Page 53 of The Dragons' Healing Mate

“You’re kidding, right? This isBastianwe’re talking about. I’m expecting him to spin around and bite me in half.”

The dragon in question glanced up at me, and I swear to God, gave mepuppy-dogeyes. I was getting sappy, sad, whiny puppy-dog eyes from a dragon who I was very sure hated my guts. My focus snapped to the others, silently pleading and in shock. Orsen cocked his head, snorting under his breath.

“He’s not going to eat you, Rowan.” He sighed, shaking his head with a grin that seemed so very apologetic and still loving. “From everything he’s doing, I think he just wants to be near you. Maybe earn himself a few pets.”

I still couldn’t believe it, but as if he were trying to agree, Bastian pressed his nose into my legs and did his best to purr. A laugh escaped me, and I sagged, glancing at this massive, grump-hole of a dragon who was suddenly searching for a cuddle. My chest pinched, and I couldn’t stop myself from running my fingertips over his scales.

A contented sound leaked out of him, and that odd, manic energy I’d felt billowing off him relaxed.

“See? Bastian isn’t at the wheel; his dragon is. They adore you.” Orsen nodded. “Maybe you can keep him soothed, and we can get the big lug to wander back toward the house.”

Nix and Grey seemed to agree, moving alongside Orsen as he cautiously approached Bastian. But the moment they got too close, the dragon turned toward them, snapping his jaws in warning. All three of them stopped, holding up their hands like I had.

“Or maybe not,” Grey said, shaking his head. “I think this is a two-person party.”

Panic nearly took over me again, but Bastian immediately melted into relaxed mode once the guys stopped moving and stuck his snout into my lower half again. I kept stroking the top, admiring the silky smooth and oddly warm scales. Eventually, the others backed away, letting Bastian remain calm. Now, it was just him and me.

As the seconds dragged on, Bastian nuzzling into me, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I kept petting him, feeling different areas of his head to see what he liked. Still, was I really going to stand there in the yard and pet him?

Abruptly, Bastian lifted his head and nudged my legs hard enough to knock me over.

“Hey!” Sitting up, I glared at him. “What’d you do that for?”

Again, he obviously couldn’t answer, but it didn’t matter. Bastian’s actions were answer enough as he crawled over and dropped as much of his head into my lap as he could without crushing me. He closed his eyes, that purr rumbling out of him again. He proceeded to get comfy, apparently planning to take a nap right in the middle of the yard.

“I have to work, you butthead. You can’t just—” But he pushed into my chest, cutting me off.

“Oh, sure. Push me around. At least I can tell it’s really you now.” I narrowed my eyes at him, resting my arm on his head and trailing my fingers over his scales. “Grump.”

I shot a look up to see Nina coming around the side of the clinic, returning from her outing. She seemed relaxed until her eyes landed on the massive dragon. She stopped short, confusion washing over her face as she pointed at Bastian.

I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Don’t ask. Just… go do paperwork or something.”

Nina giggled, shaking her head with a smile. To her credit, she didn’t ask and just wandered into the clinic without a word. The snoring dragon in my lap didn’t move a muscle, and I chuckled, petting his head.

“When you wake up from all this… woo, you’re going to besomad.”

Orsen

Wednesday was shaping up to be very interesting. Instead of working on the McCreevy cabin and dealing with a small mountain of paperwork, I was babysitting a very doped-up dragon.

It turned out that getting Bastian inside was damn near impossible, given his size, so we’d gone to a clearing in the forest we knew no one else would visit to let him sleep off the medication, which could still take several more hours.

“When do you think he’ll change back?” Rowan asked in a soft voice. She was sitting in the clearing with the gigantic dragon’s head on her lap because he refused to be apart from her.

I shrugged, laughing softly. “Whenever the medication wears off, I suppose. He seems fine, just a little out of it.”

“And a little clingy.” She chuckled, looking down at the dragon’s face with a gentle smile.

“That, too. I’m pretty sure Bastian isn’t at the wheel right now.”

Rowan hummed in agreement, then glanced at me with that grin still in place. “Yeah, this guy iswaysweeter than his humancounterpart,” she cooed, running her hand over his dark scales between his eyes.

“His human counterpart isn’t going to be happy when he gets control back.” I cocked my head at Bastian.

My mate smirked. “Well, too bad for him.”

We sat together for a while, letting sleeping dragons snooze, as it were. Rowan appeared so at ease with a dragon who was easily eight times her size, with his head in her lap. Six years ago, she hadn’t spent much time around us all in dragon form. We’d shifted once to let her know what we were, and she’d proceeded to stab one of us, but that was ancient history.