Page 78 of The Dragons' Healing Mate

I laughed, kissing his cheek. “Well, you have a minute. Think we can manage to wash my hair?”

We both chuckled, and I let the moment be, holding off the flood of thoughts and concerns and emotions for just a bit longer. It could all wait.

Rowan

Rowan to Griffin

Come meet me in my room

Grey had regretfully left to go check on horde business, and I had slipped away, going back to my bedroom.

Once in my room, I padded over to the closet and rummaged around until I found the duffel bag I’d brought with me all those weeks ago. The fact it had only been weeks since I’d arrived at North Oak was startling. So much had happened, and I had changed inso manyways. Change, it seemed, didn’t care about time. It was going full steam ahead, whether or not I could keep up.

After pulling the duffel bag out, I tossed it onto the bed. Searching through the contents, I took stock of what I had. My clothing had tripled in the last few weeks, thanks to the shopping and gifts, so I pulled out a few simple T-shirts from my dresser and shoved them in.

“What are we doing here?” Griffin asked, entering my room without even knocking.

“Griff…” I trailed off, pausing as I turned to look at him, my stomach twisting in knots.

“Why do you have your bags out?” he asked, his face changing from grinning to concern in less than a second. “Did the guys do something? You can’t leave.”

His eyes raked over me in my disheveled state, and a flicker of understanding lit up before Griff quickly replaced it with more concern.

It was obvious what I’d been doing. Maybe I should have cleaned myself up before texting Griff, but I needed to put my plan into motion immediately; otherwise, I was going to chicken out, and I couldn’t do that. I’d been putting this off for too long.

“No. They’ve donenothingwrong. They were amazing. I just…” I took a deep breath, running a hand through my hair. “Griffin, if I ask a favor of you, will you do it?”

“You know I will,” he said, stepping forward so he was closer to me, that look of concern only intensifying. “But I want you to explainexactlywhat that is. Do I need to punch someone? I’ll be there for you in a heartbeat, and I’ll also take a punch for you, but I’d rather avoid that again. “

He sniffed the air as I stood there, his stare narrowing. “You smell distinctly like three of our Alphas.”

“Don’t worry, no one’s going to punch you again. At least, I don’t think they are.” I smirked, feeling the need to break the tension.

“Explain what’s going on.”

“I hate not knowing,” I said softly. “What happened, Griff? Why can’t I remember? Ineedto figure out what happened to me.”

“I know, but it’s not like we have many options. Kiki said your memories may return over time, but it’s unlikely. I’m not sure what else we can do.”

I’d spent the first few weeks after waking up desperately trying to remember until I’d accepted the fact that my memories were long gone and the grief settled in my chest, giving me a kindof peace. Now, that serenity had been destroyed and Ineededto know. I needed to remember what I had once been,whoI had once been, the painful nightmares haunting me so much more frequently of late.

Griffin sat on the edge of my bed as I unpacked and repacked my duffel several times, my brain not sure what I wanted to bring with me.

Eventually, I voiced the true request, letting the words ghost out of me. “What if I asked you to take me there?”

“Take you where? Why do you want to leave, Ro?” Griff shook his head as he came over to me, taking my hand.

“I don’t want to leave. I want to understand. So… take me. To where it happened. To that cabin where I met the guys and spent the summer.” I was so tense, gripping the handles of the duffel like I intended to tear them off.

Griffin paused for a moment before answering, carefully considering his words, and I appreciated that he hadn’t jumped right to yelling at me. “There could be merit in that, but don’t you wantthemto take you?They’reyour mates.”

I shook my head. “No, I want to do this for myself. I need to go. I need to see whether it will jog any memories. I need to try. The way I feel about them…” I said, shoving one of my T-shirts into the bag perhaps a little too hard. “They remember. It haunts them, but at least nothing is missing. I feel like a giant chunk of who I am just disappeared.”

“You know I’d go to the ends of the earth with you, Rowan,” he uttered. “I just want you to understand how serious this is.”

For some reason, the softness of his words made the ache in my chest even more intense. I chewed on my lip, my leg shaking as I stood at the foot of my bed, still clutching my duffel in my free hand.

“I need to give it a shot. I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with them, and…” I sighed, dropping my head as the tension abruptly left me, replaced by an exhaustion that was bone deep.