Her Dragon Protector Read online

  “Someone grab a warm cloth,” my mother yelled. She was human, and my father was a beta, but I would’ve guaranteed three or more people jumped to do as she said. She had that sort of presence.

  “Come on, Axel.” Soft hands pulled me away from my mate. “Let Doc check her out.”

  I let Ava and Mom pull me away from Charlotte, even though that was the last thing I wanted to do.

  Doc got on his knees beside Charlotte and began examining her. “I’ll start with her vitals,” he murmured.

  He looked at her eyes with a little penlight and tutted. “I don’t like how her eyes respond.”

  Asher grunted inside me, unhappy with that news. I held my breath and tried to stay back and not crowd the man.

  Doc moved on to her blood pressure, pulling little machines out of a bag he’d produced. He wrapped a cuff around her wrist and pressed a button. The little blood pressure monitor whirred to life while Doc probed all over Charlotte’s head.

  All I wanted to do was cover Charlotte’s body with my own and hold her.

  That wouldn’t help her in the slightest, though, so I let Ava’s and Mom’s touches help ground me.

  Ava had quickly become very much the sister she’d been when we were kids. Maverick had never seen her that way, but to me she’d been a pesky little sister, tagging along with me and Mav, making us have to hide our true natures. I’d liked her, though, despite that. She had an undeniable charm.

  “Ouch,” he muttered. His hands moved around the back of her head, which he lifted off the couch and supported with one hand while exploring with the other. “Someone help me turn her, please.”

  I lurched forward to help, as did Ava and Mom. The three of us held her on her side at the edge of the couch while Doc used his penlight to examine the back of her head. My hands heated where they touched her thigh and the back of her knee, but I restrained myself. More than anything, I wanted to massage her legs, try to find some way to comfort her.

  Claim her.

  Not that. Not yet.

  As soon as Doc parted her hair, the smell of her blood hit me. Gardenias mixed with copper.

  We will kill the man who injured her.

  Ignoring my dragon, I fought the same urges he had. We wouldn’t kill him, but damn, it was hard not to promise my wild side that we would.

  Doc tutted. “I opened the cut on her head with my exam.” He finished exploring the wound on the back of her head and we let her rest again. I didn’t get up this time. He could damn well explore around me.

  “I’m going to perform a quick exam of her body. Please clear the room,” Doc said. “Get a car to the door, she needs to go to the hospital, for sure. I’ll give her a once-over to make sure we don’t need an ambulance.”

  “I’ll get my SUV.” Ava jumped up and ran from the room.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I said. My voice continued in a growl that I hadn’t actually meant to let out.

  “Son, nobody is asking you to leave. Just the general audience.” Doc chuckled and looked over his shoulder.

  For the first time, I glanced behind me. My entire clan was crammed in the entrance to the living room and front foyer, all of them trying to peer over each other’s shoulders.

  “You heard the man,” I roared. “Get out!”

  Even my grandfather, our clan’s High Alpha, jumped a little at my tone. “Yep,” he said. “Sounds like Axel’s got this well under control.” He spread his arms and turned away, ushering the rest of the family out the door, including my father and younger brother.

  Ava ran back in, darting through the sea of the Kingston clan. “Car’s right outside.”

  Doc waited for the room to empty down to just me, Ava, and Mom.

  Maverick, my alpha and younger brother, stood in the foyer with his back to us, as if guarding us against anyone trying to come in. It was symbolic—nobody would dare bother us now that I’d made my feelings clear about the matter—but I appreciated him anyway.

  “Okay, I need to examine her abdomen.” He pulled up her shirt, and the mass of bruises on her stomach made me hiss as I sucked in a breath.

  Asher lost his shit. I had to clench my fists around the cushions of the couch to keep him from making me physically upset.

  Ava turned to look behind her at someone. “We need to call the cops.”

  “We are the cops, dear,” Maverick responded.

  “These are old. A couple of days.” Doc pressed into her stomach and tutted again.

