Dragon Romance: Dragon Fire (Paranormal Shapeshifter Hero Protector Firefighter Romance) (Fantasy Shifter Werewolf BBW Pregnancy Women’s Fiction Short Stories) (18 page)

The doors of the ambulance closed and we left for the hospital.

*****

Dayton

It took forever for the damn ambulance to get to the hospital. Ronnie was beyond out of it from the drugs the paramedics gave her and she kept mumbling that it was
her
fault she almost got killed. I shouldn’t have brought her to the damn rodeo in the first place. It was my fault she was even there. She was at the bottom of the stands and it would have taken her forever to get out by the proper exits before the fire spread. She did the only thing any scared person would do and I watched it all happen. Ronnie couldn’t hear me yelling for her when she jumped the partition. She would have had enough time to make it to the north exit. Instead of yelling at her I should have just ran for her and took her to where I knew it was safe.

She had broken bones as well as a light injury from being gored, but it could have been worse. I pressed her hand to my mouth and she mumbled about it not being my fault once more.

The ambulance finally arrived at the freaking hospital and the paramedics rushed her into the emergency room. I couldn’t follow them after a certain point and all I could do was pace in the hall after telling one of the nurses her name.

It seemed like forever that they were in the ER, behind one of the curtains working on her. Many anxious people from the rodeo stood and paced in the waiting room.

“Dayton, Dayton!” I heard my brother’s voice and turned to see him rushing up with my parents. “We heard about the fire and the stampede, are you all good?”

My ma was doing her own assessment of me, checking my arms and legs and feeling my ribs for any breaks.

“Yeah I’m good, but Ronnie…she ain’t good man, she got trampled,” I gestured helplessly towards the door separating the waiting room and the room that held Ronnie.

“Shit man, how the hell did that happen?”

Ben and my parents were all concerned for Ronnie. They had each had a chance to meet her while she was on the ranch for my interview, and earlier in the day at the rodeo, and they really liked her. I explained what happened woodenly and then continued to pace.

“Dayton, don’t work yourself up too much. Ronnie will need you to be steady for her when they let you see her,” said my pop. He tried to get me to have a seat and I settled for standing. It took forever and all the other people waiting to see their loved ones seemed to all be called back before a doctor came out calling Ronnie’s name. I was in front of the doctor quicker than my family could stand from their seats.

“Are you all family to Ronnie Stanton?” the doctor asked skeptically. Almost in tandem my brother and parents said I was her husband. The doctor looked skeptical still, but he let it slide thankfully. “Well she’s doing okay. She’s in pain, I’ll give you that and she has a broken radius that we were able to set. She also has a fractured tibia, down by her ankle, and it’s bruised higher up along her shin. The wound in her back was thankfully not too deep. We stopped the bleeding and patched that up.” We all nodded along as the doctor spoke. I just wanted to see Ronnie and make sure she was okay.

“Don’t worry though, all of her injuries she’ll definitely recover from. We’re getting ready to admit her to the orthopedic wing, there you can see her in about ten minutes,” I nodded and the doctor went back into the emergency room. I followed silently behind him and snuck in to see Ronnie. The nurses were just snapping a gown on her as I stepped behind the curtain.

“I’m sorry sir, but you can’t be in here right now,” one of the nurses said sternly. Ronnie looked up and her eyes brightened when she saw me.

“I won’t be any trouble, I just have to see her,” I pleaded with the nurse, who glanced at Ronnie before sighing and turning her back to pretend I wasn’t there. I went over to Ronnie and held on to her hand tightly.

“Ronnie…I’m so sorry, I should’ve—”

Ronnie gave me a stern look which stopped my apology.

“Don’t, it wasn’t your fault. If anything I put
you
in danger. You could have gotten hurt or worse trying to get me out of the way of those bulls,” Ronnie sounded groggy, but otherwise aware and kept my mouth shut instead of arguing with her.

“I’m just sorry you got hurt,” I said, remorse heavy on my voice. Ronnie simply grinned, perplexing me. I glanced at the nurse who shrugged and pointed to the IV bag hanging that must have definitely had pain meds in there.

