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Wyatt's heart beat in sync with Delphi's pained ones, his breathing increasing with her screams, and his wolf growling, whining, and barking fiercely against their mental reins, trying to get to the agonizing yelps and whimpers her wolf was making in their head.
Wyatt's fists shook as they tightened even more, his growing claws pierced into his palms, causing blood to drip slowly past his clenched fingers.
"She shouldn't be feeling this," Florideen told her mate over Delphi's chronic shrieks of suffering, "With the necrosis, she shouldn't feel this."
"Then the bullet's necrosis has the ability to allow nerves to live while the major tissues die," Denver told her with a semi-grunt, "Grabbed hold of it. I'm pulling it out now."
When he started to pull, Delphi's already loud wails became deafening screams that caused Denver, Wyatt, and Florideen to violently flinch, their ears turning beat red—Wyatt's ears breaching purple—from the volume and intensity of her cries.
Wyatt let out a deep growl, his canines elongated as Denver pulled the silver bullet.
"Stop."
"I got it," Denver told him, "It's almost out my Alpha."
Delphi's head whipped back and forth as she screamed, tears pouring from her now glowing eyes with reckless abandon.
"Stop it!"
"The tip is breaching her skin," Denver looked up at him before looking back down.
Delphi's thrashing increased sevenfold to where her body seemed to be in a constant seizure, blood rushing faster out of open wounds, her face color turning red, and Florideen needed to apply more pressure to hold her down.
"I SAID ENOUGH!" Wyatt barked, his emerald eyes glowing with a deep rage in them.
Florideen looked up at him, "It's almost—"
"IT'S GOING DEEPER, DAMN IT!!!"
This made Denver stop and pull the tweezers away from the bullet which appeared to have breached her skin and visible for them to see. Delphi's screams started to diminish to vehement pants, her blood and color lessening in intensity as he did.
"Alpha what's going on?" Florideen asked.
"It's going deeper," Wyatt growled, "As in it's going deeper into her shoulder joint!"
"What do you propose we do then?" Denver looked at Wyatt, his tone showed his aggravation, but he quickly corrected it, "We can't let them just stay there, my Alpha."
Wyatt still gave him a warning growl and Denver submitted humbly.
"...We'd have to...cut...open the wound so we can push it out from the other side," Florideen spoke with so much tentativeness that anyone with lesser hearing wouldn't have heard her.
"What?" Wyatt's voice growled out threateningly, making her swallow as she continued to look down.
"Mate... I already told you—" Denver told her warningly, but at the same time, an undertone of worry for his mate was in his voice.
"I know, but if we can cut open her tissue from the other side, we can force the bullet out from said side without it...growing. It might the only way to do so," She told him, a little more confidence in her words.
"...But we might have to cut through bone, and partially through a joint," Denver told her, making worried glances back and forth from Wyatt's angry scowl to his mate's serious, yet timid face.
"True...but she is a wolf like us. She'll heal once we get it out," Florideen steadily looked to her Alpha, but didn't even look past him chin and twitching lips, "Alpha...may we do so?"
Frankly, Wyatt and his wolf—who were both coming to loathe the phrase "She'll heal" more and more with each passing second—were pissed at both the fact that these two wolves, who were suppose to be the best pack Healers they have, couldn't take care of his mate without having to find another reason to hurt her, and also the fact that they were treating Delphi like she didn't have an opinion in the matter!
However...his mate...could barely think of anything but the pain in her body. In fact, the pain was the only thing that was both threatening her conscious and preventing her from losing it.
"...Delphi," He whispered in her mind gently, "...What do you want?"
It was silent except for that reoccurring whisper in her mind. As he focused more on it, the only thing he got from her was the repeated,
"It hurts... It hurts... It hurts..."
His heart sank at how her own mental words matched and echoed with what she looked like and when she cried.
He looked back at Denver and Florideen let out a deep sigh from his nose, "...Do it."
Florideen let out a small breath that she seemed like she didn't even know she held, "Denver, prop her body up. We're going to need both sides visible." "
Understood," Denver began to manually push up the bed quickly yet gently to avoid Delphi screaming anymore than she had and was going to, "Get the scalpel blades No. 10, 15, and 23...and a small container."
Florideen nodded and used her wolf speed to run out the room and back. Wyatt then could see out the corner of his eye when the door opened; A few wolves wanted to see why his Delphi was screaming and crying as loud as she did.
