Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel #2)(2)

He didn’t want them to see him like this. He was supposed to be their big brother. It was his job to protect them. They shouldn’t be seeing him like this. He wasn’t weak and he didn’t want them to think that he was. They lived in a dangerous world and now that Madison was carrying a baby, a Pyte, they were in so much more danger now and needed to know that they could count on him when the shit hit the fan. He didn’t need them worrying about him.

“Chris, let me-” Jill started to say.

“Get out!” he yelled, squeezing his eyes shut as more pain tore through his stomach, starting just above his navel where the numbness that ruled the lower half of his body ended. When the hell would it end? It needed to end or knock him the f**k out.

“Go back to bed,” he heard Madison whisper softly.

“We were just trying to help,” Jill mumbled, sounding hurt.

“Is Chris going to be okay?” Joshua asked, sobbing. “I can give him his medicine if he needs it or change his bandages.”

“Shhh, it’s okay. Just go to bed. Your father and I will take care of it,” Madison promised soothingly.

“Okay,” Jill mumbled.

“I hope you feel better, Chris,” Joshua mumbled.

Chris could only grit his teeth and bury his face against the pillow, praying he wouldn’t scream again and further embarrass himself.

He felt the small bed dip seconds before he felt Madison press a kiss to his damp forehead. Still squeezing his eyes shut, he reached out blindly until he found the large swell of her stomach. He placed his hand on her stomach, using his little brother’s kicks and moves to focus on and escape the pain. Without a word, Madison rolled onto her side and laid her head on his shoulder as he did his best not to cry.

“I’m sorry it took so long. I had to get your grandmother to help me find your morphine in that damn walk-in closet that she calls a fridge,” he heard Ephraim explain as he walked into the room.

Chris didn’t move or allow a sound to escape his lips as Ephraim gently picked up his hand and injected a double dose of morphine into his IV lock. As he felt the medicine slowly spread through his veins he wished he was truly human instead of a Sentinel who held the half soul of a human and that of an angel. His angel half was resistant to things like medication, alcohol and drugs. The shit they used to knock him out for his surgeries would kill a human. To even feel a slight relief from the pain he had to receive double doses of medication that would lay a human out flat. But any relief, even slight was more than welcome right now as he silently begged for death.

“It’s okay, Chris,” Madison said, pressing a kiss to his shoulder.

It really wasn’t, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. She felt guilty enough as it was that he was in this situation, he didn’t need to add to it. Blaming herself for the home invasion from a Master determined to get her hands on the unborn baby was pointless. None of this was her fault. It wasn’t Ephraim’s fault either, and yeah he knew his father blamed himself. It was the fault of that crazed bitch. Sooner or later Madison needed to realize that he’d been doing his job.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to steal my girl,” his father said jokingly, trying to take Chris’ mind off the pain. Even in his pain hazed mind the idea of him and Madison made him cringe. Not that Madison wasn’t beautiful, she was, but she was also his best friend. The fact that he wasn’t attracted to women in general also didn’t hurt.

Up until a few months ago that little fact had scared the hell out of him. Finding out that he was a Sentinel with a destined mate had put an end to the horrified thoughts that swam through his adolescent brain almost daily. He’d never feared that he was g*y, but he had feared that there was something truly wrong with him and he’d be alone forever.

Now he knew better. He had a family to take care of, a baby brother on the way that would require him to work his ass off to protect, and a mate he needed to find. He just needed this f**king pain to go away so he could do it.

He felt his father carefully sit by his hip. Seconds later his father’s hand covered his on Madison’s stomach and he relaxed.

“Let go, Chris,” his father said soothingly. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

He felt like a coward when he did just that.

***********

“I’m going to strangle you with this tie,” Jill said, trying not to laugh as she pushed her fiery red hair back over her shoulder.

“Hurry up. She’s going to be here soon,” Chris said, forcing himself not to shift anxiously in his chair. He’d already been warned by his father, grandmother, and Madison that if he did they’d haul his ass back upstairs and strap his ass to his bed.

Not f**king happening.

It was bad enough that his mate was coming here and was about to see him in this wheelchair, he’d be damned if he was presented to her as a cripple. This was only temporary and he’d explain that to her as soon as their marks, the light brown crescent moon and cross, turned red indicating that they were mated “How do you know one of them is your mate?” Joshua asked as he tossed his basketball lightly up in the air and caught it.

Thankfully Jill took pity on him and answered for him since he was too busy staring at the closed living room door and willing it to open. He couldn’t believe he was minutes from meeting his mate, the woman he would spend the rest of his life and protect his family with.