Bleeding Hearts

by Girl, Breukelen

  “Doll, Dollton? Look at me baby, open your eyes.” Luke said his voice catching as she failed to follow his command. “I know you can do this. You’re strong. Come on Doll. You have to shift baby. Right now.” He got no response. He lifted her head with hands and put his knees underneath it. He had to elevate her heart rate and quickly. She was loosing too much blood. If she lost anymore, she wouldn’t be able to shape shift and she’d die, a very painful, human death.

  “Please shape shift Doll. Come on, I know you can do it.” A tear slid down Luke’s face and he willed himself not to fall apart at the thought of loosing her. “Doll, you have to shift right now. I’m going to help you shift.” He said grabbing her hand and entwining his fingers in hers. The more touch he could give her, the easier it would be. But shape shifting an unconscious werewolf was not something Luke had ever had to practice before. He’d only ever assisted a werewolf who was fully alive and not even remotely close to death, like Doll was.

  “Come on baby, feel the werewolf it’s going to help you. Don’t give in Doll.” Luke said concentrating on her. “Don’t you dare leave me.”

  Dillon’s focus was on the other alpha werewolf, but he heard his brother speaking to Doll and getting no response. He smelt blood, a lot more than either he or Graham Roberts were shedding from claw swipes and fang bites or hits.

  Neither of them had fully shape shifted, whilst they could do it fast, it would still take a few seconds for it to happen. And a few seconds was all either of them needed for a window of opportunity in their fight to come out on top. Each alpha had done partial shape shifting, changing hands into claws, teeth into werewolf razor like fangs. Anything that helped give them an edge in their fight.

  Dillon charged low at Graham Robert’s sternum, his teeth and claws exposed, as they dug deep into Graham’s mid section. Dillon’s face buried further into the skin and he gripped with his werewolf teeth, hooking into the flesh he cut through, from the clothing. Graham howled and did something Dillon expected. He started shape shifting.

  Dillon fought him to suppress the shift. He didn’t want to give Graham a chance to heal himself and fight him in werewolf form. But as the Shift commenced, Dillon changed tactic and allowed it to affect him too, dropping his metaphysical defenses right down. Allowing Graham, unintentionally to bring on his enemy’s shape shift too.

  Dillon kept holding on to Graham with his claws and teeth, buried further into. The shape shift between the two alpha werewolves was seamless and in less than five seconds, two large werewolves were slashing at each other’s fur.

  Dillon ripped his head to the side, pulling what flesh and stringy bits of Graham he could out of the werewolf’s stomach. Graham howled and tried to claw at Dillon, but he didn’t have the best position to do much damage as he lay on his back and Dillon kept tearing him apart as quickly as his teeth and claws could manage.

  Dillon’s wolf kept slashing at the other werewolf until he lacked movement and went limp underneath him. When the wolf stilled completely Dillon stood and looked at his prey, waiting to see if there was any movement left in it. Deciding to ensure his prey was completely dead, he slashed the wolf’s exposed throat, with his claw. Cutting it open and letting blood spurt out and over the law.

  “Dillon!” Luke screamed at his brother from the opposite end of the back yard. He’d had no luck getting Doll to shape shift. Dillon lifted his head and looked over at his brother, and sprinted on all fours over to him. Walking up to Doll he sniffed along her cuts. “She needs to shape shift , you’ve got to help her.” Luke said at the werewolf beside him.

  Dillon snorted at his brother, who watched the other wolf lay across Doll’s chest and sternum. Luke felt the vibration in the air change, even before Dillon had rested completely on Doll. It was his signal to start focusing on the beta werewolf and help bringing on her shift.

  Bringing on a shape shift or dragging a werewolf out of one, didn’t require acquiesce. It just required one werewolf to be able to find something in the other werewolf it could make a mental connection with and influence. It only took the smallest amount of mental space to get it started.

  While active werewolves could fight the change and someone pushing their influence on them, an unconscious werewolf was the complete opposite. It was an open book to another werewolf to hook into. Because there was no restraint, no barriers, no fighting. But a dead werewolf, could not be revived if it was dead.