“I’ll be fine I promise. I could have suffered a lot worse if it wasn’t for you acting so quickly Dayton…” Ronnie’s expression sobered a bit and she looked at me with surprising clarity. “I love you,” I knew she was technically under the influence of medication, but her admission made my heart soar all the same. I beamed at her and she giggled.

“I love you too Ronnie,” I said simply before I kissed her softly on the lips.

I stayed with Ronnie while the nurses brought her up to the orthopedic floor and settled her in. She was going to need a couple casts the next morning and then she would be free to go that afternoon. They simply had braces and stints on her for the time being.

The nurses left the room, and we were alone.

“Dayton I know I have pain medication, but I was serious, I do love you…”

“I love you too Ronnie, and I’ll say it a thousand times over once you’re off the pain medication.”

Ronnie giggled and then soon dozed off.

*****

Ronnie

I had never been sickly growing up. I only caught the flu once and never had any allergies. I certainly never had any broken bones. I think having a broken bone, a fracture and a horn wound was to make up for all of that somehow. Being in the hospital was definitely not fun and the pain of my arm not being one unbroken length as it should have been was excruciating. Whenever the pain would get to be too much for me the nurses would give me pain medication and that just made me horribly groggy.

I knew my parents were there and Dayton hardly ever left my side, his family came to visit me a few times too which was sweet of them. But Dayton went above and beyond; he made sure I didn’t have to do any unnecessary movements and catered to me as if I were way more injured than I actually was. Which earned him points with my normally stoic father who thought no man was good enough for me. By the time I was discharged from the hospital my dad and Dayton were even talking about football. Who knew Dayton was a Dolphins fan as well? 

A few days after the incident I was back home and being spoiled by my parents as well as Dayton and his family when they came over to visit. Dayton was there with me every day though. I was actually surprised he hit it off with my parents so well. I knew my mother would love him, but my dad didn’t try to scare him away, which was rare. When I was in the hospital I was on a lot of pain medication and I vaguely remember ‘I love you’ being thrown around. I just wasn’t a hundred percent sure it was Dayton and me saying it.

Dayton kept looking at me as if he had a secret and was waiting for me to remember what it was; I just wasn’t sure if that was it. I mean I did love Dayton, already, he was everything I was pretty sure I would ever want, plus he got along well with my dad so that was an added bonus.

It was just after dinner and my parents had gone home for the night. They only lived one county over and it was an hour drive to my place. Dayton just came back upstairs after cleaning up the kitchen and he was holding a cup full of ice cream.

“You’re spoiling me Dayton,” I said, grinning, reaching for the cup and spoon. Dayton chuckled at me and got into bed.

“I want to spoil you. I don’t think I’ll ever stop wanting to spoil you…even in the afterlife!”

I laughed and Dayton grinned while he reached for the television remote to put on a movie.

“You plan on being with me through until the
afterlife
?” I asked him, only half jokingly. Dayton looked at me and nodded, his expression serious then.

“I love you and I want to be with you for as long as I exist,” his words touched my heart and I was speechless for a moment as tears clogged my throat.

“So that was real? You actually said you loved me in the hospital?” I asked, my voice thick with unshed tears. I kind of hated that I was being such a girl in that moment. One would think we were about to say ‘I do.’

“Of course it was real, I also said that I’d say it a thousand times over once you were off the pain meds,” Dayton smiled at me and I leaned over to kiss him softly on the lips. I kissed him twice more before pulling away.

“I love you too Dayton Fields,” I said and his smile widened to full on breathtaking. I couldn’t believe this man was all mine.

*****

A few months later, I was successfully head over heels for Dayton as well as moved in with him on the Ranch. I had finally healed up and back to normal mostly, though my shin still hurt a bit whenever I ran. It was my birthday and my parents as well as Dayton’s family and our friends were at the house celebrating. It was dusk and the seemingly endless fields were beautiful under the darkening sky.

Dayton tugged me in the direction of the field out front. “Come on, let’s go make your birthday wish on the first star,” he said.

We walked out a ways from the house, to our sort of special spot, where that cow had interrupted us, and Dayton and I found the first star in the darkening sky. I closed my eyes and made a wish while Dayton held onto my hand. I felt a large nose nudge my back and I knew another cow must have wandered far from the rest of the herd. I opened my eyes and looked down at it, she had a note attached to her tail. I snagged it before she continued on her way. I glanced up at Dayton questioningly and he shrugged, seemingly just as clueless as I was. I opened the note and in Dayton’s handwriting was the question, ‘Will you marry me?’

