Page 12 of Cassian
“You mean like you have been.Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but she’s my wife, and she wouldn’t ever have to work again if she didn’t want to.Not that I care if you believe me or not, but that’s the truth.”He wanted to hit the man again, but decided that he’d be pushing his luck with that.“Have you learned anything from talking to the two of us?Like we’re not going to be putting up with your shit anymore?”
“It’s just a little bit of knocking her around.I don’t know why so many people have a problem with that.It’s not like I would have to do it daily.I mean, I won’t insist that she come in on her days off to allow me to knock her around.”This time, he popped him twice in the face and watched as his nose started to bleed a great deal.“Stop hitting me.I don’t like it.”
“Yet you want to do it to my wife.That is sort of a double standard, don’t you think?Maybe I’ll hire you just so when you open your mouth to say something stupid, I can hit you a couple of times and feel better about myself.”He said that he was thinking of this all wrong.That it wasn’t about him being hit, but him saving the lives of the people that worked for him.“As my wife said to you, I don’t care about the other people when you think that beating on her is going to be all right with either ofus.I find her to be precious and the owner of my heart, so no one will get to her but through me.And I think I’ve already shown you how I’d treat you if you so much as look in her direction again.”
“You think she’s just going to be all right with you hitting me all the time?She won’t.She’s the type of person who would lay down her life for a stupid mutt that got hit by a car.She’ll care about the other people the first time I have to hit one of them when I have a bad day.And who’s to say that I’ll have a bad day every day?I could just have them once or twice a week, and she’d be off the hook for me knocking her around.Come on, you know that she has a soft heart.There is no way that she would not want to save everyone who is working for me.That’s another thing that she’s going to do: get me my job back.And think about this, when they promote me for being such a good manager and I have my own district, she’ll be promoted too, so that she can come along with me.That’s a win-win for all of us.”
He was getting angry with talking to the man.There was no getting through to him, and he had a feeling that he understood some of the frustration that Raven had had with him.The man really was inside to think that anyone in their right mind would be all right with his supposed treatment of Raven.The man needed to be taken to the woodshed.Then he thought that it wouldn’t do any good, as the man really thought that he was right.Standing up, he was ready to wash his hands of the other man when he said something about needing the money again.
“I don’t need the money, and even if we were living out of a cardboard box, there is no way that I’d allow you to treat my Raven like you think you were.”He said it would be a lot of money, more than she was making now.“As I said, I’d not take money for her treatment like you want her to be for anything in this world.”
As he went out of the station, several people stopped him to tell him that the times he’d hit the man wouldn’t be saved.The recording would be just gone, and there would be no one to dispute his word.He knew that he loved the people who worked here, and this just went to prove to him that they had a good team working for the town.He was going to suggest that they get new uniforms because he did notice that theirs were looking a lot worn.Ace would be able to find some money for that, or he’d just fund it himself.
Driving home, he had to stop twice to stop himself from taking his anger out on other drivers.Like Raven, he wasn’t so much angry as he was frustrated about the way things had gone.He thought that he’d go in and tell him how things were going to go, and he’d be agreeable.The man really did have some odd ideas about how people should be treated in the workplace.He could only hope that he shared his plan with the judge when he came to town again, just so he could see firsthand what they’d been dealing with.
As soon as he got back to his house, he looked for Raven.Finding her in the kitchen with the cook, he pulled her up from the chair and held her.When she wrapped her arms around him, like before, he felt all his anger just slip away.She was the best medicine that he’d ever had for calming him down.It didn’t hurt, too, that he loved her with all he was.
“I take it things didn’t go well with Daniel.”He said that he didn’t want to talk about him.“Okay.What did you want to talk about?Something to do with dinner?We’re having salmon with asparagus and hollandaise sauce.Also, a nice salad that will be just plain lettuce, as we’re having pie for dessert, and I want to save room for it.”
“That sounds really good.”He still didn’t let go of her when she pulled back enough to look at his face.“I hit him three times and it still didn’t rattle his brain around to thinking that what he was saying was going to be all right with me.”
“I wish I could have hit him.I know that I’d feel better, but I was more afraid of him hitting me back, which kept me from doing it.What did he say when you hit him?I’m betting it had something to do with me being hit, not him.”He said that is exactly what he said.“I figured as much.If he gets out, and I’m hopeful that he doesn’t, I’m going to buy myself a gun so that I can kill him if he touches me again.Do you think that he’ll be getting out soon?”
“No, I don’t.He’s going to say something to the judge about how he’s going to keep you with him when he gets promoted, and that will be the end of him being free.Some of the things that cameout of his mouth still frustrate me to no end.Why did he ever get hired if that’s the way that he’d been thinking?”Raven told him that he’d never done that before until that last day.“You likely never told him no before, and that’s what set him off.”
