Chapter 164: Grace
I was having a hard time keeping my emotions in check. We were going to be a family. And we didn’t go about it in the traditional way, and to me, that made it even more special. I loved that I was getting to create my family in my own way. Growing up, I had never dreamed this possible. I remember cherishing any moment I could get with my dad as a child. I remember worshipping Luna Ava’s feet, following her everywhere I could. She made sure I was included at family dinners and events before I started dreading them for the looks people gave me. I never had a mom, but I wanted one. I never felt love, but I pretended to when I was little. But now, as a grown-up, I was surrounded by it. I was surrounded by people who loved me, and I them. And that was crazy. It was crazy to think that in such a short time, I had grown my family in the way I had.
A knock at the door drew us all out of the moment we were having. I slowly let go of Michael, and Rhys had a look of ‘What could possibly have happened now?’ which made me smile a little. I wiped away my tears, and Rhys moved toward the door to open it.
“Riley, what’s wrong?” Rhys asked, his voice back to being commanding.
“I’m sorry to bother you sir, but a couple of things have come up. First being, Sammy is inconsolable right now. She’s at the training center crying. I guess, Luna Queen Grace left the school earlier, and never came back, and Sammy won’t calm down saying that she went into the woods. Which leads me to our next problem: we can’t find Luna Queen Grace. We searched the woods, and she’s nowhere to be found.”
“Hi, right here,” I waved as I stood up and came into his line of sight. “I’ll go to Sammy, I think we’re done here.”
Riley immediately breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders sagged with the weight off of them. I sort of felt bad for having stressed him out.
Rhys stuck his arm out, forcing me to stop just before the door.
“How long ago did you find out my mate was missing?” He demanded.
Riley immediately stiffened. I could practically feel his nerves set in.
“Rhys don’t be silly, I’m right here. I’m not missing.” I tried, but he ignored me.
“How. Long. Was. She. Missing?” He emphasized every word, even Michael was sitting straight up in the chair we had left him in.
“About 30 minutes, sir,” Riley finally answered. “We didn’t know if Sammy was a credible source, so we thought we’d check it out first before notifying you.”
“Is there some issue with your mindlink?”
“N-No sir.”
“Well, if you had mindlinked me to let me know my mate was missing, I could have A. helped if it was actually true, or B. told you she was in a meeting with me, and you wouldn’t have wasted 30 minutes looking for someone who wasn’t actually missing.”
Riley looked down, obviously ashamed of how he had handled the situation. “Yes, Sir.”
“From now on, someone is to know exactly where my mate is at all times, am I clear?”
“Yes, Sir,” Riley repeated.
“Good. Now, go figure out how you’re going to do that. We have to go get Sammy.”
Riley said one more “Yes, sir,” and scurried off to do what Rhys had just asked. Rhys was so dramatic sometimes, but I appreciated him caring about my safety. I just didn’t know if I really wanted someone to know where I was at all times. That felt a little terrifying to me.
“Well, let’s go get her,” Rhys said, running a hand through his hair. “Come on, Michael, you should be at training too.”
I looked at Rhys curiously. “We? I can go get her, I don’t want to disrupt your day even more.”
“Nope. I’m keeping you in my sight right now because apparently you are missing.” There was a slight teasing in his voice, but I also knew he knew I lied earlier. At least a little bit. “Plus, I’ve been meaning to come to training for the kids. I wanted to see what their baseline looks like since it’s their first week.”
He had mentioned he wanted to do that the other night, but I still didn’t believe him.
“Is it okay if I skip training today? I kinda just want to be alone right now.” Michael asked as we started down the hall.
“Alone where?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Just upstairs,” He answered. “Today has just been a lot. And no one should be up there right now.”
I nodded at him. Did I truly think inviting him to stay with us forever was really going to outrank his dad when it came down to it? I wasn’t sure. It could go either way. And I understood that. It was hard to know where the right place was to place your loyalty. I had struggled with it for years. I was loyal to my family even if I hadn’t thought about it that way. I had done everything they asked and kept my mouth shut about the horrible things they were doing. I had served them to the best of my ability. And I still found it hard at times to go against them. There were still moments where knowing that eventually, when this war was over, my sister would be dead felt like it was too much. I mean, she was my blood. I had felt the same with Ethan before it was all a lie. Like I owed him loyalty for being of my blood. And I knew Michael would eventually face the same questions I had. He would choose whoever could keep his siblings safest. And I just hoped it would be us. But I’m not sure how he could think that when we couldn’t even keep ourselves safe right now.