My heart leapt in my chest and tears threatened to fall from my eyes.

Dayton reached into his pocket and pulled out a beautiful silver engagement ring. There was an impressive diamond on it. The breath fled from my body then. I was surprised, even though I shouldn’t have been. I hadn’t been expecting him to actually ask me right on the spot like that. Though I
did
know he had seemed to be hiding something for the past few days.

“Ronnie Stanton, you are all I’m ever going to want in this life and however many ever more come after that. I love you and I want to marry you so…will you marry me?”

My eyes did fill with tears then; his gaze was sincere and he spoke without any hesitation. I knew I’d be happy with Dayton as long as I was with him, and there was no one else I could see myself being with for the rest of my life.

“Baby please say something, you’re killing me with all those tears,” Dayton said and I remembered I hadn’t actually said yes yet. I giggled and then nodded before the words fell unhindered from my lips.

“Yes, of course I’ll marry you Dayton,” Dayton’s breathtaking smile was back and he put the ring on my finger. He kissed me and then held me in a gentle embrace, then laughed, overjoyed. Dayton kissed away my happy tears and then picked me up and spun me around before kissing me again. I couldn’t help but think about how much I loved him.

THE END

Bonus Story 5 of 20

Shaun turned to Gerald and a smile split his otherwise serene face. The man that they had been tracking for more than three days was just up ahead somewhere. An abandoned factory loomed ahead in the darkness. Its broken windows stared like eyes from the shadows. Besides the small forest they were hiding in themselves, there was nowhere else to hide other than the factory. The brothers nodded to one another and darted across the open expanse between the factory and the trees they had been hiding in. They moved like shadows as they approached the building. The scent of the man they were hunting grew stronger as they neared.

Shaun held up a hand that brought them to a halt. He raised his face to the air and inhaled deeply. The smell of fear, sweat, and anger mixed in his nostrils.
Good. He’s tired of running and starting to get angry,
Shaun thought. He was glad that the man they chased was through running. They had been chasing him for eight days through some of the roughest country in North America. Shaun waved Gerald up and moved to the doorway.

Each man took a side of the doorway and stood still with their breath held as they listened for any sign of their prey. Gerald heard him first. He gave Shaun the signal that he had heard something with his hands. Shaun strained his ears for the slightest sound and then he heard the sound as well. It had been there all along, but his mind had not registered it for what it was. It was the sound of a man breathing shallowly so as not to attract attention. Shaun held up three fingers and Gerald nodded.

As he dropped one finger at a time, Shaun prepared to burst into the room. He dropped his final finger and both men spun into the doorway. As they moved through the room, their bodies changed rapidly. Hair sprouted all over and muscles swelled to the point the skin looked like it would split. Fingernails and teeth elongated to claws and fang-like teeth. In seconds, the two men had the bodies of bears as they raced through the factory.

A yelp from up ahead let them know that their target had seen them change and now knew that he was in serious trouble. Only two werebears in the whole world were known to work together. Most of the time werebears couldn’t work with one another for long without becoming hostile toward each other, but Shaun and Gerald were different. They had formed a bond that could not be broken and because of that bond they were one of the most feared pair of shapeshifters in the world.

Gerald leapt through a window and landed on all fours on the other side. A man dressed in a leather jacket and blue jeans tried to slide to a halt. His feet slipped on glass from the window and he went down hard on his buttocks. As Gerald closed the ground between them, he moaned and tried to back away on his hands and feet in a crab walk. A low growl from behind stopped him dead in his tracks. He arched his neck and looked straight into the face of Shaun. He opened his mouth to scream.

Shaun’s bear lips parted in what could only be called a smile and he batted the man in the side of the head. Not hard enough to kill him. Not yet, but he batted him hard enough to knock him into a wall. The partners shifted back into humans in the blink of an eye and walked over to where the man lay. As Shaun squatted over him, Gerald pulled a pistol from his pants and kept a watch just in case their target had friends in the area.