"This isn't some show to watch! All of you who are not permitted by me must stay out and leave! Now!" Wyatt issued a mental command that made more than a few flinch at the harshness in his tone, but they all obeyed his command.
Florideen set the needed items on the table next to the tray and quickly changed into thicker, silver-resistant gloves; Denver followed suit in matter of moments.
"Ready?" She asked as she looked at her mate when he grabbed the No. 10 blade, once again pinning Delphi down.
Denver gave a small nod as he looked at his Alpha.
Wyatt's jaw clenched as he turned his head away from what they were about to do.
Delphi's screams and thrashing once again started as Denver proceeded to cut through her blackening and bloody flesh from her damaged back. A mushy, black liquid was coming out the incision the further he cut into her back. Delphi thrashed back and forth, screaming to the top of her lungs.
"My Alpha," Florideen looked at him, her restraining arms shaking, "Please. Please try to calm her mind. If she continues, she may cause further damage to herself that she has to undergo necessary."
Wyatt knew this to be true, but his wolf was once again at war with him. He wanted—needed—to kill Denver and Florideen for hurting his mate further. He needed to be the one to protect her!
"No," Wyatt argued against his wolf, "They are helping her. Better than we can right now."
His wolf growled at his thoughts venomously. We can! Kill the traitors and all that dare hurt our mate like this! We can and will protect her!
"Then how do you supposed to do that?" Wyatt growled back at his wolf, "Kill those that can help her in any way, shape, or form and protect her body as she dies?!"
The thought and image popped in both his and his wolf's minds, and against everything they knew and learned from the unwelcomed emotion, it greatly saddened them; seeing them hold and stand over Delphi protectively as she cried in agony while she died. It was more like they were the ones that killed her—
The thought gave Wyatt's logic full control.
"No! That will never happen!" Wyatt growled at himself as he focused on Delphi's thoughts once more.
"Beloved, I understand. I know you're in pain, but if you struggle like this, you will only hurt yourself more. I'm right here."
He took a step toward her from the wall, "Delphi. Delphi, look at me."
Delphi's thrashing continued along with her cries, but her thoughts of pain got louder as he tried to reach her mind.
"Mate, look at me!" He commanded mentally.
Slowly, but painfully, Delphi's head stopped and tear filled eyes looked at him, her body vibrated in her pain and agony, her eyes red from it all.
"Mate," He called to her in her mind, "Look at me. Only me. Everything will be alright. You just need to focus on me so you don't hurt yourself more than now."
Delphi's lips trembled fiercely as more tears fell from her eyes, yet her screams weren't as loud as before.
"It...it hurts so much...Wyatt....Make them stop..." Her mind whispered back.
"You know they have to do this, Delphi. It's the only way for them to save you," He reminded her—and himself constantly—trying to maintain keeping her calm.
Delphi's thoughts once again faded into the darkness, exchanging it for her screams.
"We're through," Denver spoke as he quickly used a metal rod to start pushing the bullet up while using the tweezers to pull from the other side.
Delphi's screams were dreadfully loud, but her iridescent orange to blue-grey eyes—tear-filled and red—did not leave Wyatt's emerald ones for a second outside of blinking hard past the never-ending flood of tears.
"Almost..." Denver grunted.
Florideen's eyes travelled back and forth from Delphi to the bullet hole.
As Delphi let out one last blistering yell Denver pulled the elongated bullet out of the wound, "Out!" He quickly stood up and went over to put the bizarre shell in the bin.
That was one down.
"Denver!!" Florideen shouted and at that moment, Wyatt saw the bullet grow in length at a terrifying rate: it trying to extend back to the hole on Delphi it was from!
Florideen let go of Delphi's right arm and reached over, trying to grab the offending bullet before it reached Delphi's wound.
However, it slid straight through the side of her closed palm, causing her to yelp sharply in pain as she tumbled backward against the wall, her scent of blood mixed into the air along with Delphi's, causing Denver to sniff rapidly in dismay.
Wyatt quickly moved and grabbed the tray that lay across from Delphi, causing all the equipment to clatter and clash to the ground as he blocked the bullet from its intended path.
"Mate!" Denver barked a whine at he started toward his mate.
The bullet started to shrink as he did, and Wyatt detected this almost instantaneously.
He lay the tray on Delphi's chest, shielding her and stopping the bullet from reaching any further before quickly grabbing a larger, deeper metal container and hurrying over to him, "Denver, pick up the pace!"
