Chapter 21
Adam paced the front porch, feeling unease fly through his body. They should be back by now, should be here, but as his eyes darted towards the driveway, their car still didn’t come into view. He hadn’t had any contact with them, not since Zeke had left Adam alone of the porch, claiming he had other things to attend to. By now, the night was beginning to leave and small rays of sun were lighting up the sky. The last time he had been awake this long was when Adam worked for Zeke. Back when they were mercenaries, fighting for no cause but their own. Now, it was different. Adam had responsibilities, ones that he wanted, and right now, he wanted one of those responsibilities to drive towards the cabin.
“You are driving me insane,” a tired voice said from behind him.
He turned and watched as Ally yawned behind her hand with drowsy eyes. Adam winced, knowing that his emotions had woken her. “Sorry, Ally.”
She waved a dismissive hand in his direction while walking towards the stairs that led from the porch. Even with exhaustion eating at her, her movements were graceful as she eased onto one of the steps. Patting the stair beside her, she smiled over at him. “Come on. We haven’t talked in a while. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Like you don’t already know,” he said with a laugh as he walked towards her.
Smiling up at him, she let out a small laugh of her own. “It goes both ways, Adam. The only difference is that I’m better at hiding my thoughts.”
“You’ve had practice,” he accused, plopping down on the stair beside her. “With Zeke following your every move, you have to be able to block your mind.”
With a small push, one that almost made him fall off the stair, Ally sent him a mock glare. “You have no excuse. You were with him before I was.” The playful expression on her face fell as worry replaced it. “Tell me what’s going on, Adam. I try staying out of your mind as much as possible, but something is eating at you.”
“Can you believe that I had a heart-to-heart with Zeke earlier?”
“Which means you don’t want one with me,” she said in understanding.
He nodded at her, knowing that she didn’t take offence at his answer. It was just that he was tired of talking. He wanted to do something, but without this bond being broken, there weren’t a lot of things he could do. With a sigh, he reached out and wrapped an arm around Ally’s shoulders. Without hesitation, she leaned on him, burrowing her face into his chest. She could feel his pain, and he had a feeling that she even took it from him when she could. It made her weak; his bond made her weak. She pushed into his side, making him smile down at her. Without words, she was telling him to stop thinking like that.
“She’s almost here,” Ally mumbled, and he could tell by her voice that she was slowly falling back to sleep.
Adam glanced towards her before staring down the road. While Ally was on the verge of sleep, he was wide-awake. He had been waiting for their return, anticipating their arrival, and now that they were close, he could feel a sense of trepidation fill him. What would they tell him? Would the kidnappers be who they believed? Was Sloan’s brother part of the plan to overthrow Ally, or was the man to be trusted? All these questions flew through his mind, but as Drew’s car came into view, they went to the back of his mind.
Ally sighed beside him as she wiggled away from him and stood. “I don’t want to be out here all night. Noah wakes up in about three hours. I’d like to spend those asleep as well.”
“I can’t rush them,” he mumbled as he stood. Dusting off the back of his pants, he kept his eyes on Ally.
“I can,” she whispered as that small, evil smile turned the corner of her lips.
Adam winced as he thought of how she would try to speed things up. A tired Ally was one that he preferred not to allow make major decisions, especially when those decisions revolved around humans. “How about we just wait to hear what they say?”
“Fine,” she said, but when she winked at him, he knew that she wasn’t going to do as he suggested.
She stepped down the stairs, all earlier exhaustion gone from her movements. If anyone were to look at Ally now, they wouldn’t believe the hardships she was facing, the hardships that she had faced. Once she reached the ground, she stopped. Her head tilted up as she drew a deep breath. A low growl escaped her mouth before she shook her head as if clearing something from her mind.
Adam stayed on the porch, knowing that whatever Ally needed to do was important to her. What she had said earlier was the truth. The bond went both ways, and at that moment, Adam knew that she wanted him to stay on the porch, that she wanted to do something on her own before he intervened. He turned his eyes away from her and back to the car where Tony was jumping from the backseat. As he did, a leopard bounded out from the woods, making Adam’s nose curl up in disgust. Even if Drew had attempted to lick all the blood from his fur, the stench was still there, which explained Ally’s earlier growl.