The man groggily sat up and stared at the two men before him. Shaun sat on his haunches with his hands dangling between his legs and smiled. For a full minute, he didn’t speak as he turned his head from side to side and took the man in. Sweat broke out on the man’s forehead and twice he tried to speak, but each time Shaun held up a hand and stopped him dead.

“You led us on quite a chase my friend.” Shaun’s voice was gruff as he spoke. “One of the longest chases I’ve been on, but no matter. They all end the same. Now I’ll give you the same choice I give all of our targets. Fight us or die in the dirt like the animal you are?”

“Can’t we talk about this?” The man tried to move back further, but the wall prevented him from doing so.

“Nothing needs to be said here. You killed a little girl. You showed that you are not worthy of living. If it was up to me, I’d tear you to pieces right here and now, but that is not the law of the chase. So choose. Fight and die or whimper in the dirt and be executed.”

“I...I don’t want to die!” He screamed and swiped at Shaun.

“Too little too late.” Shaun began to change back into the bear. As he did the man also began to morph. He’s features became wolf-like as his body altered. “Good.” Growled Shaun. “I like it when they fight.”

Behind Shaun, Gerald let out a sigh. “I got the last one so this one is yours brother.”

The man lunged forward in wolf-form and tried to snap at Shaun with his mouth, but Shaun batted him away with a massive paw. This time he used all the force he had. The wolf was thrown into the air and slammed back to the earth in a cloud of dust. The wolf was game, though. He let out a tremendous howl and lunged forward once again. He ducked under the swipe of the bear’s paw and moved in for the attack, but Shaun anticipated the move. He brought his other paw down like a sledgehammer into the back of the wolf. A howl of pain escaped the wolf’s mouth as his back broke from the force of the blow. Shaun bent over the wolf as he lay whimpering on the floor. With a grim smile, he peeled back his lips and revealed massive teeth. The screams from the wolf echoed throughout the abandoned factory and the surrounding woods as the Brother’s Swagger completed their job.

*****

Cynthia loved her job working in the library for more reasons than one. She loved to read and the library had plenty of books. She liked the quiet and that was one of the things that libraries were known for, and she also liked the smell of the old books. Somehow the smell reminded her of her childhood home. Not that her house had smelled like old books, but her father’s book collection had been quite extensive. Being a lawyer, he had required several books on law and a lot of them had been old tomes. From a very young age, she remembered going into her father’s study room and taking the big old books down from the shelves. Even before she could read.

Now her parents were gone and her father’s books were donated to a local law practice, but she still loved books. As she flipped to the last page of the book she was currently reading she felt a thrill go through her.
Another one on the list,
she thought. She had a list of books she had read since she was a little girl. It was quite long.

A small voice spoke up to her from the front of the desk. She sped through the last paragraph of the book and thumped it shut with a sigh. The book had been one of the best she had read in a long time. She glanced at her watch before she looked up and noticed that it was almost closing time. She could see the hands of a child on the desk and the book they held, but the rest of the little girl or boy was hidden from view because of the height of the desk.

“Can I have this?” The small voice spoke again and the fingers wiggled over the book.

“Of course you can.” Cynthia leaned forward enough so she could see the small child. It was a boy of about eight years old. She smiled at him and he returned it. “Do you have your library card?”

“I do.” One of his hands slid from the counter and fished in his pocket for a moment. A look of worry crossed his face but was soon replaced by a smile as he found the card. He pushed it onto the desk. “Here it is Miss Librarian.”

“Okay. I’ll just scan your book and your card and you’ll be set to go.” She handed him his card and book with a brown dog on the front locked in eternal combat with a rattlesnake. He took them eagerly and turned to go, but she stopped him. “Are you alone honey?”

“No. My mom is waiting in the car.”

Without another word, he hurried out the door and down the steps. As the door swung closed. Cynthia moved to the window and watched the boy to make sure he wasn’t alone. Sure enough, he ran to a car parked on the curb and hopped in the back. A woman nodded as he showed her the book and pulled away from the curb.

Cynthia thought it was kind of strange that a mom would let her seven or eight-year-old son go into the library by himself. Her mom would never have done such a thing, but then again her mom had been very overprotective of her and her older sister. She was what the psychologists now would call a helicopter parent.

