"Don't worry about packing her up, Dad," Chris said, drawing her attention and gaining her undying gratitude. At least she could count on her brother to see reason, because sending her away would be-

"I have four Sentinels waiting by the elevator to escort her home. She still has some things at the old house, so there's no need to pack her things just yet," Chris said, leveling a glare on her that dared her to argue and if she was anyone else other than his sister that look would actually frighten her.

"That's not your decision to make, Chris," she said firmly. If he thought that he was going to boss her around and intimidate her like he did everyone else then he had another thing coming.

"Chris,-" Izzy started on a sigh only to get cut off by the man Jill fully planned on having a word of her own with when they no longer had an audience. She no longer did the drama nonsense, not like when she was a kid. Now she kept her cool and her tone soft and friendly as she told him to go to hell.

"I'm not arguing this about this, Munchkin, so save your energy to give me a proper goodbye in about an hour," he said, pressing a kiss against Izzy's temple as she openly glared at her mate.

Jill wasn't exactly surprised when Izzy didn't listen to her mate. "She's not going," Izzy said stubbornly as she struggled to get off Chris' lap.

"Yes, she is," Chris said, trying to bite back a smile as Izzy continued to struggle to get off his lap, but her large br**sts and equally large stomach prevented her from doing very much other than cause her to get good and mad as she kept dropping back on his lap every time she made even slightest bit of progress. Even Jill had to admit that it was kind of amusing to watch the woman shoot her mate a murderous glare as tried to rock hard enough to give her the momentum to jump off his lap.

"Help me get up so that I can kick your ass, Chris!" Izzy snapped.

"Yeah, let me get right on that," Chris mused as he pulled his mate closer to him and made it impossible for her to do much more than pout.

"Just so you know, I'm kicking your ass the first chance that I get," Izzy muttered as she tried to fold her arms over her chest, but her large br**sts and stomach got in the way.

"I'm quaking with fear, my little Munchkin," Chris said against the top of her head as he kissed her.

”Look, I know everyone's mad and I understand why," Jill said, deciding that this might be the best moment to get a word in before her brother or father started yelling.

Her father opened his mouth, but it was the shifter that spoke. "You don't know who you're dealing with, little girl," Kale said, surprising her since the man had barely acknowledged her existence since they met months earlier.

"I'm not dealing with anything," she said, shooting her father a pleading look. "If you'd just let me explain you'll see that this is just a misunderstanding," she said, using the same calm tone she used to use when she counseled clients down at the shelter.

"You're going home, Jill. End of story," Ephraim said firmly and she knew that her only hope was getting to Madison and talking this over with her. Madison would help her. Madison was-

Madison was going to kill her, Jill decided exactly ten seconds later when she watched the very pregnant woman come storming into the room, Madison's eyes lit up in a fiery red as she went right for Jill, her little brother running behind her as he tried to catch up with his mother.

"Tell me that your brother was wrong," Madison said as she waddled over to her.

"Madison, I-"

"You're going home to your grandmother," Madison said and Jill would have argued except for one thing.

She used the tone that Jill hadn't heard in years, not since she was a fifteen year old drama queen screwing up her life and disappointing everyone around her. It felt like a physical blow, knowing just how easily her family readily saw her as the same old screw-up.

Maybe they never truly saw her as anything more than a screw-up and all these years they'd just been waiting for her to mess up. All her hard work to change herself and to grow into a better person was for nothing. The first time she screwed up in years and her family was ready to write her off.

Maybe it was for the best if she left and gave them time to cool off. She could go back to her old life where she felt useful and didn't need to depend on a vampire to feel needed.

It was time to go home, she thought as she simply nodded and walked out of the room, ignoring her father and brothers as they asked her to come back. There was nothing to talk about as far as she was concerned. She walked down the large hallway, taking several deep breaths and resisting the urge to give into the tears and feel sorry for herself. No matter what they thought, she wasn't that girl anymore and never would be again.

Chapter 38

"What the hell is wrong with her?" Jax whispered as he stuffed another white powered donut in his mouth.

"If I knew-" Caine began tightly only to be reminded when his mate let out a pained cry to lower his damn voice or risk her scaring the hell out of him again by passing out. Since it was something he'd rather not experience any time soon he dropped his voice down to a whisper. "If I knew what the hell was wrong with her I wouldn't have asked for your help, ass**le!" he softly hissed out.

"Good point," Jax whispered with a nod as he shoved another donut in his mouth.

A whimper drew their attention back to the na**d woman currently curled up in the fetal position with a pillow pulled down on her head. Since she hadn't been able to do much more than whimper and groan since she gained consciousness, he assumed the pillow was meant to block out all the sounds and probably the light as well. He couldn't figure out why she was reverting back to the point when she woke up after he changed her. Her senses should be somewhat under control by now. They shouldn't be bothering her and they sure as hell shouldn't have been so bad that they caused her to pass out.

He had a vague recollection of what he went through when he first woke up to the changes and he couldn't remember it being this bad that he couldn't move without agonizing pain and he sure as hell didn't black out because of it. This wasn't right. She shouldn't be suffering.

"I thought Pytes healed quickly," Jax said as he reached for the second box of donuts he left on the nightstand.

Caine considered telling the shifter to take his food and get the f**k out, but he needed him and unfortunately for him, the shifter needed to eat a shitload of food after a shift. He forced himself to focus back on the woman curled up in the middle of the bed and felt his stomach twist. His mate was suffering and he didn't know how the hell to stop it.

He reached out to give her thigh a comforting rub only to cause Danni to let out a blood curdling scream that had him yanking his hand back and his heart thundering against his chest as realization dawned on him.

She'd been poisoned.

"What the f**k!" Jax roared seconds later when Caine had him by the throat and slammed him against the wall, cracking the drywall. Large chunks fell among the debris as Caine pulled him forward so that he could slam the man against the wall, again. This time he sent the shifter through the wall and into the large bathroom.

With a growl, he followed after the shifter as Jax's eyes flashed silver in warning. He was with an Alpha and the man held his strength in human form. He could also change at will, but Caine didn't give a rat's ass at the moment. He'd happily kick the shit out of him as a man or as Fido, he didn't care which at the moment. His mate couldn't tolerate sound, light or touch, all her senses were f**ked up and for a Pyte that meant poison.