Page 141 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“That’s not really an option at the moment,” Ashley murmured absently, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she sent a wistful look to her right.

Frowning, Ephraim followed her gaze and-

“Tell me that you really didn’t sneak out of your room in the middle of the night to raid the kitchen,” Marc said, shaking his head in wonder as he followed her gaze.

“I had a craving,” Ashley muttered defensively as she moved to get more comfortable on the step only to decide against it when the move proved to be too much for her at the moment andsettled for releasing a heartfelt sigh as she went back to staring wistfully towards the kitchen.

“You could have just called Kale and asked him to pick up something for you on his way home,” Marc pointed out, biting back a sigh as he sat down next to her.

“I could have…” Ashley said, letting her words trail off as Ephraim narrowed his eyes on the little pain in the ass.

“You didn’t want to wait, did you?” Marc asked, chuckling as he got comfortable while Ephraim found himself wondering what was taking Chris and Kale so long tonight.

“I really didn’t,” Ashley admitted with a heartfelt sigh.

Deciding that he’d heard enough, Ephraim reached over and flipped on the foyer light and noted the exact moment when she realized that he was there. She went still as her gaze slowly, ever-so-fucking slowly, moved towards him, which was followed by her unable to bite back a wince this time, swallowing hard, and mumbling, “I’ll just be going then,” as she struggled to stand back up.

“I honestly don’t know what’s worse, the fact that she had no idea that we were following her this entire time or the fact she’s unable to run away,” Noah said, running his hands roughly down his face.

That was followed by Ashley clearing her throat and saying, “I’d like to discuss the terms of my surrender now.”

“And I’d like to discuss why you were sneaking out of your room at one in the morning,” Christofer bit out, drawing his sister’s attention and-

“I’m just gonna go ahead and waddle away now,” Ashley said with a firm nod, making Ephraim’s lips twitch as he watched the small hybrid grab hold of the banister and pulled herself up only to come to a stop again and lean against the wall a moment later.

“They’ve been watching us since you left your room,” Marc said, shrugging it off with a sigh as he stood up.

“Traitor,” Ashley mumbled sadly against the wall.

“You’re a Pyte and a shifter,” Marc said, shaking his head in wonder. “You should have known that they were there before you even left your room.”

“I was focused on the fudge brownies that Drew left on the counter,” Ashley admitted with a heartfelt sigh as she moved to turn around and make her way back up the stairs only to rethink that decision and carefully turned around and gestured for her brother to come get her.

“You really are a pain in my ass,” Christofer muttered as he pushed away from the wall and-

“If you could move faster that would be great,” Ashley mumbled weakly as her gaze shot to the front door. “A lot faster.”

Sighing heavily, Ephraim listened as the SUV that Chris and Kale took out on patrol tonight pulled into the long driveway seconds before he caught their scent along with a familiar scent that had his eyes turning red and his fangs ripping through his gums.

“Go upstairs, Marc,” Ephraim said, absently noting the scents of shifters as he zeroed in on the vampire that wasn’t leaving this fucking house alive.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Marc asked as Ephraim made his way to the front door.

He didn’t know why the leech was here and he didn’t care. The only thing that he cared about was making the bastard who marked his little girl pay and he’d be damned if he allowed anyone else to rip Logan’s heart out of his chest.

The leech washis.

He was so fucking close to losing control, Ephraim thought as he ripped open the front door, more than a little fucking tempted to give into the darkness and tear the leech apart, but hewanted to savor the moment. He wanted to make Logan pay for taking his little girl away from him. He wanted-

“Jill,” Ephraim said in a daze as he stood there, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Her hair was darker, longer, curlier and looked like it was made from silk, the freckles that he used to find adorable were gone, and her once pale skin was now tan, but he knew the small woman in the leech’s arms was his baby girl. Slowly exhaling, Ephraim took in her scent, needing to make sure that it was really her only to find it gone, replaced by the leech’s scent.

He stared at her face for another moment before he ran his eyes over her only to feel his stomach drop when his gaze came to the blood covering her shirt and-

Oh, God…

“Dad?” Marc said, his voice cracking as he moved closer while Ephraim stood there, unable to take his eyes off the small woman as she was carried up the stairs as a thousand emotions tore through him, shock, disbelief, confusion, and relief that quickly turned to terror when he realized that she wasn’t breathing.

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