His Prowl

Part 19

Chapter 19

Blake looked at the crowd of people in front of him.  He may have made a mistake when he yelled at Ally, but could they blame him?  He was tired of being treated like a child, and he had to do something to stop it.  He shook the thoughts from his head.  It would do no good to dwell on something he could not change.  He would just have to do damage control.

Zeke stood next to him in leopard form, but instead of comforting Blake, it sent his nerves on edge.  The leopard’s head was shifting through the crowd as if he was looking for something, and Blake had no doubt in his mind that Zeke was reading their minds.  Those who could block him were doing so, but how many people could keep someone as strong as Zeke out their mind?

A low growl rumbled in Zeke’s throat.  Looking down, Blake sighed as the snow leopard’s eyes narrowed on a single man.  The man in question paled and began running towards the woods.  Without hesitation, Zeke took off after him.  Before the man could even reach the edge of the forest, Zeke pounced on his back.  The man fell to the ground with Zeke’s claws digging into his back.

Blake waited for the kill, but was surprised when Zeke jumped off the man.  The man rolled to his back, wincing as he touched his wounds to the ground.  Blake could barely make out the words the man whispered.  “Are you really going to make me fight you Zeke?  I thought we were friends.”

A snarl escaped from Zeke’s large mouth.  They all knew what that meant.  The man lying on the ground was no friend to Zeke.  Whatever he had done, it was not something that Zeke was going to let go.  He pushed himself up, standing proudly in front of the leopard.  He looked at Zeke with a slight smile.  “I knew when I made my decisions that you would be the one to kill me.  I have to admit that it isn’t such a bad way to die.”

The man lunged towards Zeke, but got nowhere as Zeke’s jaws clamped down on his throat.  The two fell to the ground once more. Instead of stopping as Sydney had been forced to days earlier, Zeke ripped his throat out.  Blood coated the white fur around his jaw.  Zeke stepped away from the body.  Not even looking back, the leopard came to stand by Blake’s side once more.

“You want to clean up?”

Zeke’s head turned towards Blake and shook his head.  “Scare tactic,” whispered through his mind.  He nodded at Zeke telling the man that he understood.

“Zeke,” a voice grumbled.  Looking over, he saw Ally standing there with an exasperated look on her face.  “You said you were going to wait on me.”  She paused for a minute.  “Yeah, well, I want to fight.  That’s not your decision to make.” Another pause, before she let out a sigh.  Settling down on the ground, she crossed her legs and motioned towards the people around her.  “If the two of you want to deal with it, go ahead.”

Blake let a smile cross his face at the picture she made.  She had an expression that said to hurry up and get it over with, but her body was completely relaxed.  Her arms were crossed over her belly.  She must have felt his staring because she turned her face in his direction.  With a smile, she motioned to the spot next to her.  “Come sit while Zeke kills a bunch of people.”

He let out a laugh and made his way towards her.  “You’re not afraid to get your jeans dirty?”

She looked at her pants with a look of disgust.  “As soon as I have these kids, I’m burning these pants.  Can you believe they have an elastic waistband?  Seb thinks their cute, which make me want to punch him.”

“I think their horrible,” he told her with a chuckle.

She smiled up at him, patting the ground once more.  “Sit down.  I want to talk to you.”

“Yes, your majesty,” he joked while plopping down beside her.  “What is it that you wanted to talk about?”

Screams echoed in front of them, but Blake didn’t turn in their direction.  He wasn’t completely sure what was going on, but Ally wouldn’t let Zeke kill innocent people.  She would not just sit here while he murdered them.  In fact, what he could take from her one sided conversation, she was being put in time out.  She may have wanted to fight with him, but Zeke wasn’t allowing it. 

“Wait for it,” she mumbled.  

Seb popped up out of nowhere.  “Alex, I think you should back up a little.  What if someone fell into you?  You could get hurt.”

“Sebastian, I love you, but you have ten seconds to go help Zeke before I do it.”

Ally stayed still, and Blake watched the battle on Sebastian’s face.  The poor man didn’t know whether to listen to Ally or demand for her to back up.  Finally, he let out a sigh and ran towards the battle.  Blake looked into the crowd and watched as the snow leopard walked down a line of people.  Zeke would stop for a second in front of a person before moving on.  If his stop was longer than normal, the person would either take off running or jump at him. 

“Why are they just standing there?”

Ally glanced at the people before turning her eyes back to him.  “I learned how to issue a command without actually saying it.  It’s kinda scary, but useful.”

“You commanded them to stay still?”

She nodded.  “I release them when Zeke is finished with them. If they are guilty, he tells me and I let them choose to fight him or run.  Either way, they have a small chance to live.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I don’t like killing them, Blake,” she mumbled.  “They may be traders, they may be working with Evelyn, but I don’t enjoy this.  I’m just glad there have only been three so far.”

“I understand,” he said with a nod.  “Now, what is it you wanted to talk about?”

Her cheeks filled with air, and she let it out in a loud sigh.  “I’m sorry for babying you, but I wasn’t mad at you.”

“I know, Ally.  I’m sorry for snapping at you.  Your opinion matters to me.  You just need to back off a little sometimes.”

“You’re one of my best friends. I’m going to try to protect you, but Blake, when I say this I’m not trying to be mean. You’re the weakest.  I sent you here hoping that you would learn to fight.  I couldn’t bring you along with me because I knew that you would be in the way.”

Her words hurt, but he knew it was the truth.  She wasn’t trying to make him feel bad about himself, she was just explaining her actions.  Blake knew that, but he still didn’t like the fact.  “I’m glad you sent me here, Ally.  I needed it, even if I didn’t know.”

She let out a laugh.  “I think you didn’t need it as much as either of us believes.  If I would have let you do a little more, you would have come off up top.  It’s how you are; you’re a natural leader.”

“Thanks, Ally.”

“No problem,” she replied with a smile.  “Now, that we have that settled.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, knowing from her expression that she was up to no good.  “What do you want?”

She glanced at the woods with longing.  “I want to shift, but that is a no.  What I really want to do is just run without Seb and Zeke stopping me every ten seconds to see how I am.”

He hopped to his feet.  Holding his hand out, he smiled down at her.  “You want to go running?”

She glanced over at the group of people.  Zeke was standing in front of one, and Seb was behind them.  She bit her lip.  “Who will release them?”

“Let them stand there until you get back,” Blake told her.  “You’ll only be gone for a minute.  Worse case, Sebastian will free them.”

She grabbed his hand and nodded.  “Okay, let’s go.”