  “If the bruises are old, it almost certainly didn’t happen here,” Maverick continued. “We need to contact the police from New Mexico and file a report.”

  Doc sat back on his heels. “Her liver is enlarged. It could be just how she’s made, but I worry about internal bleeding.” He stood with a pop of his lips, a worried sound. “This is beyond what I have with me, at least for a human. If she were a dragon, I could give her certain herbs and she’d heal herself. I could give her something for pain, but she needs a complete workup and body scans.” He nodded his head toward her. “Take her to the car, Axel. Be gentle. She won’t heal as fast as we do, and until you two bond, she’s just a fragile human.”

  Just a fragile human. She’d been through a serious beating and had managed to drive all the way from New Mexico. She was anything but fragile.

  And yet, I picked her up with the lightest possible touch. She moaned as I tucked her into my arms, stirring a bit, but not enough to talk to me.

  “Ava,” Doc said. I paused at the front door to listen to what he had to tell her. “Make sure they do a rape kit. These injuries are consistent with what we see with domestic violence. I could almost recreate the scene for you. There is often also rape in these situations.”

  Ava sucked in a shocked breath I heard clearly even in the next room. “Doc, if he raped her…”

  “I know, dear. Wait for the test results and we will proceed then. It can’t fall back on Axel, but we would handle it if it proves necessary.”

  They wouldn’t have had to handle anything if her rape kit came back positive. There wouldn’t be a force in the world that could’ve kept me from killing the man, and I had no idea who he was.

  But I knew her name and what city she came from in New Mexico. That was enough.

  I climbed carefully into Ava’s backseat without putting Charlotte down. “Drive,” I commanded as Maverick got in the front. He grabbed a light from the glove box and slammed it onto the top of the car. It was magnetic and plugged into the cigarette lighter. “I bought this for situations just like this, when we might need the SUV.”

  “We need to buy one for the department,” I muttered as I looked down at the gorgeous woman curled up in my lap. She moaned or whimpered occasionally, making me want to wrap her tighter in my arms, but I didn’t want to hurt her more.

  Ava slid in beside me and took her friend’s hand. “Hang on, Char. We got you.”

  The county hospital was a good half-hour drive from our house. Ava talked to Charlotte the whole way, nonsense stuff about being best friends and Charlotte staying with Ava.

  I wanted to tell her I’d keep her safe and nobody would ever hurt her again, but couldn’t bring myself to say the words in the car with my brother and his new mate.

  When we pulled up to the hospital, several people in scrubs rushed out with a gurney. Mom had probably called ahead to let them know we were coming.

  Two men I recognized as nurses from the times I’d been in the hospital on police business helped me lay Charlotte on the bed. They snapped up the metal rail sides and took off with her straight into a set of double doors just inside the entrance. I tried to follow, but a severe-looking woman wearing glasses on the end of her nose appeared with her hand up, blocking the doors as Charlotte disappeared around a corner. “Are you family?”

  I shook my head.

  “Next of kin? Spouse?”

  With an internal roar of frustration that was all me, not Asher this time, I turned and stalked out of the emergency ro
om doors. They wouldn’t let me near her until she gave permission, and probably wouldn’t tell me a word.

  Maverick waited for me outside. Ava stayed in, and I watched her speak to the woman. They walked toward a row of desks behind windows—the reception area. Ava had Charlotte’s purse in her hands.

  “Ava will get her registered. She’s her best friend, and the closest thing she has to family.” Maverick put his hand on my shoulder.

  My skin crawled with worry and anticipation. “What if he raped her?”

  A beating was bad enough. But rape? How could she get past that? I’d do anything I could to help, of course, but she didn’t know me yet. I couldn’t fathom the emotional pain she’d go through if he’d raped her. Physical pain healed much faster than the scars an event like that would cause.

  “Then we’ll deal with it.”

  My skin rippled as the urge to shift nearly did me in.

  Mom and Dad pulled up behind Ava’s SUV, and Mom got out and rushed inside without a word to us as Dad walked over. “Anything?”