Catching onto his meaning, he quickly walked toward Delphi, the abnormal bullet getting smaller and smaller until it was small enough to which he dropped the thin silver pole of a bullet inside.
Instead of running or moving quickly as Denver had done before—or as he currently wanted to—Wyatt walked slowly toward the sink and put it and the container inside. Sure enough, it grew very slowly when walking compared to growing quickly when running or moving fast. What the hell?
"Florideen! Florideen, are you okay?" Denver asked his mate who held her injured hand with her other close to her chest.
"I-I'll be fine," She hissed slightly, "I'll...heal."
"Let me see," He commanded her, his tone and scent drenched in worry.
Hesitantly, she did as she was told.
"Oh Deities," He growled lowly as Wyatt returned and saw the dead flesh that matched Delphi's on her hand.
Though she was wearing a thick glove for silver, it cut clean across her palm—no surprise at the speed it moved—and had blacked—deteriorated—her skin as well.
Wyatt turned his attention to Delphi and he let out a sigh of relief that surprised him to know he held. The wounds closest the bullet-free gap in her shoulder had stopped bleeding and started to heal; he could see that the cells from around the dead ones were starting to regenerate her shoulder. As he had said, what was dead was dead, but fortunately, Delphi's body was already getting rid of the dead tissue to heal; though, rather slowly compared to the other Delaney members.
"Don't worry, Denver. I'll heal," Florideen told her mate, "Look, I'm already starting to heal right now."
"You sure?" Concern woven in Denver's hardened words.
"Do I smell of deceit to you?" She asked him, "Unfortunately, I can't hold her down for the rest."
"...I understand... Go heal up, Mate," Denver nodded and pressed his forehead to hers before she got up to leave.
"You may not leave," Wyatt commanded, stopping her dead in her tracks.
A scent of confusion started to overpower its brother scent of worry as it rolled off their bodies and whiffed a path into the air.
He looked at her seriously, "I fully understand you need to heal. However, you also need to exam your wound closely. That thing that was in Delphi might react to you the same way it did her now."
Florideen's eyes widened in realization at his words; she too was at risk of that abnormal bullet growing and attacking her.
"...Yes Alpha," She nodded her head, and as she steady leaned back against the wall she was formerly at, Denver moved to the sink.
With a low growl being heard, he turned on the gooseneck faucet. "
Denver, what the hell are you doing?" Wyatt inquired, but when Denver looked at him, it wasn't a look of defiance, but rather...confusion? And concern?
"Alpha...you should see this," Denver looked back into the sink.
Wyatt took another look at his slowly healing mate before he quickly walked over as saw what Denver was saying.
The bullet...was shrinking.
Under the cold water, it was shrinking back to the size of a normal bullet.
"...What the fuck is this?" Wyatt whispered with a growl in his voice.
Denver shook his head, his scent of confusion and serious facial expression didn't change, "I don't know yet, my Alpha."
A cry from Delphi made them turn back to her, and Wyatt wanted to beat the shit out of himself for leaving her side. The other bullet in her leg was still there!
Denver ran over, removing the tray from her chest and picked up the tools, quickly sterilizing them before putting them back in their place while Wyatt ran to Delphi's side. Propping up her leg as quickly as he could—which earned more cries in pain from Delphi—Denver grabbed the blade again, this time, the bigger No. 23 scalpel.
"This one should be easier and less painful to get out, my Alpha. But, she's going to have to be held down," Denver looked up at him as he also grabbed the tweezers and the small container.
"Do what you have to," This time, Wyatt spoke without hesitation, and his wolf gave him full cooperation before he lightly put his arm over her chest and grabbed the side of the bed with one arm and then rested his free hand over her undamaged leg.
He looked Delphi in her eyes, "All will be well, Delphi. Breath, and look only at me."
As Denver began to cut into the less damaged side of her blackening leg, tears reformed in Delphi's eyes and a steady yet boisterous scream came from her vocal cords, lungs, and mouth.
"Delphi," Wyatt tried to calm her—and himself—down as Denver cut through, "Look at me, beloved. It's okay. It will be okay. This is only temporary."
Delphi let out a slightly different scream that went through Wyatt's mind, causing him to look sharply at the male Healer with a snarl, "Watch it! Don't cut through her bone!"
"My apologies," Denver grunted at he cut, "The bullet...is lodged...near it...between two muscles..."
