“Just a little, but I’m handling it.”He nodded and asked her who she’d spoken to that had shit in her oatmeal.“I hate oatmeal, so that is something that would never happen, but it was my boss.I called him to tell him I’d been hurt, and he wants me healed by Friday.I don’t know how I’m supposed to make that happen when I’ve got a broken ankle, but he pissed me off and threatened me.I don’t understand the threat, but I know there was a hint of one.Then you come in here with flowers, and it sets me off again.What did you do with the flowers?Toss them out?I wouldn’t blame you.”
“The staff is going to find you a vase to put them in.If they come in with them, will you not yell at them?They’re only doing what I asked them to do.”She said she’d be good.“All right then.Your boss.What would you like me to do about him?I can call him and tell him he’s insane for wanting you to heal.Or I can have my dad or brother to call him and make him understand that a broken ankle isn’t something that heals in just over five days.I don’t know that I’d be all that nice about it, but my dad and brother would be.They’re used to dealing with that sort of thing.”
“They have women break their ankle all the time, do they?”When his face turned red in embarrassment, she had to laugh.It felt good after all the tension she had before.Stretching her neck and hearing it pop, Aaron smiled at her.“I’m in a better mood already.Thank you for taking me to task.”
“I didn’t.But you were hard enough on yourself that there was no need for me to do it.I camehere to talk to you about something.”She nodded, feeling better all the time.But now that she wasn’t stressed out, her ankle started hurting badly.Mac told Aaron that she was going to have to have something for pain.“Good.This might go easier if you have something in your system.”
She didn’t know what he was talking about, but was hurting now.After getting the call button to work, she nearly begged for something for pain.The nurse, probably hearing in her voice that she was hurting, came in right away to give it to her.It occurred to her that she should have asked for half a dose if they could do that, because she was drifting away and she had company.Asking Aaron what he wanted, she was surprised by his smile.
It was beautiful and sexy.The way that he showed his teeth made her think of him being the big bad wolf and her his prey.When she thought that he corrected her, telling her that he was a tiger, she laughed a little.Of course, he was a tiger, just look at his hair.It looked like it could be the color of the mains on them at the zoo.As she was drifting further off, she remembered taking his hand into hers, or perhaps he took hers into his; she couldn’t remember.The last thing that she remembered him saying to her was that he was her mate and that he belonged to her.
The room was empty when she woke up.Her ankle wasn’t bothering her right now, so she moved it as gently as she could to sit up straighter in the bed.Still no pain, but she was all right with that, too.It was then that her door opened and an elderly man walked in with the biggest bunch of roses that she’d ever seen.
“Hello.My name is Frank Sharps.My grandson, Aaron, was in to see you earlier, but he went back to work when they needed him in.”She nodded, and he put the vase of flowers next to the one that Aaron had had earlier.“I’m Grandda to all of the Dresden boys as my daughter married their father.”
“That’s good.”She didn’t understand why he was here, but didn’t ask.She’d just had a good sleep, and she was still a little groggy from it.“I’m Mackenzie Troff.Everyone just calls me Mac.”
“I like Mackenzie.But I’ll call you Mac if you wish.”Again, she nodded and watched him circle the room.“Did my grandson talk to you about anything?I mean, tell you about himself?”
She told him how she’d needed pain medication and hadn’t had the energy to speak to him very much.At least she didn’t think so.Bits of conversation were coming back to her.Something about a tiger.Mac didn’t say that to the older man because she thought that he’d think she was crazy or something.Or perhaps she was.Maybe she’d hit her head on something and only thought that the big man had come to see her.Then she saw the flowers and knew that he had.
“My head is a little fuzzy.I’m not sure what I remember.”He said something about her remembering if he’d spoken to her.“You’re talking in riddles.Is that normal for you?I mean, I’m not sure what’s going on right now with you being here.”
“I just came to meet you.To see what sort of person you are.What do you do for a living?”Danger signals went off in her head.“I don’t think that Aaron told me.”
“He didn’t ask.He works as a detective in this town.”She knew that much was right, but who had told her if he asked.But he seemed very interested in the flowers all of a sudden.She asked him again why he was here.“I thought that you said you were coming to see me to see what sort of person I am.Why would that matter?”
