As soon as the plane landed, Oliver woke up and helped me carry all our bags outside. A car was already waiting for us and then we drove towards the forest. I figured the driver had been magically influenced too, since he didn’t even question leaving us at the edge of a forest. It would seem sketchy to the least observant person, considering we came in a private plane and then were dumped into a forest with our bags and an unconscious man. But he just left us here without a word.
Oliver was silent as we walked through the forest, and I feared he was either coming to terms with getting killed in there, or that he actually trusted our words and his instincts to follow. Whatever the reason for his sudden silence, I welcomed it. I was simply too tired to carry a conversation. I hadn’t seen Derek in over a week and my newest mate was asleep too. I had two mates, both unconscious and in a comalike state. I needed a hug. I winced at the thought, because I instantly thought about my parents and how they’d yet to learn about me finding Aiden, and that he was my mate, too. Now that I thought about it, the rulers hadn’t seemed surprised he’d kissed me, and they’d acted like they knew he was my mate, too. Had they known all this time and purposely not told me? I would’ve been hurt if I’d had the energy for it.
The hour-long trek was brutal on my tired muscles, and I longed for a nap and some food. Water, too. Oliver’s silence was getting to me, too. Was he okay? I turned to look at him and he seemed deep in thought, so I lethim be. The portal came into view five minutes later, and it was as if the sight of it brought Oliver out of whatever daze he’d been in.
“OMG! It’s true?! Like, magic and all that crap?”
I frowned as I looked at him. “Of course, why else would I bring you with me?”
“Um, because the silver fox daddy said so?”
I had no patience for a sentence I didn’t understand, so I changed my hold on Aiden and with my now free hand, I grabbed Oliver and dragged him with me through the portal.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nolen
Oliver was taking our world in with awe and confusion, mostly because we were inside the portal room and the rulers were fussing around us. Grovar was standing next to Oliver with hearts in his eyes and a longing I swore I could feel pouring out of him. I firmly believed he had been of the belief that his mate had died and that was why he’d yet to meet them. Like I thought about not that long ago, sometimes people found their mates later in life and I believed fate had to do with that. Perhaps Oliver wasn’t the first one meant for Grovar, and considering their age gap, that sounded like the most obvious reason for them to be mates.
“You take Oliver back to your place,” Trise ordered, speaking only to Grovar. “You need time to get to know one another and for him to understand what is happening.”
Grovar nodded, his gaze still locked on Oliver, like he was afraid he would disappear.
“And you,” she said, this time to me. I was still standing on weakened legs and holding onto Aiden. “You follow me.”
Not one to argue, I followed her down to the medical wing, eager to finally see my Derek again.
Had the medical wing moved, or did it just feel like it was miles away all of a sudden? After too many hallways and staircases, we reached the medical wing and there, in the room I’d left him in, lay my Derek.
I hurried over to him, placing Aiden next to his body, and kissing his forehead. I hadn’t realized I was shaking until my arms were free of Aiden, but my whole body seemed to have reached the point where my muscles started to lock up and protest.
Mindy came over and gave me a sympathetic smile. “I placed Derek on a bigger bed, but now I think I might need to order an even bigger one.”
“What for?” I croaked, fighting my fatigue. It was as if knowing I was finally with both my mates, my body couldn’t stay standing any longer.
“We need you to stay with them, to help them heal. So ideally, we need a bed big enough for all three of you,” she explained. “Hey, are you doing okay?”
That was the last I heard before passing out, leaning over both my mates and feeling like I couldn’t fight it anymore.
A buzzing sort of hum came from my side, and I grunted in annoyance at being woken up by something so annoying. I felt like I still needed to sleep for a week.
It took me a few minutes before my memories caught up to me, and then I practically flew up from the bed. Derek’s sleeping face was the first thing I saw, then I turned my head to my right and found Aiden, a mirror image to Derek’s sleeping form. With a hand over my heart, I felt like I could breathe again.
They were fine, they were with me.
Like she somehow knew I was awake, Mindy came through the door, carrying a tray filled with steaming food and two bottles of water. And was that…coffee?
“Thank you,” I rasped, feeling much older than I was as I tried to sit up. My legs shook with the effort and my arms ached from having carried Aiden for so long.
“No problem,” Mindy said, smiling kindly at me as she handed me the tray. “I think you need more food than this, but we need to start out small. You haven’t eaten enough while away. I could tell from my scan. And the fact you were a tad dehydrated, too, didn’t help matters either.”
I felt silly for forgetting to eat sometimes, but I had wanted to find Aiden as soon as possible, so it was often that I ate once a day while on the road. I think the last time I ate was the chicken wrap I had when I found Aiden. I had eaten around half of it before I’d dumped it on the ground when we’d kissed. It hadn’t really been my priority as I felt my mate’s lips on mine.
“And as you can see,” she gestured to my mates and me. “I got you a bigger bed. You needed more rest, so I used magic on you to keep you asleep. I hope you don’t mind that.” I waved it off as I ate my bagel.
She touched some buttons on a machine next to us, then I could tell she used her magic on something. She hummed. “I think you need to stay in bed today, Derek’s core has already improved in healing since you returned, but Aiden’s is worse than Derek’s, so it might take him longer to heal.”
“Worse?” I croaked, my mouth still half full of the delicious bagel. How could he be worse off? Derek’s core had been so badly wounded that he’d almost died.
