Since the a.s.shole had stirred up a bee's nest that had ended with shifters sneaking into his territory and coming within a mile of his G.o.dchildren, he'd decided to pay this piece of s.h.i.t 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 s.h.i.t snarled with a c.o.c.ky 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 f.u.c.king 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 fudge 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 f.u.c.k who likes to tear apart little girls for fun," Kale said, meeting Aidan's c.o.c.ky glare with one of his own, knowing just how much it would p.i.s.s the piece of s.h.i.t off.

Aidan chuckled, as he tried to shift in his chair, but the silver infused t.i.tanium chains that Kale had used to secure him to the chair wouldn't allow him so much as a centimeter of s.p.a.ce. "This is over a human? A b.i.t.c.h?" Aidan asked, chuckling darkly. "Oh, you dumb f.u.c.k," he said, shaking his head in wonder, "you're going to start a war over a b.i.t.c.h."

"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 b.i.t.c.hes," 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 c.o.c.ky 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 b.i.t.c.h!" 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 b.i.t.c.hy.

"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 bulls.h.i.t 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 a.s.s.

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 s.n.a.t.c.hing 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 a.s.s 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 s.h.i.t 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.

"And now you're not," Izzy said, her focus still on the drawing. "Who is she?"

"Jessica," he said, smiling fondly down at the beautiful woman that the little girl that liked to steal his nose would one day turn into.

"My Jessica?" Izzy asked with a watery smile.

"Yes," Christofer said, carefully removing the paper from the pad and handed it over to her.

"She's beautiful," she said, carefully tracing the picture with her fingers.

"That's my baby girl?" Chris asked as he walked into the room and leaned over the couch to get a better look just as a contraction tore through Izzy, one that she had no hopes of hiding.

"Uh oh," Marc said, his hand pausing mid-grab as he reached for another handful of popcorn. His eyes darted from Izzy, who was even now trying to pretend nothing was wrong. She blindly reached out and grabbed Christofer and Caine's hands as she attempted to give Chris one of her sweet smiles.

Unfortunately for her, the bloodcurdling scream that escaped her lips ruined it for her. In an instant, Chris' adoring expression for the image of what his precious baby girl would one day turn into was gone and in its place was a stone cold killer who sensed his mate's distress. He considered saying something, but he knew that if he opened his mouth right now that he'd embarra.s.s himself with a pained moan or a whimper.

For such a small little thing, Izzy had one h.e.l.l of a grip!

"Tell me," Chris said coolly, "that you're not in labor."

Izzy opened her mouth, no doubt to lie her adorable little a.s.s off to buy herself more time out of the infirmary, but instead she ended up crying, "Daddy!"

Within seconds, Ephraim was there, kneeling in front of Izzy as Christofer was forced to grind his jaw shut as another contraction tore through Izzy's small body.

"So soon, baby girl?" Ephraim asked, reaching up and gently cupping Izzy's face as she nodded with a broken sob.

"Is there anything that I can do?" Marc asked, falling back into his old role as Izzy's protector.

"Go get Cloe," his father said, getting him out of the room, which was for the best since it probably wouldn't do for the boy to see two grown men cry.

Holy s.h.i.t, she had a strong grip!

"What the h.e.l.l is going on here?" Kale demanded, dropping his backpack to floor as he walked over and knelt beside Ephraim and took Izzy's hand away from Caine.

Caine sighed heavily as pulled his hand away, and fell back against the couch, hugging his abused hand to his chest while Christofer was forced to sit there and suffer through another contraction. When he felt the first bone in his hand snap, he held his breath, forcing himself to take it as Izzy screamed her way through another contraction. He couldn't help but sag in relief when Chris suddenly reached over and scooped Izzy up. He carried her out of the room with Ephraim and Kale hot on his heels.

"She break your hand?" Caine asked, shaking his hand to work out the pain.

"Yeah," he said, wincing as he felt his bones in his hand snap back in place with an audible crack.

"She's a violent little thing," Caine said with a fond smile as he continued to shake out his hand.

"That she is," Christofer agreed, nodding slowly as he turned his head to study the Pyte. After a moment, he decided that it was time to end this game and get to the point.

"What do you want?"

"That's my precious baby girl!"

"She's my G.o.dchild!" Kale snarled, his eyes shifting silver as he leaned down, keeping his eyes locked on Chris as he planted baby kisses on the newborn's forehead.

Eyes narrowing to slits, Chris snuggled his newborn son in his arms. "Fine, but you're not holding my precious baby boy."

"Oh," Kale said, pausing to press another kiss to the sleeping baby's head, "I'll be holding him next. You can count on that."

"We'll see," Chris said, making a show of kissing his son's head.

"Yes," another kiss to the baby girl's forehead, "we will."

"Can I hold one of the babies?" Izzy asked, sounding exhausted with a hopeful smile only to end up dropping her arms by her sides, muttering about the "big babies" and curling up onto her side as both men snapped, "No!"

Cloe bit back a smile as she stepped past the men caught up in a glaring match and checked on Izzy who'd already fallen asleep almost instantly. Poor thing, she thought, pulling the blanket up and tucking Izzy in as she shot Ephraim a smile. "How's the hand?"

"Healing," he said with a wince, cradling his hand against his chest as he stood up. "Since I'm probably not going to get a chance to hold one of my new grandchildren until later," he said, sounding amused as he got to his feet, "I think I'll go help Madison with the children."

Cloe glanced at the clock and noted the late hour. It had taken Izzy ten hours to deliver the twins and now Cloe was exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to stumble her way to her room and fall asleep in Christofer's arms, but she had to check on Danni first.

She hadn't seen Danni all day, hadn't had the chance to check up on her to make sure that she was okay. In the last of couple weeks she'd watched as the woman slowly wasted away and knew that it was only a matter of time until she slipped into a coma. It was a process that she was too familiar with and one that she didn't want to see Danni fall victim to, especially since there would be no escape for her.

She wished there was more that she could do for her, but there wasn't. Medicine was like poison to them, blood transfusions seemed to make her sicker. They couldn't use normal cancer treatments to treat her. Cloe couldn't help but wonder if- "Get her off of me!" she heard Christofer's pain filled roar as she climbed the steps to the living quarters.