Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sitting at his desk with all his notes in front of him, Harman tried to get his mind where it needed to be to work. He'd been home now for a week, and the only thing he'd gotten finished was his laundry. And he'd not even washed it but had put it away. Having live-in help, he was glad now that he'd hired someone to help, but he was getting no more done than he had before. Figures, he told himself. All this time, he couldn't get his head turned in the right direction.

"Mr. Harman, you have a phone call." He thanked Margaret, and she headed back to the kitchen. Picking up the phone, he decided today wasn't a good day to get bitchy about someone else's habits when he came to phone edict. Knowing who it was helped a great deal, too. When she started talking to him, like she'd had a head start on this conversation just a few seconds ago instead of two hours, he smiled when she cursed, a great deal, as a matter of fact, about people. Humans, he thought. But since she was fully human, too, he wasn't quite sure how that was going to work.

"I'm thinking that I need to hire meself a chemist and have them make a drug that will make ye people smarter. I'm thinking too that you and me, we're the only ones that seem to have the right idea." He asked her what had happened now. "I don't know, but Katie is in a terrible mood again."

He didn't ask if that was any different from any other day of the week but kept his mouth closed. The two of them had butted heads several times in the last couple of days, and he didn't have it in him to get into it with her again.

They talked about the upcoming holidays and what they were going to do. This will be the first time that Carrie and her brother could celebrate the holidays together as they didn't live all that close in Wales. It was doable, but for him, it was too much with children.

"I'm leaving just after Thanksgiving. I was going to stay until the new year, but my momma and sisters want us to come back before that. It's only because I buy the best gifts ever." He thought she might be right on that. He'd been shopping with Carrie and Katie, and Carrie bought gifts from the heart. Katie did as well but it was difficult for him to get close to the other woman as she was forever snipping and biting at him. It was almost too much to hang out with Carrie when Katie was around.

Carrie had been telling him for a couple of days that he should just tell her to shut her trap. His mom would ring his neck if he did that, and he was kinda happy where his neck was at the moment. After telling Carrie that he was going to have dinner with her grannie, she asked him if he was sweet on her.

"I am, as a matter of fact. She's been so nice to me since I was able to get her some good oats. And she tells me that her constitution is a good deal better, too. I love the woman." She laughed and said that the only person she was on the warpath with at the moment was Katie. "What's happened there? Yesterday, you told me that Katie was in her good grace and that you were out again."

"Aye, I was. But she's got a burr up her butt about us leaving soon. Said we've got us nothing there that we can't have here for us." Harman told her that was sad. "It ‘tis, it ‘tis. She's all alone now when we all go back home. Katie will head home the same day that Joey and I leave. She lives close but not close enough for her to just pop in when she needs her. I don't know why Katie won't stay…Might be because she's out of work right now. Her boss, Jimmy Barnhart, the bastard, he's been calling her daily and showing up at the nursing home since you had him tossed out on his behind."

"I don't think I ever heard what it was that she did for a living. I know that you and Joey run a flower business, but not her." She told him what Katie did, and he was impressed. "So she's that good at being an attorney? Did all his clients leave as she told him that they would?"

Harman looked up when he saw a movement at the door. It was Katie. And she had blood on her face and a nasty bruise on the side of her head that was getting bigger by the second, had him telling Carrie to come over now. It wasn't until then that he noticed that her clothing was all dirty and that there was snow in her hair. Harman called for Margeret.

"Call an ambulance." Katie told him that she'd be fine, but he told Margret that he wanted one now. "Now let me see what damage you did to my front lawn when you fell. Or did you ram your head into the steps? Either way, you're paying for the damages."

"I didn't know where I was when I woke up." Harman didn't think that was a good thing. "I was wandering around outside when I thought this was your brother's house. If I'm disturbing you, I can go there. Just point me in the right direction. No north or south crap, I don't know my right hand until I pick—" She looked up at him, and he could see that her eyes were glazed over in pain. "I'm sorry if I hurt your sidewalk."

"I think I'll manage." He picked her up from the floor and carried her to the couch. When he got her there, Margaret brought him an ice pack. "Put this on your cheek, and I'm going to inspect your head. I'm going to see if you cut yourself. What happened, if you don't mind me asking."

