Hadyn pokered up, lips puckering primly. “That’s what stood out to you?”
“Which is a yes.” He wanted to crow it to the world.
Hadyn rolled her eyes. “You have healing to do first.”
“Damn,” he settled back against his pillow, eyes closed. “I was really hoping for a blow job.”
“A blow—” She cut herself off at his chuckle. “You’d better be glad you’re injured right now, Rune Abaddon, or I’d be tempted to break your legs.”
He snorted. “You’d never hurt a fly if you could avoid it, love.”
Meanwhile, he tried not to grin like a maniac from sheer exhilaration. She was his. Mine. Mine. Mine.
His legs twitched, trying to heal themselves, splinters of pain shooting up his ass and into his back. He winced.
“How did I end up in here, anyway—” He cut himself off as his own memory struck hard, as though it had been waiting for his mind to wake up and get at least one good piece of news before clobbering him.
A new kind of pain struck, this one raw and soul deep. “Deep,” he said heavily.
“I’m so sorry,” Hadyn whispered. “I was outside with Calla when she went. It was awful.”
“I know,” he said. “I was with him.”
“At least they weren’t totally alone.” Hadyn’s voice choked.
Calla had been his friend, his confidant, almost a mother to him. She’d cared for him, and schooled him, and supported him. Laughed with him and loved him. Her sweet-tart personality an ever-steady presence in his life. And Deep…gods, he couldn’t even let himself acknowledge what he knew to be true. What he’d witnessed.
Deep was gone. So was Calla.
He cracked his eyes open, heartsore and suddenly exhausted, and yet he needed Hadyn to hear this. “My last thought before I passed out was that if you’d been killed, the gods could damn well take me, too.”
“I know,” she whispered. “Me, too.” Then wrinkled her nose. “Weird, right?”
Why? Because it had happened so fast between them? Because she was originally meant to be another man’s? He held out a hand and she took it, pressing it against her cheek, eyes closed. Gods, he loved this woman. He held back telling her, though, not wanting to push it. She was his. That was enough for now. “Not so weird.”
The sounds of several footfalls in the hall had him looking up over her head expectantly. Alerted by the change in his attitude, she turned to look with him as Finn entered the room with Delaney, Hall, and Kanta right behind him, then Drake and Cami, Qara and Chaghan following them.
“Good. You’re awake,” his friend said.
“Barely,” Rune muttered.
“Sorry,” Finn grimaced. “This can’t wait.”
What now? Not even a chance to grieve. To heal. Nothing?
“What’s happened?” Hadyn asked.
Whatever was coming next must be pretty damn bad, given the grim slashes formed by every mouth in the room and the fire in his teammates’ eyes. “The Huracáns’ mountain has fallen,” Finn said.
Hadyn gasped.
“Rivin was captured.”
Fuck. Rivin. His friend who’d always managed to make him laugh. Keighan must be losing his shit. The two of them had been together as friends since childhood, so in sync Rune had always wondered that when one found a mate, if they wouldn’t share her like they did everything else.
“Keighan and Levi got the rest out. Shula and her people. Aidan, Sera, and Blake. Lyndi and all the boys. Even the cave troll. They’re on their way here. All of them.”
“Those bastards shut us in here to keep us from helping our team,” Rune said, sure of it.
Finn’s expression rippled with fury. “We figured that out, too, but we’ve broken through the collapsed section. Nothing big enough for a dragon to walk through, though, which leaves us vulnerable if we have to shift on the outside, but better than nothing. We sent your men to meet ours and try to get them here safely.”
Rune went to jackknife to sitting again, only to fall back on a groan and shards of agony. “You did what?” he demanded on a growl.
Finn stared him down, arms crossed. “Jiǎ volunteered. The others stepped up. It leaves us vulnerable until they get back, but it’s the best we can do.”
Rage spewed from the center of his chest, and Rune internally railed at his fucking useless legs. Only Hadyn’s steady grip on his hand kept him from imploding right there. He could do nothing…nothing to help his friends, dammit. How many losses could they take? When was this going to end?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Two days. It had been two entire, horribly long days—waiting to be attacked again, waiting to get word of their people trying to get to them, waiting for Rune to heal. That alone was a nightmare because the man was so impatient. He’d tried to get up, fallen, and rebroken one of his legs.
Hadyn sat beside him now as Hall went over the X-rays they’d retaken, crossing her fingers because his impatience to get out of this room was wearing on them all.
“The X-rays show the bones have knit,” Hall was saying. “The right leg looks fine—”
“Aches like a son of a bitch,” Rune muttered.
The green dragon ignored him. “Even the spot you rebroke should be okay, but the left…”
He paused and glanced at Hadyn, who lifted her eyebrows.
“What about the left?” Rune growled.
With a wince, Hall stepped away from the computer, turning the screen to show him the results. “You’re going to have a limp,” he said. “Probably permanent.”
Hadyn squeaked a bit as Rune gripped her hand harder.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, loosening his stranglehold.
“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “That news fucking sucks.”
A snort of a laugh blew from him. “You may have spent too much time in here with me the last few days, love.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “If you think I wasn’t well aware that you would be a bad influence when I signed up to be your girlfriend then you’ve got another think coming. I just really like what you do to my body.”
“I’m still here, you know,” Hall grumbled.
Rune merely grunted, then turned back to his friend. “Okay. So I limp, but I can get up now. It’s not going to break again or anything?”
After rebreaking the one, extending his time in bed, he’d been a good little dragon and rested, even if he hated every damn second, letting his body do its work.