Griffith: The English Dragon ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Griffith got out and moved to the other side of the truck and helped someone out. It took him several seconds to realize that it was that woman, the one that had gotten away. Moving to cross the street to confront Griffith, he nearly got himself run over when he didn’t check the street before walking out into it. Of course Griffith turned and looked at him when the driver of the car laid on his horn as a warning. James knew that a sneak attack was out of the question then.

  The woman was his. He recognized her as soon as she was helped from the truck by Griffith. When he got to the two of them, Griffith actually pushed the woman behind him, James’s woman, like he owned her or something.

  “You have my property, brother dear. I would like for you to hand her over before I have to hurt you.” Griffith only cocked his perfect brow at him. “Hand her over and there won’t have to be bloodshed. Now, I have no tolerance for this kind of shit. Give her to me. I found her first.”

  “She’s my mate.” He looked at the woman, who was glaring at him over Griffith’s shoulder, and then back at his brother. “And as for bloodshed, you touch her and I don’t care what Mother said at all—I will kill you where you stand. Move on, James. She’s not going to come to you, ever, so long as I have breath in my body.”

  “I can take care of that for you, should you wish. I’d like nothing better than to have you dead. Give her to me.” Griffith said nothing to him, nor did he give him the woman. Christ, she was beautiful. More so than he remembered her to be. “Griffith, am I going to have to go to the council about this? You know as well as I do that she’s not your mate. You’re just doing this to piss me off. If you don’t want any trouble from me, just move and I’ll be on my way with her. She’s mine.”

  “No, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  He wanted to shut her up, kill her, and drew back his fist to do so. As his hand was sailing toward her mouth, he was already feeling the satisfaction of hitting her when his hand was captured in Griffith’s. The pain radiated up his arm and down to his belly. James heard his bones break as Griffith squeezed his hand in his. Not only could he not jerk from his brother’s grip, but he was sure that if he tried very hard, he’d just pull his hand from his arm and toss it away. Going to his knees because of the pain, he heard the woman laughing. Then Griffith. Looking up at them both, he started cursing in every language he knew, just to make a point as to how much smarter he was than his brother. Right now it was all he had.

  James was sick with the pain. The sound of his bones mashing together made him realize that Griffith was hurting him, but not with all his strength. Had he been doing so, he was sure that his hand would have broken off and he’d leave him there to bleed to death. So James did the only thing he could think of—he begged his brother to let him go.

  When he released him, James cradled his shattered hand with the other hand. It was sickening to see it limply at the end of his wrist, the way that the bones stuck out of his flesh. He stood, wanting to hit his brother for hurting him unjustly, but he had to puke up his lunch. When James tried to straighten his finger out the pain intensified at that moment and he saw the earth move under him, his eyes crossing from the agony. When he fell to the ground, no longer able to stay upright, he laid there while his woman and brother stepped over him and moved away.

  James had no idea how long he lay there. People walked around him, never asking if they could assist him. He was sick several more times, each time that he accidently touched his hand or it moved a little too quickly. He cried a little too, unable to make the pain go away, and no matter how many times he tried to heal his broken hand, nothing would come of it. It was like with touching him like he had, Griffith had put a spell over him so that his ability to heal was taken from him. That would be so like him to do something like that.

  When he was able to sit up, James carefully held his hand to him and walked to where he’d hidden his car. He wasn’t sure that he could drive it should he need to, but he needed to get help. Going to the local clinic was all he could think of, and he made his way there. James was sweating like he’d run a marathon or two by the time he was standing inside the little offices. And the pain wasn’t lessening like he thought it should have by now.

  “I need help.” The woman at the front desk looked familiar, but he wasn’t in the mood to try and figure out who she was or where he’d seen her before. “Get up off your lazy ass and find someone to help me. Christ, can’t you see that I’m in a great deal of pain?”

