"Because she stole my damn cake!" the shifter snapped as the door opened and he walked into the elevator, meeting Ephraim's eyes and holding his glare.
"I don't see your name on it," Izzy pointed out as she continued to eat the cake, seemingly oblivious to the tension that now filled the small space as the elevator doors slid closed.
Ephraim considered asking the shifter how he got the code to stop the secure elevator, but that would have been a pretty stupid question since he had a pretty good idea who hooked him up with that knowledge. He threw a glare over his shoulder at his daughter-in law-only to find her shooting a glare that promised all sorts of pain his way, or rather to the shifter in warning. She'd probably tear the bastard apart if he tried to take the cake, he thought as he shrugged and moved aside, but not before he grabbed his son by the arm and yanked him back, leaving the pregnant Sentinel and deadly Alpha assassin to battle it out.
As much as he wanted to hate the Alpha, and he did, he couldn't overlook the fact that the shifter would never harm so much as a hair on Izzy's head and that he genuinely loved her children. The man would do anything for her and for that he respected the bastard, but that didn't mean that he was going to protect the dumb bastard if he was stupid enough to come between Izzy and something sweet.
"You know it's mine, woman. You were there when I ordered it," he bit out as he took a threatening step towards Izzy and the cake.
"Dad, do something," Marc whispered, shifting nervously by his side.
"You obviously didn't want it if you were willing to turn your back on it," Izzy pointed out as she took another big bite of the cake and made a show of savoring it.
"You play with fire, woman!" the shifter snapped as he reached over and swiped the fork out of Marc's hand. He stole a huge forkful of cake and shoved it in his mouth, all while glaring at Izzy.
Ephraim barely paid attention to the little showdown, one of hundreds when the shifter was in residence, as he focused on something else that demanded his attention.
"Son of a bitch!" he snapped, barely aware that the shifter cursed right along with him as he shoved another bite of cake into his mouth and moved to stand by his side as they waited impatiently for the elevator doors to open.
"Dad?"
"Stay in the elevator, boy," the shifter said, his voice laced with a growl.
"Go back up to your mother and make sure she's okay," Ephraim said softly to his son as he inwardly cursed the elevator to move its ass.
"What's going on?" Izzy asked, moving closer to the doors and giving them no choice but to make room for the woman.
"Nothing that's going to keep you from marching your ass back upstairs and getting me another cake," the shifter said, further confirming his suspicions that the Alpha cared about her.
Izzy let out a long drawn out sigh as she shoved the cake in the shifter's hands. "Order your own cake and while you're at it, order me a strawberry shortcake with extra strawberries," she said as she waddled out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened and the sounds of fighting became crystal clear.
"Someone needs to spank her ass," Kale said as he turned and placed the cake in Marc's hands. "Order a cake for me, boy, and make sure to order your sister two large strawberry shortcakes," he said as they both rushed out of the elevator.
"Stop ordering my son around," Ephraim snapped as they headed towards the men beating the shit out of each other while his daughter Jill yelled for them to stop.
The bastard merely chuckled as he moved in and swept Izzy off her feet as she moved to jump in and intervene. Before she could argue, Kale deposited her on the corner of the unmanned guard desk across from the cells as Ephraim moved in and grabbed his son by the arm just as he went to punch the vampire, who was more than holding his own.
Chris moved to push him away, but he wasn't having that. He moved his son back and grabbed the vampire by the throat and shoved him back before the two of them could go at it again. He was shocked when Chris pushed him aside and went after the vampire again. It wasn't like his son to lose control like this, but he knew his son was under a lot of stress and he'd feared that he'd snap sooner or later.
"Calm the hell down," he snapped, once again grabbing his son by the arm, this time when Chris went to push him away he yanked his son back and sent him flying down the hall and skidding down the tiled floor. "I said, calm the hell down!"
"He's f**king dead," Chris said, getting to his feet and wiping the blood off his mouth and chin with the back of his hand as he once again went for the vampire.
"Get your hands off me, mutt," he heard Logan demand in a bored tone as Chris went to storm past him and go after the man again.
Ephraim risked a look over his shoulder and cursed as the damn shifter and vampire decided to go at it. That wasn't exactly a surprise considering there was bad blood between the two of them, but he didn't need this shit.
Not tonight.
Tonight he wanted to spend a normal night with his son, lounging in front of the television and the rest of the night holding his wife in his arms. He was f**king exhausted and didn't need this bullshit.
"Dad, stop them before they kill each other!" Jill cried as she moved to intervene, but smartly jumped back just in time to avoid being knocked into the wall right alongside of Logan as Kale slammed the vampire back into the glass wall.
Ephraim opened his mouth to tell her to go upstairs when the scent hit him. His eyes shot over to Jill and zeroed in on her neck and stayed there as a small drop of blood formed and rolled down beneath the collar of her disheveled shirt. His eyes burned seconds before he was seeing red and shoving his son and Kale out the way so that he could kill the bastard that dared to use his child as a f**king meal.
"You dared to touch my child?" he roared into the bastard's face as he tightened his grip around the leech's neck and slammed him back into the glass wall, hard enough to cause a few splintered cracks to tear through the three inch solid specially formulated glass.
"Dad, please! It's not what you think," Jill cried as she grabbed onto his arm and tried to pull him away, but he ignored her as he slammed the bastard against the glass again.
"Go upstairs and pack, Jill," he said evenly when all he wanted to do was shake his daughter and yell at her. She wasn't perfect and had seriously screwed up a few times in her life, all when she was a child, but he never thought she'd be so foolish to do something this stupid.
"Dad, please! If you would just-"