The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 25 - doctor brekker

The next few days went by very slowly. Kaz made sure Cara never left the room while she was healing, he brought her food and books to keep her occupied. Nina came by every day to check on her.

jesper and wylan came by, they had a few minor scratches but nothing more, inej came to visit to. She had a bandaged shoulder form when the bigger shifter threw her off his back. She was grateful for all their support.

When nina came by today she had said that Cara needed to start doing some exercises with her hand and fingers. She had not been able to move her hand or even pick up anything since the ambush. Kaz had agreed and Cara knew that nina had told him to observe and help her.

Right after nina had left kaz had called jesper and wylan to watch the crow club for a while.

Cara was sitting at the table when kaz returned. He had brought her some sweets.

He put them on the table and took a seat opposite her. "how are you feeling today?" he looked at her with concern in his eyes. It was a look Cara had grown to know over these past days.

she knew he was afraid, afraid that she would have to endure the constant pain like he was with his leg. That is why he made sure she got her rest and now he had clearly made it his personal mission to make her use her hand again.

"I am fine kaz, really. It doesn't hurt anymore" He nodded clearly not believing her.

"nina told me some things you should try to build up muscle in your hand again and restore strength. We should try them" he said, he slowly removed his gloves.

When Cara nodded he continued. "I want you to put your hand against mine and push" Cara rolled her eyes but brought her hand against his. Pushing against his hand brought pain but it was manageable to a point.

Kaz did not seem impressed. He pulled back his hand. "can you bend your fingers?" he asked.

Cara tried but could only bent them a very little bit, it did hurt so she stretched her fingers again. "I want you to do that 10 more times" kaz said.

"excuse me mr brekker since when have you become a doctor." He smirked at her. "since now so do as I say because I clearly know best."

he watched her as she tried it 10 more times. The pain slowly ebbed away as she went on but after 10 tries kaz stopped her saying she should not overdo it.

the days went on like this, kaz asking her to do these things at least 3 times a day and watching her do it. Every time it went better little by little.

Kaz had slept in his chair while Cara healed, she had urged him to take his bed and she would take the chair but he had refused, knowing how stubborn he was she had not pushed him about it.

today was different tho. Kaz came into the room in the middle of the night already in a bad mood. Cara was sitting in bed reading a book when he came in. she heard by the way he walked alone that he was in a bad mood.

"what happened?" she asked. Kaz threw his coat over a chair and signed deeply.

"jesper was not focused and let somebody play with fake currency at the table, now we have to double check all the currency again and probably made a loss tonight." Cara tried not to giggle.

"sounds like an interesting evening." Cara said.

Kaz turned to her and sat on the edge of the bed. "how was your evening my little wolf." Cara smiled at the nickname he gave her.

"boring as always, will you sleep here tonight?" kaz looked at her and hesitated.

"come on kaz, you won't hurt me I promise. Good day?" he nodded and she brought her hand up for him to place his against. As he did she first pushed his hand and then laced their fingers together, her fingertips touching the back of his hand.

"see, its fine." Kaz seemed to think for another moment but then gave in. he nodded and stood up again, walking over to his dresser to get his sleeping clothes. When he removed his shirt Cara quickly looked away.

she felt the bed dip when he put himself underneath he covers, he made sure there was as much space in between them as possible. He turned towards her laying on his side and quickly closed his eyes. Cara rolled her eyes. "kaz.." he opened his eyes knowing he could not hide anything from her.

"I just don't want to hurt you more than I already did okay." That got Cara's attention. He really did blame himself for her getting hurt. She sat up and motioned for him to do the same.

"kaz, it is not your fault that I got hurt you hear me? it was not you who shattered my wrist or almost clawed out my eye." kaz did not look convinced. "but it was my choice to take on this job, the crows are my responsibility. You said it was a bad idea and I did not listen and it got you hurt."

Kaz looked down at his lap. Cara reached out for him leaving her hand in the middle so he could take it if he wished to. He did almost immediately. "that is not true kaz, everybody has their own choice. All of the crows willingly chose to follow you to this job, as did i. you are not to blame a nd I want you to stop thinking like you are, its not healthy"

Kaz grinned. "I am not healthy" that made Cara smile. "I know you aren't."

"so what will you do now that you have so much money? What will you do with it?." Kaz did not even need to think, he had everything already planned out.

"I have already bought out inej, she is completely free from any papers or books, I will expand the slat and make more housing room for the dregs that need it. I will also expand the crow club... and I was looking for a house."

Cara cocked an eyebrow. "a house you say?"

"yes, I mean, for us. If you would like to of course I don't want to push you into anything I was going to ask you properly. Not like this.."

Cara smiled and motioned for him to come closer which he did. She kissed him on his forehead.

"of course I want to live together with you kaz. now about that house..."

Cara released his hand and got out of bed. she walked over to her bag and pulled out an envelope. Kaz was patiently waiting on the bed but had his brows furrowed.

Cara walked back over to the bed and got back in with him holding the envelope. "kaz you are such a wonderful man, outside of this room you are the harsh bastard of the barrel that does not need a reason to do anything, you are a feared man in the barrel. But in here you cannot hide the other side of you. You put others before yourself, inej, the dregs. I know the amount of money it takes to run this place I have seen your number papers remember."

Kaz didn't know how to react to her words but he did know that he loved the woman next to him deeply and that he felt proud at her words.

"my uncle gave this to me, he told me to use it to settle down and start a life with the man I love." She gave the envelope to kaz. He looked at her for a moment and then opened it up. when his eyes skimmed the paper inside Cara had never seen him so surprised before.

"is this real?" Cara laughed. "yes kaz its real."

Cara knew what was inside and she had the same reaction when she read the paper as well. Inside the envelope was signed document that gave the owner access to a bank account with 10 million kruge.

Kaz carefully closed the envelope and Cara had never seen him handle something with more care as he got up and moved a painting to put the envelope in a hidden compartment.

Cara watched him walk back over to the bed and get settled in again. This time he laid down on his back and opened his arms, inviting Cara to put her head on his chest. They laid like this for a few minutes before Cara spoke again.

"kaz I have a question, and you are free to say no if you think it is a bad idea."

"hmm" Cara giggled as she felt his answer rumble in his chest.

"what if we build a house in the forest clearing."

Kaz seemed to think for a moment because he took a minute to react.

"I think its perfect, we can build a stable there as well. You know, with a luxe stable for elvis."

Cara giggled again at his words before she slowly felt sleep taking over.

AN: sorry for the smaller chapter but we have come to a bit of a crossroads in this story (at least for me) I can continue this story one of 2 ways and I would like the opinion of the people that read this story. So the options are:

1. Move the relationship between kaz and Cara slowly, make them have more adventures with a possible trip to fjerda to find the people that murdered her father. Slowly make them touch each other more and build that up

or

2. Move the story to its end faster, still build up the relationship but with a few time skips here and there to make the story move on faster so we can get to the end of this book.

let me clarify that the ending will be the same for both options, I have already decided how the story will end just the way to get there I am currently still making up as I go along. What do you guys think? Do we want a longer more slower book or do we want to wrap it up (meaning there will still be at least 5 chapters or so)?

update: we have gone for the long road