We’d moved her to my private rooms when she’d shown no outward signs of illness.
We’d needed the room for all the other wounded. There were quite a few of them.
Over forty dragon riders had responded to my call a week ago once I’d spotted that first cage truck, and twenty of them had fallen with serious injuries.
Another thing we needed to discuss soon…strategy.
“There you go thinking again,” Blythe muttered tiredly, then yawned.
“Sorry,” I apologized, walking to the bed and sitting down on the side gingerly.
The position put her within inches of my face, and I studied her eyes.
“What happened, Drakina?” I asked softly, placing my hand on the side of her face.
Blythe picked up her own hand and placed it on mine.
“Apparently, your son did not like when you got hurt…and he made me fix you.”
I blinked.
“What?” I asked incredulously.
She nodded. “Yeah. It was bad. I felt it. Felt every single thing that happened to you. Before I’d been hurt, but I could still communicate through mindspeak. But then you got hurt and your child went a little nuts. I felt this huge energy start in my belly, and then all of a sudden I was taking away every single bit of your pain into myself…and let me tell you something…that sucked.”
My stomach clenched when I realized all that she’d done.
“How?” I was confused.
Things like this just weren’t done.
Then again, I’d been the first ‘true’ mating since my parents, so what did I know what normal was?
I think I need to do a lot more research.
“I think we need to take a trip to Wyoming. Our archives are there at their sanctuary. And I really need some information about just what we are going through,” I informed her. “But only after you’re well.”
She pursed her lips. “I am well.”
I shook my head. “You’ve been in a coma for over a week.”
She blinked. “Really? I feel like I’ve just been asleep, like a dream.”
I nodded. “Really.”
Then her eyes trailed down my body.
She cataloged everything.
The new scar above my eye, which was her scar that I’d been given, too.
The deep, dark circles underneath my eyes. The way my face looked ashen.
My unkempt appearance.
I’d lost some weight over the last week.
She saw all of it and more.
“You haven’t been taking care of yourself,” she admonished, scooting forward on her knees until she was butted up against my side.
I half smiled. “That’s because there’s a lot of sick. We had two dragons die, and with that happening it took away the rider’s ability to heal. We also have around twenty men in the infirmary,” I hesitated telling her about her friend, but I knew I needed to. Just not yet. Soon. “And I’ve been busier this week than I have been in a very long time. Patrols have been ramped up. And with some riders down, I’ve had to pick up patrols. On top of trying to spend as much time as I could with you, it’s been less than stellar.”
She moved until she straddled my thighs, and my tiredness fled.
All that I cared about right then was the way she felt in my arms.
“What are you doing?” I asked softly.
She was running her fingers along my face, across the scruffy beard, and down my jaw to angle along the crook of my neck.
“I think a massage is in order,” she whispered.
I didn’t argue with her. I’d made the mistake earlier, and she’d set me straight nearly instantly—in front of the entire freakin’ sanctuary, dragons and dragon riders alike.
I smiled and reached forward, taking the scrunched up shirt that was tucked underneath her and gently pulled it over her head.
She’d been wearing nothing but my shirt and panties for the last week.
I’d given her baths, of course, but as soon as I’d been done, I’d returned her to another clean shirt of mine and panties.
That’d been the special time together. The time where nobody bothered me.
The time where I shared with her my hopes and dreams, all the while praying she’d wake up for me and share hers with me.
She hadn’t.
But right then, with her nearly naked in my lap, I found that it didn’t hurt as much as it did then.
She hooked her own fingers in the hem of my shirt, and roughly pulled it off of me.
I blinked at the suddenness.
But then sighed when she pressed her naked chest up against mine.
Her small belly pressed against mine, reminding me once again of the life that grew there. That was already more powerful than I could ever hope to be.
And fear started to seep in, but Blythe expertly pushed it away with a sway of her hips.
Her nipples pebbled and trailed along my chest, snagging against the patch of hair in the center as her hands explored lower.
When she came to the waistband of my sweats, she slowly yanked them down until my erection sprung free.