Chapter 10
Rowan
As I walked down the hallway toward Ma, I glanced behind me, half expecting to see one of the dragons glowering.
My head was still spinning after the chaos, my entire body stuck in fight-or-flight mode as I tried to will the adrenaline to back off.
A crash was coming soon, and I knew it was going to hit hard.
Running felt like the best option.
Only, I didn’t want to leave Griffin.
“Is what they’re saying true?” Ma asked as I approached her. She was holding my medic bag, someone must have grabbed it from Griff’s room, and giving me a look, as if I was some sacred deity returned from the dead—not a normal human with slightly above-average healing skills.
“I don’t know,” I told her honestly, my shoulders sagging as I looked at the closed door beside her. “Is Griffin in there?”
She nodded. “He’s in good spirits, but he could do with being looked at. He refused to let Dr. Jenkins anywhere near him. I think he’s more worried about you, my dear.”
Rightfully so. His Alpha had come barreling into his room like a bull in a china shop. I hadn’t seen anything like it before. Though I had a feeling, with Orsen, it was par for the course.
“I get it. He’s used to me healing him,” I said softly.
“He said there’s no one better,” she replied with a rueful smile.
I approached the door, placing my hand on the handle, only to halt abruptly when Ma grabbed my wrist.
“If what they’re saying is true, I am truly happy for you. And them.” She spoke with such honesty that it made my eyes burn.
Anyone thinking of our current situation as positive was rather jarring.
It was like finding an unexpected tax bill enjoyable.
Taxes and violence weren’t usually what people got excited about.
Still, I couldn’t help but remember that this was about their lost mate.
Of course, I could see why her coming back would be huge—and welcome.
Trouble was, I wasn’t her.
I had purposely avoided the west coast ever since I was attacked just in case I ran into my past. Naively I thought because I was always moving around I would be safe—but my past had clearly caught up to me.
My throat swelled uncomfortably, and I couldn’t answer. So, instead, I simply nodded at Ma before entering the room. I couldn’t cope with her kind smile for a moment longer.
“Rowan!” Griffin exclaimed the moment the door opened.
“Jesus Christ, Griffin,” I hissed as I took in his appearance. “Look at you.”
His left eye was completely swollen shut and badly bruised. The cut underneath was still oozing a little, and several other contusions littered his torso. He was sitting up in bed, the blanket draped over his waist, every dark mark across his shirtless torso on full display.
“It’s not that bad.” He laughed, then stopped short with a groan. Breaking off into a hiss, he placed his hand on his abdomen, clearly in pain.
“Oh yeah, not that bad. Sure.” I shook my head, sighing.
Taking a few steps forward, I placed my medical bag on the bedside table and opened it, running my critical eye over his injuries as I snapped on some gloves and said, “Let me take a look at that wound.”
“It really isn’t that bad,” he insisted as I started dabbing at the cut beneath his eye with one of the gauze pads.
“Well, if I don’t do something, your eye is going to scar.”
“Ladies love scars,” he declared, shrugging one shoulder. “Do you have any idea how much attention they get me? I have you to thank for that.”
I snorted lightly. “Sure. Thanks for the scars and not for the whole saving-your-life thing.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m plenty thankful for that too.”
We were quiet for a moment as I gently applied a serum to his cheek to help it close and prevent infection.
“Is what they’re saying about me true?” I asked softly after the silence stretched for too long. I knew it was a possibility, deep down, I really did. Only, part of me really rebelled against the idea.
I was probably in denial.
“I don’t know,” Griffin admitted. “I never met their mate. None of us did.”
“Isn’t that a bit suspicious?” I stilled, holding another gauze pad to his cut.
He shook his head. “They’d always go to this cabin in the Midwest for the summer months.
It was a place where they could be rowdy teenagers together.
Isolated and private. One year, we got the call to say they’d met Emmeline.
They spent the next few weeks out there, and then they were going to bring her here—to her new home. ”
I couldn’t keep my fingers from shaking. “That couldn’t have been me, Griff.”
“In any case, they woke up one morning, and Emmeline was just gone. None of them were the same after that. It was like the sun went out. They came back and led the horde, sure, but they weren’t really here anymore.”
“What do you mean she was just gone? They don’t know what happened?”
Griffin shrugged, shaking his head.
“I don’t like it. How the hell does someone just disappear without a trace?” I growled.