  Maverick shook his head. “They just took her back. Ava’s doing the paperwork, but I think he’s about to lose it.”

  Dad nodded. “I figured. Come on, son. Let’s get you home so you can shift.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not leaving her.”

  “She’s not dying,” Maverick said reasonably. “She’s hurt, but not dying. Right?”

  Even though I knew he was right, admitting it out loud meant leaving her. “She’s not dying. I’d know.”

  Mates always knew. Though we weren’t bonded, did that make a difference? I had no idea.

  “Come on.” Dad nodded his head toward the car. “You’re doing her no good here freaking out. Go home, shift, process the fact that you have a mate, then come back and check on her.”

  I nodded, then fixed a glare on Maverick. “Keep me posted.”

  He smiled at me, sad but understanding. “Of course. I’ll text you anything I hear. Anything at all.”

  He knew damn well the two things I wanted to know. That she was going to be okay and that she hadn’t been raped.

  I slammed the car door behind me after I got in and waited for Dad to hug Maverick and get in. “Come on, old man,” I muttered. My skin rippled again as the worry, fear, and rage threatened to consume me.

  Dad finally got in and turned us back toward our property. As soon as I knew we were on our land, still a good ten minutes from our house, I gripped the door handle. “Let me out.”

  Dad slammed on the brakes, and I launched out of the car, shifting as soon as I exited. My clothes ripped off of me, including my shoes. I did have a millisecond of regret; I loved those sneakers.

  Then, Asher took over fully and all regrets left my head. I roared as I flew up the road, then up and over the trees. Pumping my wings, I headed farther and farther up the mountain, until the air grew thin and harder to breathe.

  Asher didn’t care about the thin air. It was soothing to a dragon, being in the cold air at the top of the mountain.

  We owned the property for miles and miles around. I could fly for hours and not run into anyone who would be a danger to me. The wolf shifters of the area lived on the land as well, and they patrolled it frequently. Their sniffers worked even better than ours. If someone strange hit our land, we knew it well in time.

  After flying up the mountain, I landed beside a stream for a drink. Asher’s mind was at the forefront of our personality while we were shifted, though I did have the ability to force him to shift back if I needed to. He studied himself in the river’s reflection in the fading light. It would be dark soon, and though I didn’t mind flying in the dark, I wanted to see if there was any news of Charlotte.

  This is not how I wanted to meet our mate.

  Asher was not happy with the situation.

  Neither was I.

  As we flew toward home, I tried to reason with him. Hell, at least we’d met her. That was more than most dragons got. Fated mates were pretty rare, even for dragon shifters.

  We couldn’t wait to get to know her.

  2

  Charlotte

  My head pounded until I woke up. Moaning, I covered my eyes. Why were all the lights on? They burned through my eyelids. Without opening them, I tried to roll over in bed and go back to sleep. No way I was getting up with a headache like this.

  But I couldn’t roll over. Something kept my arm from moving too far, and every time I tried, a tugging feeling made me stop.

  Damn it. I didn’t want to open my eyes, but what the fuck?

  Cracking them, I held up one hand, the one that didn’t feel weird, and squinted down at the arm that was acting up.

  An IV stuck out of it. Why did I have an IV?

  I hadn’t been sick or anything, so why was I wearing a hospital gown and clearly lying in a hospital bed? I squinted and continued shading my eyes as I looked around. Ava was asleep in a chair beside my bed, her head leaned over on a pillow pressed against the handrail of my bed.

  As my brain tried to clear, the pain set in. My head hurt the most, but even moving my head from side to side made my ribs hurt as well.

  I tried to sit up and hissed as I realized just how sore my midriff was.

  Memories flooded in then, of Logan hitting me, knocking me down. Had he kicked me? I couldn’t remember. I’d gotten up and told him what he wanted to hear, doctoring myself as best I could and allowing him to feed me pain pills.

  Oh, shit, had I driven to Colorado like that? The presence of Ava meant either I’d come to her or she’d come to me.

