening before saying for everyone to hear, “Well, I guess I will see you up there. I have to go help with the other kids. Bye!”
And then she was gone.
“What was that about?” Grace asked the question that I was wondering myself.
“I have no idea,” Sawyer answered with a frown, staring at the door she had disappeared through before changing the subject. “But she told me you almost took her out today, so that’s pretty cool.”
Grace rolled her eyes, a gesture that I was becoming very familiar with. “But I didn’t. So, let’s not make a big deal over nothing.”
“But that’s progress, Grace. That’s amazing you’ve picked up on so much, so fast.” Sawyer encouraged.
“I can do better,” Grace brushed him off. “Are you ready to get out of here?”
He smiled. “You have no idea.”
“Oh, I do, but blame your brother,” She jabbed her elbow at me. “We would have been here sooner, but he didn’t tell me.”
“We had things to do!” I argued back.
“Yea, yea,” Grace waved me off as a nurse came in to disconnect Sawyer from his IV and hand us his release papers.
“Well, I’m just glad I get to leave.” Sawyer said, ignoring our little argument, which I was grateful for. “I am sick of these white walls, and constant beeps. I am ready for my own bed, and to get to do things again.”
“You’re still supposed to be taking it easy.” I reminded him.
It was his turn to brush me off, “Yea, yea,” He repeated what Grace had said just minutes ago.
“I’m serious Sawy, if you push it, I will bring your ass right back here.”
He ignored my warning as only a brother can do. “You wanna know something weird? I haven’t seen Arlo since the fight, is he okay?”
Grace and I exchanged a look. Sawyer had been so protective of Maizie, making us promise not to hurt her, not that Grace would have allowed it, but we hadn’t told him that Arlo had tried to challenge her and the other kids. We hadn’t been sure how to handle it, honestly. Neither of us wanted to punish Arlo for caring about Sawyer, but also challenging kids and then my mate, had been a little too far. So, for now, he just wasn’t welcome at the packhouse, which sucked because we could have used his help with some of the things we were doing.
“He’s um... keeping his distance right now.” Grace answered hesitantly. We both had agreed when the time came to talk about it, she would be the one to tell Sawyer. It would be better coming from her.
“Why?” Sawyer frowned. “Did something happen?”
“Yes, but it’s not what you think,” She said quickly. “He was really upset that you had been hurt, and he tried to challenge the kids for their ‘freedom’ and then me when I wouldn’t allow it. He was able to calm down and walk away, but since that’s not really the energy we need right now while we are housing the ‘enemies’ kids, we asked him to stay away for a while.”
Sawyer narrowed his eyes at us. “He tried to challenge the kids, or did he try to challenge Maizie?” He asked through gritted teeth.
“I mean, he didn’t exactly know who did it... But based on what Rhys told me, he knew it was a girl... And Maizie is the obvious choice, but I didn’t let him step into the room. And even though he didn’t like my word, he wasn’t dumb enough to challenge me. He knew that would be a death sentence.”
“You’re too kind.” Sawyer growled. “Just wait until I get my hands on him!”