Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel 3)

"No, baby, you need them. I can't take care of you the way they can," he said, moving to pull her in his arms, but of course she backed away from him.

"No," she said, shaking her head, "they can't take care of me the way you can, Caine."

"Danni,-"

"Are they going to be there for me? Take care of me? Hold me? Make love to me?" she demanded, getting into his face.

"They're going to take care of you," he gritted out between clenched teeth as he fought against the image of another man touching her.

"So, what?" she asked, roughly wiping the tears away. "They'll feed me and I'll have to look elsewhere for a man to take care of my needs?" she demanded with a mock smile. "And you're okay with that?"

No, he wasn't.

"Do what you have to do," he said tightly, knowing that he'd probably spend eternity wishing that he could kill every man that looked her way.

"Oh, I'm going to, don't worry about that," she snapped as she turned on her heel and stormed off, once again leaving him to follow after her.

"Danni," he said in warning as he followed after her.

Once they reached the large foyer filled with Sentinels she paused as she ran her eyes over the crowd and he knew the moment her eyes landed on Dimitris, the head of the Council. She nodded firmly to herself before she marched right up to the man and sucker punched him in the face, breaking his nose by the sound of it. Several Sentinels immediately grabbed her and yanked her back before she could go for the man's balls.

"What the hell was that for?" Dimitris demanded as he held his nose and glared at Danni.

"That was just the start of what's coming for you if you don't give me the same punishment that you're about to give my mate," Danni said, shocking everyone into silence and making Caine's hand itch to spank her stubborn ass.

Chapter 50

"Get your hands off her or lose them. It's your choice," Caine drawled out in a bored tone, but the way he looked at the men holding her said it all.

Dimitris nodded and just like that all the men released her so of course she went for another shot at the bastard that thought he was going to take Caine away from her.

"Can't you control her?" Dimitris snapped as Caine caught her around the waist and tossed her over his shoulder like she was an errant child instead of the mate that was saving his ass.

"No, not really. She's a stubborn pain in the ass," Caine said, making everyone around them chuckle and earning a punch in the ass. He accepted the hit with a small groan and a discrete pinch on her ass that had her wincing.

"Put me down, Caine!" she ordered, more than ready to have another go at the bastard.

"Yeah, let me get right on that," he said dryly, keeping her right where she was.

"Care to explain why that mad woman just attacked me?" Dimitris asked, in that crisp accented voice that most women probably found sexy.

"I'd be more than happy to tell you," she offered, trying to get off Caine's back, but he simply ignored her as he answered for her.

"She's not feeling well so let me just go put her in her room and we can get on with this."

"Don't. You. Dare," she bit out. If he tried to take her out of here before she saved his ass she would kill him that's all there was to it.

"I came all the way from Russia to make sure that you're okay and brought my top medical specialists with me to help cure you and this is how you thank me?" the man asked, sounding truly confused.

"No, this is how I thank you for trying to take my mate away!" she snapped, renewing her efforts to escape only to have her ass pinched again.

"I suppose we should get down to business," Dimitris announced with a sigh. "Caine, you knew the punishment that awaited you if you changed anyone, correct?"

"Yes," Caine said with absolutely no hesitation.

"And you did it anyway?" Dimitris asked, sounding truly confused. "For her?" he decided to add in an insulting tone and she went to fling herself off of Caine's shoulder to punch the jerk again she suddenly found herself shrugged off and landed on her feet as Caine did just that, except he went a tad further than she planned to take it.

"Shoot him!" someone ordered as Danni craned her head back and watched as Caine shoved the head of the Council into the corner, his head slamming against the ceiling in the process.

"Don't you ever," Caine growled out, slamming the head of the Council against the ceiling again, "speak of her like that again. Do you understand me?"Caine demanded as he got into the other man's face.

"Put me down, Pyte," Dimitris bit out tightly, not flinching beneath the Pyte's anger or backing down.

Caine's response was of course to tighten his grip around the man's neck and slam him again, leaving her with no choice but to try this floating thing to get him down. She slowly inhaled and focused on going to Caine. Just when she thought it wouldn't work she felt herself move and had to fight back an excited little giggle and focus on getting Caine to calm down before he really did something stupid.

"Put him down, Caine," she said softly, trying not to look down. As cool as this was it didn't change the fact that she was deathly afraid of heights.

"He disrespected you," Caine said, moving to slam the man again, but she moved in to intervene. She pulled Caine's hand away and probably should have grabbed the man with her free hand so that he wouldn't drop, but she had to calm her mate down before he went into bloodlust over this.

"Look, I'm working my ass off here to save you here and you're really screwing this up for me," she said, feeling herself start to weaken just as she started to fall. Caine had her in his arms before she could fall on her ass.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his neck, ignoring the Sentinels they floated over as she held on tightly to him. "Please don't leave me again, Caine. I love you."

"I love you too, Danni. That's why I'm doing this," he said as exhaustion crept up her spine and she knew that she'd overdone it today sparring with Chris and her little attack on the council member and her little floating attempt. Soon she wouldn't be able to do much to keep them from taking him away from her. She needed to fight and hang onto him. If she didn't she'd lose him forever.

"Please don't leave me," she said as her eyes fluttered shut.

"I have to," he said, tightening his hold around her.

"I need you, Caine," she said as she felt herself start to let go.