I needed a major distraction from being away from my Bonded, so I had convinced them both to pull a late night at the houses. Gabe is fine with it, because he’s desperate to get as much done as possible and move people into the buildings. He’s very aware of how much he is capable of helping with this and has taken on the responsibilities of it. I know it’s his way of trying to lighten North’s workload, and also something that will keep him here in the Sanctuary with me.
He’s very concerned about the two of us being split up again, and I don’t blame him for that at all.
Atlas, on the other hand, finds the building work deeply frustrating. While he’s learning quickly and definitely a huge help to Gabe, he’s still inexperienced, and my very alpha male Bonded is struggling with that fact. He would much rather be eating dinner in my giant bed with a movie on right now, and I kind of feel bad for making his long day even longer.
Gabe just gives him shit about it until he huffs and gets back to work.
“You know that they're going to be fine, right? Sending in one Death Dealer is enough to get the job done, but sending in two of them? Fuck, it’s almost overkill, Bonded,” Gabe says as he takes the boxes from me and stacks them where they need to go.
In the last few days, he’s managed to coordinate huge numbers of volunteers to work on the repairs, so now we’re back on track to getting more housing ready for people to move into. North has shifted the priority from getting families into their own houses to taking in more displaced and targeted Gifted people from around the country.
So far, there’s been two or more families sharing houses so that we can get as many as possible. The few people who’d been vocal about not liking that situation have been thoroughly silenced, thanks to the Sanctuary being breached by the Resistance. Something about finding themselves being rescued and their safety prioritized in a way that they never had been before had shifted their opinions on the matter. Safety, understanding, and their basic needs being met goes a long way to gaining favor with people.
As far as I'm aware, it's only a handful of Top Tier families that still have complaints, and I'm still more than ready to deal with those people myself.
North is starting to get close to that point as well.
I let out a breath, wiping the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. “It doesn't matter who is out there. I'm always going to feel this way about being separated from you guys. Especially with something as dangerous as this, I don't know how the other TacTeam families cope.”
Gabe shrugs as he directs Atlas where to stack boxes. “A lot of the TacTeam personnel on Gryphon's team aren’t Bonded yet. Most of them are hoping that Sawyer’s work with the blood bank will figure out why they haven't been able to find their Central Bonds yet.”
I nod and sigh, it makes sense. My mind is still drifting to all of the terrible things that could be happening to my Bonded right now. It's irrational because there's no way that any of them could hide grievous injuries or anything too dramatic from me, but my brain can't stop going over all of the ‘what ifs’。
North had been so adamant that I stay behind because the Bond was so fresh between his brother and I, but Nox had refused to stay as well. And as often happens, North and Gryphon would both rather give in to his demands than argue with him. I don’t necessarily disagree with them, but it still grates on me that I’ve been left behind.
I can't stop thinking about if they need me and my power. North had been handling the situation with the Resistance attack really well before Atlas and I had arrived, but there’s no denying that the power boost I gave him meant that he could wipe out much larger numbers at a time. I’d like them to get in and out of that place as quickly as possible. And a power boost would definitely help with that.
If I gave one to Nox as well? Game changer, I’m sure of it.
Gabe nods and sits down on one of the stacks of boxes, unscrewing a bottle of water and offering it to me before draining half of it in one go. “You should know by now that North is all about risks and rewards. Everything that he does is a calculation of what we can afford to risk. It's one of the biggest things that he does as a councilman. The risks of moving to the Sanctuary too soon were too great; it's why we stayed at Draven for so long, even after we did have some livable properties here. He had to get Gryphon to screen as much of the population as possible to ensure we weren't bringing anybody in who was a risk. The same as when it comes to you and Nox.” He glances at Atlas for a second, knowing that this is a sensitive topic to him more than anyone else, but I want to hear what he has to say.