Page 13 of Ronen (Sweet Alps Legacy #1)

Chapter Nine

Mason

Dr. Farrell pulled up some images on the iPad she held in her hands, pointing out a clear break in my ankle.

“The good news is you won’t need surgery to repair the damage, but we will need to cast it and you’ll be out of commission for…” she paused, hitting a few things on her iPad. “Hmm, I see you left your shifter orientation blank the last time you were here, about six months ago.”

Looking up from the screen, she arched one brow in silent question.

Shaking my head, I told her, “Just put a boot on it. It will be healed in a week. No need to go to the trouble of a cast that will just have to come right back off.”

“It would be helpful to have a clear course of treatment if I knew what kind of shifter you are. I can better evaluate your healing time. I don’t know of any shifters who heal as quickly as a week. ”

Feeling Jamie’s penetrating stare on me, I pointedly ignored him.

“Just boot it. It will be healed in a week,” I repeated. “I can sign something if you need me to, not holding you or the hospital liable if it’s not.”

Wouldn’t be the first similar form I had been forced to sign, and likely wouldn’t be the last.

Dr. Farrell pursed her lips together into a thin line, and I knew she wasn’t happy about me playing doctor.

Or not revealing my shifter species. But I knew my body, and I knew how fast I would heal.

While most shifters healed faster than a full human did, my DNA was superior to other shifters and healed three times as quickly.

“Not going to tell me?”

“Prefer not to, no,” I said quietly, meeting her stare straight on.

She gave a shake of her head. “That is your prerogative, of course.”

Being in law enforcement, I knew it was. Nearly a hundred years ago, shifters could be forced to state their species, but a law passed about forty years ago made it illegal to demand it. If someone didn’t want to reveal their shifter species, they didn’t have to.

“I’m going to trust that you know what you’re about. But,” she pointed her pen at me and shook it, “I want to either see you back here in a week to check it or you go see your regular doctor.” She consulted my chart once more, mumbling, “If you have one.”

“I’ll come see you in a week, I promise.” I assured her, because even with my super-fast healing properties, there was still a chance I could do damage to it that would need to be repaired.

That seemed to satisfy her well enough. “Your elbow is only bruised, and while we were almost certain when they wheeled you in that you were suffering from a concussion, the tests show you aren’t.”

Feeling heat across my cheeks, I murmured, “I’m not good with pain medication. My body doesn’t metabolize it well. It makes me…”

“High as a kite?” she supplied, a small smile on her lined face.

“That,” I nodded.

“In that case, do you want a milder pain pill to take at home, or do you think you’ll be good with over-the-counter stuff?”

“I’ll just pop some ibuprofen if I need it.”

I was loath to tell her even Advil sometimes hit me wrong. The way my ankle was throbbing, I planned to pop a couple once I was home, alone, and could pass out in private without having to worry about embarrassing myself any further than I already had today.

“Then I’ll send in a nurse to take out your I.V.

,” she told me. “There weren't any pain meds in it, since you were still out of it from what the EMTs administered in the field, just normal saline. We’ll get you in a boot and get you out of here as soon as we can. You’ll need to have someone drive you home,” She glanced at Jamie and he gave a short nod.

Yeah, no thanks, the last thing I wanted was to be stuck in a vehicle with Jamie. Especially if Jamie knew I was his son’s fated mate. At least not until Ronen and I had a chance to discuss what had happened between us, and any next steps we wanted to take.

The way Jamie was staring at me felt like I was one step away from the “if you hurt my son, I’m going to hurt you” talk. Frankly, I just wasn’t up for it.

Glancing around, I spotted my clothes in a plastic bag on a shelf next to Jamie. “Does anyone happen to know where my phone is? I need to make some calls and get a ride home.”

From anyone who wasn’t Jamie. Meg glanced at Jamie, who just pursed his lips and gave a slight tilt of his head.

I also needed to call Micah, the teenage kid that helped me out from time to time with my animals, when I couldn’t be home due to my work schedule. I’d need to see if Micah would be willing to come over in the mornings and evenings to help take care of my critters.

