Chapter 6

“They’ll never guess.”

“Who would think they were that stupid?”

“Kill them before they leave the vehicle?  No, wait for them.”

Charlie touched his arm, clearing the voices from the shifters outside of their Jeep.  He tugged his arm away from her, and they came rushing back, making him feel in control again.  Pain echoed behind his eyes, but it was a small price to pay to be prepared.

“Do not touch me,” he whispered.  “While we are out here, do not touch me.”

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled.  “I was trying to get your attention.  You looked like you were in pain; are you okay?”

He looked like he was in pain, because he was.  Trying to listen to all of them at once was not an easy task, but he had no choice.  He needed to find the one who controlled the group, kill them, and then see how the others reacted.  He would hate to have to kill them all.

Glancing over at Charlie, he let out a sigh.  “Here is the thing, they plan to kill us.  Ally’s little riot is filled with a crew that still does not like how she runs things.”

“What do you mean?”

“All the other leaders had regular leopards in high command.  Tell me, who does Ally have besides a band of freaks?” 

His hand pulled open his door before she could say a word.  It was better that way.  Let her see what others would think of her, let her see how hard life would be for her, and then, maybe she would leave, forget about some pact she had with another. 

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he felt his teeth elongate.  It had been a while since he had the chance to fight with anyone other than his guards or Ally.  With them, he had to be careful, had to make sure that he didn’t kill them.  Out here, nothing was stopping him, except, maybe the fact that he was second in command now, not the enforcer.  The second had to think politics, while the enforcer had to hand out punishments.

He felt more than saw Charlie settle beside him.  The unease rolling off her body made him want to sigh in frustration.  These shifters couldn’t see a weakness with the two of them.  As soon as they did, they would use it to destroy them.  Right now, Charlie was that only weakness.  Reaching behind him, he pulled the gun from the small of his back. 

“Here,” he said, pushing it toward her.  “They’re silver bullets.  If anyone gets close to you, shoot them.”

“Zeke,” she started, but when he cut his eyes to her, she snapped her mouth closed. 

Turning back towards the leopards in front of him, he smiled.  It wasn’t a pleasant smile; he knew that because a couple of the people took a step away from him.  “Who put this little group of idiots together?”

One woman glared at him.  “We are not idiots.”

“Could have fooled me,” he said.  Tilting his head to the side, he read her mind.  “How is your daughter?  Do you think hiding her in your little underground cubby will keep her from me?”

The woman’s face paled, and she shook her head.  “Don’t do anything to my daughter.  I’ll tell you anything you need to know, just leave my baby girl out of this.”

Zeke nodded at her.  Little did the woman know that he didn’t kill children.  Women, who would hurt Ally, consider them dead, but children, that was crossing the line in his mind.  “Tell me who put this riot together, and I’ll leave your family alone.”

“Don’t do it,” a man called out in rage. 

As soon as his eyes touched the man, he turned white and took a step back.  “I’ll kill you,” the man said, his voice breaking slightly.  “I’m not afraid of you.”

“You know who I am?” he asked, curiously.

“You’re the enforcer,” the man answered.

He smiled and shook his head at them.  “Not anymore, I’m not.  I took a step up on the ladder.  Now, I am formally the Queen’s second in command.”

“She wouldn’t let one of your kind be second!” someone in the crowd called out.

He zeroed in on the person, and they looked shocked that he picked them out of the crowd.  “She did,” he growled, his fingernails sharpening.  It was time to stop talking.  If they wouldn’t give their leader up, he had no choice.

“Wait,” a young man called out.  Zeke scanned his mind, figuring out he was sixteen, had two siblings, and his name was Peyton.  Zeke stared at the boy, and surprisingly enough, he didn’t flinch under his gaze.  “I want to go with you.”

“Peyton!” a woman called out, “don’t do this.  What will your father think?”

Peyton shook his head at the woman.  “Mom, I love you, I do, but I don’t believe in the same as you do.  You think that they should be killed because they’re different than us.  You’re thinkin’ like hunters.  That's what y’all have become, and I don’t want any part of it.”

Zeke smiled at the southern twang in the boy’s voice.  He knew of shifters who lived in southern states because of the woods surrounding the area, but he had never met one.  “You’re in,” Zeke said before jerking his head towards the Jeep.  “Get the others in the Jeep, and don’t come out until I’m done with the rest of your people.”

“With all due respect, sir, these aren’t my people.”

“Get in the Jeep,” Zeke repeated before curling his face in disgust, “and don’t call me sir.”

“Sorry, force of habit.” The boy motioned towards a small group behind him, and they all began walking towards the Jeep.  Scanning their minds as they walked, Zeke learned that they truly believed in what they were doing.  They wanted nothing to do with the genocide their former people believed in. 

When the last girl just about stepped from the crowd, someone grabbed onto her.  The man snarled at them.  “You are traitors to your kind.”

Peyton, who had been standing at the front of the group, immediately used his shifter speed to stand a couple feet away from the man.  “Let her go.”

“What are you going to do, boy?”

“This,” Peyton mumbled, right as he flicked a knife out of his hand.  It embedded itself into the man’s forehead, and Zeke watched as the man fell to the ground.  He was beginning to like this boy.  Peyton grabbed the girl’s hand with a smile.  “Hurry up and get in the Jeep, sweetheart, before something like that happens again.”

The girl nodded, as if she was used to things like that happening.  As far as Zeke knew, she was.  The five people who walked out of the group piled into the Jeep, but Peyton stayed outside of it.  “If you don’t mind, I’d rather stand here, just in case.”

“Not a problem,” Zeke assured the boy before nodding towards the ‘riot’ of shifters.  “Would any of you like to tell me who started this?”

None spoke up, causing Zeke to smile.  “I was hoping you wouldn’t say anything.”

Without them speaking another word, he lunged towards the closest shifter.  The man’s neck snapped under his hands.  He knew that wouldn’t kill him, but it would be enough for now.  His knife stabbed another in the stomach, gutting him.  Glancing over at Peyton, he saw the boy standing there with two swords.  Zeke looked away before doing a double take.  Where in the hell had the boy gotten them from?  His technique was a little sloppy, but Zeke could tell this wasn’t the first time he had used them.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the people in front of him.  His claws dug into some of their throats, he used his knife on others, but he never stopped.  This was how it was for him.  If they wanted to cause his people harm, they had better think twice.

“Zeke!” Charlie shouted, but he already knew the person was behind him.  They couldn’t keep their thoughts blocked, and he knew their every move.

A gunshot echoed, making a couple of them freeze.  Glancing behind him, he looked at the woman lying on the ground, a bullet wound in her forehead.  Looking at Charlie, he barely had time to get to her before she turned and threw up all over his tires.

Gently taking the gun from her hand, he motioned to one of the girls in the Jeep.  “Hold her hair.”

The girl didn’t say a word, just jumped out and proceeded to hold Charlie’s hair as the woman heaved.  Zeke felt bad for the woman, but she needed to learn that this was what his life was, death.

Turning his back towards her, he looked at the crowd, which was half the size it was before.  He was about to get back into the fight, when someone called out, “Wait!”

His head snapped up towards the voice and past questions were answered.  “Marcus.”