Her Dragon To Slay(15)

Such a pity he thought. He could tell from the slight flaring of her nostrils and the look in her eyes when she turned those spectacular emerald orbs on him that she felt everything he did. Then there was the unmistakable sweet scent of her desire. There was no denying they were in the beginning stages of the mating call. He shook his head, clearing what cobwebs he could. He reiterated for the umpteenth time, to himself and his wayward thoughts, that he had to get his butt into that bed, sink into the healing sleep for a few hours so that he could explain everything to Kyndel before he was unable to keep himself from taking her despite his condition.

She turned towards the hall bathroom and took a step over the threshold. Just before she closed the door he called out to her, “Kyndel, please don’t leave the apartment or answer the door while I’m asleep. There are people out there that want to hurt me and you, by association. Please just give me the few hours you promised and I will explain everything.”

Kyndel answered without thinking, “OK, you have three hours and then I want some answers, Rayne.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. He had used most of what little magical stores he had left to place wards around her home to make sure they would remain undetected by the hunters. Even if the ones who searched for him did catch his scent through the wards he had woven, they would not be able to enter without his or her consent. As long as she followed his requests, she would be safe while he slept and he was sure from her quick response that she would do as he had asked, even if she didn’t understand why. The dragon shifter mating call was a powerful, magical thing that once initiated was impossible to break unless the female denounced her mate. One of the most amazing attributes of their bond was that one mate would never knowingly endanger the other; protection of the most important person in their world was complete and total. Neither man nor beast or their mate would ever endanger the other. He had put just a little extra push in his command to ensure her compliance and she had responded immediately. Things were progressing quickly for them and it pleased him as nothing else ever had. Now all he had to do was sleep and heal so he that he could claim his mate.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Did that insufferable yet irresistible man just order her not to answer her own door? She thought back over the conversation and almost yelled out, yes he did. The damndest thing was, she agreed without a second thought? Once again she wondered about her own sanity. Her night just kept getting weirder and weirder. At least she felt better now that she was in her home and out of those damn office clothes. Looking in the mirror, she realized her hair looked like a rat’s nest from her time spent outside with the breeze whipping her curls around. She also noted the dark circles under her eyes which made it look like she had missed more than a few nights sleep.

As she walked out of the bathroom in her comfy clothes and headed towards the kitchen to get their drinks, she thought back to all the noises she was now knew she had heard tonight. Rayne hadn’t hit himself on the head, a wound that wicked had come from someone else; that she knew for sure. There had been more going on out there than she knew and as soon as that sexy man in her bedroom was done with “his rest” she was going to get to the bottom of all the weirdness. He had promised and she meant to hold him to it.

With a glass of fruit juice in each hand, she headed back down the hall to her bedroom. She walked through the door and there sprawled face down across her bed was Rayne. Even battered and beaten, he looked like that was right where he belonged. A shiver ran down her spine as she noted not only blood congealed in his beautiful mane of chocolate brown hair but the mass of injuries to his back. There was barely more than a square inch of his beautiful skin not covered in a cut, a scrape or a puncture wound not to mention blood and dirt. The abuse ran from his shoulders to his waist. Now, there was no doubt something horrible had happened to him in that park, not that she had ever really doubted it after seeing him unconscious on the sidewalk but for whatever reason, she felt better with the confirmation. She felt guilty for the time she had wasted worrying about herself when he was being beaten and bloodied. She once again mused at the complete disregard her internal alarms displayed where this man was concerned.

Kyndel’s heart hurt as she looked at the damaged back of the beautiful stranger that was making her doubt her sanity. It had to hurt…really hurt. He had lain on that sidewalk for what seemed like a really long time while they discussed whether he should have medical attention or not and he hadn’t complained at all. He had to have been in so much pain. Pain that she knew she could help him with and that was exactly what she planned to do. She had some of the liniment her granny had taught her to make when she was a girl on the farm. Granny’s ‘Magic Potion’ would soothe everything from a paper cut to a third degree burn. She had used it for absolutely everything and now Kyndel did the same thing. Her granny’s favorite saying was ‘you can take the girl out the country but you can never take the country out of the girl’. That awesome woman had taught her all about medicinal herbs and helped her understand why helping others seemed to be a calling of all Mastersons. She taught her what would cure a headache or indigestion and most importantly how to make her special liniment and teas. Granny said their kin had always been blessed in the way of healing.