Even with the boot, I needed to limit how much weight I was putting on my ankle for at least the next couple of days. And hopping around a barnyard, trying to feed, water, and muck out stalls, wasn’t the best thing for it.

Jamie dug in the bag holding my clothes, then silently handed me my cell phone.

“Thanks.” I clutched the phone tightly in my good hand like it was a lifeline.

Dr. Farrell gave me a few verbal instructions, that I probably wouldn’t need to worry about with my healing properties, then left the room.

Finally, after Jamie and I had stared at each other in silence for a full minute, I cleared my throat. “I’ll call someone to come get me. You don’t need to worry about me.”

Jamie chuckled, “Oh, I’m not worried about you. I didn’t come here with the intention of driving you home. I mean I will if you need me to, I’m not a dick. I wouldn’t just leave you here, stranded. I came here to discuss my son.”

Swallowing hard, my mouth suddenly dry, I squared my shoulders, while trying to look relaxed. Giving him a nonchalant look, I inquired, “What about Ronen?”

“Look,” Jamie’s voice was soft, low, but serious, “I know you have a crush on Ronen, and it’s been cute watching you.”

“Watching me?”

What the actual fuck?

Yeah, he had caught me putting the duck on Ronen’s Jeep, but the way he had said it implied he’d been following me around for some time.

Jamie’s lip quirked up at one corner, his eyes knowing.

“The ducks, the books,” he ticked each one off with a finger.

Opening my mouth, I was going to give some lame excuse about both things, when Jamie gave me a look that said just save your breath.

Snapping my jaw shut, I said nothing.

“And now there’s the complication of you being my son’s fated mate.”

He knew about that, then. Great.

“Ronen and I haven’t had a chance to talk about that.”

“About that,” Jamie said, crossing one ankle over the other. “Don’t wait on Ronen to bring it up, because he won’t. That kid can ignore shit like it’s not happening around him. I understand why he does it, but it’s annoying as fuck sometimes.”

Blinking, I just stared at the man, not quite knowing where this conversation was going, because it had just taken a one eighty turn from where I had thought it was headed .

“You’re gonna have to get in his face about this, if it’s something you want to pursue. Do you want to pursue it? Or are you planning to take the out clause?” Jamie raised a brow at me.

The man could speak more words with one raised brow than anyone I had ever met. That brow spoke in complete fucking sentences.

“Because I’m gonna be honest here, that out clause is basically bullshit. Ask my brother, Finn, and his husband, Wade. Those two avoided each other like the plague for five years after finding out they were fated, and in the end, it did no good. They still ended up together, happy as clams.”

Rubbing at my temples, where my headache was coming back in full force, I said, “I’m not really sure what you’re telling me.”

“What I’m telling you is that my son is stubborn, like his omega papa, and you’re gonna have to be the aggressor when it comes to this,” he gave me a pointed look.

“And none of this cutesy, secret I-like-you-but-I’m-too-afraid-to-tell-you crap you’ve been pulling with him.

Fucking hell, it’s like watching two middle schoolers.

I half expect you to pull his hair, drop a note on his desk that says, ‘Do you like me, circle yes or no’, and then run like hell. ”

He ran a hand down his clean-shaven jaw.

“I know Ro likes being in charge of things, but he needs a strong alpha. And I don’t mean one that is going to try to stifle him, either, or control him, but one that can accept him and all his…

eccentricities.” He pointed a finger at me, “Ronen has a bad tendency of getting bored very easily. Not just anyone can keep him interested after the chase. Once he allows someone to catch him–” he flicked his fingers, “he shoos them away. On to the next adventure. ”

Scraping my teeth along my lower lip, I told him truthfully, “I have no clue what you are talking about. I don’t really see him as eccentric. Or easily bored.”

Jamie pushed off the wall. “Good answer. There’s a lot about Ronen you don’t know.

He doesn’t let just anyone see certain sides of himself.

