"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 s.h.i.tload 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 h.e.l.l 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 d.a.m.n 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.....f.u.c.king.......a.s.shole...," 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 f.u.c.k do you think you are?" Ephraim demanded coldly, coming to a stop next to his son, who was still standing there and being f.u.c.king useless.

"Get my bag or get the f.u.c.k 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 f.u.c.k!" 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 f.u.c.king 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 f.u.c.king 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.

"f.u.c.king h.e.l.l!" 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 h.e.l.l 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 p.i.s.sed 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 a.s.shole, 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 f.u.c.k if another Pyte was p.i.s.sed 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.

"f.u.c.king h.e.l.l," he said hollowly, seeing the extent of her marking.

Whoever had marked her was a f.u.c.king sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d. While most Shifters settled for a single swipe of their claws down their human's back to mark their property, this sick p.r.i.c.k 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 b.i.t.c.h.

This Pyte had seriously f.u.c.ked 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 f.u.c.k'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 f.u.c.k 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d'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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d. "We need him awake."

"Then maybe you shouldn't have shot him, a.s.shole," 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 bloodl.u.s.t 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 p.i.s.sed as he knelt by the p.r.o.ne 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 f.u.c.king time," was the warm welcome that Christofer received when he finally managed to crack open his eyes.

"What the h.e.l.l 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.

s.h.i.t!

He hoped like h.e.l.l 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 bloodl.u.s.t while we're in this van and I'll blow your f.u.c.king 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 d.a.m.n 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.

"Did I kill anyone?" he asked, not really caring, not after they'd locked Cloe up with him without making sure that they had enough blood so that he could keep her safe.

"No," Chris answered, his tone curious.

"And we'd love to know how you managed that," Caine said, regarding him with interest.

"What happened to her?" he asked, not giving a d.a.m.n about anything else but how she ended up like this.

A heavy pause followed, drawing his attention away from the woman lying helplessly in his arms to the shifter glaring defiantly at him while Chris, Caine and Danni all looked torn between disgust and pity. Without a single word it told him everything that he needed to know.

The shifter needed to die.

"What did you do to her?" he demanded, welcoming the burn as his eyes shifted and his fangs descended.

"This s.h.i.t can wait until we get home!" Ephraim pointed out firmly from the front of the van, no doubt hoping that he'd let it go for now.

"What needed to be done," Kale said evenly, meeting his red-eyed glare with a silver-eyed glare of his own.

"Don't start that s.h.i.t in here. You'll hurt her," Chris warned, closing his eyes and letting his head drop back, looking exhausted.

"And what exactly needed to be done?" he demanded.

"He removed the mark," Danni explained as she removed the bag of blood from her lips and handed the half empty bag to her mate with a reluctant shake of her head that had her mate's expression shutting down, but not before Christofer caught the flash of fear in the man's eyes.

"And how exactly did he do that?" he drawled, shifting his attention back to the shifter who was starting to look bored with the conversation.

"By setting her on fire," Kale admitted with a shrug that had the other three occupants of the van cursing before he added, "But don't worry, I shot her in the heart first," with a wink that had Christofer carefully placing Cloe on the floor.

"I see," he said, the last coherent words that would leave his mouth for an hour as it turned out.

Chapter 43.

"You don't want to do this," Danni said, licking her lips nervously as she shot another glance down at her unconscious mate.

Instead of arguing with her, he gestured with the handcuffs in his hand for her to sit back down next to her mate. "I've never hurt a woman and I have no plans to start now," he patiently explained as he waited for her to comply.

"I'm going to tear your f.u.c.king head off for this!" the shifter that he'd allowed to live for the moment, growled as he once again yanked at his handcuffs.

Since Christofer knew just how much it would p.i.s.s the shifter off, he ignored him as he knelt in front of Danni, who looked paler, and handcuffed her right hand to her mate's. He knew that he was probably going to regret it later, but he left her other hand free.

"We're trying to help you," Ephraim said, trying to raise his head, but the effort proved to be too much so he just laid there on a bed of pine needles and groaned.

"Yeah, it feels it," he said dryly, shooting Cloe a quick glance to make sure that she was still curled up safely a few feet away from what was left of the van.

"We f.u.c.ked up. I'll give you that, but we really are trying to help you," Chris said, releasing a groan of his own as he tried to sit up, but just like his father, he gave up after the first try and settled for falling back on the ground next to his father.

"We don't need your kind of help," Christofer said, stepping back to admire his work.

"You need our help more than you know," Ephraim explained as he tried to roll over onto his side, but since Christofer had cuffed his arms and legs to the men lying helplessly on either side of him, the move proved impossible.

"And why is that?" he absently asked as he walked back to the van lying in a tangled mess on its side and reached in and grabbed one of the coolers that had survived the crash.

He walked back over to the ragtag group of misfits sprawled out on the forest floor in various stages of unconsciousness and placed the cooler down. He grabbed two bags of blood before he sat down on top of the cooler, deciding that it was probably for the best if he overfed before he tried to hike out of here with Cloe in his arms.

"You have no idea what you're up against," Danni said, looking pained as she closed her eyes and dropped her head back against the tree.

"Why don't you explain it to me?" he suggested, glancing down at the bagged blood in his hand with a frown. He was definitely going to regret this later, he told himself as he tossed one of the bags to her.

She didn't even open her eyes as she said, "I can't drink that."

"Why not?" he asked, wondering if the female Pytes had some sort of defect or disorder that he was going to have to watch out for in Cloe.