About fifty miles from where we were going, we crossed the scent trails that we were really hoping to find. Seems they were a hurry to cross the border because they were on foot and not taking other means to cross. Perfect, if the bitch questioned us, all she had to do was send a scout because we crossed the border of her territory about ten miles ago.

Both Jasper and I had every one of our senses honed into our surroundings looking for scouts and the like because we didn't want her to know we were here until we were there. It would ruin our fun and everyone knows not to ruin that.

It was only ten minutes later that we left the woods and entered ground zero. I felt Izzy shudder as she looked around the area and saw the conditions of the army camp that both Jasper and I grew up in. Nothing really changed over the last century. It was still overrun by infants and understaffed by adult supervision. If you looked to the right you would see a brawl and if you looked to the left you would see an orgy. It was the way it was when you couldn't control the overflow of newborn and keep them occupied.

She tightened her grip on my arm and lowered her voice, "where are we?"

It was Jasper that answered, "Hell." Then he looked around and nodded to the left, "This way."

Izzy grunted a little as her nose scrunched up but put up no fight as I pulled her along with me. We were being followed by every single set of eyes in camp as we headed to the only constructed building in the area. None of us three guys were wearing a shirt, our scars from our time spent in their shoes fully and completely visible for every last one of them.

It wasn't enough of a deterrent for one little fucker however.

Izzy had let go of my arm at one point as she was looking around where I was born and taking it all in, slowing a little out of curiosity when someone old enough to fucking know better grabbed her arm and yanked her close to him. I whipped around with a snarl but still heard him when he spoke to her.

"Well, aren't you a pretty little thing."

He was going to kiss her but found my fist instead. I hit him so hard in fact that my hand actually went completely through him and out the back of his head. It didn't take more than a twist of the wrist to decapitate his ass. Glaring at the body as it fell to the ground I crushed what was left of his head in my hands before looking at my startled mate.

Pointing a finger in her face, "you…" pointing next to me, "right here. Don't you leave my side again, ya hear? This ain't a place you wanna be on your own."

She was quick to both nod and latch back onto my arm, this time holding so tightly that I was little worried she might rip it off. Catching back up to Jasper and Garrett, who had stopped and waited for me to retrieve my mate, we continued to the cabin.

Half way from our point of entry to our destination was when things went tits up and ass down. The wind shifted with the coming storm taking our scents to the occupants of the cabin bringing them out, giving us an eye full of the Devil's Mistress and her little pets.

There was only a small flicker of confusion over her face before it took on the persona of the bitch we all know and hate; the mask of superiority and ownership. A smile that I remember all too fucking well lifting at her lips as she set eyes on Jasper and I. I might have fucked up her shit but to her, I was as precious a possession as Jasper was. My ability to 'know shit' was as useful as anything when dealing with hoards of babies and pissed off demons.

Her eyes slid to Garrett and they widened a bit at the sight of him and his scars. While Garrett was raised in a camp further west, she knew well that he was still a southern vamp and as such, valuable. Then she set her sights on my Sugar for a fleeting moment, not lingering too long on a newborn that to her was completely expendable. From the way her grip tightened on my arm I knew my Sugar wanted to hide but her instincts wouldn't allow her to back down from another female, even one that carried scars.

There was a hum on the air drawing my attention from Izzy to the Cunt Mater General, cocking a brow at the look on her face as she returned her eyes to my girl. Maria gave her another once over before turning her eyes to me, "you have been such a naughty, busy boy, haven't you, Mon Captain? The last time I saw you, you were risking your neck for a worthless yearling."

I smirked wide and flashed a few teeth, not missing the way she tightened her spine to not show just how afraid of me she was, "last I saw you, you were cryin' like a babe over me stealing the Major here. Looks like I good at takin your shit, aren't I?"

The look on her face darkened a little at that, "some things never change. You still know how to work my last nerve. I should have had you destroyed instead of indulging my Major in keeping you around."

I chuckled a little, "You're right, you should have. Told ya that ninety years ago but ya never did know how to listen, did ya?"

She glared at me and narrowed her eyes, "I am curious, Captain, what gave you balls to come to back?"

I snorted, "I ain't back Bitch, you get that shit straight right now. However, I am here to rub your nose in your fuck up. You slacken off and it gonna cost ya. Or is it like I knew all along and you ain't shit without him." And I tilted my head to Jasper just to make sure she knew who I was talking about. "Seems you got few permanent reminders of his absence."

She snarled at me. I knew I was pushing buttons but I didn't give a shit. The bitch was nothing without Jazz and he was firmly on my side.