  I tried to focus on the events of the last few days, but so much felt like sand slipping through my fingers. I couldn’t recall much about the three days sleeping after Logan’s beating, but I did suddenly remember packing everything I could fit into my Fiesta and hitting the highway. Had it been three days I’d stayed, waiting for the opportunity to leave? Maybe it was two.

  Damn. I probably shouldn’t have driven, especially not that far. But I’d made it.

  Ava stirred and smiled at me.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” I whispered. “What happened?”

  “You passed out in my arms.” She took my hand. “We were really worried about you.”

  I didn’t ask who we was. Probably her kids and Maverick.

  Tears filled her eyes as she stroked her thumb across my knuckles. “I was so worried,” she whispered. “You kept almost waking up and moaning in pain. It broke my heart.”

  With a chuckle, I squeezed her hand. “Stop. I’m okay.”

  She gave me a deadpan look.

  “Well, I’m not okay, but I’ll be fine. I’ll get through this like I do every other breakup. With tequila and mint chocolate chip.”

  Ava snorted. “This is worse than anything I’ve ever seen you go through in a relationship.”

  She had a point there. I knew how to pick them, for sure. I’d had guys rough me up before, twice, but that was more like an intimidation factor. I’d let them know I wasn’t someone they could easily bully or overwhelm, so they’d lost interest fast.

  Not Logan, though. He’d hidden it well, waiting until I was moved in and we were all sweetly domestic to show his true colors. The bastard.

  “Char, what happened?”

  Her eyes pleaded with me to tell her, but I didn’t want to. I had to explain how I ended up with yet another man that was toxic.

  With a sigh, I told her all she needed to know. “Logan.”

  The tears spilled over and tracked down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing for you to apologize for.” I looked away and out the window across the surprisingly large hospital room. “You didn’t pick another complete loser.”

  She sighed and sat back. “You do know how to pick them.”

  That was the damn truth. I’d picked the wrong men time after time for my entire adult life. This one took the top prize, though. I’d never been beaten into the hospital.

  “Char, I have to ask. Did he r
ape you?” She looked like she’d rather have asked me anything in the world but that.

  “No!” I exclaimed. “He didn’t. I promise.” At least he’d given me that dignity. From the time he came home drunk, he didn’t even ask me for sex.

  Ava slumped in relief. “Thank goodness.”

  What did that say about me, that she’d been so worried I might’ve been raped? What did that say about the men I’d been seeing?

  “I’ve got to make a change. You being so worried about me being raped says a lot about me,” I whispered.

  “No,” she snapped. “It does not. It says a lot about men. Yeah, you always seem to go for the guy that isn’t good for you, but we can work on that. Worrying that you might’ve been raped says a lot about men. Not you.”

  I burst into tears, grateful to my friend for recognizing my vulnerability. She climbed into the bed beside me and carefully put her arms around me. “We got this, Charlotte. You’ll stay with me and Maverick and get on your feet. Don’t worry.”

  Nodding my head, I rested it on her chest and tried to calm down. Maybe a move to Colorado would do me good. Get out of the city I grew up in, start over here where nobody knew me. Nobody knew my family or my history.

  The door opened and an older man in a white coat came in. “Hello there,” he said with a kind smile. “I’m Dr. Hamlish.”

  He held a tablet in his hand, rather than a clipboard. I guess the hospital in Black Claw had updated their technology. “You are a very lucky lady,” he said. Tapping the screen, he showed me a picture from a cat scan. “You probably can’t read that, but—”

  “I can,” I said.

  “Sorry?” He’d been about to explain the picture to me and hadn’t heard me.

  “I can read it. I’m a nurse.” I was proud of my degree and had even been considering going back for more.

  “Oh, well, good then, here.” He put the tablet in my hand. Ava climbed out of the bed so I could sit up properly. I winced as the movements sent shots of pain across my abdomen.

  “You see here, your organs look great.” He leaned over and flipped through several images, giving me a moment with each one to study the scans. “No internal bleeding. No broken ribs.”