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“She’s not dead, Dad. I told you, she’s in recovery.” He looked around like he was afraid of being overheard. In a harsh whisper, he told him what he’d discovered. “She’s my mate. You and Mom, you saved my mate for me.”
Thatch was still standing there when Maggie came to get him. He was sure that he’d heard his son wrong. Or he’d heard what he wanted to hear. Maggie was forever telling him that’s how he heard things.
“What’s the matter, you old fool? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Thatch wondered if he should tell her when he realized that he needed to tell her. “Thatch, something happen to that young woman? Please tell me she’s going to be all right.”
“She is now, I’d say. I think I heard Thatcher say she was his mate.” She did the same thing he had—stood there with her mouth gaping open like a fish ready for a fat worm. After closing her mouth, he took her hand so that they could have a seat. And just then, he saw Shane.
“Where is my sister?” The young man with him was screaming about his sister, and that’s when Thatch realized this was Rogen’s brother. “Someone tell me where I can find my sister! They said she’s been hurt.”
He made his way to the younger man and got his attention. Before he could ask again where Rogen was, Thatch took him to where he had left Maggie. Jamie, he’d heard his name was, just asked again where she was.
“Recovery. My son, he works here, he worked on her. She’s been burned badly.” Jamie started crying, and he looked over at Maggie. He didn’t know what else to say to Jamie, but Maggie thankfully did.
“She’s doing all right now, son. And as soon as they let us, we’ll go up and see her. She saved the lives of an entire family.” The police were coming toward them when Maggie spoke again. “Now, you help these nice policemen out, and when they’re done with their questions, I’ll take you up to the surgery floor myself. All right then?”
“Rogen is all I got in the world. We only have each other now.” Thatch wanted to tell him that wasn’t true anymore but didn’t. He wanted to wait on Thatcher to tell them. “Our parents are gone. Dead. We came here for a fresh start. To keep the newspaper people from hounding us again.”
Thatch didn’t know what that meant but didn’t get a chance to ask. Andrew, the chief of police, was asking him about Rogen and her habits. As much as Thatch wanted to stay and listen, he needed to find his son. Thatch needed to confirm what he’d heard from his boy. And if she really was his mate, then he was surely glad that Maggie had started what she’d done for Rogen.
Chapter 2
Jamie watched his sister breathing. He couldn’t see her face; they had her on a bed that would move up and down, and a hole where her face was. She was breathing, but she looked really sore. The doctor came in and Jamie stood up. He did it every time the man came in and he knew it was getting on his nerves, but he could no more not do it than breathe.
“What can you tell me about your sister?” Jamie looked at her. They’d said that she might die, and he didn’t know what he’d do without her. “Jamie? What can you tell me about her?”
“She’s good to me. Never yells unless she’s had a bad day.” Jamie looked at the big man, and when he sat down, so did Jamie. “I’m not right in the head. I’m not allowed to say that I’m slow—Rogen gets upset with me when I say that—but I’m slow in things.”
“What happened that made you like you are? I’m assuming that you’ve not always been this way.” Jamie shook his head and smiled, but let it go almost as soon as he realized that he’d done it. “You’re very smart. I can tell that someone has taken the time to help you. Was it your sister?”
“Yes. When I was a little boy, my mom—she didn’t like me—she tried to strangle me. I was two. And when I died, Rogen brought me back by pushing hard on my chest. But it was too late for my noddle. That’s what Rogen calls it. I love her, you know.” The doctor said that he could tell. “My mom and dad were so mad that I came back not right. Slow. I didn’t have enough air to my noddle, and that made my thinking slower.”
“And Rogen, she’s been taking care of you since then? Is she older than you or younger?” He said she was two years older. “So a four year old did CPR on you and brought you back?”
“Rogen, she’s really smart. She tells me that she is off the charts. I’m not really sure what that means, but she can do anything she sets her mind to. But she don’t...doesn’t remember little things well. She said her mind is too busy on other stuff to make the little things work. Like phone numbers and grocery lists. But she can talk in a lot of other words, languages. She works for the government on some computer stuff. I don’t know what it is, but she works really hard.” The doctor told him to call him Thatcher. “I can’t do that. I can’t do that until Rogen says it’s okay. I’m too trusting, she told me, and I don’t do anything without her saying it’s okay. It’s why I can’t let her die. I don’t know what I’m to do.”
“She’ll be all right. I promise you.” Jamie looked at his sister, then back at Thatcher. “You know what a shifter is? Like a man that can change?”
“Yes. The man that rents us the house, he is a wolf. But I don’t know how to tell what people are. Only the nice ones from the bad.” He looked at Rogen again. “You’re a shifter thing, aren’t you? That’s why you know she’s going to be all right.”
“Yes, I’m a tiger. Bengal. And when my parents, who are both tigers too, came upon the accident where your sister was, they changed her into a tiger to save her life.” Thatcher asked him to look at him, and Jamie had to work hard at looking him in the eye. “Jamie, they changed her into a tiger, and she’s my mate, my other half. Do you understand that?”
“Yes.” Jamie started crying when he realized that this man would own his sister and make her do things she’d not want to. “If you send me away, I won’t see her again. I need Rogen. And if you beat her, she will die anyway. Please, I don’t know what I can do for you, but please don’t send me away and kill her spirit.”
“I’d never do that.” Jamie didn’t believe him. “Jamie, I won’t hurt her. Ever. She will never hurt again if I can help it. Did someone tell you that? That I’d beat her?”
“We had neighbors that were bears. They were mean and would scare me all the time by chasing me around the town. And when they’d catch me, they’d hurt me with their claws, and
I’d have to have the hospital fix me up. Rogen told them that if they did it again, that she’d kill them. I believed her, but I don’t think they did.” Thatcher asked him what had happened. “One night they were trying to get me to run, but I’d been sick with the flu. Rogen heard them and came out of her room with a gun and shot the biggest one. She even put a special bullet in the gun to make it hurt bad. The man died, and she didn’t go to jail because they were in the house. Mom and Dad, they were so angry that they beat her up bad.”
“That’s not right. You know that, don’t you? Where are your parents, Jamie?” He looked at Rogen, then back at the man again. “You can’t tell me?”
“I’m suppose to tell everyone that they’re dead.” Thatcher seemed to get it and nodded. “You won’t tell on me, will you? Rogen won’t be mad at me, but she might not bake cookies for me. She makes the best chocolate chip in the world.”
“I won’t tell her.” Jamie thanked him. “You thought that I’d send you away. I’m assuming that this is from your parents as well?”
“Yes. They said that nobody would want a….” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “They’d not want a retard around all the time. And if you didn’t get to send me away, then you’d beat Rogen until she said okay.”
“You have a home with us as long as you want.” He nodded. “Jamie, I’m not just saying that. I swear to you on the life of my parents that I’d never send you away. You are my brother, just the same as Rogen is your sister.”