He’s a master of showing people what he wants them to see.

Just like you have your secrets,” another pointed look that reached into my very soul, “so does my son.”

Taking a few seconds to absorb what Jamie had said, I still wasn’t sure about most of it, honestly. The man talked in riddles half the time, and despite the doctor assuring me I didn’t have a concussion, I just wasn’t up for sorting it all out.

Between the lack of sleep, the fall, and discovering Ronen was my fated, my body had had enough for one day. The things I was sure of was that I needed to speak to Ronen and I knew I wanted to see where this thing–us being fated–went. Anything beyond that would have to wait.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Jamie headed for the curtained doorway. “Good luck, you’re going to need it. I will tell you this; Ronen is very much like my husband, and it might not be easy, but I can guarantee it will be worth it.”

“Jamie?” I called softly, before he could slip out. He turned to me, a question in his eyes. “Aren’t you going to ask?”

The crooked smirk was back on his face; the same one I had sometimes seen on Ronen’s face when he thought I wasn’t looking, and something amused him. “Ask what?”

“What kind of shifter I am?”

Jamie gave a small chuckle, his shoulders shaking with the effort. “What makes you think I don’t already know?”

His answer left me shell shocked, but I couldn’t tell if he really knew about my dragon or if the man was fucking with me.

But if he did know, how did he know? I was super careful when I let my dragon out, and my mind raced to think of any time I might have screwed up. I came up blank.

My mouth opened, but before I could say one word, Jamie once again left me speechless.

“Mason Andrew Caldwell, thirty-five. Alpha father, Andrew. Omega father, Cord. One older brother, Connor. Grew up on a six-thousand-acre ranch just outside of Denver Colorado. Fate definitely knew what she was doing there.”

Once, again, I had no clue what the man meant, but I continued to listen to him recite facts about my life.

“Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Colorado State, with a minor in psychology.

Entered the police academy at twenty-two.

Worked your way up to homicide by the age of thirty, impressive, by the way, before you applied for the position of sheriff to fill the remainder of Becks’ term when he retired.

Well, applied is a casual term, since I know Becks approached you about the position, not that you went looking for it.

But you took it, likely because your family didn’t approve of you turning your back on ranching–your legacy–to go into law enforcement.

And also because you were getting burned out from looking at dead bodies, and feeling like you weren’t able to help people enough because you were limited to dealing with cases after the crime had been committed.

But that’s just me speculating. How am I doing so far? ”

Staring at the man with a mixture of anger and awe, I whispered, “I…how?”

“I’d tell ya kid, but then I’d have to kill ya,” he joked.

At least I thought he was joking. “And that might upset my son, which I try to avoid. I know you leave little ducks on my son’s Jeep when you think no one is looking.

I know you go to the library almost every day, and you pretend to lose books, so my son is forced to talk to you.

You have a small farm off the highway, that sits on about thirty acres, with a hodge podge collection of assorted animals.

The question is are they for your enjoyment, or for your beast’s? ”

What? My…what?

“Ew, you think…?” Giving him a horrified look, I exclaimed, “I love animals! They aren’t…just no. The only ones I’m planning to eat are the beef cows I’m getting in the spring. As a human. Steaks, hamburgers, roasts. Cooked.” I added, just to clarify.

My dragon liked meat, but I wasn’t feeding my animals to him. He would stay quite happy with a random deer every once in a while.

“And I know that no matter how much Ronen says he doesn’t like you, he is definitely attracted to you. Which drives him nuts, because you really do piss him off,” he turned to go, before stopping again, while I sat there in stunned silence at all the things Jamie Sinclair knew about me.

“It’s Sawyer, by the way,” he told me softly, and my head shot up to stare at him.

“The S stands for Sawyer.” He pointed a finger at me, his face turning deadly serious.

“He told us you’ve been trying to figure it out, I’m guessing as a way to get him to talk to you.

But if you tell him that it was me that told you, even the ability to breathe fire won’t save your ass from me. And, you’ll never see me coming.”