  “Yes, I can see that you might hurt a little. Frankly, whatever happened to you, I’m sure that you deserved it.” He just stared at the bitch with his mouth open. No one talked to him that way. “Go over there and sit down. When the doctor is ready to see you, Mr. Farley, he’ll call out your number. And you’d better be nice, or you’ll be out on your ass so quickly that the pain in your hand will seem minor when I’m finished with you.”

  He moved to where she’d told him to. James wasn’t used to people talking to him that way. But in this, he was going to keep his mouth shut. If he didn’t get help, and soon, he was going to have to live with this the rest of his days. And that wasn’t going to fucking happen.

  While he was biding his time, waiting on his name to be called, he thought of what his woman was doing with his brother. His mate? Could she have been his mate? He would guess not. It had been too long for him to be getting his mate this late in his life. Besides, he’d seen her first, damn it. And as he was older than Griffith, he should be happy to have him take his mate first. But as he’d never been happy with anything he did, James didn’t believe he would be in this either.

  When his name was called an hour later, he went to the little cubical and told her that he wanted someone to fix his hand. Nodding, she told him that she was just for the insurance claims if he had any.

  “Insurance claims. What the fuck is that? I just want one of the morons here to have a look at my hand and to fix it. I don’t have any insurance.” She told him that they had to figure out how much assistance he might need with his income. “I don’t have an income. I’m far better than you are, so I don’t need a job to pay for things. Send the bill to my brother, Griffith. He’s the one that hurt me anyway.”

  “Griffith Farley is your brother?” James nodded and said that he was his younger brother. But he noticed that her entire demeanor changed when he told her who he was. “Then you’ll have to pay for services before anyone will look at you. Let me find out how much to charge you. We cannot send the bills to anyone else, either—we all know what sort of person you are.”

  When she returned, James had his speech ready to blast her with. She wasn’t going to treat him like this and get away with it. But when she sat down, he noticed that there were three very large burly men in the little office with them. He knew that she’d called in reinforcements, and that didn’t make him any happier.

  “The total of your billing will be two thousand eight hundred dollars. If it’s over that, you’ll be responsible for paying that too in a timely manner.” She glared at him, and he could almost feel her hatred of him. “That will cover x-rays and a casting of your hand if it is indeed broken. Then there is the added cost of—”

  “If it’s broken? Listen, bitch, I don’t have a medical degree, but even I can see that it’s broken. Broken to fuck, if you ask me. I want you to call one of them doctors up here and tell them to fix this, or I’ll come after them when they least expect it.”

  One of the men put his hands on his shoulders and James jerked around, but hit his hand on the desk before he could give the fucker a piece of his mind.

  Christ, it was as if he was being crushed again. Screaming out in pain, he nearly passed out when he was lifted up and taken out of the room. As he sat back out in the waiting room again with the losers, he whimpered and cursed at his fucking bad luck today. Someone was going to pay for this shit, and at the top of the list was his brother and that fucking cunt that he claimed was his mate.

  It was several
more hours before anyone came to call his name again. By now James was in so much pain that he knew he had to keep his mouth shut. Fuck, but he wanted to murder someone—a lot of someones, as a matter of fact. But he knew that should he start spouting off again they’d throw him to the curb, and right on his sore hand.

  The doctor said that he’d do some x-rays even before he touched him. But just as he was being wheeled back to wherever the fuck they were taking him, the bitch from the front desk came back and spoke to the doctor, telling the man that not only hadn’t he paid, but he’d also insulted her. Before he knew it, James was out on the street with nothing more than a fucking bill that he had no intention of paying. They had charged him eighty-four dollars to have some doctor throw him out of the stupid place.

  James was hurting badly by the time he got back to his abandoned hotel room. There wasn’t any electricity or hot water, but it was a place he could stay in without having anyone come up on him and hurt him more.

  Laying on the three stacked up mattresses he’d brought in here days ago, James tried to will the pain away. He knew that eventually he’d heal, but it would take him days. Unlike Griffith, who would heal right up in a matter of seconds, James took much longer. Another thing to be fucking pissed about was how he’d gotten the shitty hand in this deal as well.

