She rolled her eyes. "That's three."

d.a.m.n it!

"Are you going to let me go to bed or not? I have a big day tomorrow."

"No! You're fired."

"And you're repet.i.tive," she snapped back. With another sigh, she released the door, walked into the room and shut the light off. He was on automatic when he followed her inside.

"What are you doing?" he asked although he could see everything without a problem, even in a supposedly pitch black room. Everything took on various shades of blue in the darkness, making it easy for him to see. He watched as she climbed into bed.

"Going to bed," she answered as she curled up on her side.

His hands fisted with the need to climb in behind her and hold her. That startled him. As much as it pained him to admit it, he'd never had a problem keeping his vow to himself to put off living his life for his sister's sake before. It was one of the reasons he didn't want her here. His baby sister was asleep downstairs, defenseless. Allowing this woman to stay here would be exposing his sister to a possible threat.

He sighed. "You're fired."

"Five," she muttered into her pillow.

He growled his frustration as he stormed out of the room. Somehow he was going to get her out of his house sooner rather than later. Perhaps if he showed Marta that Cloe wasn't needed around here she'd agree to let Cloe go. A slow grin spread across his face as he headed down to the bas.e.m.e.nt. Oh, the little smart a.s.s was as good as gone.

Chapter 5.

Williams Mansion "We're going to be late," she moaned, arching her back and lifting her a.s.s off the bed so that she could ride his tongue in a sensuous move that had his fangs sliding down and the head of his c.o.c.k pushing past the waistband of his jeans.

"Don't f.u.c.king care," Ephraim said, tilting his head slightly to the side so that he could leisurely lick his wife out.

"Ephraim!" Madison gasped in pleasure and pain, tilting her hips and trying to force the tip of his tongue inside her core, but other than sliding the tip over it to tease her, he didn't give in to her demands.

"They can wait," he said, refusing to be rushed.

Thanks to a slow night on patrol, he'd had plenty of time to fantasize about all the very naughty things that he wanted to do with his wife. Licking her out was phase one. f.u.c.king her with his fingers was naturally phase two and that would bring him to phase three where he planned on f.u.c.king her in nine different, fully thought-out, positions before he pulled out and allowed her to finish him off with her mo- "Hurry the h.e.l.l up!" Kale suddenly demanded and Ephraim didn't need to use his Pyte abilities to know that the annoying shifter was standing right outside their bedroom door.

Madison whimpered as she moved back and tried to close her legs, frustration pouring off her in waves. He didn't bother telling her to ignore the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, because he knew that she wouldn't be able to do that. Even though she could normally ignore the fact that there were at least three people living here that could hear what they were doing no matter which room they used, she wouldn't be able to ignore someone with razor sharp hearing standing right outside their bedroom door.

"We'll be down in a minute, a.s.shole!" Ephraim snapped, grabbing Madison by the ankles and pulling her back where she belonged.

"Are you crazy?" Madison hissed, slapping at his hands as she tried to crawl away from him, but he wasn't having that.

He yanked her right back and leaned down, sliding his tongue through her wet slit. She let out a choked moan as her fingers threaded through his hair, alternating between pushing him away and pulling his mouth tightly against her.

"I'm still waiting!" Kale growled.

"Keep waiting!" Ephraim shot back, beyond annoyed with the pain in the a.s.s shifter. Next time the b.a.s.t.a.r.d left for one of his trips, Ephraim was having all the locks and security codes changed.

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d had to go, Ephraim decided as Madison once again tried to shove him away as she attempted to crawl out of his reach. He'd waited all night to touch her and he wasn't about to let that b.a.s.t.a.r.d wreck this.

"Just ignore him," he hissed as he pulled Madison back towards him.

"Are you kidding me?" Madison hissed back, slapping at his hands.

"He'll get bored and eventually leave," Ephraim hissed back, managing to pull her closer.

"No, I really won't," Kale announced cheerfully, effectively ruining what had promised to be a very satisfying morning.