“It doesn’t.I was just wondering.I wish Aaron had been able to talk to you before he left.It makes what I want to do harder.”She asked him what he wanted to do.“There are all kinds of things that I want to do, but that darn Grandson of mine, he won’t be happy with me if I talk to you before he gets to.And I’ve been on his list a bit too much of late.I tinker with things, and it gets me into trouble.”
“You’re making trouble for yourself right now with me, too.What is it that Aaron should have talked to me about?You tell me now.”He looked surprised or shocked, she couldn’t tell which, but she wanted answers, and he wasn’t going to leave here until she had them.“Tell me.”
“You’re not supposed to be able to do that.”She told him to tell her again.“You’re his mate.Aaron is a tiger shifter.So am I, but he’s a bit stronger than me.It might well explain how you can make me tell you things that I’m not supposed to do.But you’re his mate as surely as I’m standing here.”
“What’s a mate?”She had an idea what it meant.She had shifter friends.But there was noway that she was mated to Aaron Dresden when she had a job to take one of his brothers down for something she was beginning to see wasn’t true of him.He told her in stammering sentences what a mate was.It was no less than what she feared.“Aaron is a tiger.I remember thinking that he was a wolf or something like that for some reason, and he corrected me.He did ask me to not fall asleep so fast, as he had something to tell me, and that was it.I’m his mate.Or he thinks that I am.He’s not sure.”
“I am.Sure, I mean.You couldn’t have made me tell you what I know if not for him being your mate.You used compulsion on me.”He looked like he was pissed off.“You’re just a human and not a tiger, not even a shifting tiger, and you made me tell you that.”
“Then tell me what that means to him.”He said that he didn’t know the mind of his grandson, but he thought that he’d be beyond kind to her and would give her the world if she wanted it.“So he’s a nice man.”
“One of the nicest men that I’ve ever known, and that’s saying a great deal as I’ve known a lot of good men in my lifetime.But Aaron, like his parents and brothers, is a good man like none other.”She thought of something and asked him about it.“Missing women?I don’t know anything about that.Could be that they just run off when their man beat them too much.I heard of a network that is used, but I’ve never been able to chase it down or anything.What does that have to do with my grandson?”
“Not about Aaron, but his brother Alaric.”He asked her what was being said.“That he’s kidnapping women to sell them off to other countries for sex and prostitution.”Frank shook his head as if in disbelief.
“Not with them boys.They’re momma and daddy raised them to respect women and men.They’d no more do that than you would.”He eyed her hard.“You didn’t use compulsion on me that time, but I can’t lie to you.Not with you being Aaron’s mate.That makes you my granddaughter just the same as if you’d been born to my daughter.”
“Thank you for that.I don’t know what to say.”He just stared at her again.“I’m sorry that I used that on you.I didn’t know I could do that.Is it true that you can’t lie to me?And who else can’t lie to me either?”
“None of us can that you’re not related to.”He looked at the door, and she did as well.“Aaron is coming right now.He’s brought you some food to eat.If I was you, I’d let him talk to you about him belonging to you.If you’d not mind.”
The door opened, and just like he said, it was Aaron.He had a large bag of something that smelled wonderful.When he told his grandda that he didn’t know he’d be here, the elderly man said he was leaving.Just after he was given a hug by Aaron, he looked at her before returning his gaze toward his grandson.
“She knows about you being her mate.Also, she’s a bit stronger than I am, I’m thinking.You take care that you tell her everything because there is no doubt whatsoever that you belong to her.”Aaron asked him what he’d done.“Nothing.But she’s your mate, Aaron.Don’t you forget that.And she’s strong too.Like you, I’m betting.What do you feel that’s different?”
“Nothing but then I’ve not been doing anything but sitting around my apartment.”Frank nodded and told him that he looked like he was bigger.“How can that be?I thought that mom said there would only be changes after we had sex.”That caught her attention.
“We’re not having sex.I don’t even know you all that well yet.”Aaron looked at her and smiled.It was like before, all dreamy and sexy like.“That might work on some women, you know, but it doesn’t work on me.”
“We need to talk, I guess.”She nodded and watched as he hugged his grandda again, and the older man left.“I brought us some dinner.I didn’t know for sure what you liked, but you mentioned a meatball sub.That’s what I got for both of us.”She thanked him.