  Closing his eyes, hoping that the pain would simply go away, James tried to distance himself from the agony by thinking of ways he was going to take care of Griffith and the woman. He wished now that he’d gotten her name. It would have been nice to have it to curse her out. As it was, that woman was all he could come up with.

  “Griffith is going to pay for this. I don’t know how or when, but he’ll pay for this ill treatment of me.” James nearly sobbed when the light sheet he’d pulled over himself laid over his hand. “Mother fucker, you’re going to pay dearly for this.”

  He finally fell into a fitful sleep well after the sun came up the next morning. James had to do something, or he was going to explode. Not really explode himself, but his temper would. And he thought that was just what his brother needed. For him to lose his shit and take it all out on him. That’ll show Griffith who the bigger man was. Fucker.

  ~*~

  Griff looked at the table from every angle and still couldn’t decide if he wanted it. The auction that he and Lilac had decided to come to was huge, and there were several pieces that he wanted to get, but this table, it seemed to call to him. He looked at Lilac when she joined him under the tent.

  “That’s nice.” He nodded and told her what he was thinking. “You don’t know if it’ll fit in your dining room? I would have thought you might have measured that before coming here. What could it hurt if it’s too big or small? I’m not trying to bust your balls about this, but really, what would you do if it wasn’t the size you wanted?”

  “Give it to one of my friends. Or just put it in the barn with a lot of other pieces that Elissa put in there.” He grinned at her when she tsked at him. “It would help me a great deal if you could tell me if you like this table or not. I want the dining room to be a special place in our home and your input would help me a great deal.”

  “You’re nuts.” She walked around the table as he had, looking under it, lifting it with one or both hands. He figured she was trying to see if she could lift it to help take it in the house, but when she turned to him, he knew that she’d had other reasons. “The foundation of the table is sound. It doesn’t shimmy when you move it. Also, it’s made of oak that can be refinished if you’re into that. I do love to work on wood, but that would be up to you. The chairs that are in the other tent go with it, I think. There are ten of them, and two armchairs that have seen better days. Repairable though. I’d pay no more than a hundred and fifty for this table, less if you could. And not more than about ten apiece on the chairs, as they need more work.”

  “All right. That’s very helpful. And I would like to refinish it with you too. I think that it’ll be a lot of work, but well worth it.” She nodded and looked at the other pieces that were under the big tent. “Do you see anything else here that goes with the set? I’d like to get it all if I can.”

  “There is a sideboard in the same tent with the chairs. It too needs some work, but again, that wouldn’t be too difficult.” She kept looking at the rocker but didn’t say anything about it. “There are some extras that you have room for. The hall tree over there. While it doesn’t match anything you have, it would matter little if you put it in your front hall.”

  “I like that idea. There isn’t a closet there, so this might be nicer. And it has an umbrella rack on it as well. I like that.” She told him of the antique umbrellas that were up for bidding soon, and the two of them made their way there. “I tell you what—since we know what pieces we want, we’ll split up. Usually when there are two rings going, I miss out on some of the things I want. You bid on the chairs and the other things in that tent, I’ll work this end.”

  “All right. But the umbrellas, are you wanting them as well? I’ve looked them over and they’re in good shape. Even the carved handles on some of them are in excellent shape, considering how old they appear to be.” They were just going under the tent when the umbrellas were held up to be bid on. “I’d not go over much more than about five each for them. They’re nice, but not practical.”

  When no one bid on the umbrellas as choice, the auctioneer said that they could bundle them. When they got down to a dollar, having started out at fifty, he lifted his hand. The man said they were sold quickly, and he got ten of them for one dollar. Griff hadn’t had this much fun in a very long time.

  When they split up, Lilac staying in the tent with the chairs, he went to the area with the table and rocker. Griff decided that since he’d gotten such a good deal on the other items that she wanted, he’d get her the rocker. Laughing to himself, he knew that he was going to get her the rocker anyway, but this would be his excuse if she fussed at him.

