Chapter 133: Rhys
I held Grace firmly against my body as she came down from the high. I would never get tired of making her feel special. I would never get tired of pleasuring her. I would never be tired of her.
“That was-”
“Amazing?”
“I was going to say intense, but yes, also amazing.” She answered, turning in my arms to kiss my cheeks.
For the first time in what felt like forever, she seemed like herself. Maybe it was that I could feel our bond fully again. Or maybe it was that she was relaxed or at least as relaxed as she ever seemed to get. But either way, I was glad for it it. This was the girl I truly loved. I just wanted her to be happy. Like this.
Her lips met mine, and I groaned as she nipped at my lip. I wanted her fully, and my erection didn’t lie, but now wasn’t the time. It was too cold to go much farther here and I was worried that she was already hyperthermic. Her cheeks were flushed, and whether it was from our moment or from the cold, I wasn’t sure.
“Are you really not going to let me take care of you?” She pouted when I pulled away.
I reached into my back pocket and flashed her my phone that was buzzing silently, giving me the out I needed, otherwise, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull away even with my best intentions.
“Talk.” I answered putting the phone on speaker, so Grace could hear it.
“Did you find, Grace?” Arlo’s panicked voice rang through.
“Yes.” I answered in irritation. “I’m with her now.”
“Oh, good,” Arlo breathed a sigh of relief. “I was worried.”
“How did you hear about that?” I asked.
“Everyone was looking for her. Someone stopped by my house to see if she was here.” He answered, but there was something about it that put me on edge.
“Hi Arlo. I’m fine.” Grace’s soft voice confirmed for him.
“I was told you were with the girl who hurt Sawyer... She didn’t hurt you, did she?” He asked hesitantly.
“No. I just had a moment.” Grace answered, but there was a bit of edge in her voice now.
“I’m sorry,” Arlo tried... “I jumped to conclusions.”
“If you want to rejoin the research, Arlo, you have to get over this prejudice with the kids.” I said tiredly.
“I just think we shouldn’t be just letting them wander.” Arlo hissed, obviously biting his tongue, but doing a poor job of it.
“They are kids, Arlo.” Grace exclaimed in exasperation.
“Look Arlo,” I cut in before this could go any further. “Grace will be over in about an hour to resume her lessons. But if you bring up your opinion on these kids again, her lessons will be moved to someone else. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Alpha King.” Arlo said through gritted teeth, and I hung up the call.
Grace sighed and leaned into me a little more.
“Is that everyone’s opinion of the kids?” She asked after a long moment, her voice quiet.
“I’m not sure.” I told her honestly. “I hope people can see past their bias, but I’m not confident in that. At least not yet...”
“How do we change that?” She asked earnestly.
“I don’t know...” I answered.
“What if we started making adoption profiles? And started slowly started integrating them into society? So like maybe the older kids help with chores around the packhouse, and the younger kids spend time outside of our suite, playing with kids their age.
“Gracie, you know those kids in our suite are all a little weird...” I said. “They’re just starting to feel comfortable and like do normal kid stuff... Is integrating them really a good idea? Don’t you worry that they’ll just get bullied?”
“I do. Which is why we need a strict no bullying policy. But they need normalcy, and they need adults that can give them more than we can. They deserve to be kids. We’re putting too much on Caleb and the older kids. They also deserve to be kids too. And Caleb deserves to just have time with his daughter and not be in charge of them all the time.”
“Do we trust them all?” I asked hesitantly. There were some young ones that I was fairly sure were harmless, but teens were notoriously hard to adopt out in general, but these teens were products of war, and I could only imagine how hard it would be for us to find them homes.
“Keeping them locked up isn’t going to help us trust them, nor is it going to truly let them trust us.” Grace pointed out.
“Okay... Maybe we do it in phases?”
Grace nodded and intertwined her fingers with mine as I led her out of the cave. As much as we both wanted to stay hidden away up here, we both knew we had responsibilities outside of it.
I felt for the bond and was grateful to feel that it was still very much there and at full force. As calm, cool and collected Grace seemed to be right now, the inner turmoil I could feel coming from her made me want to not let her out of my sight again.
“Bring my laptop to Arlo’s house,” I mindlinked Leon, but I got no answer.
Weird, but I didn’t think much of it. He had been so busy lately there was a good chance he might be napping. I had no idea how he was keeping up with everything. The kids, Heather, war, it was a lot to ask of anyone.
“Sawyer?” I tried through mindlink.
“Yes?” He replied.
“Have you seen Leon?” I asked.
“Not since we left earlier,” Sawyer replied, “Did you need something?”
“If you aren’t busy, can you bring my laptop to Arlo’s cabin? Grace has lessons, and I don’t want to leave her.”
“I’ll send Maizie with it.” Sawyer replied.
“No!” I all but shouted through the mindlink. “Don’t send Maizie. Arlo still isn’t accepting them.”
Sawyer growled, but I cut the link. I didn’t have time for his frustrations when I had my own.
“Everything okay?” Grace asked, bringing me back to where I was in space and time.
“I should be asking you that.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.” She answered honestly. “But I think I will be. Thank you, by the way, for coming after me... I think Maizie and I would have figured things out once I stopped panicking, but it was nice to know that you’ll come after me even when I’m not being rational.”
I stopped, pulling her along with me, pining her up against the cliff’s wall.
“I will always want you, Grace. Please don’t ever forget that I need you, okay? Wherever you go. I will be there to.”
She leaned in, kissing my lips again before starting down the cliff again to whatever the rest of the day held.