"I don't know, not really. I was talking to Jimmy, my boss, and telling him not to bother me anymore or I would make his life like he had mine. I remember thinking that there must have been an echo around me when all of a sudden, I felt this incredible pain in my face and then my head." Harman asked what she meant by echo. "Oh, you know when you talk on the phone with someone and it's an echo of what they're saying to you back. That's what I got towards the end of the call. I wonder now if it was that I was in between houses or something like that."

"He was more than likely following you, and that when you turned him down again, he hit you. Nothing that man does here lately surprises me anymore." He found a small hole-like cut on the back of her head and was holding another towel over it when the medics arrived. As soon as he was able to back away from Katie, he went to the door again to let in Carrie and her brother, Joey. Her other brother, Shawn, was there, too. He explained what had happened and told them that he was going to call the police too. "I think he's been following her around for the last few days. When he isn't harassing you, Carrie, he's beating up women."

His brother showed up as well. Edwin came with the police as he'd been at the office talking about the upcoming holidays and how the department was taking donations for the kids' drive. One of the medics showed Edwin the cuts on Katie's head, and Edwin shivered.

"So he's now trying to beat you into submission? This guy isn't very bright if you ask me. This morning, the station was called to the hotel where he's staying. He was demanding someone tell him where you were living." They were lying Katie down on the couch about then, and she said that she had left the hotel to go to the bed and breakfast. Edwin nodded and said that it was probably a better place, but he more than likely saw her leaving the hotel. "If you were trying to keep your move a secret, then I'd suggest that you stay here. No one will get by me as I run a lot of security devices here that I bought. I wrote a book on how to secure your home as a DIY project."

Edwin stared at him and Harman only shrugged at him. "Is Katie your mate? Or Carrie? Either one of them would be amazing to be related to. Which is it?"

"I don't know. I've never thought about it. How would I test that out?" Edwin asked him if she smelled good to him. "I haven't any idea. I've not been able to smell anything since I was born. I told you that." He looked at his brother and could see the confusion on his face. "I know that you know. I told everyone at the dinner table one night when we were just kids."

"Christ, I never remembered that until just now." While Edwin was thinking, or whatever he was doing, with that odd look on his face, Harman watched Katie being worked on. He got a lot of information about her while she spoke to the medics, but could she be his mate? Could Carrie? It was something that he was going to give a lot of thought to when he got home after the emergency room trip that he was going to surely go on. "Dad wants to know if you can dress and undress yourself." He looked at Edwin before telling him that he could do that since he was about two. "No. I mean—Christ. I mean, when you shift, are you naked when you shift back or not?"

"I don't know. I'll try that later. Right now, I'm trying to figure out if I have enough material for a book or two. If there are enough sales then I can pay off the car that I want to buy. Having a mate never entered my mind." Harman reached for Katie's hand when she reached for him. He knew that she had to be afraid. He was for her as well.

There was a monster, anyone who beat up defenseless women was a monster, in his opinion, out there gunning for her over a simple job. And that's all it was. Just a job that he'd fired her from in the first place.

As she was put on the gurney, she asked him to bring her sister to the hospital so that she'd not drive. Her brother, as well.

"Sure. I don't know that I'd want to be driving either if my brother had been beaten to shit. I'll bring them back home too if you would just give me a call."

Nodding, she thanked him for helping them out, and she was put in the back of the ambulance. Just as they were pulling out, he and her family loaded up in his truck and made their slippery way to the hospital. He had not noticed that there had been a heavy snowfall, and it was piling up on the roads and lawns.

It took him less time than he had thought before he was pulling into the parking lot of the ED. As soon as they entered the lobby, he was asked if he was carrying a gun, and he was asked to take it to his car.

"No." He handed them his right to carry as well as his license to say that he worked for the government. He also said that he had to be armed because of his association with the government. "I need to be able to protect myself and those around me. That would include you."

After making a phone call, which was all it took for him to be verified as a government employee and that he'd not been lying about his association with the president, Harman was allowed to not only keep his gun but the knife in his boot pocket as well as the sixteen inches of wire that was wrapped around his wrist in the event he had to up close and personal with someone trying to harm him.

