Page 8 of Forsaken By Night

A knot formed in his belly as his alarm grew like a fast-moving cancer. Something was very, very wrong here. “I swear, it wasn’t me.”

Aylin, her skin already pale thanks to her mother’s Scandinavian heritage, lost even more color in her face. “You’re starting to scare me, Hunter. It was you. Ask Nicole. Or Grant. You talked to both of them when you brought in the injured wolf.”

Criminy.Had he crossed into an alternate universe somewhere between GraveBorn’s territory and here?

“Aylin—” He broke off at the sound of pounding footsteps coming at them and pulled Aylin to a halt as Aiden, one of MoonBound’s best archers and senior warriors, rounded the corner at a dead run.

“There’s an intruder in the compound.” Aiden skidded to a halt and paused to catch his breath as Hunter went on instant alert.

“What happened?”

“It was a female. She attacked Nicole.” He cursed, his frustration putting a sharp edge on his words. “We’ve been searching for the last fifteen minutes, but we haven’t turned up anything. I’m sounding the alarm.”

Fuck. “Initiate the intruder protocol.” Hunter seized Aiden’s arm before he could take off. “Where’s Nicole? Is she okay?”

Aiden jerked his thumb behind him. “In the lab with Riker.”

Hunter and Aylin hurried to the lab, where they found Nicole sitting at her desk holding a cloth soaked in blood against her head. Her other arm, bandaged from wrist to elbow, cradled her belly as Riker held a glass of water to her lips.

Rage bubbled up in Hunter at the idea that someone had assaulted a pregnant female. Right here, inside the clan headquarters, where everyone should be safe. This was his clan, his people, and ultimately his failure. If anything happened to Nicole or the baby, he’d never forgive himself.

Whoever had done this was going to pay in blood.

“Tell me everything,” he ground out as he stopped next to Riker and Nicole.

Riker’s silver eyes burned like steel shards of murder. “Someone broke into the lab and attacked Nicole when she came inside.”

“Aiden said it was a female. Did either of you recognize her?”

“I’ve never seen her before,” Nicole said, her voice laced with pain.

Riker shook his head viciously. “I didn’t get a good look at her. The bitch nearly ran over me in the hall.” He set down the glass hard enough to splash water all over the counter and floor. “I should have grabbed her. I should have fucking questioned why anyone would be running naked from a lab where there’d been a shit ton of noise and screaming. But all I could hear was Nicole crying for help, and—”

“Hey.” Nicole took Riker’s hand and brought it to her cheek, calming him with her touch. “It’s okay. This will all heal. The baby and I are fine.” She shifted around to talk to Hunter, wincing as she moved, which only made Riker go taut again. “The wolf is missing too. The woman who attacked me might have set it loose in the compound. I’m sorry, Hunter.” She smiled weakly, and Hunter cursed silently. She shouldn’t be in this position. “But the good news is that if the wolf is running around, it’s on the mend.”

Okay, so the wolf Aylin had mentioned was real. But he knew damned well that he wasn’t the one who’d brought it to MoonBound for help.

“Nicole, this is very important,” he said, kneeling so they were at eye level. “Aylin said I brought you the wolf yesterday. Did you actually talk to me?”

“You don’t remember?” Nicole looked at him the same way Aylin had, like he was crazy, and frankly, he was starting to feel that way. “You were very insistent that Grant and I save the animal.”

For just a moment he considered the possibility that he’d somehow spirit-traveled in his sleep. But seeing how he’d never manifested himself someplace else, not to mention that the ability was considered myth in native and vampire communities, he quickly dismissed the idea.

Which meant that either Nicole, Grant, and Aylin were suffering from a shared delusion, or someone had impersonated him using one hell of a disguise.

“Whoever it was you both talked to yesterday,” Hunter growled, “it wasn’t me.” He straightened, his gaze drawn to a bed of bloodstained towels and blankets on the floor next to a dish of water. Must have been the wolf’s bed. “I was with GraveBorn’s chief all day. Whoever brought in the wolf tricked you into thinking they were me.”

But why? And who was the female who had assaulted Nicole?

“Oh... shit.” Aylin’s fingers trembled as she touched them to her lips. “I... kissed him.”

Instant, white-hot rage seared his skin. Someone had dared to touch his mate? To kiss her? To—

“What else,” he barked. “What else did you do with him?” The blood drained from Aylin’s face, and he backed off, kicking himself for being such an ass. But the thought that someone could so easily take advantage of Aylin left him so angry he was shaking with the force of it. “Fuck, I’m sorry, Aylin.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “I didn’t mean to yell at you. None of this is your fault.”

“No,” she rasped. “It’s not you. I just... I was thinking about what I would have done with him if he hadn’t been in a hurry to go. I wanted to go down to the river. Where, you know...”

Yeah, he knew. The fact that she might have recreated a recent, especially raw, primal lovemaking session with the bastard was tempered by the fact that she hadn’t; so instead of blowing a gasket, he drew her against him and held her close.

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