“Why the hell are you yelling at me?” Chris snapped back.

“Because this is all your fault!”

“How is this my fault? I didn’t tell you to create that f**king program!”

She opened her mouth to argue only to have to snap it shut. The jerk did have a point after all.

“Fine, okay this isn’t your fault. Do you have a shirt in your bag that I can borrow?”

“Yeah, I have two, grab whichever one you want. We’ll pick some clothes up later,” he said as he rolled his head and groaned.

“Are you sore?” she asked, feeling kind of bad since it really was her fault that they were in this mess.

“Yeah,” he said, trying to rub his neck.

“Here, let me,” she said, reaching over to help rub his poor neck and shoulders only to have him snap at her.

“Don’t touch me.”

She stilled, shocked by the vehemence in his tone. “I was only trying to help.”

“I don’t want your help and I don’t want you touching me,” he snapped.

“What the hell is your problem?”

“You’re my problem.”

She frowned at him as a thought occurred to her. “This has something to do with that little question of yours after the kiss, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grumbled as he looked away from her and she knew that she was right.

“I don’t understand why you care if I’m a virgin or not.

It’s not like it’s any of your business,” she continued as she watched that tick in his jaw work double time. “In fact I don’t know why you would even assume that I was. In this day and age it’s very rare to make it to twenty-seven and not have sex before so-“

“Because you are a Sentinel, Munchkin. That’s why I assumed you were a f**king virgin,” he said, looking down at her as if she were a whore.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” she demanded, not liking the way he looked at her one bit.

“Your mate, Munchkin,” he said tightly, his hands noticeably tightening around the steering wheel.

“And you thought what? That I would wait for you and pine for you? Well, here’s a new flash for you, Chris. Up until yesterday morning I had absolutely no idea that any of this existed and I’m pretty confused about the whole thing, especially the part where you think you own me!” she shouted.

“You really want to do this now?” he demanded harshly.

He didn’t wait for her response as he suddenly took a right turn into what appeared to be an old abandoned industrial park. He headed past several large gloomy buildings covered in graffiti and the remains of a fire and pulled behind the last building where no one passing along the road would be able to see them, which was good since she fully planned on kicking his ass now.

He threw the car in park and turned to face her. “Then let me clear a few things up for you, Munchkin,” he said quietly, but no less menacingly. “First off, I don’t give a flying f**k when you found out that you were a Sentinel. You’re my wife and no other man should have been allowed to lay a finger on you never mind f**k you.”

When she opened her mouth to share her thoughts about that he just kept going, cutting her off. “You are a Sentinel. Your job is to protect humans from the f**ked up world they really live in and yeah, you might want to accept the fact that you are not human. You are supposed to be faster and stronger than a human and be there for your mate, but so far I haven’t seen shit from you.”

“Because you haven’t given me a chance, you ass**le!”

“No, it’s because you’re f**king pathetic. You’re no better than a human and to top it off you’re nothing but a whore.”

*********

“Oh, this keeps getting better and better,” Kale said, chuckling as he looked over Isabella’s most recent credit card activity.

Austin, Texas indeed, he thought with a rueful shake of his head. He already knew that every Master in the world was going nuts by sending in every mercenary they could find to Texas right now. The good news was that it got every second rate mercenary out of his hair for a little while. At least until they figured out they’d been duped.

The bad news of course was that now shifters and demons knew about Isabella McGuire and as soon as they realized what the Masters were planning they would join in on the hunt. He’d hoped to have a little time before the war started, but it looked like time just ran out.

When his cell phone rang a few minutes later he wasn’t entirely surprised.

“She’s headed to Austin, Texas. Where are you?” Logan said in lieu of a greeting, not that Kale expected one from the man. He didn’t.

“Nowhere near Texas,” he said as he passed a sign welcoming him to Rerum, New Hampshire.

“Then I suggest you get on a plane and head in that direction before someone else grabs her,” Logan bit out, sounding pissed again. This just kept getting better and better, he thought.

“You don’t want me to get on a plane and head to Texas.

Trust me,” he said, taking a right onto what appeared to be the town’s main road and hit a red light.

“Why not?”

“Because she isn’t going there.”

“How do you know?” Logan demanded, further insulting Kale.

“I know she’s not on the plane. Think about it, Logan.

By now the Sentinels know we’re after her, they have her and I bet one of your men tipped them off about me taking the contract.”

“My men would never-“

“They would and they did,” Kale said, cutting him off as he waited for the damn light to turn green. “I already received a tip-off about that an hour ago. My point is only one ticket was sold, in her name, bought with credit card.”

“You’re right,” Logan sighed. “Any idea where they really went?”

“No, but I’m hoping to find out. For some reason there are over ten Sentinel homes in this area. I’m a little curious about that, but that will have to wait. It might take me a couple of days, but I’ll find out which home she was in,” he said, taking his foot off the brake when the light turned green only to slam back down on it as a couple of kids on skateboards jumped out in front of him.

“This can’t wait a couple of days, Kale. I need to find her as soon as possible.”

“I’ll do my best, but-“

“Tell me where you are. I can help,” Logan said, sounding desperate, which shouldn’t be a surprise since most of his clients were pretty desperate if they had to call him, but this was different. This was Logan.

“Are you going to tell me what you need her for?”

“No.”

“Then I can’t help you. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have more information,” Kale said, ending the call just as Logan started to make promises they both knew Kale would never allow him to keep.

“Why the hell did I take this job?” he wondered as he caught a scent he hadn’t smelled in centuries. One that caused a growl to break free as he searched for the source and when he found it he had to struggle for the first time in centuries not to shift as he watched the little boy with short black hair and a ready smile cross the street in front of him as he held onto an elderly woman’s hand.