Page 65 of The Dragons' Healing Mate

It seemed like the cat was well and truly out of the bag.

“If it’s Mr. Habberburger again, tell him I’m working as fast as I can on the salve, but I can’t brew the ingredients any faster.”

“It’s not Mr. Habberburger,” Ma said. “Actually, I don’t recognize him?”

That caught my attention, and I stopped what I was doing.

After putting down my papers, I slid out from behind my desk and made my way to the small lobby of the clinic, where a tiny gasp escaped me.

A familiar Alpha stood in the lobby with waves of dark brown hair pushed back from his face, standing easily a foot taller than me. He had deep blue eyes and the smile of a friend who’d come for the first visit in a long while.

Behind him was aheavilypregnant woman, cradling her bump, with the same dark hair and friendly eyes as the man.

“Luca!” I screeched, running over to him and throwing my arms around him.

The list of dragons I would happily hug wasn’t overly long, but Luca was definitely up there. The Alpha of the Four Ridge Horde, he and I had become good friends over the years. In fact, I had visited his horde several times on my healing adventures, which was why, when I needed someone to protect me, he was always the Alpha I had called.

Including just after Orsen had first kissed me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, pulling back to look at him, so surprised that he would travel like this with apregnantwoman.

“You’ve not been calling as much as usual. I thought I’d best come check on you. Especially after the whole kidnapping thing.” I made a face, which he brushed off. “Don’t worry, my motives aren’t entirelyselfless. You remember Poppy?”

Luca nodded to the female dragon behind him, and I grinned over at her, glancing at her very round stomach. “Of course I do! How can I forget the poor woman who has the misfortuneof beingyoursister?” I laughed, greeting her with a light hug as well.

“Yes, it’s truly bad luck, but I accept it.” She giggled.

“So… something has changed,” I said, looking pointedly at her stomach with a laugh of my own.

“Yes! I’m mated andveryhappy.” She beamed, her eyes sparkling.

“Let me guess… Samuel?” I asked, using the name of an enforcer, who I’d seen giving her googly eyes more than once.

Luca nodded. “See, this is why I wanted you to see her. She misses nothing!” he told his sister.

I cocked my head, accepting the compliment, then added, “Does Orsen, or any of the others, know you’re here yet?”

Luca smirked. “Nope. I wanted to test a theory.”

“What theory was that?” I asked, unsure whether I actually wanted the answer, considering the obvious mischief in Luca’s eyes.

A wicked smile slowly spread over his face. “I wanted to see how easy you are to kidnap.”

“Yeah. About that,” Ma said in an uneasy tone. “Judging by what I’m seeing out the window, there’s going to be a barrage of angry Alphas storming into the room in the next few seconds.”

Luca looked at his watch. “That was over three minutes! Thatwill notdo.”

“What was over three minutes?” Greylen asked as he shoved into the clinic, the others hot on his heels, even Bastian.

“How much of a head start could I have if I’d tried to kidnap Rowan. Seriously, what are you doing for security?”

Orsen looked dumbfounded, but it quickly shifted to annoyance, which reflected on the three other Alphas, who looked like they were restraining themselves just enough not to cause a fight.

“Wehavesecurity. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s him.” Orsen gestured with his head at the other door at the back of the clinic, where Griffin was walking in casually. Orsen was glaring like he would send literal daggers Luca’s way if he could.

Luca didn’t look over his shoulder. Orsen and he were locked in a glaring contest that I knew no one would win. But Griff was there a moment later, swaggering up to Luca with his typical bravado.

“Dude, the only reason I didn’t set off alarm bells and tackle your ass to the floor was that I know your dumb face,” Griffin greeted, shaking Luca’s hand in that weird bro-way men tended to do.