“I didn’t tell him no because he was fairly fair with his working with me.I’d do my job and ignore him for the most part.He would get testy at times, but I just wrote that off as him being stressed at his job.It’s one of the reasons that I didn’t take the position that he had.I didn’t want the stress.”He pulled away from her when their cook said that their salads were ready.
Since they’d been eating in the kitchen while living in the big house, he sat down next to Raven when the salads were set in front of them.He might be a meat-eater, but he really enjoyed a nice salad once in a while.Especially when there was a special dressing that was made from scratch.It was a nice apple vinegar dressing that complemented the greens very well.
They both enjoyed dinner very much, and he was glad that they ate in the kitchen instead of the big dining room, which was cold when there was no one else around.They were talking about having the entire family over soon, and cook told them to let her know so she’d be able to have enough for them to eat.She’d been here before when they were eating with them, so she knew that it required a great deal of food to fill everyone up.Just as he was going to the living room to unwind, Lady Earth came to visit him.
“I’ve finally figured out what gift I was going to give to my dragons, but I decided that I wanted to start with you.”She looked at Raven when she spoke, and he wondered what it would be.“I have since taken away the pain that comes with getting the extra magic when you bond.I don’t know why something so wonderful needed to be followed up with so much pain in the first place.Silly way to give the gift of magic to someone that I dearly love.”
“I did wonder if I got any more magic from Cassian when we mated or bonded, whatever you called it.”She said that she’d gotten a great deal of it from all of the family and that she was powerful in her own right.“Thank you, but I really didn’t need any more.I barely use what I had before.”
“You’ll need the extra magic for what I have in mind for all of you.I think that it will make you all happy too.”She asked her what it was going to be.“Oh, I can’t wait to tell you.It’ll be such a wonderful gift for all that you’ve done for me in just being the dragons that I have come to depend on.It’ll be the gift of dragons.”
Raven looked at him, and he was just as confused as she looked.“I have my dragon.And other than Ace and Tank, we have been doing very well with them, too.”She told him that he misunderstood.“Then please tell us.I’m excited to know what brought you to us tonight.”
“I’m gifting all of you the ability to shift into dragons.And each mate that comes along afterwards will have the same gift.”Cassian had to sit down.The thought of being able to fly with Raven was almost more than he could handle.“Do you understand now?I want all of you to be my dragons so that the sky can be filled with you all again.”
~*~
Raven knew that they’d all come to their home for food.Every time they gathered, they got food and ate lots of it.She’d been amazed at the amount of food that they would order, but now, instead of thinking they ordered too much, she often wondered if they had ordered enough.They were big men, and they had the appetite to go with it.
Trying her best not to think about the news that the Lady Earth had brought with her, she organized the different foods with the restaurants so that by the time everyone had arrived, the food would already be there.She was getting good at calling different restaurants to get food from them enough to feed her family, and them to have enough left over to do business for the rest of the evening.It was a lot of work, but—she was going to be able to fly.
Shaking her head, she tried to tell herself not to think about what might happen.She said that she wanted to present it to all of them, and would they please invite everyone over so that she could.Lady Earth said that she’d been working on the magic all these last three weeks and thought that she had it finished.Thought was a big word to her.What if it didn’t work?Or what if there was onlyenough magic for a couple of them to fly?She would give up her spot for Ace and Tank.They’d been the longest without being able to fly, and they deserved it.She looked up when someone touched her arm.It was Lady Earth.
“You are very good and unselfish to want them to have this.”She said that it was only right that they should, since they’d been born into a dragon household, it only stood to reason that they get it first.“There will be plenty of magic to go around, my dear.And tonight you will be able to go into the dark sky with the rest of them and have fun.You will enjoy it, won’t you?”
“Oh yes.I’ve thought of nothing else since you arrived.”She said that she was thinking of the downside, too.“Yes, well, I’m not used to things going my way, and this is a biggy.Don’t you believe that if there is only so much magic, it should go to Ace and Tank?”
“As I said, that is very unselfish of you.But know that they thought that the women of the family should have it before them as you’re mates to the other dragons.”She looked over to where the men were standing and thought they were the sweetest men she knew.“They’re excited for you and the other women more than they think of themselves.The three of you, plus Ace and Tank, will be flying tonight, Raven.”
She sounded so sure that she wanted to believe her.But things that you believed in rarely turned out the way that you wanted them to.She didn’t mean to be so negative, but in her heart, she knew that things weren’t going to work out.And she smiled to herself, thinking that she’d be all right with that too.Raven had never flown and wouldn’t miss it like someone who’d had it taken away from them.And that’s the way she felt about Ace and Tank.They’d been born into a dragon family and had their magic of flight taken from them.It wasn’t fair.Not for them nor anyone who had been born the same way.
Tucker was the last to arrive as he’d had the furthest to come from.He’d been in Columbus, going over some of the contracts that had been given to him by one of the businesses that were thinking about coming to town.It must have gone well, as he was in such a good mood that it was infectious with the others around the room.After eating his fill, there was enough food, and they sat in the living room, and Lady Earth began talking.