The lock on the door worked smoothly as she turned it and the deadbolt. She locked the top and the bottom bolts too. She really didn’t see anyone stealing books from a library. Vandalism was more likely. It seemed that the world was getting worse by the day. The morals of each individual falling a couple notches each week, but in reality it was no worse than it had ever been. Yes, the crimes seemed more violent. That was because the criminals had to think up new ways to commit the same old crimes. Humanity wasn’t getting worse. People were starting to drop the naive shield from their eyes and see the world for what it truly was.

A pounding on the front door broke her chain of thought. She stopped halfway between her desk and the door. A second later the pounding on the door echoed once more throughout the library. She spun on her heels and walked back to the door. Just as she reached it whoever was outside pounded on the door once again. They were hitting it hard too. Each blow caused the door to jump and bounce in place and the front doors were very solidly built from oak.

“We’re closed for the day. You’ll have to come back tomorrow.” Cynthia yelled through the doors.

“Come on lady. I just need to get a book for my daughter. I promised her I would today.” The man’s voice sounded hurried and nervous.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I . . . ”

“Please. I’ll make it worth your time. I’ll pay you fifty bucks if you’ll let me get the book my daughter wants.”

Cynthia was saving up for a new coffee pot. You really didn’t notice how little money a librarian made until you tried to save up to buy something. She was tired of no coffee in the morning and the fifty bucks would give her more than enough to buy the coffee maker and some good coffee beans to boot.

“Alright, but you have to hurry.”

She unlocked one of the doors and swung it back until a crack no wider than an inch appeared. The man’s face appeared in the crack and he gave her a smile. His hand flashed and he pushed a fifty-dollar bill through the crack she had made. She took the bill and let him in.

“Thank you. You’ve really helped me out.”

“Well, it’s the least I could do.” She held the fifty out to him. “Here. I don’t feel right taking this. Take it back, please.”

She expected him to refuse for a moment before taking it back or just refuse altogether. She could not have been more shocked when he grabbed her by the wrist and yanked the bill from her hands.

“Don’t mind if I do you stupid broad. Now lock the damn door back and hurry it up.”

“What . . . ”

“Lock the door!”

He punctuated the yell with a backhand across the mouth so hard that Cynthia immediately tasted blood. She locked the bolts on the door and turned around to face the man. A wicked grin split his face. With his right hand, the same one he had used to slap her across the face with, he motioned her toward the window.

“Shut the blinds and hurry up about it.”

Cynthia closed the blinds. “Why are you doing this?”

“Don’t ask questions! Just shut the damn blinds, woman!”

She hurried around the library and shut the blinds like she was told. As she was shutting the one behind the desk, he picked up the phone and ripped the cord from the wall. Her heart sank as he smashed it on the floor. Plastic scattered in all directions. Her cellphone was still in her purse behind the desk. She hoped against hope that he wouldn’t think of it, but once more her heart sank as he turned to her.

“Where is your cellphone?”

“I don’t have one.” She thought that maybe he would believe her. The hard look in his eyes told her at once that he hadn’t. He lunged forward with the speed of a darting snake and grabbed her by the throat.

“I’m only going to ask you one more time.” He growled. “Where is your cellphone? Keep in mind that if you lie to me again I’ll crush the life out of you.”

He tightened his hold on her throat just to show her that he wasn’t joking in the least. He shoved her back. She coughed violently and rubbed her neck where he had squeezed it. She reached behind the counter and for the first time in her life wished that she had a gun. Never before had she wanted anything to do with one. When she was young, she remembered her father having guns, but she had never liked them. Too loud. Now she wished she had kept at least one of the small handguns. She handed her purse to him and sat down on her stool behind the counter.

As the man rifled through her purse and spilled the contents out onto the counter, Cynthia tried to think of a way out of the mess she was in. She didn’t try to sugarcoat it. She knew that she was in serious trouble.
There are only a few ways that this can end.
She told herself.
None of them are pleasant in the least, so you have to do something quick.
Her eyes fell upon a small metal object that she used every day. It was no longer that her hand and gleamed in the light.

A letter opener.

The man had found her cellphone and she expected him to smash it on the floor, but he didn’t. He flipped it open. While he was distracted with turning the phone off, she palmed the letter opener and shoved it up the sleeve of her sweater.