Chapter 15
It shouldn’t have surprised him when she led him straight towards the training room. For some reason, Ally always brought him here when she had hard news to tell him. There were a couple of things that did surprise Adam, like the fact that Barron still walked with them. The man never put himself in the middle of a situation he didn’t have too. There had to be a reason why Barron was still there. Was it because the man thought he was a part of whatever Ally had to tell Adam? Or was there more to this that Adam didn’t know?
As Ally opened the doors to the training room, Adam had another surprise waiting for him. Ally continued walking into the training room, acting as if the two people sparring were invisible. Adam stared though. He couldn’t help himself. The way the two of them moved captivated him. Even as they swung and kicked at one another, it looked as if they were dancing. Their movements were so fluid that Adam had to wonder if they really weren’t dancing.
They must have finally realized he had entered the room, because one of them froze up, giving the other time to sweep her off her feet. As a loud thump echoed through the training room, Adam finally entered. His eyes stayed on Amaya as she growled from the mat. The man holding her down simply tilted his head to the side as if confused, but after Amaya tapped the mat twice, the man jumped to his feet faster than Adam had ever seen another move.
“That is Owen,” Ally said from the other side of the room. Adam glanced towards her, noticing that Barron stood a little too close to her, as if he were afraid she was going to need protecting, or worse, was going to need to be held back. Sebastian stood as he always did, with one arm wrapped around Ally, but whereas Barron stayed near for protection, Sebastian held Ally simply because he wanted too. “You remember Owen?”
“Vaguely,” Adam replied as he tried to think of why the name sounded so familiar.
With a sigh, Ally took a step towards Owen, who had his eyes on Adam. “You remember Peyton and the crew of kids that came with him from Marcus? Owen came with them. He was the silent leader, let Peyton run it while he pulled the boys puppet strings.”
Owen glanced towards Ally with a blank expression. “You know why I did it. There was no other way. They would not have listened to me, a half breed.”
Small bits of Ally’s earlier conversation began to click in his mind. “He’s the offspring of a mating gone bad?” Adam asked, wincing when Owen snapped his head in Adam’s direction. “Sorry.”
“I’m used to hearing worse than that,” Owen answered while shrugging. His eyes looked back towards Ally, and when the woman sent him a small nod, he turned back towards Adam. “Marcus wanted an alliance between the wolves and his leopards. He knew that it would be the only way he could really get rid of the black leopards. You see, if the species of black leopards were gone, completely extinct, any leopard could rule. We don’t know how or why, but black leopards hold some kind of power over all other leopards, and sometimes that power can be transferred to other species.”
“Only with Ally’s blood,” Adam continued. “It happened with Isaac. As long as Ally shares some of her blood with them, they are connected.”
Owen nodded. “But not the way she is connected with you. If Ally takes in their blood, she binds them together forever. She feels what they feel; they feel what she does, but if Ally only allows them to take her blood, she simply accepts them as one of her own. She can communicate with them telepathically, control them, but that is as much of a connection as they have. It is the same with mated pairs.”
“Owen,” Ally snapped, her sharp voice making Owen close his mouth. “Just tell him what you are.” Her eyes softened slightly. “He’s not ready for the rest.”
Adam looked towards her and frustration ate at him. How much longer did she think he wouldn’t be ready for her news? He was tired of her thinking he was weak, tired of her thinking that he needed to be kept in the dark.
“Tell him, Ally,” a quiet voice whispered, and it took Adam a minute to realize that the voice belonged to Amaya. It sounded so dead, so unlike the woman he had joked with before Blake’s death.
Ally shook her head. “I will when the time is right.”
White eyes blinked, seeing nothing, but taking in everything. “The time is never right. Owen can tell his story, but you need to tell Adam the rest. Please, Ally. You know just as well as I do how fleeting life can be. Can you honestly let him keep the burden on his shoulders while he still has a life to live?”
“You don’t understand,” Ally said in a slightly defeated tone. “Telling him this will only add more burdens to his shoulders, not lessen it.”
“But it is his burden to know,” Sebastian said.
Letting out a sigh, Ally leaned further into Sebastian, allowing the man to hug her tightly. “Fine. When Owen finishes his explanation, I will tell Adam about his past, nothing about his future.”
“Agreed,” Barron said before anyone else could interrupt. “I don’t think Ally should tell him anything, but if she is being forced into saying something, nothing of his future should be spoken of. We all know what that information could do.”
“Agreed,” Sebastian said, and was quickly echoed by both Amaya and Owen.
“Agreed,” Adam said sarcastically. “Seeing as it’s my life, I think I should have the winning vote.”
Owen laughed as if Adam were joking. “They all said you were a funny guy.”
“Funny,” Adam repeated before shaking his head. “Just tell me your story. If I’m not mistaken, I was supposed to be charming a certain human. The faster you speak, the quicker I can get out of here.”
“As you said earlier, I’m a product of Marcus’s attempts to bind the wolves to the leopards. He thought with the two of them together, he would be able to defeat Ally.” Adam nodded along as Owen repeated parts of his story. “My mother was a wolf, my father a leopard. When the two of them mated, my father fell in love, but my mother refused to take his blood. The relationship was one sided, and when my father learned my mother had imprinted on another, it broke him. He exiled himself from our pride, and I have not seen him since. With my mother breaking her part of the alliance, the wolves backed out of the other stipulations. Why would they want to work with Marcus when they could simply wait until the man failed and then swoop in and defeat all the leopards? The rivalry between the species would be gone because the only species left would be the wolves.”
“Which are you?”