He wasn't exactly surprised when everything suddenly took on shades of red as he watched Madison scramble off the bed and race for the bathroom. He practically shook with rage as he slowly got to his feet, his arousal a thing of the past as he focused all of his anger on the soon-to-be dead b.a.s.t.a.r.d on the other side of the bedroom door.

Killing the shifter would p.i.s.s Izzy off, but he was pretty sure that she'd eventually forgive him if he kept her well supplied with sweets. It would probably take her a few years to forgive him, but tearing Kale apart with his bare hands would be worth her cute little glares. Then again, he could just simply lie to his daughter-in-law and tell her that he'd gone into bloodl.u.s.t and "accidentally" torn the b.a.s.t.a.r.d apart.

At the moment it sounded like a reasonable plan, so he decided to go with it. He unlocked the bedroom door and yanked it open, smiling grimly as he spotted his prey leaning against the far wall.

"About f.u.c.king time," Kale muttered in disgust as he pushed away from the wall and started heading down the hall, taking him by surprise.

The fact that the shifter hadn't taunted him over the interrupted s.e.x and goaded him into a fistfight caught him off-guard. Putting off his need to kill the b.a.s.t.a.r.d for the moment, he reluctantly followed.

"What's the rush?" he asked, realizing that this was the first time since the shifter had invited himself to move in that he was not only willingly attending a meeting, but that he was in a rush to get to it.

"A member of the council is here," Kale said, not bothering to slow his pace as he turned down the left hallway.

"Are you in a rush to beat the s.h.i.t out of this one too?" Ephraim asked, catching up with the shifter as he descended the stairs to the main foyer.

"He shouldn't have come between me and the last cupcake," was all Kale said, lying his a.s.s off and trying to downplay the real reason why he'd made a b.l.o.o.d.y and bruised Sentinel Council representative flee from the mansion as fast as his dislocated knee would carry him.

The representative had been sent to the mansion to check on their security, look in on the children, and to make sure that their newest inhabitants, a Pyte couple, were following the rules. Caine was still on probation for the destruction he'd caused years ago as well as for turning his mate, Danni, without the Council's permission.

Not that they would have given him permission had he asked. From what he'd heard and knew about the Council, they didn't trust Caine. The only reason that he wasn't at this moment encased in cement and rotting for eternity in the bottom of the ocean or in a volcano somewhere was because his mate was the daughter of Sentinels and had been a well-respected member of their human squad. They also wanted to keep her now that she was a Pyte.

They all knew that the Sentinel Council had released Caine in the hopes to use his mate to control him and keep him working for the Council. As long as Danni depended on the Council to supply her with demon blood to keep the cancer that had followed her into immortality at bay, the couple didn't have much of a choice. He hadn't said anything, but he seriously doubted that the Council was in much of a rush to cure Danni and lose the only hold they had over the Pyte couple.

The representative the Council had sent last time had made it more than obvious that the Council didn't trust Caine. The little b.a.s.t.a.r.d followed him around, taking notes on everything that Caine said or did until the Pyte finally had enough, grabbed his mate and took off for a few days. With his main reason for visiting gone, the representative had turned his attention on the rest of them.

When the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d had started to pay a little too much attention to his sons and made suggestions that he should talk to Madison and consider sending their young children to one of the Sentinel compounds in Europe for training, Ephraim had calmly listened to the man before he grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hung him upside down from the second floor balcony.

After that, the representative had focused his attention elsewhere for the remainder of his stay, not that it had been very long once the dumb b.a.s.t.a.r.d had made the mistake of describing Izzy as a useless cripple in what he probably thought was a private phone conversation with one of his superiors. Then again, if the representative had known that the shifter had been standing behind him at the time, he probably would have waited until he was well away from the mansion before he called his superior to give his report.

"I don't understand why you don't believe me," Izzy said with an adorable pout as Chris carried her into the hallway and joined them as they headed towards the large conference room in the bas.e.m.e.nt. "It was him!" she said in exasperation as she pointed an accusing finger in Kale's direction.

