As soon as he rolled off her, he expected her to go for his balls or to storm off, but she didn’t do either of those things. When he looked over at her, he realized that she was crying. The realization that he’d made her cry hurt a hell of a lot more than his balls at the moment and had him reaching for her.
“Leave me alone,” she whispered, absently wiping at her face as she got to her feet.
“I can’t do that,” he said hoarsely, coming to his feet.
She shook her head, laughing without humor as she said, “That’s kind of funny since you were about to do just that.”
“Mein Schatz-” he said, reaching for her, but she pulled her arm away as she stepped away from him.
“It’s over, Christofer. I’m sick and tired of your secretive bullshit!” she said, delivering the final blow that knocked him on his ass before she turned around and walked away.
*-*-*-*
“Cloe, please-”
“Just leave me alone, Christofer,” she said, too exhausted to play this game with him.
Falling in love with him had been a mistake, something that she’d tried to stop herself from doing, but clearly she was an idiot because-
“They came for us in 1941,” he announced as he closed the bedroom door behind them.
“What?” she asked, turning around to face him only to find him by the window, bathed in moonlight as he stared off into the distance.
“It was a cool night, much like tonight when they came for us. My father thought, hoped really that we had a few more weeks, but someone must have tipped off the SS because they’d showed up at our door, armed and looking for me.”
“Why were they looking for you?” she asked, her anger pushed aside as her curiosity got the better of her and she found herself sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting to hear the rest of his story.
“Because I was an oddity,” he said with a sad smile. “I was sixteen years old, on the cusp of manhood, but trapped in the body of a child. Someone in the village had talked, someone that my father had helped, had kept safe, had decided that a few dollars was worth betraying my father’s kindness. They came with orders to find the boy that wouldn’t age and bring him to one of the labs that the Nazis were so fond of.”
“My father refused to let them take me. He screamed for me to take Marta and run, but I couldn’t force my legs to listen. I stood there like a fool while a soldier pulled out a gun and placed it against my father’s temple as he struggled to get to us. I remember screaming his name as his body fell to the ground, but nothing much after that.”
“A few days later I woke up in a cage being held in a large white lab. I had no idea how I got there or where I was. I just remember being hungry, really hungry, which was odd since my appetite had waned over the last few years.”
“What happened after you woke up?” she found herself asking once he’d grown quiet.
“The guards told the doctors that I was awake. They started asking me a million questions, but once they’d realized that I wouldn’t talk they brought Marta out, fresh from surgery.”
“What did they do to her?” she asked, immediately wishing that she hadn’t.
“They performed an autopsy of sorts on her, the first of many,” he said, folding his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the wall. “When I fought to get to her, one of the doctors placed the sharp edge of a scalpel to her throat and just like that they owned us. I couldn’t do anything without risking Marta’s life.”
“W-what did they do to you?”
“Everything,” he simply said, looking as though he wasn’t going to continue, but much to her horror, he did. “They started off with trying drugs out on me, then gases, looking for better ways to kill. When nothing worked on me they turned to weapons, fire, acids. They systemically cut off every body part, watching in fascination as it grew back.”
“Oh, my God,” she whispered, horrified.
“When they realized that I couldn’t die, they decided to try and make an army of monsters. They stole my blood and would give it to volunteers, prisoners, anyone that they could get their hands on and when that didn’t work, they started to shove women in my cage.”
“Women?”
He nodded as he shifted closer to the window. “They were brainwashed, led to believe that they were doing their part for the Aryan race. At first, I’d attack the women, half-starved and desperate for blood, but soon the scientists running the lab learned to overfeed me before placing a woman in my cage.”
Her stomach dropped as she imagined all the women being shoved in his cage. “Did you…..,” she started to ask, but she couldn’t make the words come out of her mouth.
“Did I fuck them?” he asked, looking at her for the first time since he’d started. He shook his head as he dropped his head back against the wall. “No, I didn’t. No matter what they did to entice me, I refused to touch them. I refused to let them get their hands on my child. I’ve touched women after that, but I’ve never risked a child, not until you,” he added with a shrug as she struggled to accept what he was saying. He’d been a virgin? Impossible. Before she could ask him, he continued distracting her.
His eyes locked on hers as he said, “And I refuse to let it happen now, Cloe. I wasn’t leaving you behind to be an asshole. I was trying to put an end to this and keep our child safe. To keep you safe.”
“By leaving me here to wonder if you were okay, Christofer?” she demanded, angry with herself and with him for feeling like this, like she’d die if anything happened to him.
“You don’t understand, Cloe,” he said, shaking his head as he pushed away from the wall and headed for the door.
