His father was a f**king demon, he thought with a bitter laugh at the irony as he dropped his head forward, allowing the hot water to rain down on him.
Of all the rumors that he’d heard over the years, it figured that the one that he’d never believed would turn out to be the truth. His father was a demon, one of the first that Satan supposedly set loose on earth in an attempt to gain the upper hand in this f**ked up game he played against God. He didn’t want to believe it, would give anything for it not to be true and as Ephraim had delivered the bad news to him, he’d known that there was no denying it.
He truly was a monster among monsters.
“Are you okay?” Cloe asked, pressing a kiss against his back as her arms wrapped around him.
“Yes,” he said automatically, the habit well ingrained in him after too many years of trying to protect Marta from his personal bullshit.
“Liar,” Cloe said, chuckling as she pressed another kiss against his back.
Lips twitching in amusement despite the fact that he felt like putting his fist through a wall, he placed one of his hands over hers where it laid against his stomach. “I’ll be fine,” he promised, wondering how it was possible for one woman to bring him so much peace.
“That’s better,” she said, turning her head so that she could rest her cheek against his back as she held him.
“How are you holding up?” he asked, wondering how she was taking the news.
“Oh,” she said, wrapping her fingers around his hand as she allowed her other hand to trail over his stomach, “I think I’ll be okay.”
“Even after what Ephraim just told us?” he asked, not really sure that he would be.
“You mean that you’re really part demon?” she asked in a seductively teasing tone as she trailed her fingers down his stomach until she was tracing the trail of hair that led from his navel to his groin with the tip of her finger and making it damn near impossible to stay focused on anything other than just how good it would feel if she would lower her hand and wrap it around-
A loud groan escaped him as she did just that. He licked his lips as he watched her stroke his hardening cock. The sight of her running her hand over his c**k was enough to have his balls pull up tight, greedy for her touch.
“You done pouting now?” she asked, giving his c**k a hard pull.
“Yes,” he growled, finding it difficult to care about anything, even his f**ked up existence, when he had the woman he loved stroking his cock.
“It doesn’t change anything, Christofer,” she said, punctuating her words with another kiss to his back.
“It changes everything,” he told her, slapping his hands against the tiled wall when he felt his legs begin to tremble.
“And how exactly does it change anything?”
“It-”
“-doesn’t change anything,” she finished for him, giving the head of his c**k a squeeze that had him moaning. “But…….,” she said, letting her words trail off as she suddenly dropped his c**k and stepped away, taking her warmth and his peace away. “If you would rather pout, I could-”
Her words ended on a pleased sigh as she suddenly found herself in his arms. “I’m done pouting,” he promised, leaning down to kiss her.
“Are you sure?” she asked against his lips.
“Yes,” he swore, willing to promise her anything as long she stayed in his arms.
“Then you’re willing to give this a try?” she asked, pulling back just far enough so that she could meet his gaze as she wrapped her arms around him.
“Will it make you happy?” he asked, because he refused to argue with her and risk making her unhappy.
He’d done that with Marta, taking her from place to place, constantly on the run, always looking over his shoulder, terrified that if they didn’t run fast enough, far enough that he’d fail her, but in the end, he’d failed her anyway. Too many years on the run had drained Marta and he couldn’t stomach the idea of doing that to Cloe. He should have listened to Marta the first time she’d asked him to stop running. It was a mistake that he was going to have to live with for the rest of his too long life, and one that he had no plans of repeating.
If Cloe needed to stay in order to feel safe, then that’s what they would do, because there was nothing on this earth that he wouldn’t do for her.
God, help him if she ever figured that out.
*-*-*-*
One week later…..
“I tagged her!” Ephraim frantically pointed out as Christofer grabbed him by the back of his neck and pulled him away from the adorable giggling baby girl rolling over on the mat.
Danni sighed contently from the sidelines where she sat between Caine’s legs. “Karma’s the best.”
“It really is,” Caine said, wrapping his arms around his mate and pulling her back as they settled in to watch the daily show.
“Chris is getting away!” Ephraim shouted, struggling to get free, but after two straight hours of getting his ass handed to him, he was too exhausted to put up much of a fight.
“You bastard!” Chris gasped from where he lay boneless on the floor, breaking his own heavily enforced rule about not swearing in front of the children. “I’m your son!”
“You’re also a Sentinel trainer so man up!” Ephraim groaned as he was yanked to his feet.
“Baby on the mat!” Chris called out, sounding almost relieved.
Christofer looked down to see baby Jessica crawling towards her daddy. With a bored sigh, he dropped Ephraim, who hit the ground with a weak grunt, and picked up the adorable baby girl who was quickly staking a claim on his heart. All the children living in the mansion had him thinking about something that he’d once refused to even consider.
But now……
Things were different.
At first he hadn’t been happy about staying here, but after seeing the others with their mates and their families he’d quickly changed his mind. He’d never thought that a future with a wife and children was in the cards for him, but now he couldn’t help but hope for more. He wanted it all, a wife, children, and a purpose in his life and now he could have it all. There was only one thing standing in his way.
The past.
He couldn’t risk a future with Cloe, not until he took care of the monsters from her past. He’d already lived a life on the run. He didn’t want that for Cloe, or God help them, their children if they were ever lucky enough to have them. He wanted to see the world with her, to live their lives without fear, but until he took care of the bastard that had marked her, they couldn’t do anything. They were stuck here, and even though he was enjoying himself more than he thought he would, they were still trapped.
“You think maybe it’s time to stop ‘Assessing’,” Danni said, making air-quotes around the word assessing, “his skills and actually move on to training him.”
“I hate you,” Chris said, trying to sit up, but only managed to fall back on the mat with a pained groan.
“Such a big baby,” Christofer said softly, smiling down at the grinning baby in his arms. “You want a chance to beat up your daddy?”
Deciding to take her excited giggle as a yes, he carried the little girl over to Chris and placed her by his side. The little girl immediately attacked, going for her daddy’s nose. No doubt she was getting a little revenge for all those games of “I’ve got your nose” where Chris stole her nose and refused to give it back. Chris took his beating like a man, properly whimpering and pleading for mercy as she continued her attack.