Chapter 109: Rhys
My lips met Grace’s again. She melted at my touch. All I wanted to do was kiss her. Take her right here, right now. I slipped my hand under her dress and pushed her farther into the wall. There was nothing about this woman that didn’t arouse me, and I regretted not being allowed in her shower just a couple hours ago. I had barely been able to focus on anything since we sat down in that office.
“Ahem.”
I jumped away from Grace as her cheeks turned a bright red, and you fidgeted with her dress, pulling it down as low as she could.
I turned to glare at my brother, who stood in the doorway of the hallway, arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
“Can we help you?” I asked in annoyance.
“I thought you were working,” Sawyer grumbled in irritation. “I didn’t know the hallway was off limits.”
“We were working.” I shot back. How dare he insinuate that I didn’t work hard?
“Yea, looks like it.” Sawyer rolled his eyes, clearly still in a mood.
“What are you doing up?” I asked. “You’re supposed to be resting.”
“What does it look like? I came to help.”
“Sawyer...” Grace’s timid voice cut in sympathetically. “You need to rest. You’ll be back soon enough.”
“You haven’t rested since you killed your ‘brother’, so I don’t want to hear it.” Sawyer snapped at her.
“Hey! Uncalled for.” I snapped at him. “Out of line, Sawyer!”
“Rhys.” Grace soothed, her hand on my back, immediately calming my wolf.
“Just go on in, we’ll be in a moment,” I said through gritted teeth, annoyed that he had interrupted our moment, but also that I knew he had unintentionally wrecked Grace’s confidence again.
“Maybe I should go back and help with the kids...” She said when the door shut behind Sawyer.
“You belong in that room, Gracie. Especially during the discussions. Your memory is impeccable, and you offer a different perspective. You lived in their pack.”
“But so did Maizie and Michael.” She mumbled under her breath.
I grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me. “And they will be useful to talk about the program they were kept in, but you had a different experience and that is worth something too.”
With one last kiss, I pulled Grace back into the room, smirking because I knew she was slightly hot and bothered, but that just boded well for our later surprise. I couldn’t remember ever being so excited about literally anything in my entire life. But it would have to wait. We had business to conduct now.
“Okay, let’s get to it,” I said as I sat back down at my desk. “Does anyone have anything new to add to our boards today?”
A chorus of no’s and not really’s met my ears, and I ran my hand tiredly over my face.
Since the first day, there was very little to add to our evidence. We didn’t know what to ask our three Lycans. There have been no movements from the Blood Moon pack. We had surveillance set-up nearly everywhere, but none of it was really helping us yet. I had two of my top security tracking anything weird and looking for patterns. But after several weeks, it was clear that they were being more careful for the time being and had all but disappeared off our radar.
“Do you have to die to become a Lycan like Vampires do?” Grace asked as she stared at the picture of a vampire that Maizie had drawn on her paper.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Michael stiffen.
“What?” Sawyer frowned, looking up from the notes he was reviewing that Leon had handed him.
“I’m asking how the process for changing into a Lycan happens.” Grace clarified, her eyes darting around as everyone stared at her.
“You don’t have to die,” Michael spoke up after a long moment, his voice quiet. “Some do though. Sometimes, leadership finds it easier to convince people to their cause if death was the reason they turned. They say they were doing a favor to whoever they changed. But theoretically, it should only take a bite by the Alpha Lycan to change anyone. But I’ve never seen them use that method either.”
“How do they typically change them then?” Grace asked with bated breath.
“Well lately...” Michael swallowed hard before continuing, “Lately they have been experimenting to see what creates the strongest creatures.”
“Experimenting how?” My voice was cold as ice, but if what he was saying was true, then we were in deeper shit than any of us thought.
“They want to know the differences between born Lycans, made Lycans and... Hybrid Lycans.”
“Hybrid?” Grace breathed.
“Yes.” Michael answered, looking sick as hell by what he was divulging. “They’ve been partnering with witches and vampires, and they are using all sorts of methods... Such as draining them then biting. Infusing them with magic at the same time. Several people have been burned alive with that method. Simultaneous attacks. If they think they can create something... They try.”
It was sickening. The whole thing was sickening.
“Who gets to be the test subjects for these things?” Sawyer asked, also looking pale and clammy, and I wasn’t sure if it was what we were learning or if he was pushing himself too hard right now.
“It depends, but usually the kids... The younger the better in their minds... It’s easier to try things on kids. But if they can’t use kids, they use humans... Since they have no abilities to fight back.”
“No.” Grace gasped in horror.
“Well, what do you expect?” Michael snapped at her. “They go for the weakest available, like any good villain.”
“It’s not that we don’t believe you,” I said firmly, locking eyes with Grace who nodded, “It’s just that it’s too horrible to think about it...”
“Well, try living it.” Michael snapped again.
“Look, drop the attitude. Thank you for sharing, but this is heavy shit. You as a child shouldn’t have to carry that weight. But you do and are. And that fucking sucks. But stop being mad at us for not knowing. That’s why we allow you to sit in on this and help us research. We want you to know that we are trying, but we expect you to not give us shit when we learn things because this isn’t the world we grew up in. We were raised to be Warriors. Grace was raised to obey and be used. We don’t know about the programs, so give us time to process, and stop being rude about how we do it.”
Michael crossed his arms angrily, leaning back against the wall. He was unpredictable at best. But it made sense given all the shit he had been through.
“You got chosen for this mission because you tried to protect them, didn’t you?” Grace asked after a long moment.
His resolve fell away, and his face paled slightly before he said, “There is no protection from them. We are on the losing end of a war you didn’t even know about 3 months ago.”