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Liam was frantic.
“Scott - let go of me - Scott -“ A panted-out snarl, eyes flashing gold, even as beads of sweat formed on his temples with the effort of struggling against his alpha’s hold, shocks of pain vibrating through his muscles, the torn, bloody ligaments of his thigh, the deep, wine-red scratches littering the pale skin of his face, his forearms, his dirt-stained hands.
“Liam. ” Alpha-red eyes filled with desperate worry. “You’re injured. You need to let the doctors treat you.”
Liam could smell them, could smell the unfamiliar packs and unfamiliar alphas and the sickly sting of disinfectant above the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, the heavy, painful inhales that stung his airways, too shallow and not enough -
“Scott.” His voice broke. “Scott, I have to - I have to find - I -“
A desperate, swallowed gasp.
The alpha werewolf hushed him, gently holding onto his shoulders and guiding him back onto the edge of the open ambulance, the young wolf’s entire body trembling against his will as wild eyes - switching between yellow and blue in quick, intermittent patterns - roved over the chaos surrounding them.
“It’s okay. You’re okay, now, Liam.” A hand smoothed over dirt-matted, messy raven hair, in a futile attempt to comfort the distress wafting from him in waves.
“No.” Liam’s voice took on an increasingly distressed edge, tongue darting out to wet chapped lips as he tried to stand again, only for his knees to give out and send him straight into Scott’s arms. “No, I can’t, I -“
His face scrunched up in gut-wrenching despair beneath the myriad of fading cuts and streaks of dried blood. “Scott, I lost him.”
It was like all the energy drained out of him with those three words. Devastation was written into every fiber of his being, the wilting tilt of his body, clenching his stomach and burning the lump in the back of his throat, the crack of his voice. “I lost him.”
He hadn’t been fast enough. One moment, he’d been there, clutching onto his elbows, watching hazel eyes search blue, lips moving in the shape of words he couldn’t hear, and the next - the ground shaking beneath his feet - Mason grabbing his shoulders as the world tilted on its axis with a thunderous rumble - trees creaking and cracking and tumbling away from the sky -
“None of this was your fault.”
The alpha squeezed his bicep, careful not to aggravate his injuries any further as he placed Liam back into a sitting position, gingerly glancing down at the blood-soaked thigh that the young werewolf couldn’t feel over the adrenaline coursing through his veins. “You can’t blame yourself, okay? You’re tired, and bleeding, and you need to -“
Even with the throbbing in his skull and the trembling of his body, Liam’s enhanced senses still picked up the sound of a commotion at the end of the makeshift emergency triage camp.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” A vicious snarl. “Tell me where he is, or I will start breaking your bones.”
“Kid, I really think you just need to -“
Wide, blue eyes landed in on the direction of the achingly familiar voice.
The young beta wolf struggled to his feet, batting away Scott’s hovering hands, stumbling forward on shaky, wobbling legs, a name caught in the recesses of his dry, hoarse throat.
Theo.
The clawed hands locked in the collar of another werewolf’s shirt went lax at the soft noise that left Liam’s lips, and frantic, yellow-stained eyes searched the cluttered chaos, narrowing in on blood-streaked pale features and rumpled raven hair and a blue-eyed gaze alight with desperation.
Liam couldn’t run, but by god, did he try.
Strong arms reached out to him, catching him as he slammed into Theo’s chest, burying his face into the warmth of his skin, his nose pressing into the pulse throbbing at the crook of his jaw, hot and rapid and alive.
Clawed hands clutched at the fabric of the young werewolf’s shirt.
He couldn’t find it within himself to care about the pinpricks digging into his back, just along the edge of painful, because Theo was there, breathless and gasping out, “ Liam,” not unlike a prayer into the mess of his raven hair, into the skin of his temple, holding him and his trembling body like he was the only thing precious left in the world.
“Theo. ” A soft, relieved exhale.
“Baby wolf. Fuck. I thought -“
The chimera’s words wavered, and he didn’t need to finish; Liam knew what Theo thought, because he’d thought the same.
