Page 82 of The Dragons' Healing Mate

“Why thehellwould she be there?” I asked, craning my head to look at the screen.

I personally never wanted to set foot in that place again. Sure, it was home to some of my best memories, but also the worst. Those early days of searching for Rowan after she vanished were the most soul-crushing moments of my life.

“I don’t know…” Grey trailed off.

“Come on.” Bastian’s voice was firm as he stood, heading toward the door.

“Where the fuck areyougoing?” Orsen shot him a look of annoyance. We’d all been on Bastian’s ass about how he’dtreated Rowan, but especially Orsen. I knew he wanted our clanmate to open up, and instead, he was just rushing off like he had before.

He looked back at us. “To the cabin. Coming?”

Rowan

“Are you sure this is the place? It looks beyond derelict. This is just waiting to be condemned,” I commented as I slid out of the passenger seat, eyeing the crumbling structure.

After a day and a half of driving, and one too many gas-station hot dogs, we hadfinallymade it. At least, we had, according to Griffin. I was finding it hard to believethiswas the idyllic place where I had met my mates and spent an entire summer.

On the edge of the lake, the cabin was falling to pieces, several windows were broken and graffiti covered the outer walls. I could only imagine how bad it was on the inside, vermin likely making a home in the walls and decrepit furniture.

“I think after everything happened, they stopped maintaining it. They haven’t come back here since you went missing,” Griffin explained, closing his door and circling the vehicle to join me in front.

“You would have thought they would’ve gotten someone to take care of it or just… tear it down.” I wasn’t sure why, but the thought of destroying it made my stomach flip-flop.

“I think it was too painful for them to even think about this place,” he admitted, leaning against the truck and crossing his arms. “I’m guessing the neighborhood kids got to it eventually. I’d steel yourself if you actually plan on going in.”

“How far away is the nearest town?” I asked. There was dense woodland surrounding the lake and the cabin, so it was hard to imagine civilization nearby.

“About an hour. People don’t come out this way too often. Shall we see if they did get inside?” he asked, pulling out a key.

My brows shot up. “How do you have a key?”

“I have my ways.” He smirked, sauntering toward the rundown cabin.

Despite the broken windows, as we stepped inside, I was surprised to see it mostly intact, albeit extremely dusty.

Every surface was covered in a thick layer of fluffy gray, as though the place had been frozen in time, left completely untouched for six years, which was exactly what had happened, I supposed. If the guys had never come here again, the cabin would remain unchanged, time working its undeniable magic on the place.

“Is this jogging any memories?” Griffin asked, looking around before coughing when he accidentally kicked up a cloud of dust.

“Not really, though I doubt it looked like this the last time I was here,” I muttered. I tugged at the deep recesses of my mind, but nothing came back. It was like I was looking at the cabin for the first time; the place was entirely new to me, not somewhere I’d spent countless hours and potentially some of the happiest ones of my life.

Looking around, I did my best to commit the layout of the small building to memory. It wasn’t hard to see how beautiful it must have been once upon a time. Rustic, with dark wooden paneling and worn furniture that practically screamed comfort.My eyes burned. As much as I wanted to blame the dust in the air, I knew this feeling—grief.

I remembered nothing, and the house that had been a home away from home was gone.

Slowly, almost painstakingly so, I walked through the cabin, praying that some small thing would trigger my memory. But the dark corners of my mind stayed as vacant as they had always been.

This place held no clues for me. It was cold, desolate, and empty, falling apart because no one was here to take care of it. Still, my chest burned. My heart was heavy, just thinking about what had happened in these very walls all those years ago.

Where had I been attacked? Had it been in this very cabin or somewhere nearby? I had no idea. I despised not knowing.

When I passed through the kitchen, something caught my eye—a photograph on the fridge. Taking a few tentative steps forward, I reached out with shaking fingers and pulled it off.

It was us: me and my clan.

It had probably been taken on the same day as the photograph Greylen had shown me a few weeks ago in the gardens. I was wearing a bikini, my hair in two French braids, grinning at the camera as I stood surrounded by my four men. Orsen was holding the camera selfie-style, while Nix and Bastian had their arms wrapped around my waist. Every one of us was beaming.

Smiling… even Bastian.