Katie was being prepped for surgery. Like him the second time, they wanted to make sure that they got out any dirt and debris that might have been imbedded into her head from whatever had been used to harm her. When she was wheeled away to the surgical floor, he decided that he was going to go into a bathroom and figure out if he was either of the women's mate. After talking to his brother, his curiosity got the better of him.

He didn't go back with her when she'd been brought up to the unit. Allowing only two visitors, he thought she'd feel better with her family there other than a stranger. But after a few minutes, it was Joey that came out to get him.

"She told me to get you even if I had to drag you in here by your hair. Don't make me have to beg you not to hurt me. Please?" They both laughed. "She's really nervous, and she told me that, for whatever reason, you calm her a great deal."

Another clue that she was either his mate or the cousin's mate. Confused, he entered the prep area and watched as she was having an IV put into her arm. When she reached for him, Harman instinctively kissed the back of her hand after taking hers into his much larger one.

It was all he could do not to cry like a child. Every part of his body started to tingle, and he knew on some level that this was normal. He had claimed his mate. Lying his head on the bed beside her, he let it roll over him in large, painful waves. Harman knew that Katie was hurting too, but it was all he could do to make sure that he didn't shift while waiting for whatever happened to be finished.

He woke up lying on the bed beside Katie. It was the biggest hospital bed that he'd ever seen, and he was glad that someone had thought of that when they'd put him here. Looking around, he saw his brother, Edwin, as well as his wife, Storm, in the room. He asked where they were.

"Hospital still. She's had her surgery and got about two hundred stitches in the back of her head as well as on her back. I'm assuming that you didn't notice those." He told Storm that he'd not. He was more concerned with her head. "I can see that. She's going to be just fine, thanks to you claiming her. I'm wondering if you can smell now. No biggie if you can't yet, but it's something that I'm curious about." Harman leaned over to Katie and inhaled deeply. He could not only smell her, but he knew that she was ovulating. After telling Storm that, she nodded. "I figured as much. All right. Some things that you should know before she wakes up. Her boss is in jail. I wish I would have found him first, or we'd not have to worry about someone getting him out. But there is still time for that."

"You may think that's comforting, but it's not. You scare the shit out of me when you say things like that. Especially in that soft voice that you have." She laughed, and he smiled. "What else. Whatever it is, can it wait? I'm all right, but my wolf isn't. He's feeling pissy with me. Is that normal?"

"Is there anything about you Griffin men that is normal? Don't answer that. I know the answer without you telling me." He laughed again and turned to see that Katie was staring at him. "I'm going to leave you two when I tell you both what has been going on. Most of it you might have already guessed, but I'll let her know as well.

After telling the two of them what had been going on, Storm and Edwin left. Edwin said that he'd come by later with some food but wouldn't stay. He figured that they had a lot to talk about. Think about as well.

Once they were alone, he sat up slowly and looked down at her. After getting up and stretching so that his wolf was able to do the same, he sat down in the chair Edwin had been in after moving it closer to the bed. Taking her hand into his. He again kissed the back of it as he leaned into her.

"I'm sure you have questions. I do, too." She told him she had too many to put in order right now. "I'm good at sorting through your answers if you want to shot gun the questions to me. Right now, I'm feeling good, but I know that you're not. You know what happened, I'm assuming. Since you didn't freak out when you saw me lying next to you in the bed."

"I guessed that you were my mate." He corrected her. "What's the difference in whose mate is whose? It can't be that big of a deal for you to be mated to me or the other way around. We're still mates when you get to the end of the day."

"By me saying that I belong to you, I'm telling you that you will forever command me. I would die for you if I could and move heaven and earth to make sure that you're as happy as you can be. It's my duty, something that I really would like to do, to do whatever you want of me. And this is about as truthful as I can say to you, I would take a bullet for you. Again, you nor I will ever die, but it's—" She asked him what he meant when he said they'd never die. "We're immortal, the two of us. I've been around for centuries and centuries. My entire family has been. My dad is the first generation of shifter wolves that were—"

"Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me that you're an ancient being that won't ever die? And through our association, whatever you want to call it, I won't die either. I don't know if I like that idea or not. I mean, I have family around that I'd just as soon not outlive me. I know that sounds cold, but I love my family. Even if they irritate the crap out of me." He told her that they'd not die either. "So you can what? Sprinkle faerie dust on them, and they're immortal, too? What about their children? And their children's children? What happens when we populate the entire world with Donahue's?"

