Wolf's Needs

Chapter Five

Four o'clock AM. Despite his heavy lids, sleep evaded him as he sat beside the kitchen table. The girl-Jalyn still didn't know her name-had better luck than he did with her slumber. Of course, she had about fifty milligrams of morphine injected into her system, and even after that it took a while for her to even close her eyes. Mary had said that if she were going to die, she would've already. So she was safe from the extra doses of the sedative. And werewolves had stronger, more resistant systems than humans did, therefore they required a lot more than humans did.

And lord, her screams were just too much to bear. He and his father took one look at the stranger and were gone before Mary could ask for anymore help. So much for macho men. It had taken his mother hours to finish this girl's shoulder, and it was much worse than any of them thought it was. And if the boys hadn't left on their own, Mary would've asked them too since Jalyn's shirt had to be thrown away.

The girl was lucky that there was an exit wound. Mary was thankful that she didn't have to go digging for gold in the shoulder. Or silver, since the bullet left millions of tiny silver fragments in there as if it had exploded on impact. That was why she was screaming so much, and Mary was sweating and wincing right along with her as she tried to remove all of the damage. She got what she could, but without medical help with a hospital and actual doctors, not just some vet with lousy home equipment, she couldn't get everything out.

And part of her skin, the part that the silver had touched, had been burned to a crisp and Mary had to cut it out. Apparently that rumor about werewolves being allergic to silver wasn't a rumor after all. Thankfully for everyone, this was after the patient was unconscious with the overdose and from the pain. Jalyn didn't know how much he could take of that, and prayed that it was the last time he would have to go through it again. If that bothered him so much, imagine what would've happened if it were him beneath those pair of tweezers.

Speaking of those tweezers, Mary's first pair was pure silver. And the minute they had made contact with the stranger's skin, a long and loud screeching cry erupted from her mouth as if she had been shot for a second time. To accompany the screaming - which had been prolonged from Mary's ignorance to why it hurt the girl so much - a sizzle and crack snapped and broke up the whole room, and that was what got Mary to stop. Jalyn and Mikey had rushed into the room and held the girl down to the table, which was only possible because she was so drugged up and weak. He wasn't squeamish, but he felt sick as he thought about to the sort of tortures people brought on to creatures like her.

On top of that, his baby sister-who had been sleeping in the back the whole time-had woken up with screaming of her own, and Jalyn had to go take care of her while Mikey and Mary worked on the girl on the table. They would probably have to get a new kitchen table since, despite the white sheet covering it, there was blood everywhere. The whole family was just thankful that the floor was tiled.

So now, seven hours since the whole thing had begun, the girl lay fully clothed in a white cotton nightgown on the table, asleep. Her chest rose and fell in even breaths, and a large bandage wrap was placed from her left shoulder down to wrap around underneath her right arm and back. A serene expression marked her dark features like a sleeping angel; it was hard to believe it belonged to the girl who had put up so much of a fight last night. He and his father had marks and scratches to prove it.

He had no idea what they were going to do now. Was she going to leave the minute she woke up, and would he be able to stop her if she tried? His mother wanted her to stay for three or four days since that was how long the bandage had to stay on, and when it came off they'd need to check it to see how well it healed. It will probably be done by then, if not sooner. Would the family ever be the same once she's gone, probably not, but they couldn't tell anyone that she was ever here. He didn't want to get lashed until he bled, and he didn't want for his family either.