  Luke feared Doll was close to death. Too close to death. Her heartbeat was getting faint and her body was cooling rapidly. Graham Roberts might have damaged something vital in her for such a quick response. He’d only got the one movement in before Luke had thrown him off Doll.

  But Doll despite her good intentions was not a physical fighter. She had tried. She had put up a fight, but she was clearly not skilled enough to fight. Or had never been taught how to fight as a werewolf. Maybe she’d never needed to know how. There was still so much about her that Luke didn’t know that he found he wanted to. She couldn’t leave him yet. He focused on the woman in his arms, covered in blood. She barely weighed anything at all. She was barely breathing. He needed her werewolf self to take over, to keep her alive, to keep the survival instinct going.

  Luke felt the sweat drip down his back as he concentrated his thoughts and feelings on Doll and inhaled the scent of her blood. He stayed with her as Dillon’s werewolf lay across her and licked at the blood on her face. His werewolf raged in him as the need to shape shift became great. His werewolf wanted to be unleashed from him entirely, so it could fuck shit up as a result of looking at Doll’s limp body. He wanted to rampage in her name. Make the night flow with blood as he ripped out hearts and howled for her.

  His werewolf’s essence filtered into something within Doll and Dillon lifted his head and snorted at his brother, sensing it too. And they both stilled, willing Doll’s inner werewolf to respond to them.

  “Jeremy.” Luke said to her. “Think of Jeremy Doll, he needs you.” Luke rested his cheek against Doll’s face. “I’ve only just started to get to know you,” he said softly. “I don’t want you to go, I want to show you what it’s like to be loved and in a loving pack.” He felt something snag onto him and he watched as her body began to shake violently, like it was having a fit. Dillon’s werewolf paws pressed down on her chest, trying to put his weight on her to pin her to the ground as they kept bringing her shift on.

  Luke concentrated all his emotion, good and bad, everything he was feeling on that snag and urged her werewolf to come out. It took longer than a shape shift for himself or Dillon might take. Minutes, but it felt like hours, until he saw the fur and change in shape of her body as her tribal self took over the reigns of her body. It didn’t guarantee she would survive, but it meant her chances were better if now the werewolf that was Dollton could hold on to the graphic injuries she’d incurred.

  The werewolf that shifted on them came through as Doll had left them, unconscious of their presence and with injuries visible to them. Luke had never witnessed a shape shift like it before. He felt hopeless as to what to do.

  “I need to do more. What do I do?” He asked looking over Doll’s injured and still, unconscious, werewolf form. “What do I do?” Shape shifting was supposed to help heal her bodily injuries. Although, Doll’s injuries had been great. The closer to the loss of her life she was, the harder the shape shift would be, the less effective it would be he supposed. It would take a great deal of time in her tribal form for her body to recover from it. “Stay with me.”

  Given her inability to shape shift at will because of her previous abuse and silver burns, it might take even longer. Doll had not been a healthy werewolf to begin with. Luke watched as Dillon sniffed along the side of her, his nose flicking her fur this way and that. He was checking her for the extent of her injuries and how they had carried through her transformation, Luke realized.

  “Thank you.” He said to his brother werewolf. Dillon lifted his head and snorted softly at him, turning
his head to the house. Luke figured he was trying to tell him something, but Luke didn’t care, he couldn’t leave Doll’s side. Not now. As the evening of the fourth lunar night set upon them, Luke remained by the side of the sleeping werewolf, waiting for the moon to rise in the night sky and call to them. Dillon snorted again and moved away from Doll, trotting into the house again.

  He shape shifted and regaining a sense of balance, knocked on the bedroom door. “Jeremy, it’s Dillon.” He said listening for any noise from behind the door. “Doll needs you.” He heard the scrapping of what had to be a chest of drawers in the room and the door slowly opened as Jeremy peeked.

  “Where’s Doll?” Jeremy asked suspiciously eyeing the naked six foot alpha male before him.

  “She’s outside with Luke and she’s hurt. Badly hurt. You should be with her.” Dillon said business like with no emotion showing on his face. Jeremy opened the door and shoved past him, urgently.