“Yeah,” Liam breathed out. “Yeah. Me too.”
~
It took a gentle stroke down his spine, and an achingly concerned murmur of, “Come on, sweetheart. You’re shaking,” for Liam to allow himself to be guided back over to Scott and a few waiting EMTs, the young werewolf watching Theo’s favored limp and barely noticeable wince with a small frown.
He tugged a little at the fabric of the older chimera’s hoodie and bumped his nose against his cheek to get his attention.
“You’re hurt.” Liam could see it in the slight crease of his brow, the hard set of his mouth, stained with a streak of red.
“Shattered ankle. I’m fine.”
“ Shattered ankle ?”
At some point, they both ended up sitting in the back of the ambulance, mostly because Liam threatened to princess carry Theo if he didn’t go willingly, to which Theo insulted his height (“You’re tiny, how do you plan on doing that?“) and Scott had to intervene before Liam carried out on his aforementioned threat and collapsed under his own weight.
“Let me - Theo -“ the young werewolf almost growled at the fingers that locked around his wrist, preventing him from resting his palm on the chimera’s sweat-slick forehead and siphoning away his pain.
“You need your energy to heal.” Hazel eyes bored into his, soft but unyielding. “I can handle a broken bone.”
“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to,” Liam protested past the clench of his jaw, struggling against the firm grip - though he didn’t use his full strength, he didn’t want to hurt Theo - and reaching out with his other hand, only for that wrist to be caught, too, leaving him glaring with the full force of the fury burning behind his blue eyes. “ Theodore.”
“No.” Even like this, flushed with anger directed toward the older chimera, Liam still leaned his head up into the forehead that tilted against his, noses brushing together, just like the warm exhale against his parted lips and the thumb absently rubbing over the line of his knuckles. “You already look dead on your feet, baby wolf. I won’t let you hurt yourself any more.”
“Fine.” An indignant huff. “Scott can do it. ”
Theo rolled his eyes, but, indulgently, pulled back and stuck an arm out in their mutual friend’s direction, Scott’s fingers curling around his wrist to siphon his pain with a barely restrained smile.
The pair didn’t stay with the EMTs for long. After Theo’s ankle had been splinted and Liam’s thigh was bandaged, the chimera refused to let them touch him, leaving Liam to accept a pile of various medical utensils with the instruction to clean off the slow-healing cuts still littering Theo’s skin.
Which brought him to the present moment, straddling the young man in question’s lap in a secluded corner of the makeshift camp, his fingers gently pushing back strands of dark hair while he wiped over a red cut with antibiotic ointment.
Half-lidded hazel eyes watched him, silent and still, the warmth of Theo’s palms settled on his waist to keep him steady and close.
Liam tapped the side of his companion’s jaw.
“Open.”
Red lips parted at his command, soft and pliant beneath the press of his thumb as he dabbed cream onto the split in his lower lip. “You know there are dozens of werewolf doctors perfectly capable of doing this, too, right?”
A non-committal hum.
“Don’t like them. Hurts.” Dark eyelashes fluttered shut when the young werewolf stroked his cheek, leaning into the tender touch. “Wanted you.“
Liam’s heart clenched in his chest.
“Don’t fall asleep on me, now, baby,” he murmured, the pet name automatically falling from his lips, so soft and affectionate, when Theo tipped his head forward to rest against his collarbone, hands absently pulling him closer with a subvocal, wolffish rumble.
“Mm.” A nuzzle into the hollow of his throat, and a quieter, achingly vulnerable, “Stay. Feels safe. Please.”
It was clearly a lost cause trying to keep the dozing chimera awake, so Liam shifted around a bit, soothing the grumble of protest the movement elicited, until Theo could rest against his chest, curling into the protective shield of his arms with a snuffle and a soft exhale.
“Wasn’t planning on going anywhere.” A fond smile colored the young werewolf’s features.
All he got was a barely audible, contented rumble in response.
If Liam directed a few violent glares and threatening gestures at his pack when they tried to approach them, later, while Theo still snored softly in his embrace, well, he pled the fifth.