Page 47 of The Dragons' Healing Mate

“No. I don’t want that,” he rushed out. “I just need something to help with the pain. I get them when I overwork myself. It’s unfortunately common.”

“Surely, that’s a sign you should stop working so much?” I offered as I walked back over to my herb cabinet, pulling out a familiar small satchel.

Bastian glowered at me as I turned around to face him. “I would thinkyou’dbe encouraging me to work more than anyone, considering you’ve let me knowexactlyhow much you think I’ve failed this horde.”

I shrugged, heading over to another cabinet on the opposite side of the room and pulling out a teacup. “You havefailed this horde—in many ways. I’m not going to placate you.” I shrugged. “But you’re not going to do anyone any good by working yourself to the bone. I know renovating the old McCreevy cabin is exhausting, and then there are your regular duties. If anyone knows about burnout, it’s me.”

“That’s just manual labor,” he said with a grunt.

I grabbed the electric kettle and filled it up, before turning it on to let it heat. “Manual labor is a lot, even for a dragon. You guys aren’t invincible.”

“Do you have something that can help me or not?” he growled.

Part of me wanted to torture him more, but I decided to relent. Just this once. He really didn’t look well.

“This stuff will help. It’s a mix of several herbs I dried and turned into a powder. Once this tea is brewed, I’ll pop some in, and you’ll be right as rain in a few hours.”

He glowered at the bag in my hands, even though it was going to help him. Skeptical was an understatement. There was also no “thank you.” My agreeing to help him actually seemed to piss him off more.

“I don’t need any tea. I can just take it as it is,” he said, taking a step forward and grabbing the pouch.

Tipping his head back, he poured the entire contents into his mouth before dry-swallowing it like a psychopath.

“Wait! What are you doing?!” I asked, lunging toward him, but he held the pouch out of my reach.

“I don’t need the tea,” he demanded. “It’s easy enough to swallow.”

“Maybe, but you just took afucktonof that stuff. The correct dose for a headache is halfa teaspoon. You just downed the bag!”

“Really?” Bastian asked, his stare shooting to the empty pouch.

As he spoke, his eyes glazed over, dilating until the pupils ate up nearly every bit of his blue irises. He sat down heavily in my chair, staring at the wall.

“Oh, Lord. Bastian, you okay?” I asked, heading toward him.

His eyes were glassy, and there was a near-vacant expression on his face. The herbs were known to have a psychedelic effect if abused, and I sighed. Now,Ihad a headache.

I snapped my fingers in front of Bastian’s face. He flinched, swatting haphazardly at me. This was not good. And there was no way I could leave him unattended now. He was high as a fucking kite.

“Nina?” I called out in the general direction of the reception area.

She poked her head around the door. “How can I—Oh shit, is he okay?” The smile dropped off her face when she saw the doped-up dragon at my desk.

“He will be,” I muttered, watching him with my hands on my hips. “The idiot grabbed the medication off me before I could dose it and took all of it, so now…”

“He’s zonked out?” Nina asked with a laugh, taking a few tentative steps forward. “Goddamn, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Bastian drunk. This ishilarious.”

I chuckled as she leaned down, looking Bastian in the eye. He didn’t even blink as she waved a hand in front of his face. “The lights are on, butno oneis home.”

I nodded, dropping my head because this was going to be several hours of work. “Yup, he’s reallyout of it.”

“We could doanythingto him. I bet you could take a pen to that pretty face, and he wouldn’t even flinch,” she said, turning her head to give me a conspiring smile.

“While that isa tempting prospect…”

It was a no. My moral compass wouldn’t allow me to take advantage of someone who was essentially my patient. It wasn’t like he’d done this knowingly, like getting black-out drunk. Were it any other situation, I would have happily doodled penises all over that smug bastard’s face.

“I have one in my desk!” Nina suggested, standing up straighter. “I can go get it.”