“Then make me understand,” she said, coming to her feet and grabbing his arm to keep him from leaving.
“It’s my job to protect you and to keep you safe,” he said firmly, his muscles tensing beneath her touch.
“Who says?” she asked softly, moving to stand in front of him.
“My father,” he said with a sad smile as he looked her in the eye. He ran his fingertips along her jaw, his touch tender and sweet.
“And what exactly did your father tell you?” she asked, reaching up and covering his hand with hers.
“To always guard my heart,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her. “And that’s you.”
Chapter 58
Manhattan, New York
“What the fuck?”
“Good morning, sunshine,” Kale said as he popped open a fresh can of Coke and took a long, satisfying sip of the sweet, life-giving nectar that allowed him to function without killing everyone in sight.
Well, almost everyone in sight, he amended a moment later when he opened his eyes and spotted the man that he’d knocked out and chained to a chair only an hour ago. He would have killed him immediately, but there were two parts to the contract that he needed to fulfill before he could collect his pay. Granted, he would have done this job for free, planned to the moment he saw those marks on Cloe’s back.
Since the asshole had stirred up a bee’s nest that had ended with shifters sneaking into his territory and coming within a mile of his godchildren, he’d decided to pay this piece of shit a visit sooner than later. The job offer had only given him the excuse that he needed to leave.
“I’m under protection,” the piece of shit snarled with a cocky grin. “You can’t touch me until my property is returned to me.”
“Yes, I can,” he said, taking another sip as he glanced down at his watch, noting that his contact was two and a half minutes late.
“You work for the Sentinels, don’t you?” his mark asked, sounding disgusted. “You’re a fucking traitor, aren’t you, mutt?”
“Occasionally,” Kale said unconcerned, looking down at his phone when it chimed and shaking his head when he read the message that waited for him.
She really was a greedy little thing, he thought as he texted Izzy back and agreed to pick up three boxes of fudge. Not that she’d see any of it, but that fud
ge had been pretty good and he wouldn’t mind having a little extra for the trip back to the mansion.
“You have no idea what you’re doing,” Aidan snarled.
“I’m collecting a bounty for killing a sick fuck who likes to tear apart little girls for fun,” Kale said, meeting Aidan’s cocky glare with one of his own, knowing just how much it would piss the piece of shit off.
Aidan chuckled, as he tried to shift in his chair, but the silver infused titanium chains that Kale had used to secure him to the chair wouldn’t allow him so much as a centimeter of space. “This is over a human? A bitch?” Aidan asked, chuckling darkly. “Oh, you dumb fuck,” he said, shaking his head in wonder, “you’re going to start a war over a bitch.”
“There’s not going to be a war,” he said absently as he picked up his backpack and riffled through it only to curse vividly when he realized that the little sugar addict had stolen his bag of little white powdered donuts that he’d been craving all morning. “There’s definitely going to be a spanking,” he muttered darkly when he realized that she’d also stolen his bag of Hershey Kisses.
“If you don’t release me right now there will definitely be a war, mutt!”
“Only if someone bitches,” Kale pointed out, making a mental note to raid Izzy’s stash once he got back to the mansion.
“They will,” Aidan said firmly, which was sad.
Kale didn’t bother looking up from his backpack as he chuckled. “And who do you think hired me?”
“They can’t do that!”
“No,” Kale said, grabbing a pack of Twinkies and sitting back, not wanting to miss a single moment, “they can’t touch you, but they can arrange to have you wiped from the face of the earth.”
“They’d have to face my Pack!” Aidan snarled with that same cocky grin that Kale was really going to enjoy wiping off his face.
“No, they wouldn’t,” Kale’s contact said as he walked into the room with his Pack filing in after him.
“Brock,” Aidan bit out, his eyes shifting silver as he spotted his Beta and his Pack.
“Aidan,” Brock said, tilting his head in acknowledgement to his former Alpha as he approached Kale and handed him a duffle bag.
“You little son of a bitch!” Aidan snarled, struggling to get free of his chains, but he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“Before we begin,” Kale said, bringing back the Alpha’s attention to him as he pulled out a serrated knife. “I’d like to clear a few things up.”
“Such as?” Brock asked, gesturing to the rest of his Pack to form a circle around them.
“The search for Cloe ends now. She’s under my protection,” he began, sending the Beta a look that promised all sorts of pain if he was ever crossed.
Brock nodded. “We have no plans on continuing the claim on behalf of the Pack.”
“She’s mine!” Aidan snarled viciously, his eyes flashing silver.
“Her child is also under my protection,” he said, shifting his gaze back to Aidan.
Aidan laughed cruelly. “She can’t have children.”
