Chapter 8
Ally burst into the room before slamming it shut behind her. Zeke raised an eyebrow at her, making her shrug. “Where’s Blake?”
“He’ll be here in a minute. Meet Peyton”
“I’ve met Peyton,” she mumbled before looking at the boy with a smile. “To be honest, I thought about robbing the cradle with Peyton.”
“Alexis,” Peyton said with slightly narrowed eyes, “I’m only two years younger than you. You weren’t robbin’ any cradle.”
“Isn’t that cute,” she said, turning towards Zeke. “Don’t you love the southern twang in his voice?” She turned back to Peyton and shrugged. “You were still,” she paused with a confused expression on her face, “what do you call it? Jail bail?”
“Bait,” Zeke mumbled while shaking his head at her. “Jail bait.”
“That’s it,” she mumbled without looking towards Zeke. “Oh, and Peyton?”
“Yeah, Alexis?” he said, taking a step towards her as if the boy needed to be closer in order to hear.
“Don’t call me Alexis,” she replied with a smile. “It’s an old nickname, one that was used because I hated it. I’d prefer you to call me Ally.”
The boy smiled at Ally. “Deal.”
The door flung open again, and it was Seb’s turn to slam the door behind him and fall back into it as if he were exhausted. Again, Zeke raised an eyebrow. Seb just shrugged. “Where’s Blake?”
“He’ll be here in a minute. Meet Peyton,” he repeated.
The boy immediately took a step away from Ally and held his hand out to Sebastian. The King looked at it for a minute before crossing the room and standing in front of Peyton. “You’re just a leopard? No snow leopard, black leopard, or any other magical creature in you?”
“Not a lick.”
Sebastian’s hand connected with Peyton’s. “Good, can’t handle any more of her strays with magic. Sometimes, I wake up, and instead of one of the babies sleeping beside me, they’ll be hovering over my head. Snow leopards,” Seb mumbled under his breath, “damn annoying things.”
“Standing here,” Zeke said.
Seb glanced towards him with a shrug. “You’re the worse. Now, what’s going on?”
“Wait, who’s your mate?” Peyton asked with a large smile. “I’d like to congratulate her. How many children y’all have?”
“Alex,” Sebastian chided, “what did you tell him?”
She looped her arms around his waist and smiled up at him. “Honestly, Seb, I didn’t say a thing.”
“Oh, shit,” Peyton mumbled. “Here I was, flirting with her, and she’s mated. That’s what I get, anyhow.”
Zeke watched Seb freeze, and he rolled his eyes. Deciding to turn the situation in a better direction, he took a step forward. “Ally, call Blake. Peyton has some explaining to do, and it looks like he needs to be explained a few things too.”
“Sure do,” Peyton mumbled. “Marcus must have kept us in the dark if I didn’t even know one of our own was mated.”
“Not your own people any longer,” Zeke growled. As the boy’s body tensed, ready for a fight, Zeke let out a sigh. “It’s pretty obvious that the two of us are slightly touchy when it comes to Ally. So, if you don’t mind, we’ll wait until Blake is here before talking.”
They all nodded at him. Glad they all agreed, he took a step back and smiled. This was going to be easier than he thought. Just as the statement flew in his mind, Blake flung the door open and slammed it behind him. “Oh God, Ally. Why wouldn’t you warn me?”
“I put guards, that aren’t my own, on them. They should be fine. Barron, Ned, Andrew, Anthony, and Adam will not really do anything to them. They’re just trying to scare them.”
“Scare who?” Zeke asked, dreading the answer.
Ally looked at him, true guilt in her eyes. “The people you brought back with you. Believe me, Zeke, I tried to tell the guards to back off them, but they know who they are, they know where those leopards came from, and they’re not too happy about it.”
Peyton took a step towards the door. “If they’re outside being harassed by your people, I have to do something about that.”
“Can you blame them?” Blake asked as he crossed the room and stood next to Ally and Sebastian. “She’s our Queen, one that we all love. If someone harms her, or has harmed her, we’re not going to be happy about it.”
Peyton’s eyes closed before opening again. “Promise me y’all aren’t doing anything harmful to them. We seem to have a lot to talk about.”
“Leave them alone, now!” Ally shouted in her mind before smiling at Peyton. “Nothing is going to happen to them.”
“Good,” Peyton replied, walking past them all to throw himself down on the couch. “This is going to be tiring. You mean to tell me that Ally, The Black Leopard Queen, is mated, has some children, and has a bond mate already?”
“Yes to all of that,” Zeke answered. “We’re you all really in the dark about this?”
Peyton nodded. “You have to understand though. If they knew all of this, there would be more harm than a little mob like today.”
Ally pulled away from Sebastian and settled onto the ground, giving everyone an advantage. Seb kept standing, but Blake walked towards her and plopped down beside her with a smile. Ally shook her head at him before glancing at Peyton. “The mob today, why was it formed if not for the fact that I’m the Queen?”
“To be honest, we know you are meant to be the Queen, but we didn’t know you had gone through the ritual, didn’t know you already had children. They wanted to kill you before that happened.”
“That’s why Marcus sent me away?” she asked, understanding dawning. “He knew who I was, and anyone old enough to know the tale knew who I was. The only way to save me was to send me away.”
Peyton smiled at her with a nod, but as soon as the smile formed, it disappeared. “They suspected him of caring for you as a daughter then, but he really let everyone know where his loyalty lies when he went after you, to help you get on the throne. He’s been fighting for leadership ever since.”
“Which explains the fact that he looked beaten,” Zeke mumbled, but as Ally hopped to her feet with rage on her face, he knew he should have kept that fact to himself.
She walked towards the door. “I’m going to get him.”
“Ally,” Zeke started, but she continued to the door while shaking her head. “I’m going to kill them, Zeke, every last one of those bastards who hit him. After that, I’m going to let them chose. They can die, or they can be exiled.”
“Isn’t that a little harsh?” Peyton asked, but Ally was already out the door with Sebastian right behind her.
Blake, who was still sitting on the ground, hopped to his feet. “Actually,” he said with a shrug, “for Ally, that was pretty level headed and nice.”
“She’s going to kill them.”
“She’s giving them a choice,” Blake said in an even tone. “It’s more than your people gave her.”
Blake left the room, anger rolling from him. The thoughts running through the enforcer’s mind were anything but pleasant. Expanding his range, he read a couple of his guard’s minds. They all wanted to go. They all wanted a piece of the people who had harmed Ally. He pulled back when the pain of listening to them all became too much. Opening his eyes, he stared at Peyton. “Why do I feel like there is more to this than I know?”
“Because there is,” Peyton mumbled, “but if we don’t keep Ally from killing them all, you’ll never figure it out.”
Shaking his head, Zeke ran out of the room, ready to do whatever was needed to keep Ally and his men here. There was more to this, and Zeke had a feeling that simply killing them would escalate things, no matter how much he wanted to do some killing of his own.