Chapter 30
Greylen
Rowan had to be treated carefully.
Somehow, despite our idiotic behavior at times, she was still around. And for that, I thanked the gods every day.
It was probably because of the amount of help the horde needed, though I couldn’t help but hope part of her was sticking around for us.
Staring at the computer screen, my eyes started to blur.
After my conversation with Rowan at the feast, I had decided I needed to do a deeper dive into the horde’s finances.
What I had found made my head spin and my heart sink.
We owned several businesses that turned a profit. There was a lumberyard, a construction company, and several similar ventures. Yet, somehow, all our profits seemed to be going toward paying Jenkins.
I sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“Hey, Ma said you wanted to see me?” I would know my mate’s voice anywhere; that soft, sweet, husky tone haunted my dreams.
I sat up straight, all remnants of exhaustion quickly dissipating as my eyes landed on Rowan standing in the doorway.
She was wearing a pair of ratty jeans with a T-shirt that had seen better days. Her hair was scraped back into a haphazard, messy bun, with several strands falling loose. Despite the rumpled nature of her appearance, she was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“Greylen?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
I had been so busy admiring her that I’d forgotten to answer.
“Yes, I’m sorry. Did I pull you away from the clinic?”
She shook her head. “I was finishing up for the day.”
“I’ve been going through the horde’s finances. I was hoping to run some numbers by you. Is that okay?”
“Of course it is.” She walked deeper into the office and sat in the chair opposite my desk. “I like this place,” she said, looking around. “It’s dark but comfortable.”
I preened under her praise, even though I had nothing to do with the design of the space. It was painted a dark green, giving it a subtle, natural feel that was almost homey.
“I can’t take credit, but I do love it.” I glanced around the room, oddly proud that she liked it.
“I can see why. So, what numbers are we going to talk about?” she asked, leaning back with a conspiratorial smile.
Taking a deep breath, I turned my laptop around so she could see the spreadsheet I’d been working on. Technically, I was showing her information that should not have been shown to an outsider, but Rowan was my mate. If she agreed, she would be the Alpha female of our horde.
Fuck, how I wanted that.
“This is how much money we give Jenkins. In your expert opinion, is this okay?”
The smirk fell from her face, and she sat forward, her eyes narrowing as she quickly looked through the figures. The corner of her lips turned down, and she started muttering as she read.
“This is insane!” she exclaimed. “Does he tell you what he does with all this money?”
“It’s always to go toward new medication, or equipment, or something we wouldn’t understand because we don’t have a medical degree.” He treated us all like we were dumb children, and his knowledge was so superior that there was no way we could understand.
I held a master’s degree, but in the face of his medical training, it was nothing, apparently.
Rowan stared at the screen, horror-struck, her hand covering her mouth. “I could set up an amazing clinic for a tenth of this. If he’s spending this much every few years, that’s extortionate.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Fuck.”
“Well, you see… this is how much we give him per year,” I admitted.
Rowan’s head shot up so fast that she gave me a look of utter shock and disbelief. “One year?” she screeched. “You pay that crotchety old bastard this much every year?”
A grin spread across my face as I nodded. She never minced her words; that was for sure.
“He said it was essential to maintaining the health of the horde.”
Rowan let out a deep, long-suffering sigh. Raising her fingers to her temples, she rubbed gently, as if the notion of what I had just told her had stressed her out so severely, she was getting a migraine.
“What health of the horde? Because I’ve only been here a short while, and I can already tell you that the health of this horde is goddamn abysmal,” she shouted, waving her hands around as she ranted.
“I know.” Because Bastian had told me she had shouted at him about this only a few days ago. He had been venting about the situation, but we had both agreed there would be no harm in looking into the numbers.
“There’s no way he’s using all this money on equipment,” Rowan insisted, her eyes scanning the lists again.
“Even if he’s buying machinery that is top of the line and brand new from a foreign country, he would still have money left over.
Why didn’t you consult with any healers from nearby hordes before dropping several fortunes on this bastard? ”
“Because he was a healer with a medical degree, and Bastian’s father had complete faith in him.”
“When did the horde’s health start to decline?”
For a moment, I considered her question. “Maybe twenty years ago, but it’s been getting worse in the last decade.”
It had only been in the last few years that things had gotten really bad.
“When did Jenkins go to medical school? Given how old he is, I assume it was sixty years ago. His knowledge is probably outdated, anyway.”
“Actually, now that you mention it, he only went to medical school about a decade ago. Or, at least, he got back from medical school then. I don’t know for sure, but I think Bastian’s father sent him because everyone’s health was starting to decline.”
“I guess that makes sense,” she said, muttering to herself again. “If he wasn’t using typical human medicine before, maybe the decline was natural.”
