Page 84 of The Dragons' Healing Mate

“Things arenevereasy, are they?” I whispered, staring out at the lake.

Griffin was quiet for a moment, but I felt him tense, and a quiet curse left him. “Well… things may be about to geta littlemore complicated.”

Nerves gripped me, making my pulse race. “Why?”

He grimaced, casting me a sympathetic look. “Because I’m pretty sure that the SUV pulling up to the cabin is your mates.”

My head whipped around and, sure enough, before the SUV even came to a stop, Bastian was jumping out and slamming the door behind him, quickly followed by the rest of his clanmates.

And they didnotlook happy.

Rowan

“Gonehealing, have you?” Orsen growled, storming over to me with all the softness of a grizzly bear. The others were right on his tail, and I flicked my stare to Bastian, some self-sabotaging behavior, because what I was met with was nothing short of white-hot rage.

I held up my hands, pulse hammering as I walked down the jetty to meet them.

“What the hell are you doing, bringing her here?” Grey growled, directing his words at Griffin, who was hot on my heels, likely trying his best to offer a buffer for the Alphas’ anger.

“Because she asked. She’s not a prisoner,” he pointed out, tone too sharp for my liking. “At least, I didn’tthinkso. She said she needed to do this, and I?—”

“Don’t blame him. I asked him to bring me here,” I cut in, wrapping my arm around Orsen’s waist. “I didn’t mean to… It wasn’t the best move. I know. But Ihadto see this place. I just had to.”

Despite his pissed-off expression, Orsen pulled me close, resting his chin on top of my head as that low growl rumbled through him. The tension in his body was unmistakable, and he seemed to be shaking with fury.

“Why not ask us?” Nix sounded wounded. When I looked up at him, his expression was heartbroken, making me feel so much worse. “We would have helped you come here.”

“I just wanted to see it for myself… To see whether it would jog any memories,” I admitted softly. “I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to let it go. To move on.”

“Did it?” Nix’s face lit up with hope. “Did you remember anything?”

I shook my head, the grief I’d been releasing coming back, full force. “No. It… It made everything a lot more real, though.”

Grey sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before looking up at me. “How so?”

“Seeing this place, knowing what happened here, how much I lost…”

“This place is nothing but suffering. I could have told you that,” Orsen grumbled, his fingers pressing into me possessively, like I would evaporate any moment.

“I get why you’d feel that way, I do, but I don’t agree. We were happy here…” I pulled back, holding up the photo. “This, the looks on our faces, it really hit me just how much had been taken from you all—and from me—but look at us. Look at that joy. I-I want that.”

Orsen’s disgruntled expression melted as he glanced at the picture. He slowly reached for it, the corners of his mouth lifting as he scanned over our happy faces. The iron-straight hold of his spine relaxed a hair, and he exhaled long and hard. “God, I’d sort of forgotten how good those days were.”

Greylen and Nix approached, interested in the photo, and that same wash of emotions spread over them. Nostalgia was a funny thing when it was for a moment you couldn’t remember. I imagined it was strange for them, too, wishing for that time while still being heartbroken at the thought of it. So much bad was mixed up with so much good.

There was no untangling all that. There was just accepting it.

“I’m sorry. I should have talked to you guys.” I dropped my head, letting out all the words that sprang up because I didn’t want to hold back anymore. “A chunk of my life is missing. There’s no getting it back, and I feel… something about it. It’s not really clear. I knew I was desperate to know, to learn what happened. And I guess I still am, but I’m also resolved. We were together. We were happy. It was real. That, well, shit. That means it can be that way again. Can’t it?” Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes.

Nix took my hand as Orsen squeezed me again. “Hell, yes, it can. I am all about Team Fuck That Horrible Day And Let’s Move On.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Even Grey and Orsen were rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. They weren’t who I was super worried about, though. I shot a look at Bastian again, who wouldn’t look at any of us. His hands were balled into fists, and I thought he might crack a tooth with how hard his jaw was clenched.

“Why don’t we go inside?” Griffin offered. “We can start boarding up the place to make sure it’s not been vandalized. You really have let this place go.”

Orsen shot a look at the cabin, and while he grimaced at first, he cocked his head and eventually nodded. “You know what? Yeah, let’s secure it for the future. It’s ours, and we’re all here again. Why not reclaim it? At least, once we know it’s safe.”

Grey patted him on the shoulder, Nix hooting in the distance as he already scampered off to the cabin.