“Knew?” Nix furrowed his brow, shooting a glance to Orsen, who shrugged. “Knew what?”
“The drugs.” Rowan walked over cautiously, stopping just behind me as I maintained my control over Jenkins. “You knew they were hurting the horde. Oh my God.”
Her hands went to her mouth, her eyes welling up as the realization hit us all. Jenkins wasn’t just incompetent or rooted to his fucking beliefs. He’d been doing this… onpurpose.
“All those dragons. They’ve believed for years that you’ve been helping them! All this time… All this time, you’ve been making them sicker, making them infertile. They trusted you. How could you do this to them? To your own horde? Are you working for another horde?”
“I am no traitor! I had my reasons,human.” Jenkins glared at Rowan, as if he was disgusted. My jaw cracked as I clenched it, angling my knuckles into the fucker’s throat.
“And the money?” she growled. “Just another spoil?”
“Money?” Nix appeared next to Rowan, shaking his head. “Rowan, what do you mean?”
“The supplies he’s been ordering, there are far too many of them for even a horde five times this size. I was too kind when I assumed he didn’t understand, but it looks like he’s been blowing through the funds like they’re nothing. Oh, and the medications? I was only ever able to find half of what was on the reported order sheet. He was stealing from you.”
I growled at the pathetic dragon in front of me, the theft really adding insult to injury. “Because making our horde sick, causing their deaths, wasn’t enough?”
“No one ever died,” Jenkins countered, his voice a slimy stain on the air. “Not really. A few older dragons, who were already on their way out. But I corrected the symptoms before it got too serious.”
Rowan’s eyes flared again, and she gestured behind her at Rory. “And him? He’s a child!”
“The boy was never in any real danger. I told you. I know how to correct the… issue.” Jenkins sneered, curling into himself like a cobra who’d been caught with his tail in a trap, unable to escape, and all the more insidious because of it. “I just needed you gone. I neededthemto see I was the better doctor.”
Fury took me, and I slammed him back into the wall so hard, I heard his neck crack in complaint as his head hit the wall, and he staggered to the floor again.
The fucker didn’t deserve to stand.
“Oh, did you? Gone. That can mean a few things, huh? I think it’s your turn… to be gone.”
I had been loyal to him, but that had been a mistake. He had tried to kill my mate and harm my horde. Death was too good for him.
Reaching for his neck, I sank my partially shiftedclaws into his flesh, letting them get longer as my dragon roared, demanding I tear the fucker limb from limb.
My grip started to clench, but then Rowan’s hand was on my shoulder, and I froze.
“Don’t. Don’t kill him.”
“He attacked you, was responsible for—” My voice was thick with rage.
“I know. I understand, Bastian.” Rowan squeezed my arm, her eyes focused so intently on mine, my name still ringing in the air. “But there has been too much death already. I’m a healer. I’m supposed to make this horde better. As much as I hate this slimy, pathetic excuse for a dragon, I don’t want to live with a death on my conscience.”
Her words hit like a physical blow. That was the last thing I wanted to do to her. She needed to be protected, not hurt. Jenkins’s stare dropped to the floor. After a moment, I stepped back, pulling my claws free of his neck, blood oozing out of the shallow cuts just enough to satisfy my dragon’s bloodlust.
“Why?” I snarled. “What reason could you have for making our horde sicker? Are you working for another horde?” Rowan had touched on that possibility, but I wanted to look him in the face and ask myself.
Jenkins face twisted in rage. “No! I would never betray North Oak like that!”
That made me raise a brow. Somehow, in his twisted mind, making the horde sicker wasn’t betraying them?
“You did betray us.”
The disgraced doctor shook his head adamantly. “No! Everything I did, I did to make this horde better, you need to understand?—"
“You will leave this horde and never return. Word of how you’ve treated us will be spread to every corner of the globe. No horde or den will ever take you in again. You will be alone, cast out.” My words were low and controlled, with barely contained rage simmering beneath the surface.
Jenkins couldn’t have hidden his shock even if he wanted to. “No, no, no. You c-can’t do this! I need to live! I’ve been your father’s loyal physician for decades. Bastian, you can’t?—”
“I think you’ll find I fucking can, especially considering it’s more than likely that you’ve made my father weak and kept him in pain for years.” I took a step back, pointing at the door as I felt the others stand behind me. “Get. Out.”
