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I won’t have it—”
“My parents changed you. Out there on the road before anyone knew what you were to Thatcher. And while I like you, Rogen, very much, you really need to take it down a few notches. No one is out to get you. There is not one person in our family that will harm you. And most of all, Thatcher is the nicest and most generous person I know.” He stood up. “If you would just get that chip off your shoulder for one moment, you’d realized that the only reason that you’re alive and healed, for the most part, is because my family stepped in and saved you.”
Rogen started crying. She wasn’t normally this emotional all the time, but the last few...well, she had no idea how long it had been. But she rarely cried, and she wasn’t snippy. She’d have to apologize to a great many people if she kept this up. And when a man came in, she knew that he had to be Thatcher.
“I’m sorry that Dawson upset you.” She said that he hadn’t. Just told the truth. “Yes, well, he can be too blunt at times. How are you feeling?”
“Emotionally drained. I think I insulted your entire lineage. Not to mention upset your brother and a nurse from last night. She startled me, and I had no idea where I was.” He sat down. “Am I to assume that you’re the famed Thatcher Robinson, my mate?”
“Your temper is showing again. And yes, to both. Do you have a problem with being my mate, or is it just me?” She told him both. “So, you don’t have a problem with me, just with being a mate to anyone in general.”
“I know that Dawson, who looks a great deal like you, by the way, he said that I’d been wrong about mates. But I saw it firsthand what being a slave to someone is like.” He asked her if she wanted to get out of her contraption now. “Don’t do that. Don’t fob me off like a child when you don’t think I can handle the answer.”
“I’m not. I’m simply asking you if you’d like to stand on your own two feet. Dawson said that you were doing well enough, he thought, and when I came in, I saw that you’re nearly healed. Would you like to get out of the bed?” She nodded, not sure at all what was wrong with her. Thatcher moved behind her and she could feel him working on something that was holding her. “You know you’re a cat, but I would suggest you hold off for at least two days before shifting. You’re very weak, and she will be as well.”
The pressure at her back was let go, but Thatcher held her in place while he did something right around her butt. When she felt it give, she had to hold onto the bed before falling all the way back. She really was weak.
“Come on now, you can do this. Just breathe.” She wondered why he kept saying that to her when she realized she wasn’t breathing. Rogen let her breath out slowly. “That’s my girl. In and out. Just like you do every day. You’re doing well, and if you want to take a step back you can. But it’s about a six or seven inch difference from the bed to the floor.”
The step was taken, but she was shaky and weak. Before she could begin to think she should get back on the contraption, Thatcher picked her up in his arms and sat her down on the chair he’d been in. She wasn’t sure if she should be grateful or embarrassed.
“How long have I been here?” He told her. “Not that long at all, is it? For how badly I was burnt. You said that you talked to Donaldson. He’s an ass kisser, and he follows the rules like they were something that God handed down to him. I don’t. Follow rules, I mean. That’s why I’m so good at what I do.”
“What is it you do? They might have told me at the meeting, but I missed it when you were upset.” She apologized to him. “No need to do that. You were upset, and that’s normal when you wake up after what you went through. They said that you can make a computer do whatever you wish, and if you can’t then you just make up a new program for it to dance for you.”
“Yes. I guess. I’m the person who finds the people the government wants me to find. I don’t ask for what. I just do it.” She adjusted on the seat, her back hurting just a little. “I find that I can sleep better at nights if I only think they want something from them. Not that they’re going to kill them.”
“You’re my mate, Rogen. You know that. But I am never going to tell you not to do your job. It’s obviously something that you’re good at and seem to enjoy.” She nodded. “But we have to talk about your parents. I’m concerned that they might be on their way here.”
~*~
Thatcher wanted to take her home and let her shift. He wanted to kiss her, make love to her, and tell her how much he admired her. But he’d been cautioned by Winnie not to go too fast. And never to pay her a compliment that was not sincere. She could tell it wasn’t at the first word. Now that was a woman that he liked.
