Reign (Riders of Apollo #1)

Chapter 12: Roman Hayes

This woman is giving everything to help us out here and I want to bow at her feet. 

Her strength and care combine and prove how big her heart is. At least in the case of this MC. Her sat beside me is too far away so I bring her into my lap, she settles in very quickly where I thought she'd fight back.

She fits perfectly and her warmth rolls over me in sweet waves, I squeeze her waist and she leans further into my embrace. "What's the plan, Prez?" I ask.

"I need to call our rivals by the looks of things, bring them here and try to settle a treaty of some sort. We're going to need each other, especially if HR go after both clubs. Hopefully, they would've already drawn the same conclusion and are open for talks. I'll need everybody here, Peyton included."

I look down at Peyton expecting her to argue or ask questions but she's unconscious, happily snoozing against my shoulder without a care in the world. "She must've been up so late last night, I don't know where we'd be without her." Lexie says softly and grabs a blanket from one of the many couches, gently laying it over the both of us. "Let her sleep, we'll only wake her when the rivals get here. I have a feeling she'll be the only one who is able to convince them to listen."

"I'll get on the phone now." Prez heads off to his office, bringing Lexie with him since she'll be the only thing that stops him from screaming down that phone and throwing all possibility of peace talks out the window.

We are all naturally short tempered and having all of us in the same room is likely to cause an argument. We're already rivals because the Prez is at least fifty and he thinks clubs should be run differently to the way Bear chooses too. 

It makes it quite difficult for us to work together so after that shoot out we all agreed to just stick to our own territory and not get involved with each other, I guess we don't have much of a choice now.

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"They're on their way now." It's been an hour since Prez disappeared into his office to call for the rivals and Peyton has been asleep the whole time. "I need you to wake her up, Reign. Lexie and her are gonna be the only things that stop a war."

"I'm awake, I just can't be bothered to move." Peyton mumbles and sinks further into me.

"Come on, Peyton. I'm gonna need you." Lexie pulls her off of me and she yawns loudly, as she stretches a few things pop and she winces.

"Good Lord, I am not good at conflict resolution." The revving of motorcycles rings in our ears and signifies their arrival. There has to be at least a dozen of them as the ground vibrates beneath our feet. "Reign, I'm staying near you." She backs up towards me and my ego takes a massive boost seeing as she trusts me to take care of her.

I know that she's perfectly capable of looking after herself but the fact that she's willing to rely on me makes my heart beat faster than is healthy.

The doors slam open and we all call to arms, until Peyton makes a choked noise. Her eyes are focused on their Prez, his name is Slasher. He's about my height with dark hair but very familiar eyes, I focus on him and try to see what she is seeing.

She takes slow and measured steps towards him and I fight my urge to stop her from doing anything stupid considering we don't know what their motives are yet. "Who-who are you?" Peyton's voice is soft and hesitant, layered with fear but I can sense relief.

"Slasher." His deep voice rings out, he may have said that bluntly but I can see the curiosity on his face. I guess he can recognise the familiarities between the two of them. They look very similar despite the difference in hair, they share the same skin tone as well.

"Umm I'm Peyton... Peyton Lennox."

"Born on the 20th December 1996. My daughter." You can see the emotion in his eyes even though it is absent from his voice and Peyton is quickly wrapped in a suffocating embrace. What I want to know is why they haven't seen other in so long. "I thought you were dead, baby girl. They took you when you were so young I didn't think you could survive."

"Sometimes I think I didn't." She whispers but the gravity of her words settle with us. With her sadness, my legs tingle to sprint towards her and take her from her father's embrace and wrap her in my own. "Is my mum still around?"

"Yep, back at the clubhouse. Once this is all done I'll take you back with me to meet her, I don't think you know how much we've missed you." Peyton smiles, her face brightening with every word he says and quickly her sadness is forgotten.

We gesture for everyone to head in to our meeting room and everyone takes a seat. Lexie takes her place on Bear's lap and - without prompting, as if she knows where she belongs - Peyton settles on my lap.

The situation is explained in detail with Peyton and Bear explaining every possibility, everything seems to point to one thing. 

Death to both MCs.