Chapter 149: Grace
Everyone was shifted now except me. I rode on Rhys’ back like he was my knight in freaking armor. I pretended not to notice the movement that followed us. Rhys had mindlinked everyone that we were being followed. I’m sure there was a legit plan now, but I was not privy to it, since I couldn’t mindlink anyone. But the biggest thing now was to act like we didn’t know and to be as inconspicuous as possible.
The border seemed like the obvious place that they would take Leon. But what exactly did they want with him? What was the point of drawing us this far out if it wasn’t a trap? It was definitely a trap. But was the chance of getting Leon back worth walking right into it?
I sighed against Rhys’ fur. Of course it was. We had to try. Leon had chosen to come after me several times. He had saved my life more times than I could count. But the thought of losing Rhys in this trap was terrifying to me, and I wished I could talk freely to him to settle my anxiety, but obviously that wasn’t a choice.
The trees started to thin out and I knew we were getting close to the border. My bad feeling kept growing. If this was about to be a scrum, I was utterly defenseless. I still couldn’t shift. I had weird powers that I had no idea how to use. And in a fight with Lycans and werewolves, my knives weren’t going to do me too many favors.
I took a steadying breath. I could do this. I could do this for Leon and Rhys and Heather.
We slowed to a walk. There were at least five things in trees that were all around us which I assumed were Lycan. I wasn’t sure if the others noticed, but if they did, they pretended not to. We came out of the trees and stopped. I shifted to a sitting position on Rhys, as the sunlight flooded our senses. It had been so dark in the woods, especially with the early morning light, but now the sun was overpowering my senses, I had to blink several times to be sure of what I was seeing.
No... It wasn’t an illusion. Leon’s unconscious body laid out in the open. Heather’s gasp made me realize it was real, but no one moved toward it, which made me think it was just across the border, but there was no one else around.
I jumped off of Rhys and he shifted into his human form, and Sawyer tossed him a pair of shorts again that he quickly threw on. The cold crisp air didn’t seem to bother him in the same way it chilled me, but I was far less cold than I had thought I would be.
“What’s the plan?” Heather asked desperately as she stared at her husband, itching to run over to him. I think the only thing keeping her in place right now was her years of training.
Rhys shook his head no. He didn’t have a plan. This was clearly a trap, yet how didn’t make sense either. There was no one in sight. There was nothing in sight at all. But there was no reason they would have drug him all the way here and then have just left him. It didn’t make sense at all. We were obviously missing something.
“I’ll go,” Caleb offered.
“No.” Rhys said firmly.
“Well, it has to be me or Grace.” He responded, and I nodded, knowing exactly where he was going with this.
“No. I don’t like repeating myself.” Rhys said through gritted teeth.
“Well, I don’t like when you’re dumb, Caleb hissed back. “Grace and I are the only two people here who can cross pack lands without any consequences. She’s not technically a part of any pack and neither am I.”
“Well, we’re changing that,” Rhys snapped at him, his eyes never leaving his best friend.
“We are,” Caleb conceded, “But right now, it’s still true. And you need to let me go, so we don’t have to send Grace over.”
I swallowed hard, and if looks could kill, Caleb wouldn’t be standing here. The anger on Rhys’ face was palpable, but Caleb just squeezed his shoulder and moved slowly toward the invisible line that we all knew was there.
Caleb crossed the border and looked around cautiously. Nothing happened. He breathed a small sigh of relief and moved quickly toward Leon. His hand reached down and felt for a pulse.
“He’s alive,” He called back to us as he checked for further injuries.
Heather dropped to her knees, releasing a muffled sob, but relief didn’t last long. The ground seemed to just open up, swallowing both Leon and Caleb whole.
“NO!” Rhys shouted.
I grabbed at his arm trying to keep him in place as Heather’s scream echoed back to us. There was commotion in the trees behind us, and the grief for what we had just lost, would have to wait.
“We need to move, now.” I stated as I looked around at all the shell-shocked faces that didn’t seem to sense the danger.
Kate was the only one who seemed to hear me, and she nodded back taking control of her soldiers. But Rhys was pulling against me, trying to get to his friend and his brother, and Heather who was sobbing uncontrollably on the ground.
I turned to look at the trees. They were closing in on us, and we were clearly outnumbered. Would they follow us back to the packhouse, putting everyone else in danger? Did they already have people there? Should we lead them away? Think, Grace, think.
“Come on, Rhys,” I pleaded. “We have to go.”
He looked at me, the shock still written all over his face, but I needed him to pull it together. We needed him to get us all out of this alive. I needed him to survive.
“Shift!” I demanded, my heart racing as I yelled the singular word in hopes of getting through to him.
And to my surprise, he did.