Owen shrugged. “I have Ally’s blood running through my veins, I belong to this pride, but which animal I take is my choosing. My mother may not have given me her love, but she gave me her animal.”
“And Luna?”
A large grin flew onto Owen’s face, showing off elongated k-9 teeth. “She’s the Alpha’s mate, a very angry Alpha, I’m sure. She never agreed with the views of her Alpha. She believed that they species could thrive apart better than they could at constant war.”
“Smart woman.”
“Annoying woman,” Ally threw in as she took over the story. “Years ago, I met her as I was running from Marcus. She would not allow me sanctuary into her home, but pointed me in a safe direction. When I found her a day later stuck in that trap, she begged me to leave her be. I saved her.”
Adam shook his head at Ally, feeling humor build in his chest. “You did it as payback. You knew the woman wouldn’t be able to deny you a favor for saving her life.”
“Exactly,” Ally replied with a grin.
Barron took a step forward, bringing Adam’s attention to the shifter. “I’ll finish. We don’t have time for jokes. After Ally saved the woman, the two of them spoke briefly enough for Ally to learn a little about the views wolves have on the leopards. It wasn’t a good one. So, when Zeke’s mother came to us a week ago, telling us what she saw, we knew that Ally needed to leave here. They don’t want all of us dead. They just want the black leopards dead, and any of them who have even a small amount of black leopard in their blood.”
“Which means Korbin will be leaving with them,” Amaya spoke up with sadness in her voice. “I will miss him, but without them going into hiding, a war will break loose.”
“A war will break loose no matter what,” Barron said in a confident tone. “This just buys us a little time to rally our forces. There are other groups of leopards around the world that will help. Hell, there are even other big cats that will lend a hand, but the wolves are coming soon. If they can sniff it out, find out that Ally isn’t here, they’ll go away to try to look for her. It gives us enough time to get an army together before they attack us.”
“And Luna?” Adam asked.
Ally stared at Adam for a moment, her eyes flashing with some unknown emotion. “The wolves work differently than us. They have no one leader as we do. There are many Alphas spread across the world, and when a major decision comes into play, they meet and agree upon it. I told Luna long ago that the only thing I wanted from her was for her Alpha to side with us without a mating alliance.”
“Which means they would have to take your blood,” Adam concluded. “They aren’t willing too, are they? They’re afraid you’ll command them to do something they don’t want to.”
“Yes,” Ally agreed. “They are afraid; especially when I told her I wanted her son to be the one who took my blood.”
Adam tilted his head slightly as his thoughts ran rampant. “Why?”
She shrugged at him, but the small smile on her lips let Adam know that she had thought this through more than she put on. “He’ll become Alpha one day, and he will already know how to work with me. Plus, the boy will allow me leverage over both Luna and the Alpha. Neither of them is willing to risk their only boy. They are not like the leopards; only males are allowed to rule.”
A laugh flew from Adam’s mouth as he shook his head at her. “You really thought this through, didn’t you? Is that why you denied her sanctuary?”
Ally nodded. “The only way I’ll allow her into my home is if her son has taken my blood.”
“Tell him the rest so he can leave. Zeke said Sloan is becoming a little antsy,” Barron said in amusement.
Adam groaned, thinking of all the shifters putting Sloan through their various tests of loyalty. “Just tell me, Ally. I can take it.”
“I really hope you can,” she whispered. Her hand reached out, grabbing onto Sebastian tightly. “You remember all of our talk about blood?” When he nodded, she let out a deep breath. “When you mated, did you take her blood?”
His mouth opened, ready to answer, but it quickly shut as the answer came to him. He hadn’t. She had simply smiled at him and told him that it wasn’t needed. They didn’t need to be fully connected to show their love for one another. They had been able to communicate, Adam had even been told she could feel some of his emotions, but he had never felt anything from her. He had just thought it was because they were newly bound, that their bound would strengthen over time.
“No,” he said as he shook his head at them. “We loved one another.”
Barron sent him an exasperated look, but Ally stepped forward before Barron could speak. “I’m sure you did, but it does not change the facts, Adam. You weren’t bound, not as a mate should be bound to their mate. You loved her, and she could feel what you could feel because of taking your blood. It would have worn off though,” Ally whispered, her eyes watering slightly. “You were only with her for a month. I would make a bet that those small traces of your feelings that she felt were already beginning to fade away. That’s how it always is. In the beginning, you can feel it, but after a while, it fades. The small connection is there, but it is nothing near a mate bind.”
“It explains why you are still alive,” Amaya said. He glanced towards her, noticing her own eyes were watering slightly. “Since the two of you were not fully mated, when she died, you were left alone on this earth. You were not lucky enough to leave with the one you loved, just forced to live on as they perished.”
Adam shook his head as he closed his eyes in pain. He tried to deny their words, tried to tell himself that they were just trying to belittle what he and his mate had so he could move on with Sloan, but he knew they were right. Deep down, he had always known. It had been easier this way, had been easier to just blame himself, to blame the newness of their bound for his being alive today. He should have realized he was fooling himself, that he was just trying to keep the memory of him and his mate pure. Not his mate, he reminded himself. He loved her, but despite that love, she hadn’t been his mate.
“I need time,” Adam whispered as he turned his back on them. “Just a little time alone. Tell Sloan I’m sorry.”
With those words, he left the training room. He knew he couldn’t go too far, not without sending both him and Ally excruciating pain. He also knew that he would be left alone, that they would give him time to morn a lose that had not existed. They wouldn’t give him much time though, not with everything he had just learned. There was a war coming, and no matter how he felt, no matter what he learned, it would be knocking on their door soon. Adam just hoped with every ounce of their being that they would be ready.