The large leopard stayed in its form as it sauntered towards Ally. She held her hand out, smiling down at Drew when he bumped his forehead against it. Tony frowned at the two of them with a slight pout on his face. “No one asked me to play.”
“You did well,” Ally said, ignoring the man’s comment. “There were only two, and by the smell of them, they came from Luna’s pack. I just thought that she had a better hold on them.” She shook her head, her eyes on Drew. “No,” she whispered, and Adam knew that the two of them were talking to one another. “It means I have to convince her or her son to bond with me sooner rather than later.” She paused, glancing over at Adam. “Yeah, that too.”
“Ally,” Adam snapped with a small growl of his own.
She smiled at him while dropping her hand from Drew’s head. “We were just talking about the bond, Adam.”
“And the fact that you need to break it,” Tony mumbled as he walked towards Ally and Drew. As he passed his brother, he patted the leopard’s head. “Come on, bro. I think it’s time for us to get some sleep.”
Drew swiped at Tony’s hand, making the man laugh. As they passed Adam on the porch, Tony halted. “You’ll watch out for her?”
“Always,” Adam answered, knowing the man was speaking of Ally. None of them felt comfortable leaving her sight, not with the dangers around every corner. When Tony still hesitated, Adam nodded towards the cabin. “You better hurry up and get some sleep while you can. Ally will be leaving in a couple hours, and I know you want to see her off.”
Tony nodded in agreement, but it was Drew who finally had to push his brother inside. Adam shook his head at the two of them as a smile formed on his face. They had been like him before they found Ally, a group of shifters who had nothing to care for, nothing to fight for, and now that they had something to fight for, each of them went after it with everything they had.
The sound of a car door opening made all thoughts fly from his mind. His eyes snapped towards the driver’s door as Sloan stepped from it. He scanned her body, looking for even the slightest change, but there was nothing, not even a spot of blood on her clothing. A relieved breath escaped him, but when she tried to run towards the passenger’s side, Adam’s worry hit once more as Ally wouldn’t let Sloan pass. He knew how much Sloan loved her brother, and he knew that despite how hard Sloan tried to get around Ally, the woman wasn’t letting her.
“Just give me a minute,” Ally whispered.
When Sloan opened her mouth to argue, Ally turned narrowed eyes on her. “Think of your words before you say them. If you believe I will allow a stranger into my home with my children in there, then you must think me a bad mother.”
“I don’t,” Sloan said as she closed her eyes in helplessness, “but please don’t hurt him. I may understand why you want to see him first, but I will do anything I have to in order to keep him alive.”
Ally’s glare dropped as she sent a smile full of respect in Sloan’s direction. “It’s the reason why I like you. Now, go stand on the stairs by Adam.” Sloan hesitated for a moment before nodding. As she made her way towards Adam, Ally stopped her. “Make sure you keep that gun where it is. It’ll only piss me off.”
Adam rubbed a hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing at the expression on Sloan’s face. He had to guess that no one had told her that lead did a whole lot of nothing to shifters but sting them. Now, if she had silver bullets in that gun, it wasn’t only the wolves that she could hurt. With that same dazed expression on her look, Sloan slowly made her way towards Adam. As she reached the stairs, she stayed at the bottom of them before turning around and plopping down on it. With a small chuckle, one he couldn’t hold back any longer, Adam made his way to sit beside her.
“She won’t kill him,” Adam whispered, amused when Ally glared at him. “She might want to, but until she knows for sure that he is a danger to her family, she’ll do nothing to him. It’s why we follow her, despite all that snarling she does, she’s a fair ruler, more fair than any others would be.”
“You promise?” Sloan mumbled as Ally drew open the passenger’s side door. “You promise she won’t hurt him?”