Delphi started thrashed against Wyatt's restraints, and it almost surprised him when he had to use a little more pressure to hold her down. This was why Florideen's arms shook when she held her?
He had not time to contemplate on this as Delphi's leg of operation jerked fiercely, causing Denver to accidentally cut deeper than intended. Delphi's screamed violently at this, the pain starting to become too much once more as Wyatt flinched, feeling the pain inflicted in her leg.
Denver didn't even say anything as he did. He couldn't. Rather, he gave a small apologetic glance at Wyatt before readjusting to cut correctly.
As much as Wyatt wanted to tear Denver's throat out, maim him, or just plain injure him in any sort of way he saw fit, it wasn't his fault. Growling mutely, he looked at Delphi and persisted, "Don't kick Delphi. You're just hurting yourself more. This is almost done, I swear it."
Sure enough, Denver quickly grabbed the thin rod, "I have it, my Alpha. Getting it out now."
With that, Denver pushed and pulled the bullet, it too attempting to grow as the shell before it had done while it was getting removed. Delphi's eyes shut in the pain.
"No, Delphi. Look at me. I'm right here," Wyatt demanded her focus.
Shaking once again, Delphi once more looked at him, showing that he had broken through her fragile, yet regenerative mental barriers as she quieted down. Her pain-stricken eyes searched his frantically, but it was as if they truly weren't searching for anything there. Rather, they were trying to hold onto them. Her lips trembled with unheard cries as she continued to watch Wyatt.
"Almost..." Denver spoke as he operated.
Delphi's leg vibrated in pain, but not nearly harshly as before.
"Hurry up, Denver," Wyatt told him, feeling Delphi's mind starting to slip from his grasps again.
"Got it..." Denver grunted as he continued to push and pull.
Whines and whimpers started to resume their flow out of Delphi's mouth, her tear burdened eyes slowly started to close, squeezing them.
"Denver," Wyatt spoke lowly to him.
Delphi's mind slipped more as her leg slowly increased in convulsion before she started crying louder.
"Out!" Denver gave one final push.
A scream ran through Delphi as her eyes bulged, her leg twitched violently as Denver grabbed the container, dropped the silver in and slowly proceeded to the sink. A gasp from her followed...and bit by bit...her body relaxed and stopped bleeding...Her eyes...slowly closed...
It was over.
~*~*~
Delphi's body pounded, the blood surging through her veins were started to increase in speed, her pulse steadying, her heart stabilizing, and the pain...the pain was starting to melt into the sea of memories, though a constant and ever reminding sense of it lay under the surface.
She couldn't see, touch, or smell anything; not her wolf or herself. Yet...she was calm. Something was keeping her calm. Something soothing... protective... gentle... caring... would never hurt her...never...
A voice reached her ears in an echo—silent at first—that gradually grew in resonance. It...it called her name. That voice...was deep and gentle, like the winds of spring. Yet passionate, alluring, and warm like fire.
With invisible hands, she reached for that voice, her own unable to even form in her thoughts. The more she reached it, the more she could scent. It too was faint at first, but as she persisted, the scent of pine...followed by sage and myrrh entered her senses, her heart leapt in her chest, heating up as the smell encased her welcoming—lovingly.
And soon, light—though too bright—returned to her vision, blur filled her eyes as she felt the pound of soreness wrought throughout her body. Yet...she could still smell that secure, intoxicating scent that fought against the ache.
She turned her head, though it hurt to move, toward the scent with those feral emerald eyes, wild hair, and bronze skin.
"...Wyatt...?" Her voice out raspy, her throat too was sore from what she knew had to be from screaming and crying.
"Shhh...." Wyatt put his large hand next to her cheek, stroking it gently, "All is well."
The pain had overtaken her in the darkness, and if she hadn't heard the voice—his voice—she didn't think she or her wolf would have lived. Delphi slowly turned her head, looking around the foreign area; her range did not allow her to see neither Denver nor Florideen.
"...Wh...where are we?"
"The hospital wing in pack lands," He informed her, stroking her cheek and hair, his lips twitching as if to smile at her. Delphi's eyes traveled downward before looking back at him.
Right when she about to say something else, he bent his head to hers and kissed her lips. Though soft and light as it was, the scent of love and relief rolled of his skin as it mixed in the small, lingering thoughts of passion that trailed from his mind to hers. In her haze and their shared emotions through their bond, she weakly kissed him back, her previous thoughts forgotten.