Izzy was, up to that point, silent as the dead but when the Cunt Master General showed aggression towards me, she responding in kind, snarling back and snapping her teeth. Her muscles began to coil in preparation of attacking physically so I got ready for it and when she lunged, I used the arm she just let go of to wrap around her waist and scooped her off the ground, twisting her a bit and setting her back down in front of me, wrapping both arms around her shoulders and pressing the tip of a finger into my mark on her neck, stilling her instantly.

While I got my girl under control, Maria was deciding what she was about to do. I dipped my head and breathed into Izzy's ear so only she would hear me, "You 'member your fighting lessons?" her head jerked a little in a nod and I smiled against her skin, "then you tear some shit up, ya hear?"

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, the bright red a shade darker than it was a moment ago. She then shifted them back to Maria and narrowed them a little before looking back and lowering her voice, "something isn't right."

It was like that simple three letter sentence lifted the blinds and opened the door to the crazies in my head. Everyone talking at once, I was so over loaded with information that I was deaf to everything else going on around me. There was roaring in my ears, a buzzing so loud that it blocked the sounds of snarls and growls from the little demon in my arms right in front of me. Dots were connected that I didn't know were there to be put together but it was not painting a very pretty picture. Little snips of dialog and subtle warnings were now going off with air horn pitch and making me feel like the stupidest mother fucker aliveish.

It was the pain of Izzy's heel driving into my foot that pulled me out of it and when I looked up at the Cunt Master General, I saw fucking red. However, the many years that I spent under her control and demands gave me the tools to deal with this. She was fucked up in more ways than one if she thought that Jasper was her biggest problem. No, that was me and I was going to fuck this bitch up but good.

Rolling my shoulders to get the tension out of my neck, I let out a shallow breath and sent a wave of 'follow my lead' and 'I'll explain later' to Jasper like I used to the last time we were here and waited for the expected response from him before dipping my head and whispering to Izzy, "follow your gut, every step of the way. Do not question what it tells you, you just do it."

The really shitty part of this is there was no other way out of it. There was nothing we could do if we wanted to get out of this alive. We were gonna have to play a game with no rules and no end if we were going to survive because I never saw that coming, never saw or had any idea that the little candy asses were so fucked up and so cold as to actually create a relationship with the little cunt and form a bond over the same person.

This whole thing revolved around Izzy, my Sugar, my mate. She was the only one that could exonerate the Cullens of their crimes of her being in our world as a human and the only way for that to happen would be for her to join their coven and speak for them during judgment. I still didn't know why the little bastards felt it was necessary to involve Maria in this, but since they did, we were just going to have to deal with the cards we were dealt.

We didn't have a lot as far as aces in the hole at the moment, but the one we did have was the biggest we could have hoped for; the fact that she was my mate barred her from joining any coven that I didn't as well. It was arguable that she was actually already a member of one because of Garrett, but everyone knew that both he and I were nomads, neither of us wanting to deal with all the bullshit that came with a coven or the responsibility of being a coven leader. We preferred to roam wherever our feet decided to take us whenever they decided to.

That shit aside for now, I glanced at Jasper before looking back at Maria when I heard her tisk a little. He was about to lose his shit and there was nothing that could be done about it. "It matters little, I suppose, that you took him. From what I have heard, he is nothing but a little pussy these days and has been for years; nothing like the Major I knew and the one I see is just as pathetic as the one I heard of. Losing battles, allowing others to speak for him; protecting the weak instead of destroying them. How the mighty have fallen to the abyss of worthlessness. I don't want him anyways…" Then she looked at my mate, "I want her."

Izzy went rigid in my hold, her hands tightening around my arms. I just tightened my grip on her, not showing the bitch anything of what was flying through my mind. Before Izzy could say what was on the tip of her tongue and start the brawl that was gearing to begin just yet, I shook my head, "You ain't takin' my mate."

I might have taken just a little more pleasure out of the pure shock that she was doused in at the announcement than I should have, but it was fucking funny. I watched her eyes spark a little as she tried to figure out the best way to still get my Sugar and knew when she settled on her course of action. She got a saucy little smile and raised a brow at me, "but what of the yearling you ran with?"

I shrugged, "dead."

"You must be so heartbroken over her death. I know to what lengths you went to for her to live."

Again I just shrugged, "Not really; I was the one that killed her." Then I glared at her, "the whore aside, you ain't takin' my mate."

Maria looked at me for a moment before she crossed her arms, her face pinching in her anger. "Then I will just have to do this instead."

And just like that, the signal that Jasper and I knew all too fucking well was given and we were knee deep in that shit I told Jasper about back in Canada. I released my hold on Izzy with one more warning to follow her gut before I whirled around to face off with the group of unfed babies that gave up on getting laid in lieu of a good fight, but not before I saw Maria bitch out and leap out of the way and land on her cabin to watch as her army faced off with the two most dangerous vampires on the planet.

