A vicious growl and a muttered curse broke through her rather inappropriate thoughts. She bit her bottom lip as she watched Christofer’s beautiful red eyes take in every single inch of her as he hungrily licked his lips. Her body shivered in response, which earned another muttered curse from Kale as the bastard, who seemed to be in love with glaring, shot a glare over his shoulder.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he demanded, shaking his head in disgust.
Ignoring the heat spreading up her neck and pretending that the realization that they could scent her arousal didn’t make her want to die of mortification, she glared right back at him. “Don’t you have a job to do?” she reminded him, hoping that it was enough to distract him.
Still shaking his head in disgust, he returned his attention to the man now standing less than ten feet away from them. “Just as soon as he steps onto the tile.”
“What happens when he steps on the tile?” she asked distractedly, her attention focused on the man watching her every move.
God, he was so damn sexy……
And he smelled incredible. Her vision went red as she licked her lips, running her eyes over his body and pausing at all the good spots. What was it about his scent that made her desperate to get him inside her? She should still be freaking out and trying to get away from him before he could attack her instead of standing here fantasizing about dropping to her knees and-
“I’m going to shoot him,” Kale announced, quickly killing the mood and drawing her attention to the bastard now aiming his weapon at Christofer’s chest.
“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked, licking her suddenly dry lips, sure that she’d misheard him.
“The Compound leader is no longer interested in keeping him,” Kale said evenly, forcing her to step back once again.
“Is that why they kept us locked up?” she asked, hoping to distract him long enough so that she could figure out a way to get Christofer out of this without the glaring bastard putting a bullet between his eyes.
“That would be my guess,” Kale said, stepping back again, his focus locked on the Pyte standing less than three feet from the edge of the pool, watching their every move.
“And now?” she asked, risking a quick glance over her shoulder to see that there was still a good ten feet between them and the tiled wall behind them.
“And now they’re not happy,” Kale said as he once again stepped back, forcing her to go with him.
She glanced back quickly and nearly sighed with relief when she saw that Christofer hadn’t moved any closer. They still had time, not much, but she was hoping that it was enough.
“So, now what?” she asked, sending Christofer an imploring look to keep his ass right where it was. If he understood, it didn’t show.
“So now I need to transfer you to a Compound that can handle you and take the asshole here to the Williams’ mansion where the pain in the ass that’s mated to my Izzy can train him,” Kale explained, taking her by surprise not only because he usually ignored her questions and settled for glaring at her, but because he actually bothered to tell her his plans, which meant…….
She swallowed nervously. “You’re planning on shooting me afterwards, aren’t you?” she asked, this time stepping back on her own.
“Smart girl,” Kale said, nodding approvingly as he took another step back.
“Why not keep us together?” she asked, her mouth going dry at the thought of being shot.
It didn’t matter that they’d promised her that she couldn’t die, she still didn’t want to get shot. She also didn’t want to be separated from Christofer and right now, she was terrified that the thought of being taken away from him scared her more than being shot.
“You’re not going anywhere near my godchildren,” he said, forcing her back another foot. “Come on, asshole, take the bait,” he snapped in aggravation when Christofer still didn’t move.
“I would never hurt a child,” she said hollowly, truly offended that he thought that she was capable of harming a child.
Kale snorted in disgust. “Don’t take it personally, cupcake.”
“How the hell else am I supposed to take it?” she snapped, moving to step away from him, but he simply reached back, grabbed her by the arm and forced her to stay right where she was.
“You’re marked,” he said as if that would explain everything.
It didn’t.
“And?”
“You’re another shifter’s property.”
“I’m really not,” she said with a snort of disgust as she yanked her arm free from his hold.
“You really are,” he said dryly, shooting her a warning glare over his shoulder to keep her ass right where it was. For now she planned on doing just that, but there was no way that she was going to stand there and allow him to shoot Christofer, not when he wasn’t even-
“Wait a minute,” she said, frowning as she looked at Christofer, really looked at him. “He’s not out of control.”
“No,” Kale said, forcing her back another step, “he’s not.”
“So, he’s not in bloodlust?” she asked, her relief obvious. If he wasn’t out of control, then-
“He’s learned to stay in control even while in bloodlust,” Kale said, sounding pissed when she would have thought that would make him happy. It certainly made her happy since he wasn’t acting like a feral animal going for her throat.
“So, he’s not going to attack anyone,” she pointed out, relieved that this was over. All she wanted to do was to go to him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and make him promise that he wasn’t going to let anyone separate them. When she moved to do just that, she found herself once again being shoved back.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, sweetheart,” Kale said, nodding towards Christofer, who was practically eating her up with his eyes. The expression on his face had her swallowing nervously as she took an unsteady step back.