Kale smiled, a cold smile. “Her mate changed her. She’s a Pyte now and with her change, her ability to have children returned. She is now expecting her first son.”
“I’ll kill him!” Aidan shouted, snarling as he struggled to shift, but the silver in the chains wouldn’t allow it.
“No,” Kale simply said as he reached over and slit Aidan’s throat from ear to ear, “you won’t.”
It wouldn’t kill him, but it would release enough blood for Brock to steal the Alpha position away from Aidan. “You need to release the claim on the girl,” he reminded Brock as he grabbed his bags and headed for the door.
“Consider it done,” Brock said, dropping to his knees in front of Aidan, who couldn’t do much more than gurgle and glare as his Beta leaned in and stole his birthright.
Chapter 59
Two Weeks Later……..
“Shouldn’t you be in the infirmary?” Christofer asked, glancing up in time to see Izzy, pale with a pinched expression, sit down on the couch next to him as she swiped the video game controller out of Caine’s hands.
“Shouldn’t you be groveling to your mate?” Izzy snapped back, the contractions that she’d been hiding from Chris obviously making her a tad bit bitchy.
“You’re not going to be able to hide this from him for much longer,” he decided to point out as he returned his attention back to his sketchpad since he wasn’t in the mood to discuss his hormonal mate or the fact that he’d ended up spending three hours comforting Cloe this morning after she’d watched a Huggies commercial.
“You’re only going to make this worse by hiding it from him,” Caine pointed out, sounding bored, but he knew that the Pyte was miserable.
About a week ago Danni had gone to her room to lie down and she hadn’t gotten up since. She kept giving her mate bullshit excuses, that she was tired, reading or just getting some much needed R & R, but they all knew the truth, could scent it now that it had reached her skin.
The cancer was kicking her ass.
The Council was going nuts looking for a cure, but so far, nothing was working. The demon blood stopped helping and so had Caine’s blood. Nothing was helping her, absolutely nothing. Caine hadn’t left the house since his mate took to their bed. He spent most of his time glowering at everyone and everything when he wasn’t trying to convince Danni to eat or try to get up.
She refused to do anything but lie there and soon she probably wouldn’t even be able to do that without crying. The cancer was already making her weak, frail and from what he’d heard from the woman muttering at the video game next to him, she was losing weight. They were quickly running out of options to save her and it probably wouldn’t be long before waking her up would be impossible.
“Hey, little man, give me your controller,” Caine said, drawing his attention to the boy lounging on the couch, his attention focused on the large flat screen television as he battled it out against Izzy’s character.
“Nope,” Marc said, letting the word pop out of his mouth as he blindly reached for the bowl of caramel popcorn by his side.
Instead of snatching the controller out of the boy’s hand, Caine smiled fondly at the boy before he returned his attention to Izzy and reached for the-
“Ow!”
“Don’t interrupt me when I’m in the zone,” Izzy said, her forehead glistening with sweat as she bit her bottom lip, her muscles tensed as she kept her focus locked on the game.
Christofer sighed heavily as he looked back down at the drawing that he was working on. “Another one?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Izzy said, lying her little ass off.
“Uh huh,” he said, adding some shading to the drawing, knowing that it wouldn’t be long until Chris came looking for his mate and realized that she was in labor.
“You really should be in the infirmary,” Marc pointed out around a large handful of popcorn.
“You’re just trying to get me to stop playing!” Izzy snapped.
“Well, you are holding back the mission,” Marc said, earning a chuckle from him and Caine and a pleased smile from Izzy as she focused her attention back on the game. He’d come a long way in the last two weeks, which probably had something to do with his father stringing him up and hanging him in the foyer until he’d promised to cut the shit and start acting like a kid again.
“How did you hide it from Cloe?” Caine asked, making another grab for the remote control only to pull back his hand with a curse and a scowl.
“Chocolate,” Izzy announced proudly, making his lips twitch even as he wondered if he was going to have to make another run into town to get her takeout from the diner tonight.
“You really should be in the infirmary,” Caine said, eying the game controller in Izzy’s hands.
“And get stuck lying on an uncomfortable stretcher for the next twenty hours with nothing to do?” Izzy asked, shaking her head.
“Not going to happen. Not again.”
“Hey, who’s that?” Marc suddenly asked, popping more popcorn in his mouth as he leaned over to look at the drawing pad on Christofer’s lap.
“She’s beautiful,” Izzy murmured, leaning over him to study the picture.
“Is that one of your jobs?” Caine asked, carefully leaning over Izzy to get a look as he-
“My game!” Izzy snarled, slapping Caine’s hands away.
“I was playing first,” Caine grumbled as he sat back, pouting.