He couldn't help but throw back his head and laugh. Harman hadn't laughed this hard in…well, he didn't have any idea how long it had been. But he was delightfully giddy with his mate and wondered if they all had this much fun when they found each other. She asked him if he was finished making fun of her.

"I'm not, I promise. I love you, believe it or not. And you've made me feel better than I have in some time." He kissed the back of her hand again and stared at her. "Christ, where have you been all my life?"

"Not born yet." That made him laugh, too. "You keep that up, and they're going to lock you away from everyone. Then where will I be? I will admit this: You do calm me. Is that supposed to happen?"

"Yes. You calm my beast as well." She asked who his beast was, and he explained to her what he meant. "So you call your wolf a beast. How does he take that? I don't know that I'd be all that thrilled to be called a beast."

"You're right. But I've never asked him before. Or even thought about how he might feel. There are times when I think that he is a separate being from my other half. It's odd, but when he's out, he makes decisions that I wouldn't dare to make. Nothing terrible but just doing things on his own mind." She told him he was weird. "I guess I am."

~*~

Harman left her for a while after supper was given to them. Edwin stayed with her, talking small talk that she abhorred when she finally had enough and asked him what he wanted to say to her. When he grinned, she thought that he could pass for Harman's twin. They looked so much alike in that moment. However, to believe that he was as old as Harman said that they were boggled her mind.

"You're thinking too hard. I can almost taste your confusion." She said that she was but didn't know how to get to the bottom of it. "That's all right. It's a great deal to get used to. But as you were told by Harman, you have plenty of time, and anything that is going on, it's something that you can work out or just go with the flow. However, I don't think you're a go-with-the-flow sort of person."

"Not particularly. It's a great deal to be thrown at me, as you said. The plenty of time has me coming back to that over and over. As I was talking to Harman, he said that my family would be around, too and their offspring. At what point does that become too much? At some point, it's going to be too much. Correct?" He told her that it wouldn't really. "How so?"

"My parents are talking about having their immortality taken from them. They're tired and have seen enough that they're wanting to fade away. They don't die, just fade away. With that, they can talk to us and guide us but not be around. It's up to them, but I know that I'd miss having them around. Same with the others." She asked him what happened when someone didn't want to have immortality?" It was then that Harman came back, and he answered her.

"Sometimes it's just safer to not give someone immortality. Like if someone has been a real bastard to their family, they will not receive it. It would be entirely up to you on who you want to hang around with you for eternity." He kissed her on the lips and then sat down. "I'm not as antsy as I was before. I needed some fresh air. I've never been able to smell or taste things before and the smells in the hospital here are just too much for myself and my other half. See how I did that? I didn't call him a beast. But I feel better now. I guess that's something else I'll have to get used to. It's not that I'm complaining, but it's different for me."

"You couldn't smell or taste?" He told her that it had been that way since he'd been born. "I can't imagine not being able to smell things. Nor taste them. The thought of all that you missed just in taste makes me sad and sorry for you. If nothing else comes of this relationship but that, I'd be happy."

"Thank you." He smiled at her, and her heart did a little flip-flop. When his brother cleared his throat, they both turned to look at him. Edwin said that he had to go. After he left them, they dug into their dinner and she was laughing so hard when Harman told her about the tastes of each item on his sub. It was like an awakening for him. To be able to taste things, she was sure he was going to someday soon find something that he didn't care for, and she wanted to be there when—looking at him, with her sub halfway to her mouth, she realized something. He asked her what was going on.

"How can I be in love with you so fast? I mean, I know that you and I have been around each other for the last month but why now am I feeling that I can't live another day without you there for me?" He said that he felt the same way about her. "But I'm just a plain human. I've no special talents, nor do I howl at the— Do you do that?"

"We do. When we have a pack meeting, and it's a full moon." She asked him if he was joking with her. "No. I'm serious. Also, you should know that I can never lie to you. Not that I'd want to, but I can't. I won't cheat on you, ever. My heart and body belong solely to you. And you should also know that you're no longer just a plain human. From the moment that I claimed you, with the kiss to your hand, you became more of everything."

