It shocked him when the man actually backed down from a kid, but then again Chris had been large even then. He placed the bags in the trunk and helped buckle Joshua in. When he tried to tell Chris that he didn’t have any money, Chris waved off his concern and dug into his own pockets and pulled out every cent that he had and gave it to the man.

Chris had even gone with him to make sure the driver didn’t pull any crap and brought him straight home.

When they got to the house, Chris grabbed the bags and walked him to the door. As soon as the last bag was on the porch Chris butted fists with Josh and left, walking away without another word.

His brother was always doing stuff like that, putting everyone in the family before himself. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the last time his brother did something for himself or anything that he enjoyed. He was always living for the job or them.

What he wouldn’t give to have his easy going smartass brother back, even for a minute, he thought as his eyes landed on Isabella. He watched his brother’s eyes flicker open and search around almost frantically until they landed on her. His expression softened and before Joshua could stop him, he reached out ignoring the agonizing pain that he must be in as his ribs fused back together and grabbed Isabella from their father’s arms and pulled her tight against him, resting his head on her shoulder before he once passed out once again.

“What do you think?” he asked his father as he packed up his bag.

Ephraim sighed long and heavily. “I think it’s going to be a bitch to carry them out of here like that.”

Chapter 38

Boston, MA

Kale threw back his head and inhaled deeply.

She was close, very close. He stepped back into step with the early morning crowd as they passed the row of modest brownstones. Not one of them had a clue that behind those walls housed at least a hundred Sentinels and several f**king traitors that threw over their packs and nests to serve the f**king Sentinels.

That would never be him. He would never be anyone’s lapdog, but they could never seem to get it through their thick skulls. It seemed like every other decade they were hunting him down to beg him to reconsider working with them and each and every time he turned them down flat.

He had his own agenda and goals to focus on. He didn’t need to add the Sentinel’s “Save the humans” bullshit onto his list. The only thing that mattered to him was reaching his goal and disappearing away from all of this bullshit. He wanted to live out the rest of his immortal life relaxing in a small cabin on a large piece of land away from all the human bullshit. After this job, he would be so much closer to that goal and he wouldn’t let anyone stand in his way.

His eyes shifted to the large group of brownstones that lined the street and concealed the huge compound that lay behind those bricks. There was just one more thing he had to do before he took his next job and if he did it right he wouldn’t have to worry about a really pissed off Pyte coming after him for eternity.

********

“Try not to move,” Joshua said, gently pushing him back down onto his back on what felt like a pile of blankets.

“Where the hell are we?” he asked, his throat feeling raw as he tried to shove away the panic that was threatening to take over. Where the hell was his mate and what the hell had happened? He remembered his little Munchkin holding him in her arms and feeling afraid that he wouldn’t be able to take care of her, but everything after that was kind of fuzzy.

“In a van,” Joshua said, chuckling.

He sent his brother a glare for stating the obvious. “I meant, where are we going?”

“Well, you didn’t ask that,” Joshua pointed out, as he shifted out of Chris’ view and revealed his little Munchkin curled up on a makeshift pad, all tucked in and looking utterly beautiful.

He ignored the ache in his side and shoved his blankets away and moved onto the blanket pallet right behind her and curled up around her body. All the tension in his body seeped out of him as he released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. She was fine. She was in his arms, snoring softly as she cuddled back against him. Everything was fine.

It took everything he had not to drop his hand to her stomach and make sure their baby was okay. Not their baby, he reminded himself. It was a mistake, a mistake they’d soon correct, he reminded himself, shoving away the pain that that thought created. He couldn’t allow himself to soften any more.

“She saved your life you know,” Joshua said conversationally as he sat down and leaned against the privacy wall behind them and started loading a gun.

Shame filled him at the reminder. He’d f**ked up by taking the fall the way he had, but he hadn’t been able to stomach the idea of his mate getting hurt. Instead of taking the fall to his side, he’d taken it to his back, started the roll down the hill wrong and slammed his ribs into a rock, breaking several of his ribs and putting his mate in a f**ked up situation.

“I told her to run, but she wouldn’t listen.” Something they’d be discussing before she left for the island. If one of her protectors told her to do something she damn well better do it, especially if meant her life.

Joshua chuckled. “I didn’t mean Izzy. I meant your little girl. If it wasn’t for her you wouldn’t be here right now. We had to give you some of Izzy’s blood and thanks to the baby her blood was a hell of a lot stronger and fixed that mess you made of your ribs quickly.”

“Don’t call her that,” he said tightly.

“What? Izzy? You call her that. I mean I could understand you getting pissed if I called her Munchkin, but-“

“I didn’t mean her. Don’t call…..,” he took a deep breath and shook his head, trying to clear it. “We’re not keeping it.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Joshua asked, sounding truly confused and Chris had absolutely no doubt that he was. While he’d been waiting for his mate to have a partner, someone to share his duty with, his family had waiting for him to start a family of his own, because they believed that would make him happy.

It wouldn’t.

Having a family of his own was too much. He couldn’t handle the stress of being responsible for them, disappointing them or letting them down because he wasn’t good enough. He also couldn’t stomach the idea of them getting hurt or losing any of them and he sure as hell couldn’t handle the thought of outliving his children and that’s exactly what would happen if they had this child, this human child.

If they were lucky they’d have eighty or ninety years with her, but it would come at the price of watching her age and slowly die. Then he’d be stuck living the next ninety years with the pain of losing his child. No, f**k no, he couldn’t do it.

“We’re not keeping it so let it the f**k go, Joshua,” he said, pushing himself into a sitting position. He looked himself over and noted that he was wearing one of his father’s grey tee shirts and a pair of his jeans, but he needed a pair of shoes. He looked around the van at the shelves and drawers built into one side of the van and knew it belonged to one of the compounds.

Had they stopped off at the Boston compound on the way to find him? he wondered, but pushed the thought away. He’d find out later, but right now they had more important things to worry about. He kept a hand pressed against his aching ribs as he moved over to the backdoors and shoved the dark curtain aside so that he could see where the hell they were. It didn’t take him long to figure out that they were in Boston, which meant he had to get his ass in gear. He spotted his steel tipped hiking boots beneath a small heating fan and pulled them on.