The others stood behind Jenkins, quickly scooping him up before he could make a break for it. The horde was still in hushed silence as the clan walked past them, joining Grey and me. Greylen gestured toward another door, and I followed as he brought Jenkins along for a much-needed conversation.
Orsen
“This cannot be allowed!” Jenkins shouted, red-faced and spitting with rage.
“I will not stand by while you hurt the dragons of this horde!” Rowan growled back, crossing her arms as she stared daggers into the older dragon.
The room was beyond tense, and I was just catching up with developments. Still, aside from the fact she was our mate, I was willing to believe what Rowan said for two reasons: one, she stood to lose a hell of a lot if she was lying about this, infuriating the entire horde, and two, none of us could deny the strange consistency of her claims. After all, if Jenkins was doing this, it would make so much sense.
God, the female dragons had been struggling for years, and that wasn’t common.
“Rowan has a point, Jenkins,” Greylen shot back, glaring at the stick-up-his-ass healer. He stood between the old doctor and Rowan, playing bodyguard.
Our mate didn’t cower, though. She glared at Jenkins and gavehim more than a piece of her mind. “I’ve seen it for myself. I may just be ‘some human healer’ to you, but all it takes is a damn internet search to back up my claims. You’ll see for yourself that Queen Anne’s Lace is acontraceptive, you jerk.”
Holding a thick book that I recognized as one of the many Rowan had brought with her, she flipped to the page in question, one that revealed the scientific name for the ingredient in the synthesized medication. Then she produced another, flipping through the reference text, confirming the name belonged to what we commonly called Queen Anne’s Lace.
“There it is, Jenkins. Rowan has produced her evidence, showed us the research,” I agreed.
It was solid, laid out in black and white. Kiki’s journals were clear, and no one would refute the word of a healer such as her, except, of course, maybe Jenkins. “There’s no harm in trying it her way, either. You need to get on board.”
Jenkins scoffed. “Herway? How dare you? That human is rude, insolent, and has zero respect for my position!”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes, clenching my jaw, nonetheless. If the guy wanted to talk about being rude, he could start with a good, long look in the mirror. He’d been an asshole to Rowan since the moment she set foot in the den.
“On the contrary,you’venot shown Rowan a shred of respect,” Nix pointed out, echoing my thoughts.
Jenkins bristled, flustering like he was an offended peacock. “She doesn’t deservemy respect! All she’s done is come intomyhorde and cause problems, upsetting my patients. You should have seen how unhappy Cyrus was!”
Bastian shot Rowan a look, his entire body going rigid as he balled his hands into fists.
“I was helping him! He said you won’t even allow him to wash the abscess on his leg! Are you insane? It’s horrendously infected!”
“You have no right to tell me how to do my job,human! I prescribed him a strong steroid. I know that is scary for the uneducated like you!” Jenkins was too angry to keep from stepping forward, and Greylen growled low, fury radiating off him like heat from a stove, literally scorching the air.
“Step back,” he snapped. At least Jenkins had the sense to listen, retreating enough that Greylen—along with the rest of us—relaxed a hair.
“You’ve undermined all my hard work, and why? Because you went all gooey-eyed over a piece of?—”
“I suggest you watch your next words very carefully,” I snarled, ready to rip this fucker’s throat out for the suggestion. He would have known better than anyone just how fiercelyprotective dragons were of their mates. The fact that he was willing to insinuate something like that and anger the Alphas just proved how stupid he was.
Adding another layer of protection to our mate, I stepped up alongside Grey, narrowing my eyes at Jenkins as I jabbed a finger at him, not bothering to lower my voice. “She came toourhorde onourinvitation, and she’s managed to heal Rory, where you failed miserably!”
“Even if you don’t respect her as a healer,” Nix slid in, his tone only slightly calmer than the rest of ours, “you have no right to speak like that to the horde’s guest, let aloneour mate.”
Jenkins cast a withering glance over us, and it was easy to clock how he’d noticed Bastian wasn’t speaking. Cyrus and Jenkins were tight; it was no mystery that their relationship was what had taken us so long to get another healer into the horde to check on Rory. Even now, Jenkins was working that angle, going up against Bastian and not-so-subtly ignoring the other Alphas in the room.
“You know how hard I’ve worked to keep this horde healthy, how hard I’ve worked to keep your father alive and well. Are you honestly going to stand there and letsome womanlie about what I’ve done for this horde?”
I shot a look at Bastian as he ducked his head, not quick to stand up to the man. I was getting real fucking sick of Bastian’s unwillingness to find his spine.
“What the hell, man?” Nix took the lead again, and I internally thanked him for it. I didn’t have it in me to keep my words from devolving into blows.
Bastian glared back at Nix, sighing roughly as he turned to Jenkins. “Look, if there really is nothing to this claim, a few days without will prove just as much. And…”
Greylen knocked him with his shoulder. “And?”
“And if there is, then it won’t matter how hard you say you’ve worked for this horde, because Rowan will have proven that your medical care was actually doing harm.”
