Crescent (Tribes, Book 1) [completed]

Chapter 30

With each bump in the road, Conner held more firmly to Liana's form. Her breathing hadn't improved and her skin had started to turn clammy. Conner refused to allow her to incur more injuries while under his guard.

Landon, on the other hand, had taken Conner's instructions seriously. A faction of the more diplomatic Tribe Crescent wolves had been sent ahead to the reservation gates. By the time the truck careened its way down the road, the guards had been convinced to open the giant metal doors.

That was the last law that Landon and Conner followed on their way to the hospital.

Everyone underestimated Landon's beat-up pickup, but he had retrofitted it himself. The truck had been used more than one time to return an injured wolf to the res before he shifted. It may look like it leaked oil and died at random times, but it moved faster than most racecars.

Traffic? Landon didn't believe in traffic. He zoomed past and around vehicles as if they held no consequence in his world. Horns blared behind them, yet Conner didn't care. Getting Liana to the hospital was the only thing that mattered.

Miraculously, no cops tried to stop them on their way, either. If they had, Conner definitely would have had a huge incident on his hands.

Landon careened into the hospital parking lot and stopped at the emergency room entrance.

Conner had himself and Liana out of the truck almost before the wheels stopped spinning. The rest came in a blur.

Nurses and doctors swarmed him, he knew that much. Someone pointed out the tattoo on his arm, the fact that he was a shifter. They took Liana away on a gurney. Someone might have asked him to wait outside the door, but both Conner and the wolf were too agitated to process commands.

The next thing Conner knew, he had paperwork in his hands and not enough knowledge of his own mate to fill it out.

Did she have allergies? Who did she use as her emergency contact before her life on the res? When was the last time she saw a doctor? Liana hadn't been on the res long enough for Conner to introduce her to the tribe doctor. He should have done that first thing.

"Alpha Conner?" Landon rushed in, then slowed his steps to a trepidatious approach.

Conner sighed. Looking away from the paperwork might clear his head more than wondering what the answers were. "What?"

"This man says the hospital called him for your mate." Landon hooked a thumb over his shoulder.

Of course, with Landon's size, Conner couldn't see anything behind him. Only when the giant beta wolf stepped aside did the man in question appear.

He was tall, by human standards, but skinny as a rail. The buckle on his belt probably weighed more than the man himself. The scowl on the man's face was the most intimidating thing about him. Even that did little to strike fear into Conner's heart.

The man's next glare turned on Landon. "She's not his mate, she's my daughter."

That one sentence did more than any frown or fist could do to Conner's heart. This man was the reason that Liana didn't accept the mating bond. He was the reason she had such a terrible time. Because she wanted his approval. To top it all off, he probably knew all about her medical history.

Feeling miserable and probably looking just as pitiful, Conner held out the clipboard and pen toward him. "Fill it out for her?"

"That's a given." Liana's father snatched the clipboard from Conner's hands. "And then you and I are going to talk."

Conner had always expected a meeting with Liana's father. He simply hadn't expected it to be so soon or under these circumstances. Neither the open wound of losing his daughter nor the new assault of his daughter's injuries made for a good atmosphere.

Yet, Conner knew better than to argue. Liana prized her father above all else, it seemed, or she would have been properly tied to Conner by now.

Liana's father filled out the paperwork in less than two minutes, handed it over to the nurse at the station, and spun to snarl at Conner.

"You and me. Outside. Now."

Conner's wolf balked at the command. Alphas didn't listen to others, especially humans. Our mate wants his permission, Conner silently reminded his inner wolf. That, at least, calmed him enough for Conner to stand and trail Liana's father out of the emergency room.

Liana's father spun, his eyes full of fury and his balled fists full of hate. "Go back to where you came from. I'll take Liana from here."

If that was what Liana's father meant by "having a talk," Conner wanted nothing to do with it. He refused to leave her alone, especially since the pack doctor had told him that she needed to stay close to him if they wanted the mating bond to heal. If she wanted to live. Conner would never risk Liana's life for the sake of her desires.

"I can't leave her," Conner argued lamely, knowing that Liana's father wouldn't understand any of the things that had happened.

"You will leave her." Liana's father held his ground. "That's my daughter in there, not some easy girl you picked up off a street corner."

Conner closed his eyes to hide the flash of gold. "I never said she was."

"Nothing good comes out of the treaty with shifters. Girls go missing, given to the reservations like some human sacrifice. I refuse to allow my daughter to go back there. Especially after this."

"It isn't safe for me to leave her."

"It isn't safe for you to be near her, either."

The thing was, Liana's father had a point. A good one. Liana hadn't even finished her thirty-day placement, and already she lay in a hospital bed unconscious and injured. Conner should have protected her better from the very beginning, but this was his first time with a mate, too. Wasn't he allowed some mistakes while he learned?

Judging by the look on Liana's father's face, the answer was a hard no.

"I'll be the one by Liana's bedside through this, and I am taking her home. Throw whatever you want at me—cops, government, your shifter buddies. No matter what, you're never getting her back. I will die before I let that happen."

Conner wanted to reach out and take the man's neck in his paw. He wanted to lash out, to tell him that he would gladly kill him to keep Liana safe within his own arms. But that wouldn't solve any of his mate's issues. It would only make them worse.

Sometimes, no matter how badly it hurt, one had to take a step back in order to advance.

Conner swallowed his own pride, his worries and concerns, and the burgeoning shift of his wolf to ask one last question. "Can I at least stay until I know she's out of danger?"

Something in the man's hard stare altered, some soft inner knowledge appeared in his gaze. And then he turned as hard as he had been since his arrival. "The second she's out of danger, you get out of my sight and don't come within a hundred feet of my daughter ever again."

Conner couldn't promise "ever again", but he could promise the rest. Just so long as he knew that she was okay, he could come up with a new plan to convince her father to allow them to be together. Because, at this point, Conner could no longer live without Liana by his side. In death or in life, they were connected.

That wouldn'tchange, no matter what anyone said.