Page 41 of Midnight Moon
Antisepticsand bloodied bandages overwhelmed the air in the Badlands’ healing clinic. I leaned back in a plastic covered chair, wishing there was a window I could open to erase the smothering aroma.
On a twin-sized cot in front of me, Hunter slept, thanks to the help of the Badlands Pack healer.
Hunter’s shifter abilities had already pushed the bullet fragments from his body, but he’d lost a lot of blood. His healing was slower than usual, and he still had many open wounds.
Thank the Mother Beta Nathan had come to Montana. Shifters could only receive blood transfusions from those in their own family—our wolves rejected blood from other bloodlines.
After three pints of his father’s blood, and a healthy dose of morphine, Hunter slept peacefully as his body continued healing.
Tears gathered when I thought about what could have happened if Asher hadn’t found Hunter in that cavern.
I wiped away a tear, and I cursed the idiotic hunter who’d shot my friend.
In a moment of consciousness, before the morphine kicked in, Hunter had explained that he ran into a barbed net while carrying the deer—it had been camouflaged on the forest floor.
Hunter had been clawing and chomping the net to free himself when the hunter arrived. The man hadn’t hesitated to shoot.
Hunter passed out shortly after sharing his story, leaving me with many questions.
How did he manage to escape the trigger-happy human, and how did he end up in that cave? It would’ve been quite the climb for an injured wolf, or human, to make.
And how had none of us heard the gunshot?
I picked at the plastic peeling on the arm of my chair, trying to make sense of my lingering questions. Instead, the memory of Asher’s naked body filled my mind.
When he shifted into skins to carry Hunter, I made a point to keep my sight above his waistline. But that hadn’t stopped me from noticing the chiseled lines and muscles covering his torso and back.
I’d seen naked males before—nudity wasn’t taboo among shifters—but I’d never seen anyone who looked like Asher.
After we arrived at the forest’s edge and found help for Hunter, I learned Chase turned in the Wilds Pack’s deer before we’d found Hunter in the cave. Asher’s shift hadn’t disqualified him from the games. They claimed first place while Hunter and I earned zero points the first game.
“How’s he doing?” My father hovered in the doorway. Worry lines covered his forehead. It was never easy to see a pack member in pain.
“Still sleeping.” I stared at the landscape picture on the wall beside him, unable to meet his eye.
Not only had I lost the first game, but I’d let my partner go off on his own and end up injured. Some leader I was turning out to be.
“The Moors Pack has returned,” he told me, moving into the room and settling in the chair on the other side of the cot, across from mine. “They didn’t bring back a deer.”
Even if they did, it wouldn’t have mattered. The Northeastern and Coastal Packs had already returned and claimed second and third place.
“I’m glad they’re safe,” I murmured.
After Hunter had shared what happened, Alpha Kurt dispatched his best trackers to find the gun-wielding human. As far as I knew, they had yet to locate the bastard.
Even if they did find him, however, we would not be able to seek justice on Hunter’s behalf. Shifter law prohibited our kind from harming humans. Doing so would only risk bringing our existence to the attention of human authorities.
Still, Alpha Kurt searched for the human. He wanted to know how he managed to sneak onto Badlands’ territory. The pack’s wards should have made that impossible.
The plastic chair creaked as my father leaned forward. His elbows rested on his knees. “Are you going to tell me why you agreed to an alliance with the Wilds Pack?”
I stared at the off-white sheet tucked over Hunter’s chest. “It seemed like a good way to guarantee we earned points. And it would’ve been… if Hunter had been able to make it back.”
We’d beensoclose to winning.
So, so close.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed my father frown. “Is that all?”
