Page 24 of Kingston
Daniel was lucky that there had been people around when he’d realized that Raven was his mate.He might well have shifted and killed him right where he stood.He’d been eating in the little fast-food place when he noticed that everyone was standing by the door to the parking lot.There wasn’t any way that he could have reacted quicker, as he was shocked to see what the man was doing to the woman.The man was beating her and knocking her to the ground like she was nothing more than a stick.
Walking into the hallway where the nurses were, he nodded to one of them when they asked if everything was all right.The only reason he’d been able to stay was because Kings had pulled a few strings for him in order to get himself a free pass to stay in Raven’s room.He couldn’t leave her, not injured the way that she was.
Every time he looked at her face, his dragon wanted to find the man responsible and kill him.Not just wound him like he’d done to Raven, but to rip his throat out and stomp on him as his dragon.The doctors said she’d be all right, but it didn’t lessen the fact that he’d beaten an innocent woman like he had.
Cassian had met men like Daniel before.Given a little bit of power over someone, it went straight to their heads.Daniel was the kind of man that the police were forever screening for with tests to keep them out of their departments.They would abuse their power and people, too.It was worse that they were able to carry a gun.
Walking the floor, he was careful not to make any kind of disruption for the nurses.They were all working hard, and he didn’t want to get in their way.Going back to the room that Raven was in, he sat down on one of the nice loungers and set it up so that it was leaning back for him.Closing his eyes, he thought about what Raven was going to bring to his life.He could already feel a bit more magic around his body and was happy for that.The need to heal her was paramount, but he held off.People would be questioning everything if she were suddenly healed up from her beating.His body tensed up when he thought of the damage that had been done to her.
She had two broken ribs and several that were badly bruised.Her wrist was broken, and she had several cuts on her face that had needed stitches.There was a long jagged cut on her head where she hit the car, they told him, and that had required seventeen stitches on its own.It was also the point where she’d been concussed as well.Her legs and other arm were cut up, and she had both her eyes blackened, and her nose was bruised.She was, in a word, a mess.And all because some jackass had decided that he had power over her and was going to make her do what he wanted.
Every time he thought of Daniel, he wanted to kill him.Which wasn’t helping him sleep.He had a big day tomorrow, and being worked up wasn’t going to make it easier on him.Tomorrow, he was going to have to work hard in convincing his new mate that he’d never do her any harm and that she’d be safe with him.He would even make sure that her grannie was all right.
The elderly woman couldn’t make it to the hospital until tomorrow.Her driver for the day, a next-door neighbor who took her to appointments and such, was in for the night and didn’t drive after dark.He was going to send someone for her first thing in the morning and make sure that she could see her granddaughter before she was released.She’d been ever so grateful that he’d called her.
It was Kaida who had gotten the idea that someone needed to call for her.She’d rumbled through her mind gently and had found that she’d been living with her grannie.Getting the phone number was easy after that.Someone at the police station had known about her grannie and had given him the number to call her.Cassian remembered the conversation well.
“You tell me what time you get up in the morning, and I’ll have a car there waiting to bring you in.Then, when you’ve had enough visiting, I’ll get one to send you home in, too.No point in bothering your neighbor when I can easily do this for you.”She told him she was up at six in the morning.“How about I have the car there at seven, that way you can have plenty of time to get going and have some breakfast too.”
“That sounds about good to me.”He told her his name twice, but he wasn’t worried about her not remembering it.She was stressed, and he knew it.“She’s all I’ve got in the whole world.Well, I suppose that’s not true.I do have my daughter, but she ain’t worth nothing.I don’t think she’s even seen her daughter since I won custody of her all those years ago.Her daddy neither.”She snorted as she spoke to him about Raven.“Sorrier bunch of people you’d ever want to know.Not that you’d want them around.They forever had their hands out all the time until they had to start paying me some money to keep my girl.Not that I would have ever charged them, but the courts said they had to, so I got me a check from the two of them every month like clockwork.”
She had a terrible laugh.It was like a braying jackass that had been startled from behind.But he’d bet anything that she didn’t care.She made no apologies about it and seemed to enjoy laughing about things.It made him smile when she laughed the first time.
“I’ll take good care of the two of you, too.You don’t have to worry about anything so long as I’m around.”And he’d be around forever, too, he wanted to tell her, but didn’t.He didn’t know her allthat well as yet.“She’s not going to be able to be alone after she leaves the hospital, so I’ll have the two of you stay with me until she’s better.All right?”