Donaldson hadn’t done anything to him. Not really. Nor had he been a total ass like he had been on their first meeting. But he was a dick, and he let everyone around him know that he was in charge for a reason. What that reason might have been, no one seemed to know.
“For the most part, everyone comes to me after talking with Donaldson. The only people that have contact with Rogen are me and that idiot that she reports to. And so you know, Rogen blind copies me on every email that she sends him.” He asked why he’d need to know that. “Because, if you have to email me, like if I need to know if Rogen is ill or hurt, I’d like it if you’d do the same. You have no idea how many times I’ve had to step in when he has this thing he wants done. I have to admit, Rogen handles him like we all wish we could. She tells him to fuck off, shut up, and to get the hell away from her when he’s being a bore. Me, I have to watch myself, but that’s getting harder and harder to do daily.”
Rogen stood up, taking him out of his musings. “Are you all right? I mean, other than a little shaky?”
“No. I mean, shaky, yes, but...I’m confused right now. And I feel antsy. I’m assuming that is the cat. I can see her when I close my eyes, but she’s far back, like she’s afraid of me. But when your brother was here, or when I was being pissy to you, she seemed to run over me, like a hug. But that can’t be right, can it?”
Thatcher told her what he knew. “I guess that’s as good a description as any. Giving you a hug to let you know that she’s here for you should you need her. And she’s more than likely back from you because she knows that as long as I’m here with you, she’s not needed.” Rogen glared at him. “I don’t mean that you’re the weak female. It’s just that she knows that you’ve been hurt, and right now, without being able to shift, she doesn’t need to protect you like she normally would.”
She didn’t so much pace the floor as she lightly glided from one end of the room to the other. He’d seen his dad pace. It was like he was trying to make a hole in the carpet while he thought about things. When she stopped moving, he looked up at her face. She had such a beautiful one too.
“Your parents, what does me being changed by them mean?” Thatcher asked her what she meant. “Well, when a vampire changes you, they own you or something. At least that’s what I heard. What does me being changed by them mean?”
“Nothing. They changed you because you needed it. The council, the tiger board, they understood and are glad that they were able to save you. For me.” Rogen didn’t say anything about that, but she did ask what would have happened had they not approved. “I don’t know, honestly. You’re the first person that any of us has been around that we had a hand in changing. And when I say we, I mean me as well. Every day when I could, I’d come in and nip at your skin. Just enough to draw blood and for my salvia to mix with it. It’s what healed you so quickly.”
“So you could have sex with me.” She was trying to pick a fight with him. He wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t going to let her get to him. He’d heard enough from Winnie to know that she trusted no one, not even her, and that bothered the other woman. “Is that it? You healed me so that you could fuck me anytime you wanted and order me around?”
“Do I look like a person that would order you around? Have I given you any indication that I’d knock you on your ass?” Her face turned pink. “While I do have some idea why you’re this way, I’m not the bad guy in all this. All I’ve done since I’ve found you, or since you were brought to me, is try and make you safer and well. Perhaps I should go home and let you cool off.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She started crying, and his cat seemed to want to come out and be there for her. When she looked at him, he had to hold onto his cat so he didn’t do just what he wanted. “Can I go home? I can’t be here anymore. It’s too noisy. Too much going on. And now it seems as if I can smell every kind of floor polish they used here.”
“All right. But you don’t live in the rental anymore.” She started to get angry again, but he held up his hand. “Even Donaldson said you weren’t safe there. It’s too far off the beaten path. There isn’t anyone around for miles, and you don’t own a car or a good cell phone. Those are just a few of the things that were pointed out to me.”
“I had a lot of equipment at the rental. I do hope whoever did this, without my permission, did a good job of taking it all down.” He told her that his brothers had taken it down with the supervision of Winnie. “How big is this place that I’m living now? I want my brother there too. I need him much more than he needs me.”