“Natural decline?” I asked.
Rowan bobbed her head. “The well-being of a horde ebbs and flows. It’s normal.
Usually, there are a few years every decade or so when things get a little worse.
The female birth rate for dragons is low anyway.
If Bastian’s father had been concerned when that happened and sent Jenkins to medical school, and then he made the problem a whole lot worse, that would explain the situation you find yourselves in. ”
I didn’t want to admit it out loud, but she seemed right. Her argument was logical and made perfect sense.
“You really would only need ten percent of this to start up a clinic?”
“I wouldn’t even need that. I pretty much have a clinic already.
Sure, a few extra thousand would be nice to get some additional herbs, in case of emergencies, but realistically, I have everything I need.
The old healer thought of that. Jenkins boxed up all his stuff and ignored it, for some reason. ”
“But if you had the money, what would you do with it?”
“Honestly, if there was money to spare, I would probably talk about building a few greenhouses, so I could grow more plants to help. But other than that, we don’t really need anything. There are probably far better places to invest. Housing, for one.”
I grimaced again. She had hit the nail on the head.
At the same time, though, I made a mental note to start looking into greenhouses.
“Yeah, it’s recently come to our attention how much we’ve let things go.”
“Why, though? You seem like good guys.” Rowan asked, her voice sincere, no accusation in her tone.
I took a deep breath, trying to find the right words to tell her what happened without making her feel even an ounce of guilt, because it wasn’t her fault at all.
“Honestly, we all kind of lost our way after you went missing. It’s only now that you’re back, we’re starting to open our eyes and realize how big of idiots we’ve been.
We’ve been neglecting our horde. Yes, we’ve been here, but it’s not the same as being truly engaged.
They deserve better. You make us better, Rowan, you always have. ”
“Grey…” She trailed off. The way she said my nickname so softly made my chest burn with a need I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
“I’m not saying this to put any pressure on you. If you want to leave, you can leave. I don’t want to force you to stay. But it’s true. Do you know how hard it is to lose a mate?”
Rowan grimaced, leaning back in her chair. “I’ve seen dragons who have lost their mate, and they lose all the will to live, usually.”
“We nearly did,” I said. “But we had each other to lean on. Plus, we didn’t know where you were. There was still hope that you were out there somewhere. Even though we didn’t believe it, and we assumed you had died, deep down, we hoped. And, well… here you are.”
“And here I am,” she repeated softly. “The question is, who got rid of me? Or at least, tried to get rid of me?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Do you know anyone who would want you dead?”
Rowan snorted. “I mean, Jenkins probably wants me dead, but I wasn’t a healer back then, so…”
I chuckled. She probably wasn’t too far off the mark there.
“Can you really picture anyone in the horde wanting you dead?”
“No. They’re all kind, open, and welcoming. Well, other than the older generation, but they’re old and set in their ways.”
“Yeah, we don’t listen to them,” I said with a laugh.
“But it wasn’t here I was hurt, was it?” she asked, lifting her hand and chewing on her thumbnail—something she used to do when we first met her. It was her stress reaction. The movement was eerily familiar. “It was a few days’ drive from here.”
“My best guess is that it was a rogue. Maybe they saw us together, happy, and decided they wanted it. Or they wanted to destroy what we had.”
Rowan nodded thoughtfully. “That does seem like the most plausible explanation, but I hate it because I need a clear answer to feel safe.” She stood up, running her hand through her hair. Agitation rolled off her in waves, and everything in me wanted to fix it. Rowan needed comfort, not stress.
“Come here,” I said, holding out a hand. I just wanted her near me, but once she placed her hand in mine, I couldn’t help but drag her into my lap. She didn’t resist, sitting in my lap and resting her head against my neck, seeking comfort from me in a way that made my dragon happy.
She weighed next to nothing physically, but the emotional burden of having my mate in my arms again was almost overwhelming. Her skin was soft where it pressed against mine, and instinctively, I wrapped my arms around her, cocooning her close to me.
“I hate this,” she admitted into my neck, taking several slow, deep breaths. “Even though I feel the pull to all of you, I just don’t feel safe. That’s not a reflection on you, though. It’s this whole messed up situation.”
“We will spend the rest of our lives ensuring you are safe, Ro. After everything we’ve been through, we won’t allow anything bad to happen to you again.”
My hand trailed up and down her spine, reveling in her nearness. It almost felt like no time had passed, and we were in my old office cuddling late into the night.
Fuck how I missed those nights.
Only this was starkly different. There was a wall between us, made up of unanswered questions regarding what had happened six years ago.
She was silent for a moment, then spoke so quietly, even my dragon’s hearing almost didn’t pick it up.
“I really hope that’s true.”