Page 3 of Forsaken By Night

That was a death sentence.

2

Lobo jogged down the maze of tunnels as if he owned them—just the way Hunter would do. At first the hard-packed dirt hallways were empty and dark, but the closer he got to the living quarters, the more finished and bright the tunnels became, and the more people he encountered.

They stared, but then, Lobo doubted that Hunter often ran through the compound with a dying wolf in his arms.

Dying. She’s dying.

He breathed through the lump of grief lodged in his throat and tried to focus on not getting caught. Running into Hunter would be especially problematic.

He hadn’t been here since he’d been banished, but he remembered some of the carvings in the walls and the way roots dangled from the earthen ceiling. Back then, there hadn’t been nearly as much light. Rooms had been little more than rustic caves, and there had been far fewer of them. Unsure where exactly he should be going, he headed for what had been a crude first-aid station when he’d lived here.

To his relief, the door to the room had a first-aid cross painted on it, as well as a sign that indicated it was now a medical lab.

Good enough.

The door was propped open; beyond it a silver-haired male he didn’t recognize was flipping through papers, and a heavily pregnant female was bending over a microscope, her strawberry-blond hair concealing her face. He didn’t know her personally, had only seen her from afar, but he’d spoken with MoonBound members who claimed that Nicole had once been the human enemy, an expert in vampire physiology whose family ran a vampire slavery and research empire. Now, as a vampire herself, she was mated to Hunter’s second in command, and she was the closest thing the clan had to a real medical doctor.

“Help,” he barked as he rushed to the exam table on the far side of the room. “This wolf was shot.”

Nicole’s pregnancy didn’t slow her at all, and she was at Tehya’s side in an instant. “Poor thing,” she murmured as she pulled on surgical gloves. “What happened? A hunter?”

“Poacher,” Lobo spat, practically tasting the acid in his voice. “Wolves are protected.” Unnecessarily taking the life of any animal offended everything that made Lobo who he was, right down to his native blood. Nature deserved respect. Reverence. What man did to nature made him heartsick.

The silver-haired male appeared at Nicole’s side, his white lab coat speckled with a veritable color wheel of stains. “I’ll intubate and start IV fluids. Can you control the bleeding?”

“I don’t know.” Nicole cursed under her breath and grabbed for a tray of medical equipment on a nearby counter. “What kind of coward kills for the sake of killing?”

Lobo wished he could answer that, but really, the world was full of cowards who killed for fun, and there was no explaining it. He ran his hand over Tehya’s rib cage, hating the choppy rise and fall of her chest as each labored breath rattled in her lungs.

So much rage and anguish welled in his throat that he could barely manage a raspy, “Can you save her?”

The expression on the doctor’s face made his chest constrict. “Grant and I will do the best we can.”

“Do more than your best,” Lobo growled.

Nicole’s silver gaze flickered up to him. “You seem to be rather invested in this wolf’s survival.”

Grant nodded in agreement, his own silver eyes snapping up to study Lobo a little too intently for his liking.

Shit.Lobo forced himself to calm down and assume Hunter’s haughty arrogance. “She didn’t deserve what that human did to her.”

That seemed to placate the doctor, and she gave a curt nod as she went to work on Tehya’s gunshot wound. Grant’s wary gaze made Lobo sweat for another nerve-racking heartbeat, and then the guy turned his attention back to the wolf.

Footsteps out in the hall reminded Lobo that he was on borrowed time. As much as he wanted to stay, he couldn’t hold Hunter’s image for long—and worse, Hunter himself could show up at any moment.

He had to get out of there. But then what? Eventually either Nicole or Grant would seek out Hunter to update him on the wolf’s condition, and the ruse would be exposed. Lobo wasn’t worried about himself; he’d deal with the consequences. But what would happen to Tehya? He doubted Hunter would harm her—but then Hunter was his father’s son, and his father had been a brutal, vicious leader who wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter an animal for no reason other than to punish someone who cared about it. And given Lobo’s history with Hunter—

“Hunter?” Nicole snapped her bloody fingers in front of his face. “Hunter!”

“Yeah. Sorry.” He was getting sloppy. He raked his hand through his hair, belatedly realizing he was as covered in Tehya’s blood as Nicole was. “What is it?”

“Let us handle this.” Her voice was commanding yet compassionate, and he relaxed a little. “We’ll update you when we can.”

Grant taped the breathing tube to Tehya’s muzzle, and Lobo’s heart clenched. To see such a powerful, brave, loyal creature reduced to this... Without thinking, he threaded his fingers through Tehya’s thick ruff and bent to press his forehead against hers.

“Be strong,” he whispered.

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