Chapter 32
As he cleared the forest, the first thing that Adam smelt was blood, and surprisingly enough, it wasn’t his own. He recognized that smell though, call him odd, but after being force-fed someone’s blood, he couldn’t really get the smell out of his mind. He instantly went on alert as he walked closer to the small house that Ally was staying in. It was her blood that he had smelt, but he knew that if she was hurt, he would have been able to feel it. If she were in danger, he would have been in danger also. Still, that thought didn’t make him relax as he came closer to the house; if anything, he became more tense when he saw what exactly was causing Ally to give up her blood.
“Do you think that’s smart?”
No one made a move as if they weren’t surprised by his presence, which either meant they were expecting him or he was slacking. A couple of months ago, he had been able to sneak up on anyone, shifter or not.
“It’s the only way,” Ally said with a shrug as if the man latched onto her wrist was an everyday occurrence.
A sigh left Adam’s mouth as he walked closer to her. “How do you know it’s the only way? How can you know that binding him to you isn’t what starts the war? Ally, we never really know anything, no matter how many people claim to see the future.”
She pulled her wrist away from Lucas’s mouth, and they all watched as the skin instantly healed over. “I know the future can change, that one small pebble in a pond can cause many ripples, but what am I supposed to do? Sit back idly and hope that things turn out as they should.” She shook her head at him. “I can’t do that; I’ve never been able to sit back and watch things happen.”
He smiled at her words, not able to keep the expression off his face. “That’s why we follow you, Ally, because we all know that you do everything that you can to keep us safe. You go beyond what’s expected from you to make sure that we don’t have to go through any hardships, but sometimes you have to let things happen.”
“She was trying to let things happen, but none of you can stay away long enough,” Barron said, as he stepped out of the cabin.
Everyone but Ally and Sebastian jumped at his words, and Adam shook his head in mild exasperation. It looked like he was the only one losing the ability to sneak up on others.
“Barron,” Ally snapped, but the usual annoyance wasn’t in her voice. If anything, she sounded tired, sounded as if she fought to keep herself standing.
He pushed at the mental bond, trying to see what was happening inside her mind, but before he could attempt to break passed the wall a hand was around his throat. Red eyes connected with his as a low growl escaped Barron’s mouth. “You’re hurting her.”
“Barron, stop.”
Barron slammed Adam’s back against a tree, not listening to a word that left Ally’s mouth. “Every time you push,” Barron said, his teeth longer than they should have been. “Every time you borrow her power, you hurt her.”
“Barron,” a different voice snapped, one that Adam was shocked to realize belonged to Sebastian. “Let him go, now. Do you honestly think that this is helping Alex at all? Do you think that seeing the two of you fight is going to make her better?”
The grip around Adam’s neck slackened, making Adam fall to the ground. As Barron took a step away from him, Adam gasped for breath. A low growl escaped his mouth before he could keep it back, but Barron stayed silent. Barron’s body shook, his eyes flashed red once more, and Adam readied himself for a fight. He never got one though.
As Barron took a deep breath, he held his hand out for Adam to take. “I’m sorry.”
Adam stared at Barron, shocked to hear the words come out of the man’s mouth. He had expected Barron to rip his throat out, to shift and tear him apart, but what he hadn’t expected was an apology. Slapping his hand into Barron’s, he allowed the man to pull him to his feet. “It’s okay.”
Barron stared at him a moment before shaking his head. “I’m going to go check on Noah,” he mumbled under his breath as he turned his back and walked away from the crowd. As he passed by Ally, her hand shot out, landing on Barron’s arm.
The tension left the man, and Adam was given his second shock of the day when Barron gripped Ally into a quick hug before pulling back and walking away once more. As soon as Barron entered the house, the tension in the air eased. Ally turned towards Adam, smiling slightly in apology, but before she could say a word, Adam felt laughter spill from his lips.
“He was going to kill me.”
