Me on the other.
"Can you hold him?" asked Samuel.
"Not if he doesn't want me to," I told him.
"It'll be all right," Adam said.
"I won't hurt her." Samuel smiled tightly.
"No, I didn't think you would." When Samuel started on Adam's face with the brush, I had to close my eyes.
"Shh," Adam comforted me.
"It'll be over soon." WARREN ARRIVED NOT LONG AFTER THAT.
TOO LATE to help with Adam, but he and Mary Jo held on to Ben while Samuel scrubbed his hands free of black skin and blisters.
He hadn't changed twice and started healing wrong, but it was still bad enough.
Adam had closed his eyes and was resting while I stood with my hands wrapped around his upper arm, one of the places where he hadn't lost any skin.
The connection between us hadn't reset yet, and I had to rely on my senses to tell me what he felt.
It surprised me, given how unhappy I'd been with that bond, that I missed the connection when it was gone.
My ears told me that he wasn't fully asleep, just catnapping.
Ben wasn't as quiet as Adam had been, but he was obviously doing his best to keep his cries down.
Finally, he sank his teeth into Warren's biceps and dug in.
"Attaboy," Warren drawled without flinching.
"Go ahead and chew some if it helps.
Too far from the heart to do me much harm.
Dang, but I hate fires.
Guns, knives, fangs, and claws are tough--but fires are the worst." Adam's hands looked like raw hamburger, but at least they didn't look like burnt hamburger--and one of them reached over and closed over my fingers.
I tried to let go of him, but he opened his eyes and held on to me.
"Okay, that's it," Samuel said, and he stepped back from Ben.
"Sit him down on the stool and leave him alone a bit." "I brought an ice chest filled with beef roasts," Warren said.
"It's out in the truck, so we can feed them." Samuel jerked his head up.
"Your Alpha was in trouble, and you stopped and went grocery shopping?" Warren smiled with cool eyes while blood dripped to the floor from the arm Ben had gnawed on.
"Nope." Samuel stared at him--and Warren gazed at the wall beyond him without backing down a bit.
He might like Samuel, but Samuel wasn't his Alpha.
He wouldn't cede the lone wolf the right to question his actions.
I sighed.