Page 47 of Hunted

Trying to catch his gaze, Luke barely suppressed a chuckle. Dominic’s face had taken on the expression of a child in time-out. He glared out the window with his arms crossed as if to say,I told her this would be a bad idea.

“Take your time,” Luke prodded mirthfully.

Rolling his eyes, Dominic finally responded. “She wasn’t upset that you were leaving. She thought there was a chance you might not be comingback.”

“Yeah, I gathered as much, but the two of you aren’t telling me something, and if I’m walking into a hornet’s nest here, I deserve to know.”

Dominic turned to face him. “No one is forcing you to go confront your father.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “So, Iamin danger. Why?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Stop it with the mind games!” Luke struck the steering wheel in frustration. “What is going on?”

“I promised Abigail I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Tell mewhat?”

“Your father beat her up!” The car screeched to a halt on the shoulder amid the smell of burning rubber and the sound of squealing brakes. Luke turned to Dominic, catching him by the collar and shaking him with his fist.

“You’re lying!” Luke accused, pointing a fingertip at Dominic’s nose.

Dominic returned Luke’s angry stare. “I’m not,” he spat back with an eerie calm.

“Please tell me you’re lying!” Luke’s grip on Dominic’s shirt loosened.

“I’m not,” Dominic’s anger melted into sadness.

Bolting from the car, Luke paced alongside the guardrail. Dominic waited for a minute or two and then took his time extricating himself from the passenger’s side, standing, stretching, and leaning against the car.

“So, Abigail…” Luke began and looked at Dominic pleadingly. Dominic simply nodded. Luke paced a few more steps, turned, and paced some more. Running his fingers through his hair, he stopped pacing and kicked the guardrail, sending a sound akin to a gong ringing through the air.

Dominic winced, but Luke returned to pacing. “That poor girl,” he kept saying. “That poor, poor girl. No wonder she’s been so wary, so upset. Why would he do that?”

Looking at his shoes, Dominic stayed silent. Eventually, Luke came to rest beside the guardrail, his hands clenching and unclenching as his eyes stared off into the forest. “Tell me,” he said quietly.

“We found Abigail in her car with a broken arm, internal injuries, and some deep lacerations, among other things,” Dominic began with what Luke already knew. “We brought her to the clinic and sedated her, and she started saying these strange things that didn’t make much sense at first. But then I did some research and pieced it together.”

Seeing the pain etched on Luke’s face, he took a deep breath and finished as quickly as possible. “Her injuries could only have been perpetrated by a fellow shifter. She said your father’s name several times. The rest she would have to tell you herself. I’ve tried to give her as much space as I can.”

Luke nodded and sniffed, holding back the tears that welled in his eyes. How could he have let this happen? He had known his father was slipping, but he hadn’t known it had gotten that bad. Or had he known and chosen not to see it?

Guilt formed a lump in his throat, and it became difficult to breathe. He should have seen it, should have taken care of it when he had the chance. Now things could never be the way they had been, the way he had hoped beyond hope that they could be again.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and flinched. “It’s not your fault,” Dominic started.

“Of course, it’s my fault!” Luke yelled. “I’m in charge! Everything is my fault!”

Dominic shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. You can’t be everywhere at once, and the duty of a son and alpha is to respect his father.”

“I should have seen it. I should have noticed he was getting… old.”

“No one wants to see that in his father, and those changes are so gradual they can’t be noticed up close. What happened has happened and you can’t change the past. What matters is what you do about it now.”

Luke nodded. “You’re right. He’s got to go. This isn’t happening again. Not if I have anything to say.” A few moments later, both men got back in the car and drove to the headquarters of the Crimson Claw pack without saying another word.

Pulling the car to a stop outside his father’s office, Luke broke the silence. “I wish I could tell you what we’re in for, but I have no idea,” he admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen his authority challenged openly before, so just watch and wait, and I think you’ll know when I need you.”

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