Page 68 of My Fugitive Wolf
Which was more important. It wasn't even a contest. Ignoring Josiah's retreat, Samara shifted back and ran into the camp before scooping up the remnants of her destroyed shirt to protect her hands from the silver chains. Racing toward Kellen, she found Grace already free and using her strength to pull apart the collar around Kellen’s neck. While Josiah had been busy taunting Samara, Grace must have used the pins hidden in her hair to discretely pick the locks of her own collar and chains.
Samara wanted to hold Kellen in her arms, but there was no time. She shoved the keys into his hands along with the cloth to prevent the silver from burning him more. "Can you free Stephen? I need to get that bullet out of Leo."
"Yes," he whispered, his voice horse. "Go. Do what you need to do."
She scanned the ground and found her knife still clipped to the remains of her bra. Then she ran over to where Leo lay. Nearby, Stephen, ignoring the silver’s blue poison spreading from his neck up to his lips and cheeks, had reached out toward his friend as far as his own chains would let him in a desperate attempt to help.
C’mon Kellen, hurry. Unlike Stephen, Leo’s body shook violently as he struggled between his human self and his wolf.
“Leo, shift to human. Please, I need you to stay human so I can get the bullet out.”
Leo seemed not to hear her as another painful howl ripped from his throat, but his body rippled, and the fur disappeared. As soon as the wolf disappeared, Samara ripped open what was left of his shirt but couldn't see the open wound where he'd been shot, which meant he'd healed with the silver bullet inside him. Without an open wound, she could only guess that the blue spreading from just under his ribs had to be the entrance.
At that moment, Kellen and Grace staggered over. Grace freed Stephen, while Kellen released Leo's legs, then his neck, but before he could remove the gag, Samara stopped him. "Keep that in place."
Kellen gave her a confused look.
"Trust me."
He did just as Stephen crawled over to Leo to give his brother comfort.
Already Samara could see that the skin around Leo's neck was returning to its normal color, but that wouldn't last while the bullet was inside him.
"I'm going to have to cut under the ribs to find the bullet. Kellen, you need to keep Leo's head, hands, and shoulders still. Do not let him move no matter what."
"What about you?" Kellen knelt above Leo's head even as he asked. "If you touch the bullet, you'll get burned by the silver as well. Your gloves are too big for you to reach in and grab the bullet."
She hadn't thought about that in her pressing desire to save Leo. "If I can handle drinking colloidal silver, I can handle touching a silver bullet for a few seconds. Stephen, you get his legs, same thing. Don't let him move. Grace, you need to get your hands inside his body along with mine and keep him from healing until I find the bullet. Can you do that?"
Grace’s gray eyes widened in horror at what Samara was about to do. "Yes, I can."
Samara looked Leo in the eyes. "I'm so sorry Leo. This is going to hurt worse than the silver. I've studied human anatomy. I know where to cut to keep your heart beating and your stomach and liver intact, but it's still going to hurt like hell."
Kellen held Leo’s wrists tight, even though Leo cried out around the gag in his mouth. Once Leo’s head was clamped between Kellen’s knees, Samara knew she had to start. She checked to make sure Stephen was lying on top of Leo's legs.
Taking a deep breath for courage, Samara broke the skin with the knife and made a clean first cut. Leo groaned, but his brothers held him down. Grateful for her grandfather's insistence that she keep her knife sharp, she managed to keep the slice small enough so she could get her finger inside. Grace kept the skin apart so it couldn't close.
She found nothing within the length of her finger, which meant she had to cut deeper. Leo's muffled screams begged her to stop, but she knew he wouldn't want her to until she found that damned bullet.
"You're going to need a wider cut if you want me to keep him from closing up." Grace had to use three fingers on each side of the wound as it was.
"Damn it." Samara had no choice but to widen the wound before she slipped two of her fingers inside of Leo. It felt like an hour but could only have been a few minutes when her finger brushed something and immediately burned like a bonfire. No doubt, that was the bullet. "Found it!"
Trying to be delicate, she had to use the tip of her finger to slip under the bullet and push it up until she could curl a second finger around it. Leo's agony reached a crescendo, his body tense as a drum and slick with blood and sweat.
"Just a little longer. I'm so sorry. Please hold on just a little longer," Samara begged. Then the bullet rose high enough for her to force it out of the hole. Ignoring her own pain, she wrapped her hand around it, pulled it out, and tossed it as far away as she could.
Grace let go of Leo's skin, and Kellen removed his gag. He gasped and moaned, curling onto his side, rocking himself back and forth as he rode out the healing process.
Kellen stood and held his hand out to pull Samara to standing. "Let's give him some privacy."
The three of them moved far enough away so Leo wouldn't feel as if they were staring at him but also close enough in case he needed them.
"What are we going to do with the bodies?" Samara asked, looking around. "There's only so many you can bury near the river before someone notices."
Kellen rubbed his wrists that were already losing the blue tinge. "Let's worry about that after we've all healed up and get you some clothing."
Only then did she remember she was naked. How quickly she'd forgotten.
