Her eyes landed on me, and I grabbed her hand, pulling her close. My hands gripped her shoulders, and I bent low so I could talk to her in her ear.
“Haven?” I asked her, hoping she knew who I meant even though I’d never said her name. They’d been dancing together, so I assumed Haven introduced herself.
“Haven’t seen her,” she replied, pressing her body closer to mine as people jostled her and pushed by to get to the exit.
I clenched my jaw as she invaded my space but focused on the task at hand. “If you see her or any of her friends, get them to my car.”
“The black SUV?”
I didn’t even bother to ask how she knew. I just nodded and then gave her shoulders a squeeze before pushing her along with the crowd.
I stared after her until she disappeared into the throng, standing in place, then let my eyes search the crowd again.
“She was over here, by the alley door,” Nolan linked me.“I can smell her scent.”
“How do you know it’s hers?” I asked.
“I just do,” he answered.
I prayed to Selene he was right and moved to where he waited for me at the alley door. As soon as I got there, we slammed through the door together and rushed outside.
The scene that greeted us in the alley was grisly. An unfamiliar lycan had Haven pinned on the ground, his canines extended and sinking into Haven’s marking spot over and over, so hard it was tearing straight through her skin.
Nolan shifted into his wolf, ripping his clothes without a care, and tackled the wolf off of Haven and further into the alley.
I removed my button-up without undoing the buttons, sending them pinging off the walls and the dumpster, but I didn’t care because Haven was more important than my shirt. Her body lay bleeding and crumpled on the ground, and I feared the worst.
I knelt next to her on the ground, watching her eyes as they fluttered, and I sighed in relief. She was alive, but I didn’t know the extent of the damage done to her, or how much blood she had lost, or how much a human could lose before it was too much.
I pressed my shirt to her wound, trying to stem the blood flow. We’d need to take her to the pack hospital. There was no way we could take her to a human one—they’d ask too many questions, and then we’d have to get the king and witches involved, and it would be a whole mess.
My hands shook as I held the fabric against her wound. Her eyes fluttered, and her breathing was shallow.
“Come on, Haven,” I murmured, afraid if she passed out, that would be it. The end. “Haven, you have to stay with me. Just—just hold on, Sparkles.”
“That fucker got away,” Nolan growled in my mind. “I would have gone after him, but I didn’t want to leave you vulnerable.”
I turned to see him trotting back towards me down the alley. “Damn it.” I sighed. “Wes is not going to like that.”
“I think we have bigger things to worry about than that right now,” he replied. “Like getting her back to the pack before she bleeds out.”
“I know! I know, I’m working on it!” I yelled.
We both turned to Haven as I tried to figure out what to do. Her eyes were open, barely, and she was hanging on, but it was getting more and more difficult for her.
“I could run with her?” I suggested, but Nolan’s wolf shook his head.
“It’s too far,” Sarina’s voice said from behind me.
I turned to find her standing there with Riven, plus Ramón and Imogen.
“OH MY GOD!” Imogen screamed as her eyes landed on Haven. “Oh my god, you have to get her to the hospital!!”
“We’re trying,” I told her.
“Get that wolf away from her!” she shrieked.
“He didn’t attack her. A lycan did!” I yelled. “Ramón, can you explain, please?”