Barron's Prey

Sara

"I noticed you all are building another wing," she started as she followed him down the hall, not knowing where they were going, but not caring as long as it wasn't back into her borrowed room.  "You can't really have that many people here."

Ned glanced at her over his shoulder.  "You haven't seen our latest additions.  Not only do we have all the blonde headed shifters who rebelled against Marcus not too long ago, but now we have a couple of wolves hanging around, not to mention some hybrids."

Nodding in understanding, she kept following him.  Noises met her ears, becoming louder the further they walked, but her thoughts kept her from honing in on the source.  Hybrids.  Ally had hybrids walking around her compound and no one thought anything of it?  She had wolves staying under her roof with leopards and still nobody thought anything of it?  She shook her head with a small smile pulling up one side of her mouth. She could just imagine what her father would think if he heard the news.

"He'd flip the shit."

"Peyton," Ned growled under his breath as the newcomer practically bounced in excitement in front of them.  "What did I tell you about that?"

Sara kept her face blank as she stared at the teenager in front of her.  Dark blue eyes stared back at her beneath hair that was so blonde she'd consider it yellow. 

"You curse all the time," Peyton grumbled as he stepped out of their way.

It was only then that Sara realized that their tour had begun.  In front of her, more than a dozen shifters lounged about.  A couple were sitting in front of a small TV, growling at one another as they shot people on the screen.  More were sitting in front of computer screens, staring longingly at those who were elsewhere.  They all had one thing in common though, they were just kids.  Kids who would be brought up in this mess no matter how much everyone tried to keep them out of it.

"Yeah," Ned agreed, interrupting her thoughts, "but I'm not a kid.  In a couple of years, say whatever you want, until then, go finish your classwork."

With a loud grown and a very mean looking glare towards Ned, the boy stalked towards a computer.  "He's one of the one's Ally took in after Marcus?" Sara asked, looking at all the kids piled in the room.

"Yeah.  They all are.  Remember, he's the one who tried pretending like he led them all when it was really Owen."

"Owen?"

Ned chuckled.  "He's not here.  He's already got his diploma and hasn't decided what he'll do other than that.  All the one's you see here are part of my homeschooling project."  Before she could comment, he walked back towards the door.  "Come on.  The devil child is finally asleep."

"Ally called?"

He continued down the hall, going to a room that Sara had actually been to before, the training room.  "Nah," Ned replied casually.  "He was showing me the story Ally was making up for him."  He chuckled.  "Maybe a little too gruesome for children, but Noah likes them."

"Probably not too gruesome for those children," she joked.

Ned shook his head at her, and the expression on his face told her that he didn't know whether he should be slightly amused at her comment or try to deny it.  "I'm forewarning you now before we go in there," he said, changing the subject as they reached the training room door.  "A lot of people will probably be in there, waiting to either see you get your ass kicked, or because they want to make sure you won't do anything stupid."

"Stupid?" she asked as he opened the door for her.  She took a step in and blinked at the dozen or so eyes staring back at her.

"Stupid," Tony echoed with a grin that was more teeth than joy.  "Like bringing silver into it."