The Williams treated them like family, like equals and he’d never realized before just how good that felt. The Council on the other hand was still having problems trusting them since he’d turned Danni without their permission. His mate beating the shit out of a Council member hadn’t helped either. So while he was officially on probation the Council members had decided that his probation extended to Danni as well now that they were mated.
“Since I was able to get the Council to take you both off probation,” Eric, the Sentinel Leader for New England, said with a wink as he walked into the large room, flanked by five other men. Technically they should be under the watch of another Sentinel leader since they lived in New York, but Ephraim and Chris had refused to work with anyone else.
“We’re off probation?” Danni asked with a mixture of surprise and caution.
Not that he could blame her since it had only been two months since he’d been released from his punishment for turning Danni and he seriously doubted that he’d done anything spectacular enough to earn this. That of course meant….
“We need your help,” Eric said, confirming his suspicions.
“Am I off probation for good or just until whatever bullshit assignment that the Council needs help with is completed?” Caine asked, moving to clench his hand tightly into a fist when he remembered that his mate needed the comfort of tracing his hand with her fingertips.
“Well,” Eric said, not one to bullshit him, as he sat down across from him, “you’re off probation, but if you f**k up again you’ll be punished as though you’d never been released from it.”
“They can’t do that!” Danni argued, her movements on his hand increasing with her agitation.
“So basically if I f**k up there’s no warning whatsoever?” Caine guessed, closing his hand around Danni’s trembling one and giving it a small squeeze to tell her that everything was going to be okay.
“Basically, yes,” Eric said with a nod as he gestured for the other men to sit down.
“How exactly is that different from being on probation?” he demanded, entwining his fingers with Danni’s as he noted that the other men sat on the opposite side of the table with Eric.
“You’ll both be given Leadership status, pay, and-”
“We don’t give a flying f**k about any of that,” Caine said, cutting off the man that he respected. “I want to know what happens to my mate if I f**k up.”
“Her status will be revoked,” Eric said, reminding him why he liked this man so much.
He didn’t play games, didn’t make promises to Caine that he didn’t plan on keeping in order to get what he wanted and wasn’t afraid of him. That didn’t mean that Caine was going to sit back and let the Council f**k them over, because he wasn’t.
“You’re not punishing my mate over something that I did.”
Eric shook his head. “The Council can’t keep her at Leadership status and risk giving her access to information that would aide you.”
“I’ve never betrayed the Council,” Danni snapped, sounding pissed and if her tone didn’t give her away, her shimmering red eyes sure as hell did. “I’ve worked my ass off since I was a child to aid the Council. I have never done anything to give the Council reason to question my loyalty. I-”
“You broke a Councilman’s nose when he came to arrest your mate,” Eric pointed out dryly, cutting her off.
“Are we still on this?” Danni demanded with a snort of disgust that had him biting back a smile that she probably wouldn’t appreciate at the moment. “I’m getting punished for something that healed in less than an hour?”
Eric’s lips twitched, but he managed to bite back a smile as well. “Yes, well,” he said, pausing to clear his throat and hide a chuckle before he continued, “they’re afraid that you’d use your position to free your mate.”
Danni opened her mouth to argue, but quickly closed it with a shrug before she admitted, “Well, that’s probably true.”
“The only thing that I care about is my mate getting the blood she needs. Is the council planning on withholding the demon blood from her?” Caine demanded, already deciding that if it was a condition that he would tell the Council to go f**k themselves. He’d focus his time on finding a cure for his mate instead of helping the Council for one more day. He would never risk her being left dependent on a group that could let her suffer just to punish him.
But before Eric could answer, Chris was there picking Danni up and dropping her on Caine’s lap. With a sigh, Chris sat down in Danni’s freshly vacated seat, leaned back and relaxed as he studied the men sitting across from them.
“Jackass,” Danni said, glaring at Chris as she adjusted herself on Caine’s lap.
Chuckling, he shot Danni a wink as he continued to study the men sitting across from them. “Oh, I doubt they’d do something that foolish,” Chris drawled, letting Caine know that he’d heard a good portion of their conversation and wasn’t happy.
He saw the pain in the ass shifter sit down on the other side of Chris. The man didn’t say a word on their behalf and Caine didn’t expect him to. Everyone in the mansion knew how the shifter felt about Pytes and would probably volunteer to take him down if the time ever came. Kale sure as hell wasn’t about to bitch about one of them suffering when he wanted nothing more than to see every last Pyte wiped off the face of the earth.
“No,” Ephraim said, taking the seat to Caine’s right with Izzy in his arms, “I doubt they would.”
Caine nearly sighed with relief. Ephraim saw Danni as a sister and if anything ever happened to him, he knew that the other man would gladly step up and take care of her. He’d move heaven and hell to make sure that Danni didn’t suffer. She was part of the Williams family and they viciously protected their own.
“Do what?” Izzy asked, shifting to get more comfortable on her father-in-law’s lap.
“Relax, gentlemen,” Eric said, taking over the conversation before it could turn ugly. “Even if you broke every single condition of your old probation and Danni broke the nose of every Council Member, we’re not going to make her suffer. She’ll get her blood.”
Caine nodded as relief coursed through his veins. Even though he had no plans of f**king up anytime soon, it was good to know that his mate would be well taken care of in his absence.