Jane. Without a word, Kai raced down the hall to his mate’s room. He threw open the door to find Jane sitting up in her bed, frowning down at a bowl of soup.
Closing the distance between them, he stopped next to her bed and cupped her cheek. “Janey.”
She smiled up at him. “Hello there.”
He leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss. “I’m so sorry, love.”
Raising her brows, she slowly turned her upper body toward him, grunting as she did it. “What the hell are you apologizing for?”
“Kissing Maggie, for a start. Then there’s the fact that you’re injured and it’s all my fault.”
She tilted her head. “I’ll admit that I wanted to punch Maggie when you kissed her, but I understand why you did it. I might not be here to forgive you if not for that bloody kiss.”
“Jane, I—”
“Just stop, Kai. The only person at fault here is Maggie and her warped view of the world. To be honest, I’m just happy her kiss didn’t start a mate-claim frenzy. Care to explain that to a lowly human?” He growled and she smiled. “Okay, care to explain it to a brilliant, amazing human such as myself?”
His dragon spoke up. Her humor means that she’s okay.
Ignoring his beast, he replied, “It’s simple—I didn’t want her.”
“And?”
“Too much time had passed. All I need or want is you, Jane Hartley.”
“I hope that also means you know I’m going to stick around. If I can suffer someone piercing me with a talon and still love you, that’s saying something.”
He blinked. “Surely it can’t be that easy.”
“Why not? You’re the most honorable male I know. Although if you lord that over my brother, so help me, I will retaliate.”
He grinned. “Thanks for the idea.”
She rolled her eyes. “Speaking of Rafe, does he know what happened?”
“Yes. He was torn between staying with Nikki and seeing you. I told him to stay on Stonefire and that you’d do a video conference as soon as you’re strong enough.”
“I’d say I’m feeling well considering everything, but let’s not tell Rafe that just yet. I need to conserve my energy
for that conversation.”
“If he upsets you, I will challenge him the next time I see him.”
She let out a breath. “Don’t waste time thinking about that. Just stay with me a while and fill me in on what happened. The nurse mentioned something about Delia being back, but then he left before I could ask anything.”
He pointed to the soup. “Only if you allow me to feed you some of that.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You know how much I hate soup. A meal shouldn’t be a liquid.”
Pulling a chair next to Jane’s bed, he sat down. “You’ll eat it or I won’t share any information.”
She clicked her tongue. “You know, if I were anyone else, I’d play on your guilt to get the information.”
He picked up the spoon and scooped up some soup. “But you aren’t and you won’t. Now, open up.”
With a sigh, she complied and choked down some soup. Kai merely shook his head. “And you say I’m a baby when I’m injured.” She opened her mouth to reply, but he beat her to it. “But enough of that. Let me tell you everything I know.”
As Kai explained about Delia, the children, the drugs, and Maelon Perry’s findings, Kai slowly forced Jane to eat her soup. When he finished the recap, he added, “And there’s one more thing I’m not sure anyone on Snowridge knows about.”