Tall, Dark & Furious (Pyte/Sentinel 6)

“That’s the thing. I don’t know. But whatever it is, it has the old Keenan Pack coming out of the woodwork. Three weeks ago, six members came out of hiding and headed to Bangor. A credit card slip had them arriving in Westdrom the next day, and two days later, there was a house fire at one of the old houses that the Keenan Pack built. The fire department determined that it was arson.”

“But that’s not the only problem. The house belonged to Samantha Lukas. There’s a warrant out for her arrest for the fire. Her brother is Nathan Lukas, the Sentinel assigned to watch over Rerum. She’s his twin sister,” Izzy said, looking like she might be sick.

“Oh, shit,” Chris said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face. “They’re going to tear her apart.”

“Why?” Marc asked, licking his lips nervously as he took in the worried expressions on their faces.

“Sentinel twins don’t normally survive, but the ones that do are marked. They normally don’t last very long once they cross paths with a shifter or a vampire,” Ephraim explained.

“We need to figure out who we’re dealing with here. Who runs the Keenan Pack? I’ve never heard of them,” Chris said as Marc watched Caine pace the foyer, trying to call someone only to curse, hang up and try again.

“One of the first Packs to come to the colonies when the English began to settle the area. They were mostly stonemasons, but they eventually got into construction. They built a lot of houses all over New England and eventually got into real estate. They made a lot of money in the colonies before they were forced to return to Europe where rumor has it, they became even richer,” Drew explained.

“What’s the big deal about this Pack?” Chris asked as his attention shifted to Caine, who looked like he was about to lose it.

“They killed their Alpha three centuries ago before they fled. Besides the fact that they’re ruthless, they’re also insanely rich, and led by a vicious bitch who killed her own child when she realized that it was an Alpha to ensure that she didn’t lose control of the Pack,” Drew answered.

“Why did they run?” Ephraim asked, giving Jessica baby kisses when she started wiggling in his arms.

“They pissed off the wrong vampire,” Caine said, shoving his phone back in his pocket as he joined them just as Cloe let out one last scream and the sounds of a baby crying reached their ears along with another pained grunt.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Chris asked, only to wince when his baby girl gasped.

“Sorry, baby,” Chris mumbled as Jessica wrapped her small arms around Ephraim’s neck and snuggled, letting her Daddy know that she was mad that he broke his no swearing rule.

“They grabbed Ethan’s son and refused to tell him what they did with him. He’s been after the Pack for over three hundred years,” Caine said, clenching his jaw before adding, “His son is a Pyte. They grabbed him before he reached his immortality. For some reason, they came back to make sure that he was dead.”

“And he wasn’t,” Ephraim guessed, sharing a pained look with Caine as something passed between them. It was a look that Marc never wanted to see on his father’s face again.

“No, he wasn’t. He got out, killed them, and somehow managed to contact Ethan, who called me and asked me for a favor, but I couldn’t leave Danni. So, I asked Kale for a favor,” Caine admitted, which earned matching curses all around.

“Wait. Why would you do that?” Izzy suddenly asked.

“I didn’t tell him about Trace. I only told him that I needed him to go to Westdrom and guard the town, keeping shifters out until I could get there,” Caine explained while Izzy worried her bottom lip.

When Caine saw the movement, he asked, “Why?”

“Because Kale accepted the bounty on Ethan’s head.”

Chapter 31

“Yeah, that’s not fucking happening,” the Sentinel that should have learned his lesson the first time said as he moved to block Trace from going into his wife’s room.

Absently nodding, Trace continued to slowly drink the bag of cold blood as he reached out and grabbed the Sentinel by the shirt and shoved him out of his way. Ignoring the Sentinel’s pained grunt, Trace walked into the room that his father had set up for him. He’d decided to give his wife this room since the other room had been damaged earlier. That, and there was currently a large shifter passed out on the bed.

He’d considered dragging the shifter out of the house and throwing him headfirst into the largest tree that he could find for helping the Sentinel earlier, but the exhaustion that he’d seen in the shifter’s eyes reminded him of how his father used to look when Trace was little and his father had been afraid to close his eyes out of fear that something would happen to him. Forcing himself to finish off the cold blood that turned his stomach with the hopes of fixing whatever the Sentinel had done to him earlier, Trace tossed the empty bag on the bureau before walking over to the bed to make sure that his wife was okay.

She shifted in her sleep with a soft groan, but other than that, she didn’t wake up. Knowing that she needed her rest, Trace reluctantly forced himself to walk away. He walked over to one of the bookshelves that lined the walls and reached for his book only to select a different one, deciding that he wasn’t quite ready to find out how it ended.

Book in hand, he found a spot against the wall, sat down, and opened it with a, “Don’t,” when the Sentinel limped into the room and moved to sit down on the bed next to his sister. Once he had the book opened on his lap, Trace found himself sighing as he looked up to find the Sentinel standing in front of him, glaring down at him.

“As soon as she feels better, I’m taking her out of here,” Nathan bit out between clenched teeth, earning a soft groan from the small woman curled up in the bed behind him.

Biting back a curse, Nathan quickly glanced over his shoulder to make sure that his sister was okay only to stumble back when the small woman dragging a blanket behind her pushed him out of the way with an incoherent grumble before she sat down between Trace’s legs and curled up, resting her head against his chest while Trace sat there, stunned. That is until

she grumbled something else, making his lips twitch as he reached over and pulled the blanket over her and wrapped his arm around her.

“This isn’t over, Pyte,” Nathan bit out only to narrow his eyes on Samantha when she grumbled something else as she shifted to get more comfortable in his arms. With one last glare, Nathan gestured for the dog to come with him only to end up shaking his head in disgust when the dog climbed off the bed and joined Trace on the floor, laying down at his feet.