Grey was at my side, his hand on my back. “What do you mean?”
“This is what I would expect to see when a dragon shifter consumed something toxic, yes, but also somethingsynthetic. Like the things I mentioned beforeandhuman medication.” As I spoke, I glowered at Jenkins.
I didn't want to believe he would do something that would hurt Rory purposefully, but everything I’d seen about this despicable dragon’s character said he was perfectly capable of harming a child to get his way, to prove his fucking point. He wanted me out of the horde, and if I looked incompetent, he got his wish.
“What are you accusing me of, you whelp?” Jenkins surged forward, rising as much as he could to sneer down at me. “Iam the doctor here, and you will not?—”
From the small bed, Rory stirred.
Conversation forgotten, I darted over to his bedside. “Rory, hey. It’s Rowan. Can you stay still for me? I had to put a needle in your arm to help you get hydrated.”
“Rowan?” he asked in a weak voice, blinking and coming to more and more with each second. “Did I… fall asleep?”
“Hey, kiddo. Yeah, you did.” I smiled, doing my best to hide the unease simmering underneath my skin, aware of Jenkins glaring daggers at me.
Then Rory noticed him too. Even after only a few seconds, he appeared much more awake, and he focused on Jenkins, looking… guilty?
“Oh, hi again, Dr. Jenkins. Did the medicine not work? Did I use it wrong?” Rory asked.
“The medicine?” I echoed, my heart dropping.
He nodded sluggishly.
“What medicine, Rory?” Greylen asked in a restrained voice, trying to be gentle.
Rory’s voice was weak and shaky. “The one Doc gave me. He said it was like the stuff Healer Rowan was giving me that made me feel better.”
Everything fell silent—deadly silent.
Every Alpha in the room glared at the doctor. And they werepissed.
Bastian
Time hovered in a strange hold that kept everything still for a moment. I watched from across the room, any notion I had that Rowan might be wrong completely obliterated as Jenkins’s face contorted into an expression I didn’t recognize.
The man had been a part of this horde for years, and I’d never once seen the undeniable fury on him that I did now.
For what I would realize was too long, I was frozen—just like the others—as Jenkins surged forward, his hands extended as he lunged for Rowan. The two collided, Jenkins taking her down to the floor with a heavy thud.
His hands were wrapped around her neck. “You bitch! You’ve ruined everything with your fucking herbs! You know nothing! If they won’t get rid of you, I will!”
I moved on instinct. My baser urges and our age-old connection propelled me forward as I rushed over and tore Jenkins off Rowan. She coughed, sputtering on the ground as I hauled him away, kicking and screaming, until I had him pinned against thewall.
“Don’t you ever touch my fucking mate, you hear me?” I slammed him against the wall once more, rattling the old bastard’s teeth and putting all my rage into him. “Do you?!”
Jenkins trembled in my hold, hardly able to meet my glare as he squeaked out, “Y-yes! L-let me go. Please.”
Compared to me, he was older and frail. I could snap that fucker’s body in half with my pinkie if I wanted to.
Refusing to let the fucker up right away, I sensed Nix at my side. He leaned toward Jenkins. “What do you mean, she ruined everything? Ruinedwhat?”
Jenkins looked back and forth between us, his eyes wide as he shook.
I offered another firm meeting with the wall to get his tongue flapping again. “Speak up, now, or it’ll be your head through the damn wall.”
“Ah! All right, all right.” I relaxed my grip enough to get Jenkins to confess whatever he’d been doing. “I knew.”
The room dropped into silence again, and I glanced over my shoulder, exchanging looks with my clanmates. It was Rowan who stared on with eyes as wide as saucers, slowly rising from the floor to approach Jenkins.