She said it was fine, but he could hear the confusion in her voice.He’d be that way, too, if some stranger told you that he was going to take you home with your hurt granddaughter.Getting up when Raven stirred around on the bed, he made sure that she wasn’t in any pain so that she could rest.Giving her just enough magic that would keep her in a deeper sleep so that she could heal faster.
At midnight, they came in to wake her and ask her some questions.It was protocol for head injuries, and he understood that.He didn’t have to like it, but he did understand why they did it.To make sure that the injury wasn’t getting any worse.
Just as he was settling back down in the chair, Bluebonnet came to see him.He had been wondering how they were getting along at his home, and she assured him that things were coming along nicely.She was also able to give him his laptop as well as the two books he’d been reading that were by his bedside.Blue smiled at him when he thanked her.
“I will have fresh clothing for you in the morning should you wish it.”He said that he would and thanked her again.“Would you like for me to bring you any food?There is plenty at the house that I can make sure you have.It will be no problem should you wish for something from a restaurant either.”
“I’m fine right now.I’ll get something here for breakfast before Mrs.Lanning shows up.She’s Raven’s grandmother on her mother’s side.”Blue told him that she’d been in Raven’s mind and she’s been able to make the master bedroom to her liking.“That’s something that I wouldn’t have thought of.If there is anything you need, just let me know, and I can get it for you.She should be fine once she’s able to get out of here.”
“That’s wonderful news, my lord.”She asked him about things at the house, and he was able to tell her what was going on.He also told her about the room that she was using for herself and the other faeries.It was a big room, and he didn’t mind them setting up a small place for them to have crafts, too.They all made their own furniture.“They are loving the room and the setup.Some of them have been starting on larger homes because of how much room they have.I’m so happy for them.”
“I’ll need to get a faerie for Raven so that she can have the same benefits that I do.The magic cannot heal her as yet.There are police involved in her getting hurt, and they might not understand if she was suddenly well.But I would like for her to have a connection with someone so that if something ever happens, we can get to her much faster than I was able to today.”She asked what had happened, and he told her.“So you can see that she’s going to need time to heal on her own and not raise any questions about her injuries.Understand?”
“I do my lord.We don’t want her to be questioned about the manner in which she was able to heal.Humans don’t understand that at all.”There was a great deal that humans didn’t understand, but since his mate was one of them, he was fine with that.The less they knew, the better off every shifter would be.Especially those with a closed mind.He’d seen plenty of those in his lifetime, too.People who only saw things that they thought were real.“I shall return to the house now, sire, if there is no more need of me this evening.”
After sending her on her way, he sat back and looked at things on his computer.He wasn’t really concentrating on anything, so when he saw the article about Raven getting hurt, he was watching the video that accompanied it twice before he realized that it was her.
It was small wonder he didn’t do more damage to her human body the way that he was treating her.All that did was get his anger up again, and it took another walk around the floor to get himself to calm down.He was hoping that Daniel would get out of jail.He was going to teach him a few lessons in how to treat a woman.Especially his woman.
Chapter 10
Kings decided that he’d had enough work done for the day.It was only around one o’clock in the afternoon, and he was getting out of his office and going to find something to do other than paperwork and worrying about being king of his kind.There was plenty enough to do without him adding to his workload by trying to figure out what kind of mess he was in because someone had decided that he needed to be in charge.What if he didn’t want to be in charge?
He’d been asking himself that same question several times a day for a week now.There were people out there who needed someone to be boss, but he didn’t believe or think that he was the solution.They needed to pick someone who cared about the lives of other dragons.He just wasn’t it.He saw Brenin walking toward the library when he suddenly found himself downtown.
The whole town wasn’t much of a town.There were three stoplights, two gas stations, as well as four pizza shops.Oh, and a McDonalds across the street from the town proper.On Friday night in the fall, nearly all the town came to see the local football team play, and girls’ basketball was a big hit in the early spring.
Houses mixed well with the local shops, and he loved the local library because it was a center for adults to hang out with each other while reading over the free newspaper that came out once a week.There were large trees that lined the main drag, cars in some of the yards, as well as lighted decorations on the light poles at Christmas time.
“Where are you headed?”Brenin said the library to return a book, then he was going to get himself a sub for lunch.“Can I join you?I have something that I want to talk to you about.Also, did you hear that your brother found his mate?”
“Sure, I’d be happy for the company.And I heard from him last night.He seems to be enjoying himself.She’s a spitfire, he told me.”That’s what he’d heard, too, and she wanted Cassian to go away all the time.“I’m going over to see them when she gets settled in.Her grannie is living with the two of them as well.”
