Chapter 18: Rhys
I slammed my car door in frustration. I couldn’t believe we had come so close to freeing Grace and her wolf, only to fall short. The witch had to have used magic to conceal her path, but it made me feel like an idiot. How could she have slipped through my grasp so easily? I wasn’t used to being defeated in literally anything and this was by a freaking witch.
“Fuck. That could have gone better.” Leon sighed as he climbed into the driver's seat and Sawyer got into the back seat.
"That was a disaster.” I grumbled.
“We learned a few things. So, it wasn’t a total waste.” Leon rationalized.
“And what did I learn?”
“Well, for starters, we learned that this goes a lot deeper than just Grace.” Leon answered.
“Yea. Grace is the catalyst.” I ran my hair frustratedly through my hair.
“More like you made Grace the catalyst because you removed her from their pack.” Sawyer muttered.
“Explain.”
Sawyer raised his hands in defense before continuing, “I’m sorry. I just meant, if you hadn’t found her, her pack might not have disappeared. The witch wouldn’t have freaked out because she wouldn’t have been called, and we might not have noticed something was off. But now, we know, and we are actively working to uncover it, so we won’t be blind-sided anymore.”
I knew he was right, but I ran a hand tiredly over my face.
“I also think that the fact that the witch was unwilling to help, should very much alarm us,” Leon added. “You are the Alpha King. You should be the scariest thing in this kingdom. If the Red Blood pack has her scared, there’s more going on than we realize.”
“I need to think. Let’s get home and get the team together and we can try and map out what the hell is actually going on and try to strategize from there.” I said after a long moment.
Both my Beta and my Gamma agreed, but I knew they were both thinking about what we had just uncovered. As soon as Leon pulled in the driveway, I felt a weird excitement to go see Grace. I knew I had left her sort of abruptly earlier, but I was hopeful that she hadn’t minded too much.
“Meet in 20 minutes?” Leon asked.
“Yes.” I replied. “My office. I want updates from when we were gone. I’m going to go shower.”
The darkness barely registered in my mind, but it did just enough to realize that Grace was probably sleeping now, so I chose to shower really quick in a guest room.
I felt refreshed and more awake after the shower. My head felt clearer as I made my way to my office.
“Anyone come up with anything new?” I asked as I walked into my office.
“No. There are no leads on where Sandra or any other of the witches live. But we only know of about 7 of them and know of should be used loosely. We have heard rumors of is a more accurate description. That girl could have been Sandra, or she could have been another witch. Since we have never actually met her in person, it’s hard to be sure exactly what just happened.”
“Magic obviously happened,” Sawyer grumbled, unhappily. And I unfortunately agreed with him.
“Okay. Anything weird happen here while we were out?”
Both Leon and Sawyer got quiet and had the nerve to look slightly uncomfortable.
“What happened?” I growled angrily.
Leon swallowed hard, but he met my eyes. “I talked to Damien when I got back, as you know he was in charge while we were out...”
“Get to it.” I gritted out.
“You can’t react.” Leon stated firmly.
“I can’t do anything if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
“Grace is struggling right now. Sawyer thinks it has to do with the aftermath of her marking.”
“I’m curious if this marking was new or if she’s had symptoms before like this.” Sawyer adds uneasily.
I stood up without thinking and walked to our room mindlessly before Sawyer put his hand on my shoulder pulling me back just before I entered her room.
“I need to go to her,” I told him simply. “She needs me.”
“You need to just let her come out of this on her own.” Sawyer told me. “You can’t help her through this.”
I took a deep breath and opened the door anyway, and I wished I hadn’t gone in at all. She was lying on the bed in the fetal position, writhing in pain. I could see her flushed face from here.
“Grace.” I breathed. “I have to help her.”
“It will pass.” Sawyer said gently. “We just have to let it pass.”
“We can’t just sit here!” I all but shouted. “I have to go to her!”
“No.” Sawyer said firmly. “If you go to her, it will make it worse. She can handle this. You have to let her.”
For 4 days I sat in that chair next to her bed. For 4 days, I made sure she was never alone, so when I had to shower or eat, my beta and gamma sat with her. For 4 days her fever and pain raged on, and there was little I could do. I wanted nothing more than to wrap her up in my arms and hold her, but it would make it worse, so that’s what I kept telling myself. My pack could sense that I was restless, and it made the whole pack restless, and there was nothing I could do to ease it for myself or them. I told myself that I would be this worried over any pack member in this condition, but my wolf reminded me that was a lie.
It wasn’t until late on the fourth night that her fever broke. She was still writhing in pain, but I thought we were through the worst. However, the next time I awoke, I was startled by her raspy, short breaths.
I touched her, thinking maybe she was having a nightmare, and I could wake her up... But I was startled by how cold she was, and how pale her face was. Her eyes were closed, but the pain was still very evident.
“Screw it.” I said to myself and began taking off my shirt and sweatpants. It didn’t matter if it would make it worse now, I wasn’t going to lose her when I could do something to try and help.
I carefully climbed into bed next to her and pulled her close to me before I wrapped us both up in the blankets. Her body felt cool against mine, but I was hoping my own body heat would warm her up quickly.
I texted Sawyer, knowing that he was sleeping and had been up for days trying to help. But the truth was, there was little we could do for her. I didn’t want to make the effects worse, but I also didn’t know what else to do. I just stroked her hair and waited.
It took a while, but finally, her heart rate came down, and her breathing evened out. And for the first time in days, I let myself relax. Grace was going to be fine.