She chuckled along, making Slator and Lucas stare at the two of them as if they were insane. “I even saw it,” she said as she shook her head. “He was actually planning on making it a whole lot slower than you thought.”
“God,” Adam said with a small chuckle while running his palm over his face. “What have you gotten us into?”
The laughter died down, but the amusement didn’t leave her eyes. “I’d do it again, you know? If it meant keeping you alive, I’d go through all of it again.”
Arms wrapped around her from behind as Sebastian’s rested his head on top of hers. “I would have let Adam die.”
“Me too,” Ned spoke up, smiling along with his words.
“Me too,” Adam agreed, winking at Ally when she narrowed her eyes at his answer. “What was all that?” he asked while motioning towards his neck.
Ally winced slightly. “It has a lot to do with things that he doesn’t want to talk about. I wish I could tell you, Adam, but they’re not my secrets to tell. What I can say is that he’s doing a lot more than everyone thinks. He’s helping more than he wants all of you to believe.”
“Ally,” an annoyed voice said from the house, making them all jump again.
She turned towards Barron, smiling innocently at him, and the man threw her a reluctant smile back before walking towards her. Noah wiggled in Barron’s arms, looking as if he were going to attempt to jump from them at any moment. Behind them, Drew walked out, holding Jesse in one arm and Zoë in the other. The little girls smiled up at Drew, while he made faces at them. With the way the two of them were completely enthralled by Drew, Adam was beginning to wonder if royals weren’t as resilient to Drew’s charms as they all believed.
“They just love me,” Drew said with a chuckle.
Adam raised an eyebrow at the man, but didn’t choose to comment. Shaking his head, he looked back towards Ally, who was now holding Noah in her arms. The little boy instantly grabbed a lock of her hair, tugging on it. She didn’t bat an eyelash as he did so, and Adam knew that she was used to the action by now.
“As you were saying,” Barron said, interrupting the silence that was filling the air. When everyone simply looked towards him, Barron let out a sigh and motioned towards Adam. “Before I threatened to kill you.”
“I think that issue is resolved,” Lucas spoke up, his voice not as confident as Adam had remembered it. Not that he blamed the man, especially when he had just seen one of the worse sides of Barron.
“Then why are you all still here?”
“Why is Ally still here?” Ned asked, taking a step towards Barron. “This place is tiny. She can hardly walk in it, let alone live for the next couple of months, and no offence to Adam, but he’s not a very good leader.”
“Thanks,” Adam mumbled, not knowing whether to be offended or a little happy that someone else had said it before he had to himself.
Ally shifted Noah in her arms. “None of you need me there; that’s the point. You just think you need me.”
“I’d like to say that I tried to make her build bigger.” Everyone looked towards Isaac, who simply raised his hands with a smile on his face. “I told her that none of you would be able to stay gone for more than a day, that if she didn’t add more rooms, she would have shifters camping out on every inch of her living room floor.”
“The point is,” Sebastian said as he dropped his arms from around Ally and took a step forward. “None of you should be here right now. Alex told you she’d be gone and to trust Adam’s judgment for anything you couldn’t handle yourselves. What if something were to happen to Alex? Would all of you stop fighting for what you believe in?”
Adam watched as all the men shook their heads with various expressions on their faces. Some, slightly confused, some adamant, and a couple, including his, mildly curious. “I wouldn’t be here,” Sebastian continued. “Alex wouldn’t be here. What would you do?”
“I don’t know,” Owen said, and Adam had to give the man credit for being the only one who was willing to voice all of their fears. They didn’t know what they would do without Ally, didn’t know what they would have to fight for if she wasn’t leading the battles. She was the reason why they were all here. She was the reason why they wanted to fight. “If she wasn’t here,” Owen mumbled with a shrug, “I would probably leave. There is nothing for me here. I don’t fit in.”
“You’re an idiot,” Ned interrupted while slapping the man on the back. “Who is the one who’s trained all of the younger shifters? I don’t think it was Ally who did that.”
