"Because you're a Pyte and that's what we do," he bit out, hating the fact that she thought she was a monster and in turn thought the same of him. He wasn't a monster and neither was she and she damn well better face that fact soon or he was going to get really pissed.
"Well then, I guess I'm a defect because I can't do it," she snapped.
"Do what?"
She sighed in annoyance as she gestured to the untouched bags of blood. "I can't drop my goddamn fangs!"
Chapter 29
Boston, MA
"Are you okay?"
Chris forced a smile as he ignored the new aches from tonight's patrol right along with the injuries from the day before. He was wound up tight and the damn panic that set in when he left the compound five hours ago was only getting worse with each passing minute.
"Fine," he said, looking past his father to peer out the back windows of the van. He slowly blew out a calming breath. They'd be there in less than a minute and a minute after that he'd be making his way to the secured wing his family occupied and pulling his mate into his arms and making sure that she was okay. Then he'd check on his baby girl.
"They're fine," his father said, probably for the hundredth time that night, something he seemed to say every night.
"I know," he lied just like he lied every night.
They weren't fine.
His mate was struggling every single day with her confinement and it was killing him to watch her pretend that it didn't bother her that she couldn't leave the compound. This was one of the reasons he'd tried to push her away in the first place. He didn't want this life for her and he knew that if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be stuck here.
She was staying for him, to make him happy and as good as that made him feel, it also made him feel like an ass**le. It was his job to protect her, to make her happy and instead he was giving her a life of misery. She hated being inside and with each passing day it became harder and harder for her to accept this life.
Izzy didn't think he knew that she was unhappy, but of course he did. She was his mate and he loved her. She didn't think that he knew that she liked to go to the attic and sit in front of one of the small windows with Jessica in her arms so that she could look outside and simply pretend that it was enough. It wasn't. She was getting antsy and he was close to making a decision that he promised himself that he would never make.
He was going to chose Izzy over his family.
She didn't belong here and neither did their baby girl. With their son on the way he couldn't do this any longer. As much as he enjoyed his job and loved his family he just couldn't do this any longer. He wanted his mate and children somewhere safe where they wouldn't be putting their lives in jeopardy just by stepping outside their front door.
A few months ago Izzy and his father bought an insanely large estate, apparently his little munchkin was loaded, and they had Eric, the Sentinel leader for their area, install security measures to keep them all safe. He set up the whole place with alarms, monitoring systems, and added several Sentinel homes nearby and a few on the back part of the hundred acre property. Then Kale, the pain in the ass that loved to push his buttons, caught wind of the whole thing and took it upon himself to check the place out.
Not that they knew he was doing it. He just showed up one day, got past all the security measures and had a look around. A week later he sent Izzy a text message with two words, "All Set." That was it. They found out later from Eric that the damn shifter had the security torn out upgraded, most of the windows replaced, all of the outside doors replaced. He also had a new iron fence installed around the front of the property and an invisible fence outlining the rest of the property with surveillance cameras placed at key points throughout the woods.
The man might irritate the living hell out of him, but in this he was thankful. His number one worry was his family's safety. It would be especially important in the coming weeks. Keeping his family in Boston to keep an eye on Joshua wasn't working out. As much as he loved his brother, and he did more than he ever thought was possible, they couldn't stay here any longer and neither could Madison and Chris' little brother, Marc.
He knew his father wouldn't be able to leave Joshua behind not only because it was his son, but because his father took one hundred percent of the blame on his shoulders for something that when all was said and done was really Chris' fault. Joshua was his little brother and he should have protected him, kept him safe instead of allowing him to be taken hostage and pulled out of the compound.
For a while he blamed Kale, but he realized that the man was just doing his job, a f**ked up job, but his job nonetheless. The shifter also earned his forgiveness by doing everything he could to save Joshua. He'd given him his blood and saved him and Marc by shoving them back inside the tunnel. He was the one that f**ked up, not the shifter, not his father, it was him.
And now he was going to abandon his brother to save his family. It made him feel like an ass**le, but he didn't have any choice. He was getting his mate and child out of here as well as his little brother and Madison. His father could stay and that would be fine with him. He'd look after Madison and his brothers. He hoped Jill came with them. They would need the help.
But it would have to wait until he could devise a plan to get them out of here without the shifters and demons that watched the compound day and night finding out. He hoped to get them out of here before his brothers were born, but that didn't look like it was going to happen. There was a Pyte, make that two Pytes, out there that needed to be brought in before they did something f**ked up like make an army of vampires for the Master hell-bent on getting them.
If they didn't get out of here before the babies were born he was afraid that they were going to be stuck here for another month and then of course his son would be born so they wouldn't be able to leave for a few months after that. His only hope was that Madison could hold on long enough for them to do what they needed to before she had the babies otherwise it would be out of his hands.
"Fucking hell," the driver said, sighing heavily with annoyance. "Looks like we'll have to go the back way."
"Why?" he asked as his father cocked his head to the side and scented the air.
"The front's jammed packed with everything from vampires to demons," he said, already turning the van around to go the back way which would add another ten minutes to his wait.
"Fuck that," Chris said, getting to his feet and moving towards the back of the moving van.
He didn't have to look back to know that his father was right behind him.