  20

  The night of the full moon Luke shape shifted and curled in beside the still unconscious tribal version of Doll. She hadn’t moved, hadn’t changed any bit since Dillon and he had brought on her shape shift. They hadn’t moved her from where she lay. Preferring that her werewolf self re-familiarize itself with the elements of nature that embraced the werewolf and helped the werewolf to heal much faster than humanly possible.

  It would be better for the werewolf to sense the world in which it was used to living in, the natural environment. Dillon had stayed with Luke and Jeremy to ensure he could help out when needed. Jeremy with the help of Dillon had shape shifted too and lay curled in around her other side, so she was surrounded by werewolves on either side of her.

  Dillon had made some phone calls to his father to see if there was anything that could be done for Doll. Unfortunately the timing of her grievous bodily injury could not have come at a worse time. As Troy Charleston informed Dillon that Doll was on her own until they dealt with the issue of Sonny’s problems. His only daughter and a Seattle Alki werewolf pack member, outranked the unfortunate ills of a street werewolf that happened to be in their territory. Especially when his daughter’s problems threatened to spill into a greater problem for the entire pack.

  Dillon informed Luke before he shape shifted that he had to deal with pack business and would be back with any additional help he could muster as soon as things had been sorted out between his sister and those that had come for her.

  The pack as always outweighed the needs of the individual. Dillon had advised Luke that he would only call on him if absolutely essential to deal with pack business, but even he could see where Luke’s head and heart’s concern and focus was.

  A distracted werewolf was as useless to the pack as a werewolf who didn’t have fighting skills when the need to defend the werewolf way was called upon. The Seattle Alki would deal with any new immediate danger tonight, as directed by their pack leader Troy Charleston. He had not remained pack leader of the Seattle Alki by not being wise and knowing how to utilize all those around him as well as his surroundings.

  The moon illuminated the sky and made the night turn blue. Doll’s werewolf slept on, her bleeding slowed to a trickle before gradually stopping and clotting. Luke licked at the dry blood on her fur, cleaning her. He wanted to be able to see her injuries to figure out if anything new developed and the bleeding worsened at all.

  Luke occasionally lifted his nose and sniffed along Doll’s sleeping form and ran his nose gently through her fur to make sure nothing had changed. Jeremy remained tucked in against his companion, all night never leaving her side.

  It surprised him when the first rays of sunlight shone down on them and he found himself, shivering from the crisp morning temperature, in human form again. Doll remained as she had a night, in her tribal form, sleeping. Luke was sitting up beside her in his human form too. Jeremy looked across at him.

  “What can we do for her?”

  Luke looked at the scrawny sleeping werewolf. She looked pathetic and roughed up. “There’s nothing we can do, it’s up to her, to her werewolf now. The longer she stays in her tribal form the faster she’ll heal from her injuries.”

  “The longer she’s in her tribal form, the worse her injuries really are, isn’t that right?” Jeremy asked Luke.

  “Yes.”

  Jeremy frowned. “That’s not good enough.” He said as tears slid down his face. “She’s done so much for me and I wasn’t here for her when she needed me. I was too busy, running away from danger.”

  “Jer, you can’t blame yourself for this. Doll has always, will always be your protector. That was never going to change. Graham Roberts was a…” He trailed off as he looked back across the yard, at the torn apart remains of a large wolf in his yard. Jeremy followed his line of sight and stilled.

  “He’s definitely dead.” Luke said looking at Jeremy. “I have to get rid of the body, maybe you should stay with Doll while I...”

  Jeremy pushed upright and kept looking at the torn remains of his former tormentor and rapist. “No, I have to do that. I need to be sure he’s dead, that he’s never coming back. I owe that much to Doll for her fighting him. I can at least be brave enough to face him in death.”

  “We all have fight or flight syndrome Jeremy, you’re reaction to flee, was the right one for you.” Luke said standing up and stretching. “No offense, but you would never have managed to fight of Graham. He was a sadistic alpha who not only had all the skills you don’t, he outweighed you. His power was honed and skilled, you’re barely able to stay apart from Doll for more than a few hours. You did the right thing and so did Doll.”

