Page 11 of Hunted

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she turned onto her left side to face the wall.

She did not want to think about Luke or Christian.

She did not want to think about the attack.

She did not want to remember the pain any longer—the physical or emotional pain.

All she wanted to do was fall asleep and wake up with no memories of what had occurred. When she fell asleep this time, her slumber was fitful and uneasy.

While unconscious, green and gray shadows chased her.

Chapter 6

Dominic

Abigailfellasleepquicklyand easily. She was a small thing, really, and the sedation took effect swiftly.

“What do you think?” Dominic asked as the healer began preparing to set the bone.

The healer sighed and paused her actions. “What I think is irrelevant, Alpha,” she said after a while. The diplomacy was obvious in her voice.

Now it was Dominic’s turn to sigh. “I want your honest opinion.” His voice was stern. “I want to know what you think about this situation.”

“I think… I think she’s been severely hurt by someone known to her. It sounds like she has been the unfair victim of great brutality.”

Dominic thought back to the wounds he had seen when the healer had begun stripping the clothes off the young wolf shifter. He had respectfully averted his eyes while the healer covered her with a thin sheet, but it had been difficult to miss the claw marks on her chest, and the weird angle at which her arm hung.

He stood then and paced the room as the healer worked on Abigail. He was restless, inside and out, and his wolf was equally uneasy. The beast inside him liked what had happened to Abigail about as much as he did. Which is to say—not at all.

As Dominic paced, he thought about everything he had learned about her.

Most of what Dominic had learned had come from Esme and Bert, but he had also learned a lot from Abigail’s bizarre mutterings in her drugged and pained state.

Who would reject someone like her?The thought crossed his mind so quickly that Dominic almost missed it. But the question was, whywouldsomeone reject her?

She was beautiful.

She also said someone called Christian hurt her.

He would have to find this Christian and ask him why he thought it was okay to brutally assault a young woman who clearly couldn’t defend herself.

Dominic also thought, as he continued pacing, about the way Abigail had reacted to him. She had called him beautiful. His face grew warm at the memory of her words.

It was clear the healer was becoming annoyed at his presence, so Dominic addressed the last thing on his list.

“What is the best course of action for her injuries?” he asked the healer, who had just finished setting Abigail’s arm.

The young wolf, even sedated, stirred and shifted uncomfortably in her unconscious state.

“Well…” The healer made some notes on a clipboard. “She’ll need bed rest for at least a week. She also has other injuries she needs to heal from. And I want to monitor her to make sure there isn’t any internal bleeding.”

Dominic nodded and then left the room.

He had to find Esme and Bert. The two older wolf shifters who had found Abigail would be instrumental in helping him figure out what happened to her.

He strode out of the infirmary and into the open air. Dominic took several deep breaths of the cold, clean air that would become sharper the deeper he walked into the forest.

Then, after thinking things over, he headed for Esme and Bert’s home. They were sitting outside on their small wraparound porch as if they had been expecting him.

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