Jasper and I fell back into the swing of the past seamlessly, teaming and pairing up just like old times while Garrett too was given a refresher course in newborns. While I was fighting alongside Jasper, my eye never once left my mate as she twirled and twisted like a dancer around the morons that were trying to get their hands on her. A few got lucky and landed bites or scratches, but none of them got lucky enough to actually cause any real damage.

Jasper and I have done this enough together to know exactly what to do; Jasper would zap them with some 'chill the fuck out' and I would rip their fucking heads off before drop kicking the head as far from the body as I could. I was well aware that we couldn't actually win the overall fight; there was too many of them even for us, but that didn't mean we couldn't put quite a few of them down before they got the upper hand.

We did too, just under half of them before I heard the sound of my mate's scream, throwing both Jasper and I off just enough for a few of the older ones to take us to the ground. It took five apiece to keep us there, too. I felt a hand grab my hair and yank my head back and out of the dirt, a growl ripping from my throat at them nearly ripping my hair out. If I didn't like my hair so fucking much I would really consider cutting it off.

When I opened my eyes, I growled again, much louder and much darker at the sight of my mate on her knees being held down by three brand spankin' new babies, her hair in Maria's grip with her other hand around her throat, fingertips pressed against the skin in preparation of taking her head off, an overly satisfied look on the cunt's face.

There was triumph in her voice as she looked at me, "I cannot kill you without destroying her; but then again," Then she looked at my Sugar and jerked her head back a little more to look her in the eye pulling a grunt from Izzy's throat before looking back at me, "there was nothing in the deal that said she needed to be functioning, just in one piece."

I snarled at her and tugged at the hold on my wrists, jerking hard enough to break the hold of one but not enough to get free completely. So, I did it again, freeing the same wrist only to freeze when Iz whimpered at the feel of Maria's clawed fingers digging farther into her neck, growling low in my chest again as the bitch smirked at me.

"Ah, ah Captain; I only need her, I do not need you. If you want her to keep her sanity, you will agree to my terms or she will watch as you are once again consumed by flames. Only this time, there will be no life on the other side awaiting you."

I bared my teeth at her, still growling at a low pitch that rattled the limbs holding me down. "What do you want?"

Now she smiled a nasty little grin, "I lost a great deal of my land when you stole my Major and you will aid me in getting it back or your little bitch here will pay the price of your treason. What is it going to be, Captain; your compliance until I get every inch of land I lost back or your mate?"

My growl grew in volume, but I wasn't really given a choice in the matter; "Fine."

At that, the bitch actually purred, "good boy" but released my mate and called off the dogs that held us down.

Izzy snapped her teeth at Maria before darting right to me, slamming into my chest where I wrapped my arms around her and dipped my head down. To the Cunt Master General it looked like I was nuzzling my mark but really I was talking into Izzy's ear, "good job Sugar." She didn't say anything back, just pressed herself closer to me, her body trembling a little and different muscles twitching from the bites she got.

Lifting my eyes from her neck but keeping my face down, I narrowed them at Maria, "Well, how we gonna do this, Cunt Master General?"

She growled at me for calling her the name I dubbed her with a long ass time ago, but answered none the less, "Your life once again belongs to me until I get my land back. And remember, Captain, you step a toe out of line and your mate suffers the consequences."

I growled at her, swallowing the remark on my tongue for the time being. I told the bitch she fucked up and I meant it. It might not have been the way I had originally thought, but this was worse. I was the absolute last son of a bitch you wanted to threaten like that. When it came to getting information I was a 'beat the shit out of you first then ask a question' kind of guy but in this situation, when I had something hanging over my head that had the power to destroy me, it was the exact opposite. I could lie in wait for years, decades even, before I acted on it and by then, you never saw it coming.

I had to do the last thing I ever wanted to do with my mate but it was the only way at the moment to keep her safe. I was going to have to teach her to be a monster in order to keep her alive long enough for the opportune moment to surface and when that happened, the demonic bitch that I was being forced to turn my mate into was going to be the one to do the seemingly impossible and end this bitch.

Jasper, who I had actually forgotten about as wrapped up in my vengeance as I was, hit me hard with 'chillax', drawing my attention from the walking cunt to him, a growl still in my chest. He simply cocked a brow at me, shifting what he was making me feel to the emotional words of 'I got your back' before forcing me to calm the fuck back down so I could actually think about more than restarting the war with the little fucktards I was about to once again be in command of.

Mother fucker.

Still growling a little I looked back at Maria, "feed the little fuckers and get me your plans.

She narrowed her eyes, "Be careful Captain."

I cocked a brow at her, "You want your shit; get me what I need to do it. Can't really expect results if I got incompetent assholes that are starving and distracted to work with, can you? Feed the little fuckers while we work some shit out."