Owen’s face reddened slightly, but the man didn’t let the attention stay on himself for long. “You’re the one who does the real good. Have you even told anyone what you’ve done?”
This time, it was Ned who turned red as he scratched the back of his neck in obvious discomfort. “They don’t need to know.”
“He home schools them,” Owen supplied, ignoring Ned’s attempts to shut him up. “It’s official too. The man has a degree, one that he hides in the bottom of his closet. When all of the younger shifters want to get their diploma, not their GED, they can. He set it up with the local school. They go there and take their standardized tests, and if they pass they can have an actual high school diploma.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Ned mumbled. When everyone continued to stare at him, he pointed towards Barron. “He cooks.”
A small smile curled onto Adam’s mouth, but before it could turn into a full one, Barron growled. “On occasion.”
“Wait,” Drew said, his voice filled with mild disbelief. “You’re the one who makes breakfast? And dinner, you make that? Damn, Barron, I thought Jones’s mate was dropping food off.”
“Best food I’ve ever had,” Adam agreed, receiving a glare from Barron.
“You’d stay together,” Ally said with a smile on her face. “You’d continue fighting for what you believe in, you’d keep the leopards from being killed off, and you’d thrive, without me. I just wish all of you had enough faith in yourselves to realize that.”
Adam felt a chill run down his spine at her words. “Where are you going, Ally?”
“What?” she asked, her expression closing down. Beside her, Barron and Sebastian froze. “I can’t go anywhere, Adam. You know that. If I went any further, we’d both die.”
“Not now, Ally, later. When our bond is broken, you plan on leaving, don’t you? Is this what this is all about? You’re trying to get us used to the fact that you’ll no longer be here. Sending Zeke away must have been part of the plan too. Was it to keep him from seeing what you plan to do, or was it because he won’t be here either?”
“Ally,” Ned whispered, “you can’t leave.”
She shook her head at all of them. “Right now, I’m not going anywhere. That’s all you need to worry about. In a couple of years, when things are settled down, do I plan to stay here? No. I want a house to ourselves. I want my children to have as normal of a life as they can. Can all of you honestly say that you’ll want to be here in a couple of years, trying to raise your families under the same roof? I’m not going to leave all of you. I don’t even plan to leave the county, but after this is all over, Seb and I are moving out of the cabin.”
“Sydney and I already have a house a couple of miles away,” Isaac said with a shrug. “We’re close enough to be here whenever you need us, but we never planned on moving there right now. Hell, there are still some holes in the roof that I need to fix, but that is where I want to spend my life. When we’re safe, I want my family to live there.”
Drew cleared his throat, bringing their attention to him. “I don’t have a mate yet, probably won’t even have a family for a while now, but Ally gave me a chunk of land. I’ve been clearing it slowly for the past couple of months. When I can save up the money, I plan to build there. And Tony wants to be a veterinarian. He’s already started putting money back, waiting for a time where he can go to college.”
“We all want different things in life,” Sebastian started, “and Alex and I want all of you to realize that. Fight for what you believe in, fight for the futures you want, don’t fight just because she tells you to.”
“Shh,” Barron whispered as he motioned towards Slator and Drew. “Sorry to break this up, but bring the babies inside. Lock the bedroom door. There is an underground bunker beneath the bed. Drew, if Ally gives you the signal, make sure Noah, Jesse, Zoë, Korbin, and Slator are inside.”
“Why me?” Slator asked as he grabbed Noah from Ally’s arms.
Barron put a finger to his lips, telling the man to be silent before whispering. “If something ever happens to Ally and Sebastian, you’ll be the closest thing these kids will have to family. You’ll be the only one to understand what they’re going through.”
“What is it?” Ned asked as Slator and Drew disappeared into the small house.
Lucas tensed, and Adam knew what was coming before Lucas even had a chance to mumble, “My mom’s here, and she’s not alone.”