Page 22 of Forsaken By Night

To be fair, he hadn’t been in shape to speak even before Hunter’s punch. Su’Neena and Traygen had done their best to kill him before other clan members heard the commotion and interrupted.

“You’re upset about a few broken bones?” Hunter pushed to his feet and strode over to the liquor cabinet on the far wall. “You’re lucky Traygen didn’t kill you. If I’d caught you with my mate in my bed, you wouldn’t have made it out of the bedroom alive.”

“I wasn’t—” He started to say that he hadn’t been in bed with the female, but the details weren’t important. “Listen to me, you pompous ass. I wasn’t trying to seduce Su’Neena that night. I was trying to get her to confess.”

Hunter took two highball glasses from the cabinet. “Confess to what?”

Well, at least the guy was listening this time. Lobo scrubbed a hand over his face, realizing that this was his one chance to finally set the record straight and maybe get out of this alive.

“I was out on patrol one day, and I saw Su’Neena with ShadowSpawn’s leader. The first time it happened, I thought it might be coincidence that they’d come across each other in the forest.” Yet something had niggled at him, so the next time she slipped away from MoonBound, he’d followed. “But when I saw her again near Rat Lake, obviously waiting for someone, I knew something was up. A few minutes later, Kars showed up, and they did a lot more than just talk.”

“And they didn’t see you?” Hunter popped the top off a bottle of whiskey and poured it into the glasses.

“They saw me,” he admitted. “As a wolf.”

Hunter swung around, offering Lobo one of the drinks. “Did you shift against orders?”

Lobo rolled his eyes. “I tell you that one of your warriors was screwing the enemy, andthatis what you want to know?” He snatched the glass out of Hunter’s hand. Nice of the guy to give him a pre-execution libation. “Su’Neena is a spy, Hunter. I shifted into Traygen’s form to confront her about it. Turns out he didn’t know about her extracurricular activities. I tried to tell him, but he was too busy trying to impale my liver on his knife to listen.” He snorted. “I must have said enough, though. Ever wonder why he was found dead two weeks later, butchered by ‘poachers’?”

One dark eyebrow shot up. “You think Su’Neena is responsible for his death?”

“Her... or ShadowSpawn.”

Lobo downed the alcohol, savoring the smooth, rich burn that was so different from the harshness of the rotgut he was used to drinking. As warmth spread through his insides, he wandered around the room, noting all the changes since the last time he’d been here. Hunter had gotten rid of the enemy scalps his father had kept nailed to the wall. Maybe he really had made some changes around here. Electricity was a nice touch. And who would have guessed Hunter would allow televisions and video game consoles inside the clan? His father had barely tolerated books.

Hunter, still standing near the liquor cabinet, exhaled on a curse. “Why didn’t you come to me with this sooner?”

“Seriously?” He slammed his glass down on the table. “I don’t owe MoonBound shit. Your father slaughtered my family and then brought me here to survive on whatever scraps people would throw me. I didn’t even have a seat at the dinner tables. Maybe you don’t remember me begging for someone to drop some food on the floor, only to get kicked in the face when I reached for it, but I do. Maybe you had a bed growing up, but I had a chain and a pile of dirt in a kitchen corner. All of you fierce warriors were so terrified of a boy who might turn into the big bad wolf and eat you. So fuck you, Hunter.”

To Lobo’s shock, Hunter had the grace to look away. During Lobo’s nearly fifty years with the clan, Hunter had never been cruel to him, but he’d never been kind either. As far as Hunter had been concerned, Lobo had been invisible.

Hunter’s voice was gruff, tinged with anger. “My father was a monster.”

It wasn’t an apology, but it was close enough, considering Hunter hadn’t been the one whose rule had brought suffering not just to Lobo but to any clan member who didn’t measure up to Bear Roar’s exacting, brutal standards.

Hunter’s gaze snapped back up, his moment of remorse a thing of the past. The position of clan chief suited him. “You still should have come to me.”

Lobo snorted. “After you threatened me with death?”

Hunter put the drink to his lips and eyed him over the rim of his glass. “Only if you shifted into another clan member.”

“Yeah, well, I did that yesterday, and I was fully aware of the risk I was taking.” He flashed fangs, daring Hunter to challenge his decision. “If you’re looking for me to beg for my life or apologize for trying to save Tehya’s, it ain’t gonna happen. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. So if you’re going to kill me, get it over with.”

Hunter swirled the liquor around in his glass and stared at the deer hide stretched on the wall. For a long time, Lobo didn’t know if the guy was going to say anything. He seemed pretty damned content to let Lobo wonder how much longer he had to breathe.

“Is what you said earlier true?” Hunter finally asked. “About having nothing to live for after you were banished from here?”

Lobo let out a deep, shuddering breath. He refused to share his inner pain with Hunter, and he couldn’t believe how much he’d already shared—in front of a dozen of Hunter’s minions. He hated feeling vulnerable, and right now he might as well be facing Hunter with his rib cage splayed wide open to reveal his beating heart.

“No other clan would accept a skinwalker, and living like a stray dog with other free vampires in Seattle’s sewer systems didn’t appeal to me. So tell me, oh great clan chief, what I had to live for before I found a half-dead wolf that needed my help?”

If Hunter was annoyed by Lobo’s sarcasm, it didn’t show. If anything, he seemed genuinely curious, which threw Lobo off balance in a big way. He’d hated Hunter down to his very marrow, but the Hunter who had kicked him out of the clan didn’t seem to exist anymore.

“Did you know she wasn’t really a wolf?” Hunter asked.

“I sensed something different about her, but I thought she might be another vampire’s spirit animal in physical form.” When Hunter cocked a skeptical eyebrow at him, Lobo shrugged. “What? Weirder shit than that happens all the time. Like how Riker’s son can go invisible and your mate can summon portals.”

The temperature in the room plunged so fast that on Lobo’s next exhale, he saw his breath hang in the air.

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