“He still hasn’t done anything to deserve being shot,” she mumbled, tightening her arms around herself as she started to shiver, from the cold or the way that Christofer was watching her, she wasn’t exactly sure.
“Tell that to the shitload of Sentinels that he tore through to get to you.”
“They locked us up!” she snapped, deciding not to mention her attack since it was one of those things that was better off left unsaid.
“True,” he agreed, not sounding like he really cared.
“Look,” she said, licking her lips nervously as she hesitantly took a step to the side and when he didn’t move to stop her, she took another one until she was standing several feet away from him, her arms still wrapped tightly around her chest, “he didn’t mean to hurt anyone. It was an accident. Let me try calming him down and we’ll go-”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Kale said, pulling a second weapon free and aiming it at her before she could blink. Suddenly, she realized why he hadn’t tried to stop her.
“You’re really going to shoot me?” she asked, her voice cracking as she took another step back.
“In a heartbeat,” he said without hesitation as Christofer released a vicious growl that actually comforted her instead of scaring the living hell out of her for once.
“Then what’s the hold up?” she asked, scanning the large room, looking for a weapon or a way to get her and Christofer out of this.
“Him first,” he said coldly as he watched Christofer, obviously waiting for him to do something.
“If you were really going to shoot him, you would have done it by now,” she lamely pointed out, hoping that he wouldn’t take it as a challenge and pull the damn trigger.
Kale shook his head. “I’m not in the mood to retrieve the body from the bottom of the pool.”
“I see,……” she said in understanding, shifting as a plan quickly formed. It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it would save them from-
“I’m glad that you do,” Kale murmured, shifting his attention from Christofer to her as the sound of a
gunshot suddenly rang out, echoing in the large room. A scream of agony tore through her lips as she felt something explode in her chest, burst through bone, shredding it upon impact and slice through her heart and muscle until it finally burst through more bone.
By the time she realized that she’d been shot, she found herself floating in a sea of pain, wrapped in darkness, the sounds of a violent roar the only comfort she had as she felt herself sink deeper into nothing.
Chapter 42
“You…..fucking…….asshole…,” Chris choked out while he took in the scene before him as he hugged an obviously broken arm against his chest.
“Grab my bag,” Kale said, nodding towards the bleachers as he quickly moved over to Cloe’s body and rolled her onto her stomach.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Ephraim demanded coldly, coming to a stop next to his son, who was still standing there and being fucking useless.
“Get my bag or get the fuck out,” he said, wiping the sweat off his brow with the back of his arm as he took in the damage from the bullet and cursed.
It was already starting to heal.
“Get away from her, you sick fuck!” Chris said, dropping unsteadily to his knees in front of him just as he was grabbed from behind and yanked back.
“I should tear your fucking throat out!” Caine shouted, grabbing him by the throat and pulling him to his feet so that he found himself staring into glimmering red eyes.
He didn’t have fucking time for these games.
Sighing in annoyance, he allowed his eyes to shift, felt his fangs slide through his gums and with barely a thought, denied his body the shift that it so desperately craved, careful to retain his hold on his body. As soon as he felt the rush of energy flow through him, he reached up with one hand and laid it over Caine’s hand at his throat. Before the Pyte could react, he pulled the hand at his throat away with a slight twist as he slammed the flat of his palm into the Pyte’s chest and shoved him away with a loud crack.
“Fucking hell!” Caine gasped, pressing a hand to his chest as he stumbled back
He sent Caine a glare of warning, the only one that he would get if he tried to come between him and his work again. He might have taken it easy on the Pyte in the past, but not now, not when he had a job to do.
“Why the hell did you do this?” Ephraim demanded, looking from Cloe’s blood soaked body to Christofer’s and shaking his head in disgust like Kale really cared if he was pissed or not.
“Make yourself useful and feed the male. We’re going to need him,” was all he said as he made his way over to where he’d stashed his bag.
“You really are an asshole, aren’t you?” Danni asked tightly as she took in the scene.
Since he’d never denied it and he really didn’t give a fuck if another Pyte was pissed at him, he ignored her and made his way back to Cloe. The bullet wound was still healing, which meant that he had some time to get this job done.
“What are you doing?” Chris asked, watching as he pulled a large bottle of water out of his bag and poured it over Cloe’s back so that he could see what he had to work with.
“Fucking hell,” he said hollowly, seeing the extent of her marking.
