He shook his head as he picked up the bag and headed for the door. “We can’t wait another day,” he said tightly, making her frown as she hurried after him.

“Why not?” she asked, catching up to him by the time he made it to the living room. “What difference will one more day make?”

He didn’t look at her as he answered, “A world of difference.”

“And why exactly is that?” she asked, struggling to keep up.

He paused at the penthouse door with his hand on the handle, his back to her as he gave her the answer that she’d really wished he’d kept to himself.

“Because I’m having a hell of a time keeping my hands off you right now. All I can think about is taking you back to bed, licking you clean, sliding my fingers deep inside you, taking you against every surface until you squeeze my c**k dry, but I know that if I touch you right now that I won’t be able to stop myself from sliding my fangs inside you and draining you dry the next time I hear you scream my name.”

“Oh,” was her lame reply as she tried to think about anything other than the visual that he’d just created in her mind and failed, a few times.

Was it wrong that she was actually thinking about saying the hell with it and tackling him?

Probably, she thought, absently frowning as she heard something like a motor and-

“The elevator,” Christofer growled out viciously as he tore open the door and stormed out of the penthouse, leaving her standing there, debating her options.

After only a few seconds she came to the depressing realization that she really didn’t have any other options.

*-*-*-*

Orlando, Florida

“We found her,” came the announcement that he’d been waiting for.

“Where is she?” he asked his Beta, not bothering with any pleasantries as he abruptly hung up the phone on one of his suppliers.

His beta stood in front of his desk, his hands clenched tightly by his sides, his gaze downcast in submission as he admitted, “She’s gone.”

“Gone?” Aidan repeated with disgust.

Brock opened his mouth to explain further only to abruptly shut his mouth, nod and tense up as he risked a quick glance at his Alpha.

“How can she be gone if you found her?” Aidan asked, leaning back in his chair as he studied his beta, waiting for an answer that would satisfy him.

Licking his lips, his beta rushed to explain, “We were able to convince a human working at the agency that employed her to help us. She gave us an address in Massachusetts. I sent a team to retrieve her this morning.”

“Then why isn’t she here now?” he wondered out loud, his fingers drumming against his desk as he waited, patiently in his opinion, for his Beta to explain why his property wasn’t at this moment quivering at his feet and begging for his forgiveness.

He saw his Beta hesitate for a moment and knew that he wasn’t going to like what was coming. His Beta apparently sensed that as well since he started to take a step back only to remember how Aidan felt about cowards.

“Sentinels,” his Beta said, keeping his gaze locked on the floor.

“Sentinels?” he repeated, the word leaving a sour taste in his mouth.

Brock nodded firmly, once. “It appears as though they’re cleaning out the house.”

“She was working at a Sentinel home?” he asked, wondering what kind of Sentinel would be stupid enough to harbor a bitch.

She was clearly marked and even though the Sentinels did everything they could to stop the practice of marking humans as property, once a human was marked, they couldn’t do shit about it. That is, unless the human asked for help, but even then most Sentinels were forbidden to interfere, because of the potential for war. Knowing the Sentinels were involved, he couldn’t help but wonder if she knew what he was and what that made her.

He’d rather keep her in the dark until he could claim her as his. He wanted to see the terror on her face when she realized what he was, her master. If the Sentinels had let that particular secret slip he may have to pay a visit to this Sentinel home in Massachusetts.

“I don’t think it was a Sentinel home before,” Brock said, his jaw clenched tightly as he forced himself to stand there.

“And now?”

A muscle ticked in Brock’s jaw as he nodded, igniting his curiosity even further.

“And the family that lived there?” he asked in a deceptively calm tone as he waited for the bad news that he knew was coming. He could smell the spike of adrenaline coursing through his Beta’s body, demanding that his beta make an escape or defend himself, but Brock would do neither. Not if he wanted to live.

“They’re gone. No one in town has seen them in over a week,” Brock rushed to explain.

“Does anyone know where they’ve gone?” he asked, relishing in the feel of his fingernails shifting to claws as he continued to drum his fingers against the desk, waiting for an answer that would lead him to his property.

“No,” Brock reluctantly said as he continued to force himself to stand there, averting his gaze as Aidan digested his answer and when he did…..

“You lost my property?” he snarled in his Beta’s face seconds later as he wrapped his hand around his Beta’s neck, allowing his claws to dig into the vulnerable skin protecting his throat.

“It’s complicated,” Brock said, swallowing hard.

“I asked you to retrieve my property. What’s so difficult about that?” he demanded, his voice deepening as he allowed his beast to come to the surface.

“The people that she was working for weren’t human,” Brock gasped out, forcing himself to keep his hands by his sides.

“Another shifter touched my bitch?” he snarled, his teeth shifting to fangs.

“No,” Brock said, shaking his head adamantly. “The man that owned the house that she’d worked at was rumored to drink animal blood.”

“Demon?” he asked, running possibilities through his head.

“We’re not sure,” Brock admitted, gasping for air when Aidan abruptly released his hold and began pacing the office.

“Tell me about him,” he demanded, flexing his hands, trying to shake off the need to rip his Beta apart.

“He looks like he’s in his late twenties, but the people in town swear that he’s been living with his sister for over forty years. He never ages, can go out during the day and is rumored to drink animal blood,” Brock explained as he rubbed his neck.

“And the sister?” he asked, wondering why the couple stayed in one area for so long.

“Human as far as we can tell,” Brock said, piquing his curiosity.

“Human?”

“She was well into her eighties.”

“Hmmm,” Aidan said, tracing his claws over his desk as he walked past it, running several possibilities through his mind. “Any chance that they were only posing as siblings?” he asked, wondering if it was just a case of a demon falling for a human that he couldn’t change.

Eyes locked on the floor, Brock shook his head, wincing when the action obviously pained him. “No, it was pretty clear to everyone in town that they were siblings. They somewhat welcomed the sister into the community, but it was pretty clear that they feared him.”