"Uh huh," Chris sighed absently, obviously not believing the little sugar addict.

Ephraim didn't need to ask to know what the two of them were fighting about. He'd caught part of the conversation going on in Kale's room about an hour ago when he'd walked into the foyer. When he'd realized that Izzy had been caught binging again, he'd blocked out the rest of the conversation and focused on a hot shower and getting his mate to do all the naughty things that he'd been fantasizing about all night.

"I'm really hurt that you don't believe me," Izzy said softly, sounding upset as she looked up at his son with doe-like eyes as she allowed her little chin to tremble.

Ephraim had to turn his head and force a cough to hide his chuckle. He knew that she was lying. He could smell the chocolate and sugar smothering her scent. She was so d.a.m.n adorable sometimes.

"You're not getting cake for breakfast so just drop it," Chris said firmly, probably hoping that his tone would be enough to put an end to the sugar addict's pleas.

"But-"

"Drop it."

"It wasn't me, I sw-"

"Let it go."

"If you would just ask him, he'd tell you!" she protested, gesturing wildly to the shifter who simply sighed and continued walking ahead of them towards the conference room.

"This is just getting sad," Chris mumbled, shaking his head in disgust before he leaned down slightly so that he could kiss the tip of her nose.

"Then put me down if you don't believe me," Izzy said in a huff, no doubt planning on storming off to get her next sugar fix.

"Nope, sorry can't do that. I like carrying my munchkin around," Chris said with a shrug, instead of pointing out that the conference room was a good five minutes away and that Izzy wouldn't be able to make it there without hurting herself.

As long as no one pointed out the reason behind their obsession with carrying her, Izzy was fine with being carried around. They all came up with some bulls.h.i.t story to do it and as long as the story was somewhat believable, Izzy accepted their p.i.s.s poor excuses. It was the only way to save her pride and allow her to pretend that they weren't all worried about her or that the sounds of her weeping quietly in a corner somewhere didn't break their hearts.

"I don't want you carrying me if you don't believe me, Chris," Izzy said, crossing her arms tightly over her large chest as she pointedly glared off. "You may hand me over to my Daddy."

"Izzy-"

"You heard me," Izzy said stubbornly.

"But-"

"I said good day, sir!"

With an annoyed sigh, Chris turned and handed her over to him. He gladly took her. He loved her a great deal, adored her really. It didn't matter to him that she was his daughter-in-law, he thought of her as his baby girl, which was probably why she'd requested to be handed over to him, he realized with an inward groan.

"He's not going to give you any junk food," Chris pointed out as he walked past them to catch up with the shifter.

Izzy didn't say anything as she looked up at him with adoring eyes and a sweet smile that had him resigning himself to a junk food run after the meeting.

Chapter 6.

"Tell me again why we're here?" Danni asked as she sat down next to Caine at the large conference table.

"Because the Council called a meeting," he said, taking her hand into his so that he could press a kiss against her knuckles, noting that she was still wearing the gauze bandage around her wrist.

He considered asking her about it, but decided against it since she would only lie to him. She'd been wearing the bandage for over a week, a week more than she should need it. Although the cancer in her body caused problems and slowed the rate of healing, it didn't slow it down that much. Whatever injury she had should have healed within a day, especially since he made d.a.m.n sure that she fed every day, twice a day.

She rolled her eyes as she pulled her hand back, taking his with it so that she could place it on her lap where he knew that she'd spend the next half hour, or however the h.e.l.l long this meeting was going to last, absently tracing his hand with her fingertips. It was a nervous habit that she'd recently developed when she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to tell him, but he knew.

He always knew when she wasn't feeling well, but he didn't say anything, not unless the stubborn woman tried to push herself too hard. Then he'd step in and do whatever it took to keep her in bed until he could get his hands on some more demon blood. Not that the demon blood was helping much these days and the knowledge f.u.c.king terrified him.

