“You would do the exact same.”
Fluttering my eyelashes, I pitched my voice up as I spoke. “But what if I asked my Alphas and told themIreally wanted the big cabin for myself?”
Griff’s mouth fell open in shock. “You wouldn’t do that. You are literally the only person who could do that. You’re not that mean, Ro-Ro.”
“Do you remember the time you stole my last bag of gummy bears?”
“I will buy you an entire freight container of sour gummy bears. How does that sound?”
Beaming, I stood, shoving him toward the exit. “I accept. Now, let’s go get bagels before Bastian purposefully burns them.”
Rowan
“Rory, you’re looking good.” I beamed as I walked into my little clinic in the woods where Rory was staying.
The young dragon was sitting in the armchair, happily playing some game on his handheld console I didn’t understand in the slightest.
“He’s been eating normally,” Leah told me happily.
Donald was sitting next to her, his arm thrown over her shoulders, also smiling widely. It was so good to see them relaxed, undoubtedly relieved that Rory had improved so much.
“I like to hear that,” I commented, quickly sanitizing my hands before walking over to Rory. “Do you mind if I check you over again? I’ll let you get back to your game as soon as I’m finished.”
Rory sighed in that overdramatic way teenagers were so good at. “Okay, if you have to, but I wanna go back to my game.”
“Rory,” his mother admonished.
“Don’t worry,” I insisted, waving off her concern. “I’m actually glad he’s getting a bit of an attitude. It meanshe’s feeling better, more like himself.” I placed my fingers on his neck, gently taking his pulse.
And I wasn’t lying, being a bit of a butt was exactly how to tell that a kid or teen was improving.
“His temperature is normal. Everything is pretty much back to where I would like him to be.”
“Does that mean…?” Leah trailed off.
“I think Rory is ready to go home and finish recovering in hisownbed.” I smiled. The expression on all three of their faces was priceless.
Rory’s head shot up, and he looked at me hopefully over the top of his Switch. “Really? Likereally, really? No more hospital beds? No more crappy food?”
“Well, you can’t be doing any extreme sports, but I don’t see any reason why you can’t rest in your own bed while your parents cook for you and your friends come to visit. They have to visit you though, no going out and running wild. Not for a few weeks at least.”
“Thanks, Miss Rowan!” he said excitedly. “This is awesome!”
“You’ll still be seeing me regularly. I’ll come and check up on you at home, but”—I turned to look at his parents, offering Leah a quick squeeze on the shoulder—“I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about.”
“We can’t thank you enough for this,” she said, standing and wrapping her arms around me. I returned the hug. Having spent so much time with Leah over the last two weeks, I was fond of her. I was almost sad I wouldn’t be seeing her so much, but that emotion was vastly outweighed by my happiness that Rory was doing better and could start returning back to a somewhat normal day-to-day life.
“It’s what I do. Why don’t you guys take tonight, let Rory get a tiny bit stronger, then tomorrow, you can take him home?”
They both hummed in agreement. We all knew the moment I told Ma that Rory was going home, she would ensure their house was spick-and-span and that a hot meal was waiting for them. A real meal, at that, since I didn’t need to restrict his diet anymore.
“Are you going to be staying, then?” Leah asked.
I nodded. “I’ll be here for at least a few more weeks. There are more dragons who could use my help.”
Their smiles widened. While my initial plan had been to leave as soon as Rory had recovered enough, I knew there was no way I could leave the horde in its current state. There were so many people coming to see me for treatment that it would be unethical to leave, and there was still the matter of Jenkins to think about. Something had to be done about his inferior skills.
Leah hugged me again before I ducked out, a satisfied grin on my face. Confident that Rory would be fine, I made my way into the office and threw myself into paperwork. With Kiki’s old journals and a few medical textbooks, I sat at the desk with my legs tucked under me and started reading.
