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When David came back to himself he did it slowly, blinking past the ache in his head as he struggled to open his sluggish eyes. He felt heavy and tired, like he’d ran a marathon. He tried to stretch and figure out exactly where he was, but his body was weighed down and heavy.
“Ash…” he said softly, more growl than word as he struggled to open his eyes and see what was hurting him. He was starting to get the distinct impression that something was very wrong, but the panic that should rise in him and the subsequent adrenaline that should run its course and give him a push never came. It was like he was tapped out, like any energy he had for panic or action was gone already. When had he run himself down so fiercely? What was happening?
His eyes managed to crack, but he was surprised to find that it was still dark. Not as dark, though. There was moonlight. A nearly full moon beating down on him. On them.
Asher was laying a few feet off from him, pushing himself up on shaky arms.
“What the fuck, man, you can’t just push a guy like that-” he looked at David like he was about to pounce, but the color drained from his face as his expression went slack. “Don’t move.” He said, his voice barely above a whisper.
David jerked immediately, rushed to assess what was wrong just as Asher reached him and pressed down on his shoulders. He craned his neck to take stock of his body. His torso was intact. His hands were shaky but still there. He couldn’t feel his right foot.
“Shit…” Asher hissed. His eyes were wide and he stank of fear and panic. David reached up and knotted his hand in the sleeve of Asher’s t-shirt. “I can’t-” Ash’s hands hovered over his right foot, and when he finally jerked into action, David felt it.
A sharp, raw ache pulsed through his leg as Asher tried to pry the bear trap off of his leg. He must have screamed. That was the only thing that made sense to him. He couldn’t hear it, though, over the ringing in his ears.
Asher was holding on to him, gripping his shoulders and repeating apologies over and over again like a mantra, like a spell that could make it all better. David’s hand was still clutched in his shirt as tears dripped down across his face. Fuck, he hated it when Asher cried.
“I’m sorry-” Ash said again, his voice cracking like it had been for the past three months, which David had taken every opportunity to bully him about. It was mutual, of course, since Asher had been doing the same since David’s voice had dropped. He couldn’t shake the instinct to poke fun, even as pain radiated up his leg. “Why did you do that?” Asher huffed. “Why do you always-”
David thunked his head back into the ground. He remembered. It took a second, but he remembered. He and Ash always had to wander off, had to find fun for themselves, even if it meant doing something stupid. His dad always said that it was natural for boys their age to get into trouble, that he had done the same thing when he was young. As long as they were safe, he didn’t mind.
The woods always felt safe. Safer than some places in Dahlia. It must have been the wildness in them, the wolf under their skin itching for wilderness. It was why the pack went camping so much. His dad always said to watch their feet. There were snakes and traps hidden in the grass.
Asher never really listened he’d been scolded enough times to have learned his lesson, but it still didn’t seem to get through his stupid skull. He’d almost stepped on a copperhead last summer because his head was always in the clouds, so David still watched the ground for the both of them just in case. When he saw the bear trap, gleaming in the soft moonlight, right where Asher was about to step down, he moved without even thinking. He planted his foot down between Asher’s and pushed. He just hadn’t realized that he put his foot directly into the trap until it triggered and snapped together so hard he felt something snap.
“Ash,” He said again, his voice strained and shaking. “My dad, get-”
“No,” Ash said immediately. “I won’t leave you I’ll… I can carry you, it’ll…”
No, that wouldn’t work. They were a good ways away from camp, so far that their scuffle wouldn’t be within ear shot. He needed help fast. He was bleeding, and chances for infection would only increase the longer they waited. If Asher moved him, jostled him in just the right way, he could dislodge the trap, fracture his leg further, hit a blood vessel…
“Won’t work.” He gritted out. “You gotta be fast. Get my dad. Please, Ash-” He gripped his fist tighter, let the small pain of his nails biting into his palm to distract him. “Watch where you’re stepping.”
Asher hesitated for a moment longer, still gripping onto David’s shoulders until he huffed and bolted up. David watched him go, watched his heaving back disappear into the brush before he let his head fall back. It was only when he was sure Asher was gone that he let himself feel the fear racing through him. His chest was tight, his leg pounding and oozing and aching. His hand fell to the ratty fabric of his blue jeans. He was losing blood. He needed to deal with that. He needed to keep a clear head and deal with this.
