can. Is there anyone we can call?”
I shook my head. Come on, kid. I need you. Please.
“Oh fuck,” she said, anxiety and fear all I could hear. I bared my teeth. I cursed a lot, but she was eleven. She had at least a few years before she was allowed to be a mouthy teenager. “Okay.” She unzipped the bag and found what I was hoping she would. Every werecat carried everything needed to get a silver bullet out. It was paranoid and ridiculous, but we had mini surgery kits, honestly. When you didn’t have backup, you had to have everything you needed. Lessons young werecats normally thought were jokes, overly paranoid, but I was never stupid enough to be completely unprepared, so I had taken those lessons to heart.
I hissed but kept to myself as those tongs were shoved into my shoulder. I could feel her shaking through them and down to my bones now. She was terrified and it was my fault. I should have taken the werewolf with the gun out first, and it was a mistake I promised myself I wouldn’t make again.
I even heard the ting of the tongs finding the bullet. All the while, Carey was quiet—shaking, but quiet. The poor thing would need therapy after this, that much was clear, but the loss of her innocence was something that would need to be addressed later.
I wanted to drop my head on the floor in relief when I felt the bullet leave me. That much silver was stopping me from shifting, but now I could, so I started the process. It was slower than normal. Carey’s free hand never left me as my bones broke and changed.
Finally, I was a naked human woman lying on her stomach on the floor, covered in blood. I was still panting, though, my tongue out and everything.
“Are you going to be okay?” she asked me. “Please be okay. I never wanted this. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Why are they doing this? I would have never told them if…”
I let her trail off, letting that sink in. Of course. “Did you call them?” I asked softly.
“I…He was one of my guards,” she answered softly, pointing at the dead one in his human body. “He had texted me and I said I was being protected by a werecat and that he didn’t need to worry. You were going to take care of me. He just needed to find my dad. Then he came up here and he had a gun.” Her voice broke and I could hear the tears begin. Regretfully, I was bleeding and in too much pain to push myself off the floor for a moment. Shifting with silver in the system was hard.
“It’s okay,” I said gently. “You told him not to come. You tried. You didn’t know that they were the bad ones.”
“I thought…I thought he could never betray Daddy! He was texting me, begging to know if I was okay and I thought that was a good thing! I told him Daddy wanted me here and he needed to stay away, that I was safe! He…he came up here with his gun and said he needed me! He needed me to get Daddy to come out of hiding and d-d-die like a good Alpha.”
“Oh honey,” I breathed out, trying to move closer to her. I reached out and grabbed one of her hands. “It’s going to be okay. Me and you, we can do this. Give me a few minutes to get over that last Change I made and we’re going to get out of here. I’m going to protect you.”
“I know!” She was sobbing now and fell over, her face on my back. I could feel the heat of her tears as she clung to my prone form. “Get better! Please! This is my fault! Please get better!”
“Give me a moment.” I tried to push up, my arms shaking. The pain was fading, though, which meant I really needed to get moving. I could see where the wolves hit me now. It would take time for everything to heal. Normally, after injuries like these, I would take four to five days letting them recover, but the silver was going to make that into a few weeks unless it bled out of my system sooner.
I didn’t have a few weeks, though. Carey needed me right now. I was able to sit up completely thanks to that thought, that need. I stared at her, probably