  The both looked down at the still sleeping werewolf. “You did the best you could.” Luke reiterated at him.

  “Yeah, and look how that ended for Doll.” Jeremy replied bitterly. “If she doesn’t make it through this, then I don’t want to make it through this.” He said stalking over to the remains of the other alpha werewolf.

  “I know just how you feel.” Luke muttered softly looking down at Doll.

  Jeremy walked over to the mangled heap of werewolf in the far back corner of Luke’s backyard. The wolf was huge, just like Jeremy remembered him to be. But it looked like he’d been torn almost entirely into two pieces. The grey fur of the wolf, sat oddly at the angles of the bones and flesh that protruded from the animal before his feet. The wolf’s head was almost completely off it’s neck bone and Jeremy looked down into its dead eyes.

  “Never again.” He muttered to himself shivering at the sight of the alpha before him.

  21

  Doll awoke, with the familiar feeling of a hard bodied male behind her in the comfort of Luke’s bed. Jeremy was in front of her, facing her. She blinked slowly and sniffed quickly. Something was different about where they were. Even though they were in his bedroom.

  “New bed.” Luke commented from behind her, as if reading her thoughts. “Well, temporary, from Dillon, he saw the state of the old one and said I could use this, till I can get another one.” Doll thought it came more down to him sensing the slightest movement in her, or change in sound she made, that made him look like a mind reader when he wasn’t looking directly at her face.

  Pushing up onto his elbow and kissing her behind the ear. “Fits three, better. You had me worried there.” He said softly running his nose along her neck. Dolls snuggled back into him, enjoying the feel of his hard body against her. Warming her again.

  “How long was I out?” She remembered leaping at Graham Roberts and a searing pain ripping across her body.

  “Three days. You’re werewolf came to a few times, enough to drink water and eat a few scraps of food. But it wasn’t until last night that you shifted back last night and that’s when I moved you in here. Jeremy and I have been taking turns fretting over you.” He said as she half turned around to face him. How do you feel?”

  “I feel like me. I feel good.”

  “Don’t do that again, okay?” He said softly, slipping his arms around her waist.
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br />   “What? Get into a fight?” She asked him running a hand down his side. “Or get into trouble?”

  “It was scary. “ Luke replied softly as Jeremy stirred before her.

  “But it’s all done now?”

  Luke sighed heavily. No it was not all done technically, there were still the other Alpha Pack werewolves that needed in his eyes to be held accountable for all that they’d done. There was the small detail of making sure the Denver werewolf pack didn’t go to war on the Seattle Alki. But Luke didn’t want to worry Doll with that. For now it was done and he had her back. Doll and Jeremy were safe. “He’s dead. Never coming back again. Never going to be able to hurt either of you, or anyone else ever again.”

  Jeremy moved in closer again and wrapped his arms around her, burying his head amongst her chest. “A good steady heart beat.” He muttered with a small smile, kissing her heart. “So good to hear that again.” Jeremy said looking up at her. “It was close Doll. If you’d left me, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

  Doll smiled down at him. It was an unpleasant thought she brushed aside. “It’s good to see you again, too.” She kissed his nose. “And you would have gone on Jeremy, you’re a survivor.” She said softly as Jeremy hugged her closer. “Me, I’m starving.”

  Jeremy loosed his hold on her and slid out of the bed. “I’m on breakfast duty, it’s the least I can do for the werewolf who saved me, yet again.” He smiled at her before slipping on some jeans and heading out of the bedroom.

  Doll turned around to face Luke. “Careful, you’re not at your fighting weight yet.” He said looking for any obvious signs of wincing and grateful he saw none. His eyes running over her body looking for signs of any scaring or wounds, but finding none. She’d had a successful shape shift.

  Doll ducked her head under his chin as she spoke. “Thank you. When I was out of it, I felt your presence inside me, wherever that was. I heard your voice, It was like you were holding onto me. Just constantly holding onto me, like your strength wouldn’t waver and all I had to do, was believe it and take it. More than that, it meant to me, my werewolf, that I could have it, at no cost.” Luke smiled and kissed the top of her head.