He watched Ally as she held her hand out for Sloan’s brother to take. “I said kill; I can’t promise she won’t hurt him.” Sloan’s head snapped in his direction, and when she made a move to stand, he threw an arm around her shoulders and held her back. “If you don’t let her do whatever in the hell she thinks is so important, he won’t be accepted by the others. Remember, we’re all loyal to Ally. If she doesn’t accept your brother, there aren’t a lot of people in this cabin that will.”
“Slator,” Sloan said as she relaxed slightly beside him. “His name is Slator.”
Adam nodded, but didn’t say another word. He had a feeling that Sloan was about as exhausted as Ally was. They both had been through a lot today, but if he had to pick which one went through more, he would say Sloan. The woman had learned so many things in that day that it was a wonder she was still functioning. She had found her brother though, and Adam had a feeling that she would do it all again if that meant keeping him by her side.
“My name is Alexandria Holt,” Ally said as she helped the beaten man from the vehicle.
Adam stared at the man, trying to find traces of Sloan there, but he saw none. He frowned. Hadn’t she said they were twins, that they were born only minutes apart? Then again, not all twins looked alike, not all twins were like Drew and Tony.
“Slator,” the man replied with a large smile. “I’m not quite sure what my last name is.”
Ally tilted her head to the side as Slator leaned against the car. She stared at his face, and Adam had a feeling that if she could have circled him to get a better view, she would have. He knew she wasn’t doing inspecting the man for anything other than danger, but as Slator fidgeted, Adam had a feeling that the man didn’t know what Ally was looking for.
“Did you see anything?” she asked, her eyes staying on his face.
He gave her a confused expression, but as her eyes began to narrow, the farce slipped and he shrugged at her. “No.”
“Me either,” Ally mumbled. “I don’t like it.”
“Me either,” Slator replied while crossing his arms over his chest.
Ally mimicked the movement, and Adam fought to keep his laugh from escaping. If the two of them could see them as he did, they would have been amazed at the similarities. They both had an expression on their faces that said they didn’t trust the other. The black hair that Slator had was just as mussed as Ally’s was, the only difference was that Ally’s was beginning to stick up in all directions, which meant she was throwing her power towards Slator. The man didn’t even flinch, and slowly, Ally’s hair fell back to normal.
“Hmm,” Ally mumbled as her eyes narrowed at him. “Why can’t I get into your mind?”
“Is that normal?” Slator asked with a frown.
She stepped closer to Slator, and her earlier expression of distrust changed to one of sadness. “You haven’t been around any of us have you? Just the wolves. It’s how you were caught up with them in the first place. They convinced you that there were none of your kind, but you knew differently after a while. What was it? Did they talk about me, and you overheard?”
Slator pushed off the car and took a step in Ally’s direction. “I thought you couldn’t read my mind.”
“I can’t,” Ally answered with a shrug. “It’s on your face. One day, you’ll learn to hide your emotions.”
“Like you do?”
Ally shrugged, and to Adam’s surprise, she smiled at Slator. An even bigger surprise was the smile on Slator’s face as he shook his head at Ally in obvious amusement. “It took practice," Ally said as trying to ease any worries he may have.
Slator didn’t say another word, and as Ally stepped even closer to him, he didn’t move an inch. She reached towards his face slowly, but when she got closer, Adam saw nothing. It was the loud snap and the cursing that clued him in on what happened.
“Wouldn’t want it to heal crooked,” Ally said with a bright smile as she turned her back on the man and made her way towards the cabin. As she stepped onto the porch, she glanced over her shoulder. “After you and Adam explain everything to Sloan, there is a room and shower ready for you.”
Adam shook his head at her as she entered the cabin, and when he glanced towards Slator, he noticed the man doing the same thing. “I like her,” Slator said with a laugh.
Sloan chuckled beside him as she slipped out from underneath Adam’s arm. “She has a way about her,” Sloan agreed as she pulled her brother into a tight hug. “I’m so happy that you’re okay.”
“Me too,” Slator answered, but his eyes were on Adam. “Come on, sis. I think the man on the porch and I need to tell you a few things, and I have a feeling you’re not going to be happy with either one of us by the time we’re finished.”