  He got the table for twenty-five dollars and the rocker for ten. Things were going his way, so he bid on the two benches that he wanted to put on the deck and got them for a song as well. When the tent he was under was finished up, in addition to the items that he’d bid on first, he’d gotten three boxes of junk when they were thrown in with the benches. Griff went to find Lilac.

  She was smiling when he put his arm around her waist. Lilac told him she was doing well, but saw that there was a box of china that she thought would go in the hutch that she’d found. He was glad for the large dining room now, as they had a table, twelve chairs, a credenza, as well as a china hutch. When the dishes came up, Griff fell in love with them. They had a beautiful forest on each of the dinner plates as well as the mugs, and flowers of the forest on the salad plates and other items. He watched as she bid on those.

  He could feel her disappointment when the dishware went higher than she wanted to pay. Griff didn’t care how much they cost now, he didn’t want her to be disappointed. So, he bid on the boxes of them. Griff didn’t think that paying twenty-four dollars for what they thought was twelve place settings was a bad deal. But she fussed at him, just as he’d hoped that she would.

  “You paid too much for them. I mean, for all you know there might be lots of pieces missing from it. Or all the ones on the bottom of the box broken into small pieces.” Griff kissed her quickly on the mouth as he made his way to the boxes. When he carefully set the three of them on his new table, he started taking them out of the box to see. “Oh my, Griff, they’re more beautiful than I thought they were.”

  “Yes. And look, love. We have fourteen place settings, and all of the pieces are here for the hostess set as well. Look at this.” He held up the platter that had the same entire scene that was on the plates. “It looks like it could be the woods behind our house. And the colors on this are outstanding.”

  They held hands as they went around the rest of the auction. The pack had come with them to this to help load up what they purchased. And when they were looking at
the box lots, Griff was ready to call it a day when she squealed. Going to her to see what she’d found, Lilac told him to look at the box by her foot.

  There were three boxes filled with glassware—stemmed glasses, water and juice ones as well. And they all had etchings on them that looked like they went with the dinnerware set that they’d purchased. She stood guard over the boxes, which he thought was funny as no one seemed to be interested in them, while he went to get them both something to eat. As he was standing in line, Danburn reached out to him.

  Do you know a woman by the name of Nancy Shipley? He said that it didn’t ring a bell but asked him why. Two days ago, she took an advertisement out in a lot of newspapers. Kendrick and Cassie were packing some of the things that were in one of the buildings that we purchased. They were using newspaper to pack away some of the glass pieces when they saw your name in the ad. I called the paper, and they directed me to the person in charge of such things. I’ve got a call out to the woman who put it in, but no word just yet. I thought, while I was waiting, I’d ask you about it.

  What does it say? I mean, is it someone that is looking for me specifically, or just an ad that says she’s looking for me? Danburn said that he’d read it to him, to hold on. Griff told Lilac what Danburn was saying when he got back to her with a hotdog and bottles of water.

  Here you go. ‘Trying to find Griffith Alexander Farley, the fourth Earl of Alexander’s Folly. The Duke of Winebarger and Baron of Windemere Castle.’ I thought it was a little too specific to think that it wasn’t you. But the rest of it says to contact her, Nancy Shipley, as soon as possible. Then there is a post office box number to contact her to find out where to meet her. Griff said that he didn’t know who she was. I didn’t remember the name either, but Quinn is looking into it. She can find just about anything when she sets her mind to it.

  All right. Let me know when you find out something. I’m going to take Lilac out to dinner as we’ve had a wonderful afternoon buying stuff, and we should be home late. If you need me, we’re not that far away to come home. Danburn said that they were looking now, but he didn’t expect anything to come of it tonight, and to have a good time. I am. Any word on my brother? Is he causing trouble? I heard what happened at the clinic. I did break his hand badly, but I’m not concerned about it. He was going to hit Lilac.