“I know. If you want, I’ll help you leave.” He lowered his voice. “For you, I’d risk Orsen’s wrath again.”
“I’m pretty sure they won’t let me leave,” I admitted, my voice shaky as I ran a hand through my hair. “Fuck, Griffin, they were so angry. If you could have seen the look on their faces…”
“They thought you—Emmeline—were dead. And I know you’re not sure whether it’s you, but let’s face it—the timelines match up. How long ago did you lose your memory after the attack? Six years?”
I nodded. I’d woken up in the middle of nowhere without a single memory, sporting my own array of injuries and certainly worse for wear.
“Six years ago, their mate vanished into thin air.” Griff locked eyes with me, never one to avoid cutting straight to the point. “They recognized you immediately. I think it’s pretty safe to say you came from here. Well, you know what I mean.”
I looked at him pointedly, but my voice was small when I spoke. “I don’t—Am I even safe here? After what Orsen did?”
“No one here is going to hurt you, least of all Orsen.” Griffin frowned as if that was obvious. But everything felt strange. I didn’t feel like their mate. Hell, I didn’t feel like their anything. And as much as kissing Orsen had been—
No, you will not be going there.
“What the fuck happened to me?” I asked in a strangled voice. “Someone clearly tried to kill me. We know that much, but who? Why?”
Griffin shook his head. “There’s no way it was anyone from this horde. It must have been someone who lived near the cabin.”
“And how far away is this cabin?” I looked around, as if I’d see it looming in the distance through the walls. “How far away from here was I when whoever the hell that dragon was nearly killed me?”
“It’s like a three-day drive.” He shrugged again, the corners of his lips turning down.
“That’s… way too close for my liking. Ugh.
” I sagged into myself, exhausted, as if a weight had just dropped from the ceiling to smother me.
The healer who had found me was adamant that I hadn’t been attacked close to the Southern Dust Lands.
Apparently, a van had been seen speeding away with New York plates.
No one in the local area had seen me before, so it made sense.
“Look, I’m going to stick to your side like glue just in case, and I will keep you safe,” he said adamantly, gripping my hand.
He scoffed at the disbelieving look I gave him. Given his current condition, I highly doubted he could protect anyone.
“Okay, so I may have failed this time, but in my defense, I was taken by surprise. How was I to know you were secretly the Alphas’ mate, who vanished six years ago? Even me, with my all-knowing wisdom, couldn’t foresee that.”
I shook my head, trying not to laugh as I pulled a few more cotton pads from my medical bag. “All I want to do is run for the hills. Pretend I never came to this town.”
“Well, you’ve got to stay long enough to heal Rory.”
I frowned playfully at my friend, narrowing my stare as I grumbled. “That’s not fair, and you know it.”
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “I’m not above using dirty tactics to keep you here. You know I like having you around, and, surprise of all surprises, I do actually think figuring this out would be better than running.”
A sharp huff left me as I crossed my arms over my chest. “I thought you just said you’d help me leave.”
“And I will, if you’re really set on going. But I’m pretty sure my ass will get kicked again, and I’d like to avoid that. I’m a badass dragon, yes, but I’m nothing up against four Alphas.”
My brows shot up. “Four of them?” He had told me that, but in the stress of the moment, I had completely forgotten, focused on the cranky dragon in front of me.
Griffin nodded. “The other two are camping on the borders of our lands, but I’m pretty damn sure they’ll be here any minute.”
I sighed. Just what I needed—more testosterone-fueled dragons.
“Isn’t it super rare for there to be a mated group that includes four Alphas?”
“Oh, yeah. Everyone was shocked when the news reached us all those years ago. But it was meant to be, apparently. We all agreed that Emmeline had to be one amazing human to have four dragon mates.”
“Emmeline,” I repeated.
How many times had I imagined what my name was before the attack? How many times had I considered every name I could think of, testing what fit and what felt right? Nothing ever did, and nowhere on the list had been Emmeline. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
“Yeah, you’re definitely more of a Rowan.” Griffin laughed.
Smirking, I sat on the edge of the bed. “Did I ever tell you how I got my name?”
Griffin shook his head. “No, and I never thought to ask. I assumed you just picked it out of a book.”
I smiled, looking down as I remembered the dear old healer. “Kiki named me.”
“She was a legend.” Griffin sighed wistfully.