"Like what? Can I shift with you?" He told her no, not that he'd been made aware of. "Well, that sucks. I was thinking that it would be fun to be another half of myself. To run through the woods and chase my tail, so to speak."

"Let me rephrase that for you. I don't know if you can or not. There is a great deal of magic in this family, not even counting what I gave you that you might well have inherited from Storm and Rain. They're the most powerful beings ever created." She asked him why them. He explained about how his father came to be the holder of the magic.

"I know that you can't lie to me, but I find that hard to digest. Right now, anyway." He told her that was understandable. "All right. Is there anything else that I have to know right now? I'm all of a sudden exhausted, and my head hurts a little. I'm sure that you have something to do with that, but I'm exhausted from thinking about things, too. I'll sleep, and you watch over me."

"It would be my pleasure." As she snuggled down into the covers, she realized that she wasn't going to sleep alone. Her body and mind had gotten used to, even after one night, having his big, warm body around her, and she needed it again. She only had to open the covers up, and he laid down with her.

She had expected a nasty or even a funny remark, but he only got into the bed with her. As she wrapped herself around him, she laid her head on his chest. As she listened to his heart beating, just a soft thud in his chest, she closed her eyes. Katie was asleep in minutes.

Waking up with the sun shining through her window, she was disappointed to find that she was alone in the big bed. Sitting up, she was thrilled to find a note from Harman on the landline phone that was next to her. Opening it to read it, she couldn't believe his handwriting. It was elegant and beautiful. Reading the note, she had to work hard at not sobbing.

"I've been called away for a couple of days. This is a government job, so I will have to wait until I return before I can share it with you. Sometimes, they'll call me in for stupid things, but this one is going to take me a few days. Call Edwin or any one of my other brothers to take you to my house when released. Next time, I'll take you with me." Then he signed it with ‘love, H.'

Not at all sure what to do, she was both happy and a little stressed when Storm showed up—popped in, she called it—to answer any of her questions. As they sat there, Storm talked to her about some of the things she was able to figure out. Katie found that she liked the other woman and was glad for her help.

"Also, your boss, Jimmy Barnhart, was in jail, but he's out now. Not that you have to worry about him. No one can enter the houses with ill will in their hearts. Meaning the need to harm you. But that's all there is about him. He'll either keep pushing until he ends up dead or not. I could care less." Katie said that she felt the same way about him. "Also, I have it on good authority that he'd been given four weeks' notice to get the office straightened out, or he's going to be fired. That's from his own father. I don't think they like each other."

"They don't. There was a falling out about four years ago. Jimmy caused a big ruckus at the offices by sexually harassing the male employees. I could care less as it meant that he was leaving me alone, but he suddenly became interested in me when I started winning cases. His father and I are on good terms. Maybe I should give him a call and tell him what's going on." Storm handed her the cell phone that suddenly appeared. "That's something else I'm going to have to get used to, isn't it?"

"I would say that is a good thing, don't you? However, after a couple of days, you more than likely won't notice it. You'll just take it in stride, and that'll be fine, too." They both laughed. "Call Jimmy Barnhart, senior, and tell him what had happened. Including how you were here for the funeral of your aunt and your grandmother became ill. Tell him too that you're in the hospital for what he did to you. I know that he's the one that did it. His thinking was if you were dead, his dad could no longer be upset that he can't seem to get you to come back to work for him. That's the most idiocy thing I've ever heard of, but criminals are pretty stupid."

"That I can agree with you on. I had a lot of stupid criminals when I was working." She asked her what she did. "I was an attorney for Barnhart and Barnhart. I did my internship there and stayed after I passed my boards. It was a nice family-owned practice, and I liked the people that, well most of the people that I worked with. Jimmy was the worst, but he didn't come into the office all that often, so it was easy to avoid him. Besides, I think he is gay, and that is something that his father knew about before Jimmy had."

"Figures. I've heard of that happening a great deal with older men who come out. Good for him, I guess, but sexual harassment is sexual harassment no matter what way you swing."

When he called the personal number of Jimmy's senior cell phone, she was glad when he told her that he had heard that she'd been hurt. He told her that he wanted to visit with her as soon as possible. He was going to be at her room in the hospital first thing in the morning. She couldn't wait. It was high time that someone took Jimmy to task.