Whoever had marked her was a fucking sick bastard. While most Shifters settled for a single swipe of their claws down their human’s back to mark their property, this sick prick had sliced up every inch of her back. The message was clear, the shifter that had marked her wanted to make sure that everyone knew that she was someone’s bitch.
This Pyte had seriously fucked up by touching her. Any hope that the shifter had forgotten about her over the years evaporated when he saw the extent of her mark. You didn’t mark a human like this unless you had plans for her. He had no idea who’d marked her, but he knew one thing.
He was going to tear the sick fuck’s throat out for this.
“I’m not going to be able to destroy the mark like this,” he muttered to himself as he ran his fingers over the scars slashed all over her back and the large angry pink scar that ran across her side, confirming his fears for the woman.
The sick fuck definitely had long term plans for her, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered to rip Cloe’s uterus out.
“You’re removing the mark?” Chris asked, shooting him a questioning look that he would normally ignore, but since he actually needed the bastard’s help, he decided to play along.
“Yes,” he said, pouring more water over her back so that he could see the full extent of the damage that needed to be fixed.
“I didn’t think that was possible,” Ephraim said, getting up to grab a small stack of clean towels from one of the shelves lining the wall behind them.
“It’s not,” he said, shaking his head as he shot the male lying only a few feet away another glance. If this was going to work, he was going to need the big bastard. “We need him awake.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have shot him, asshole,” Chris said with a snort of disgust as he released his hold on his broken arm and pulled his phone out of his pocket with a grimace of pain.
“He was in bloodlust and useless to me. I need him focused,” he said, getting back to business.
“And you couldn’t have waited until he snapped out of it?” Chris demanded as he sent a text message.
“No,” he simply said as he mentally evaluated his choices. After a minute, he had to admit that they weren’t very good.
“And why’s that?” Caine asked, sounding pissed as he knelt by the prone male as he bit into his own wrist.
“Because,” Kale said, reaching into his pack and pulling out the bottle of lighter fluid that he’d swiped from one of the weapons rooms, “word has spread about the theft and every shifter in the state is coming for her.”
*-*-*-*
“About fucking time,” was the warm welcome that Christofer received when he finally managed to crack open his eyes.
“What the hell happened?” he asked groggily as he reached up and attempted to the rub the sleep out of his eyes while he tried to make sense of the images racing through his mind. Most of the images were confusing, but between what he remembered in the elevator and the tenderness he felt in his chest, he knew that they’d been forced to put him down, again.
Shit!
He hoped like hell that Cloe hadn’t seen any of it. He didn’t like the idea of her having to see something like that, but he really hated the idea of her seeing him lose control. The last thing that she needed was to be reminded of what he really was and what he’d done to her. He wanted her to…….to……
To know why he could scent burnt human flesh.
Memories of his time in the lab tried to force their way in, but he ignored them, knowing that they wouldn’t help as he opened his other senses and took in his surroundings. The scent of chlorine, blood, adrenaline, lighter fluid, smoke and the unforgettable odor of burning human flesh and the fact that he was in the back of a van registered.
As did the fact that another man had Cloe in his arms.
“Relax,” Chris said calmly from where he sat across from him, but Christofer barely spared him a glance as he sat up and glared at the shifter who had absolutely no right to look at Cloe, never mind hold her.
“Slip into bloodlust while we’re in this van and I’ll blow your fucking head off,” Kale threatened even as he shifted with Cloe in his arms and moved forward so that he could abruptly deposit her in Christofer’s arms.
He caught her and hugged her tightly against him as he looked her over. She was pale, her beautiful brown hair was a tangled wet mess, she was wrapped in a damp white sheet and the scent of chlorine, lighter fluid and burnt flesh poured off her.
“What happened?” he demanded as he struggled not to lose control, but it was damn near impossible with Cloe lying limply in his arms like this.
“Why don’t you tell us?” Caine suggested, drawing his attention to the man sitting by the doors with Danni sitting between his legs, a bag of blood pressed against her
mouth, looking pale and exhausted.
A terrifying thought occurred to him as he took in the rest of the van’s occupants. He took in the blisters and burns on Kale’s neck and hands, the blood soaked bandages wrapped around his arms and the charred remains of his clothes before shifting his attention to Chris who sat beside him, holding a splinted arm against his chest and finally down at the woman in his arms. He swallowed back bile as he asked, “Did I hurt her?”
“Not from a lack of trying, but you did manage to tear through about six dozen Sentinels, demons and shifters if it makes you feel any better,” Chris mused, shifting with a cringe as the move jostled his arm.