When he'd changed Danni into a Pyte he'd truly f.u.c.ked up. He hadn't known that she was dying of cancer. She should have been given more blood during her transformation, but he hadn't had enough to give her. They'd been held captive by a Master at the time and as a result his blood had not only given Danni immortality, but the cancer as well. Now his mate was going to live for eternity dying from cancer.

"Since when are we invited to Council meetings?" Danni asked, voicing the question that had been bugging the s.h.i.t out of him since the d.a.m.n shifter had started banging on their bedroom door, demanding that they move their a.s.ses.

At first he'd ignored the b.a.s.t.a.r.d and focused on Danni who had been moaning his name as he took her from behind, but when the banging wouldn't stop and the b.a.s.t.a.r.d told them that their presence was requested, he'd been admittedly too curious to refuse.

Not once in all the years that he'd worked with the Sentinels had he ever been invited to a Level One meeting. That was usually reserved for Leaders, Council members, Sentinels and human squad leaders and not for Pytes like him who'd f.u.c.ked up over the years and were on probation. Since he normally used his enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on the meeting, he'd never really cared enough to b.i.t.c.h before, but since moving into the Williams mansion he started to care, a lot.

The Williams treated them like family, like equals and he'd never realized before just how good that felt. The Council on the other hand was still having problems trusting them since he'd turned Danni without their permission. His mate beating the s.h.i.t out of a Council member hadn't helped either. So while he was officially on probation the Council members had decided that his probation extended to Danni as well now that they were mated.

"Since I was able to get the Council to take you both off probation," Eric, the Sentinel Leader for New England, said with a wink as he walked into the large room, flanked by five other men. Technically they should be under the watch of another Sentinel leader since they lived in New York, but Ephraim and Chris had refused to work with anyone else.

"We're off probation?" Danni asked with a mixture of surprise and caution.

Not that he could blame her since it had only been two months since he'd been released from his punishment for turning Danni and he seriously doubted that he'd done anything spectacular enough to earn this. That of course meant....

"We need your help," Eric said, confirming his suspicions.

"Am I off probation for good or just until whatever bulls.h.i.t a.s.signment that the Council needs help with is completed?" Caine asked, moving to clench his hand tightly into a fist when he remembered that his mate needed the comfort of tracing his hand with her fingertips.

"Well," Eric said, not one to bulls.h.i.t him, as he sat down across from him, "you're off probation, but if you f.u.c.k up again you'll be punished as though you'd never been released from it."

"They can't do that!" Danni argued, her movements on his hand increasing with her agitation.

"So basically if I f.u.c.k up there's no warning whatsoever?" Caine guessed, closing his hand around Danni's trembling one and giving it a small squeeze to tell her that everything was going to be okay.

"Basically, yes," Eric said with a nod as he gestured for the other men to sit down.

"How exactly is that different from being on probation?" he demanded, entwining his fingers with Danni's as he noted that the other men sat on the opposite side of the table with Eric.

"You'll both be given Leadership status, pay, and-"

"We don't give a flying f.u.c.k about any of that," Caine said, cutting off the man that he respected. "I want to know what happens to my mate if I f.u.c.k up."

"Her status will be revoked," Eric said, reminding him why he liked this man so much.

He didn't play games, didn't make promises to Caine that he didn't plan on keeping in order to get what he wanted and wasn't afraid of him. That didn't mean that Caine was going to sit back and let the Council f.u.c.k them over, because he wasn't.

"You're not punishing my mate over something that I did."

Eric shook his head. "The Council can't keep her at Leadership status and risk giving her access to information that would aide you."

"I've never betrayed the Council," Danni snapped, sounding p.i.s.sed and if her tone didn't give her away, her shimmering red eyes sure as h.e.l.l did. "I've worked my a.s.s off since I was a child to aid the Council. I have never done anything to give the Council reason to question my loyalty. I-"