Nix looked satisfied ashell as Greylen scoffed, about as annoyed with Bastian as I was. But it was Jenkins whose jaw utterly fell. He looked at Bash like the guy had shot him. Without another word, he spun on his heel and stormed toward the door.
I glanced over at Rowan, who sagged into herself as Grey put a gentle hand on her back. She looked exhausted, but her eyes still burned with anger, flicking up from the floor to glare at Jenkins as he left.
Just before the asshole crossed the threshold, he turned back, gripping the doorframe hard, his nails digging into the wood. “You should neverhave come here. Ahumancould neverbelong with dragons. You’ll see for yourself soon enough. You’ll learn the hard way that you need me.”
“No, they don’t,” Rowan snarled, pushing forward slightly. “I am going to stay here until there is a competent healer in residence, because the people of this horde deserve better than you.”
Jenkins stepped back, shocked at the ferocity of her words. “You’re nothing. You’ll learn.”
I almost reached the old doctor before he disappeared down the hallway. I cursed under my breath, wishing I’d been able to grab the guy by the throat and see what color he turned when I squeezed.
“I’m so sorry,” Rowan muttered after a moment of silence. “I just felt like I had to say something. Those vitamins are responsible for the low birth rate, the nonexistent birth rate. I’m sure of it. I just don’t know why he was so insistent that the women take them, or what else he could have done. I’m… Ugh, this is not what I planned for the day.”
I hated how exhausted she looked. As the mate of four dragons, she should have been utterly pampered. As much as it pleased me to see her fighting for the horde, I wanted to do everything in my power to reduce her stress.
Did she mean what she’d said about staying? We all knew that, realistically, finding another healer was going to be near impossible, so from her own words, that meant she was sticking around for a while.
The hope was so bright, it burned painfully in my chest.
“I can imagine,” Nix offered, walking up to Rowan and taking her hands. “That was… a lot. How about a movie and some popcorn to take your mind off it?”
Rowan laughed, rolling her eyes at him. “Really? Don’t you all have better things to do? And I need to get back to the cli?—”
“I think you deserve a break.” I pushed the door open wider, sweeping my hand out into the hall. “And I promise there’ll be more sour candy.”
With another eyeroll and chuckle, Rowan sighed, shuffling over to the door. “My one weakness. I guess I’ll take you up on it.”
“Good.” Grey walked up behind her with Nix in tow. “It’ll be a clan movie night.”
A few minutes and a quick trip to my hidden stash of sour candy later, we were all piled into the movie room, letting Rowan decide which flick we’d be watching. I was only slightly surprised when she chose a superhero movie.
She was clearly torn over her decision to watch a movie with us. It was obvious from how her eyes flicked to the doorway regularly for the first half an hour. It was domestic and a step in the right direction for us, but no doubt daunting for her.
She sat in the corner of the large sectional, grabbing a blanket and pulling it over her lap. She tucked her legs under her body, keeping her distance from us. I hated that she wanted that, but I wasn’t going to complain. Not after everything this woman had done for us and our horde.
For the first chunk of the movie, we had to keep yelling at Nix to stop pointing out every easter egg that ever existed, but no one actually minded. It felt nice to watch a movie together, something that oozed blissful normalcy that’d been missing for so long. After all the tension from the disagreement with Jenkins, we needed to reaffirm our bond. I couldn’t let Rowan run off and get lost in her own thoughts. That had been one of Emmeline’s traits; she was an overthinker. Rowan seemed to be the same, but maybe a bit less intense. She was more confident in herself.
We were all together, all laughing and munching on popcorn, and despite everything with Jenkins, I was pretty damn happy. Losing myself in the movie was hard to do when she was sitting right there, watching with her brow furrowed, regularly taking bites of the sour candy she was so damn obsessed with.
It hit me that this was what our life could be. Six years ago, I had genuinely believed my life was over. Emmeline had left a cavern in my heart. Part of me still missed her, but a much larger part of me was freaking obsessed with Rowan.
About halfway through, we paused for a moment when we noticed Rowan had stopped offering her own comments on the movie, her light snoring rumbling around Greylen. She’d leaned against him to get comfortable at the beginning, and now she was completely passed out on his chest. The three of us exchanged a smile.
Rowan was beautiful. Maybe it was because she was our mate, but I had never met anyone who could hold a candle to her in the looks or personality department.
She and Emmeline, despite being the same person, were like night and day. I had adored Emmeline, her innocence, her inherent desire to do good. Rowan, on the other hand, had taken that desire to do good and run with it. Her strength was admirable. I knew plenty of dragons far weaker than her.
With her hair thrown back and her face half concealed as it was pressed into Grey’s shoulder, I couldn’t help but admire her for a few moments.
We needed to make this work.
There were dark circles under her eyes, and my dragon paced in my chest, wanting to make it right. Rowan needed rest, and plenty of it.
Which wasn’t going to be easy, seeing as the horde was in such bad shape.
That was a hurdle for us to cross together, though.
“She must’ve been more tired than we thought.” Nix cocked his head, grinning at her. A small part of me was surprised that she had agreed to watch a movie with us after everything that had happened, so the fact she was comfortable enough to fall asleep on one of us made me think there was hope for us yet.
