Revolting

A long mournful howl broke over the ridge. Hannah whined and tucked her tail between her legs as she ran back up the hill, not knowing what she would find. About a quarter of a mile from the hill she walked into a bloody clearing. The mangled body of a human was sprawled in the grass near the treelike. Lonnie, Caroline, and Sara were bent over a body that Hannah couldn't see, and Boyd... Her heart clenched painfully, even in her wolf form. Boyd was crying silently. His face was screaming, but no noise came out of his throat. She crept closer, still in her wolf form, and eased between the legs of the others. There, laying on his back with a massive hole blown in his chest, was Frankie. His eyes had already glazed over as they stared up sightlessly at the sky. His mouth was slightly open, but no breath came out. The hole in his chest was massive, Hannah could have stuck her whole fist in it. She looked around the clearing but she did not see Michael. She whined sharply and sped away back into the woods. She kept her nose in the wind, trying to catch his scent, and finally found him sprawled across the forest floor about 500 yards from the place where the hunters had shot him. Hannah shifted instantly and fell to her knees beside him.

He was alive. His breathing was rapid and shallow and his heart rate was too fast. His body was soaked in sweat, and it was still running in rivulets from his forehead as he panted. His beautiful eyes turned to Hannah as she leaned over him anxiously. He lifted his good arm and cupped her cheek. "Hey babe," he said in a pained, hoarse whisper. "We've got a problem."

She couldn't reply to him, but her eyes searched his face, looking for the answer.

"Silver. The arrows are tipped with silver. Fuck, it burns! And it won't stop bleeding. We have to get the arrow out." His eyes pleaded with her to understand. "I need you to help me, Hannah."

Her eyes traveled over his wounds. The arrow he'd taken to the hip had sliced through the tissue just above his hip bone and gone clean through. It was bleeding, but it was only a flesh wound. The arrow that had pierced his shoulder, however, was embedded deep in the muscle, and the tip was lodged in there. She looked up the hill, looking for the one of the others, but they were focused on Frankie and Boyd, and hadn't yet thought to search for Michael.

"Shit," Michael swore, trying to lift his head from the ground. "You need to put some clothes on before they come." The effort was too much for him, and he let his head drop back down in the leaf litter.

She ignored him, and bent her head close to the wound. When she tried to ease the arrow out backwards, the three silver blades of the broadhead caught in his flesh, causing him to cry out and jerk away from her in pain. He grasped at his shoulder and rolled away from her with a string of curses.

She needed him to hold still. She crawled up on top of his shoulders and pinned him there with her knees. The veins in his neck and face were bulging from his effort to control himself. She made sad, whimpering sounds as she grasped the broken end of the arrow in her two small, but strong hands. If the arrow wouldn't come out backwards, there was only one thing left to do. By the look on Michael's face, he realized it too.

With a scream she heaved all of her weight onto the arrow shaft, forcing it to slice straight through his muscle and break out the other side. Michael's roar mingled with her scream, as his fingers clawed at the dirt, looking for something, anything to anchor himself too. Finding nothing in the earth, his hands came up around Hannah and yanked her down, crushing her body against his face while he took deep, gasping breaths. There was a crashing sound as the others came rushing toward the sound. Even though Michael was still bleeding profusely from the silver-induced wounds, he tried to cover Hannah's nakedness with his large hands. "A shirt. Someone give me a fucking shirt."

Lonnie was the first to snap to and peel of his shirt, throwing it toward Michael. She grabbed it with a growl and pulled her head through the holes. "Oh God," Michael grumbled, turning his face away from it, "You stink."

Hannah growled and eased herself off his body. She pushed on him gently, rolling him onto his side so that she could pull the rest of the broken shaft through the wound. Other hands came to assist her. Sarah was pushing against the front of the wound and the back to try and stem the flow of blood. Lonnie was looking at the wound on his hip. Hannah eased away and squatted beside him. her face screwed up in a complicated expression while her arms hugged her knees to her chest.

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"We've got bad news," Sarah said quietly.

Michael turned his head toward Sarah.

"They got Frankie."

Michael groaned and closed his eyes. "How bad is it?"

"He's dead." Sarah said flatly, her voice devoid of emotion.

"They've probably been trailing us since that fuck-up outside of town," Caroline said bitterly. "And we never even saw them coming."

"How many were there?"

"Four, I think. But only one of them made it out of here."

Michael struggled to sit up, despite Sarah's protests. Hannah scowled at him darkly, even as silent tears were running down her face. "I'll be fine," he said, as though Hannah had actually verbally expressed her protests. "We got to go back, and help Boyd bury his brother." As soon as he sat up Michael grew woozy from blood loss and silver poisoning. He was forced to hold his spinning head between his hands.

When he tried to stand, Hannah grabbed his arm and pulled him roughly back down to the ground next to her. He hissed as his body crashed back into the dirt. Caroline looked at her husband, and they nodded in silent agreement. "You stay here boss," Lonnie said, "We'll go see about Frankie."

Sarah passed the bloody rags to Hannah. "Here," she said, placing them in her hands. Put pressure on the wounds, front and back, like this," she showed Hannah what she needed to do, then she stood up and brushed the dirt from her legs. "I'll see what to do about packing up camp. We can't stay here."