His dad had shown him how to make a tourniquet out of the leather belt he’d bought him for his thirteenth birthday. He’d wrapped it around one of the throw pillows in their living room and shown David how to tighten it before securing the tension. He had warned him that it would hurt, but that it could save somebody’s life.
David did it just like his dad had shown him, his fingers slick and shaking as he wrapped that same belt around his calf. It was best to protect any joints he could. He wasn’t a morbid person, he didn’t jump to the worst case scenario, but looking at where he was now, alone in the dark, away from his pack and miles out from civilization, he was likely to go a little while without treatment. If he lost his ankle, he would keep his knee.
When David synched the belt around his calf, felt that pain his dad was talking about, the teeth shattering pain ripping through him, he must have passed out. When his head cleared and he could blink past the spots in his vision to see the nearly-full moon above him, he heard a sound from the forest.
“ David!” It was distant, but it was his dad’s voice. As soon as he heard it, a sob escaped him. He hadn’t realized he was close to crying, but he was. He felt tears brimming in his eyes as he pressed his head back into the soft grass. He raised one shaking hand high above him, saw the blood dripping down his fingers as he did.
“I’m here!” He called back. “I’m here!” They needed to locate him. He was in the underbrush and it was dark. Asher wouldn’t remember his exact location in his hurry.
“David!” His dad’s voice was closer. David could hear the huff of a few others and tried desperately to stop crying. He didn’t want to cry in front of the pack.
His shaking hand was empty one second and full the next. His dad’s hands were big and calloused and they closed over his so gently as he skidded to a halt next to him.
“Hey,” He said softly. “Hey, bud. I’ve gotcha. I’ve gotcha.”
“I know that.” David huffed. Gabe laughed, but David could see the worry in him, the etch of it across his face. He hated when his dad worried. It was so rare that when it happened, it threw him completely off.
“Stay still, David.” He hadn’t even noticed Milo’s mom until she spoke, but he nodded anyway, knotted grass in his fingers as she started to examine his leg. “You did so well. The tourniquet, staying still. Good work, kiddo.”
Gabe moved and rested his knees on either side of David’s head. Keeping his neck stable and ready to brace him, David realized. One of those big hands came to brush through David’s hair. It has gotten long over the summer and was falling in his face.
“Where’s Ash?” He asked softly. Gabe smiled down at him.
“He took a tumble, so he stayed back. Milo’s with him. He’s taken care of.” David squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. He knew that there was a risk sending Asher off alone, but he hadn’t really allowed himself to think about that until now. He felt Milo’s mom start to situate his leg.
“We’re going to have to release the trap.” She said softly. “It’s… not going to be pleasant.”
“We’ve got this.” Gabe replied. “We can handle it, right bud?” David nodded again, pressed his face into Gabe’s leg.
“Just do it.” He said softly. “Get it over with.”
Some silent understanding passed between the adults above him. They were still for a moment, and then Gabe was bent over him, pushing his weight down on top of David and holding him. He had one second to panic before pain ripped through him. He felt the jaws of the thing tear back out of his leg. It was white hot and all encompassing and impossible. He felt his body try to shift to get away from the pain, but he still didn’t have much control over his wolf. He bit down on his lip to stop the cry that tried to worm its way out of his chest. His mouth filled up with copper. His dad was bent over him, his forehead pressed into David’s sternum as he muttered little encouragements, soft praise, gentle apologies.
Marie’s magic had never been comfortable, but as it ran its course through him, David felt it’s every movement. His skin started stitching back together where the teeth of the trap had cut into him. He whimpered softly as the bleeding slowed, as the bruises eased back from the surface; red into purple into yellow and green.
He didn’t scream until she got to his bone. It was broken in a few places, and he felt every scrape of bone on bone as it shifted back into place. He shouted long and loud, back arching, pushing against his dad’s hold to… do what exactly? Run away from the pain? He felt so foolish as he choked down another cry, tears pricking his eyes. Gabe sat up, one big hand coming to rest against David’s forehead.
“I know!” He said, his face twisted up in a growl or a sob or something horrible like that. “I know, honey, I know. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
His dad didn’t call him things like that. Not since he was very little.
Slowly, David’s vision cleared, his voice cracking off and failing as he curled inwards towards his dad. Marie let go of his leg. It still pulsed with distant pain, but he could feel that it was whole again. Gabe gathered him up, lifted him from the grassy ground and into his lap, his arms, cradled him like a baby against his chest.
“Dad,” he said softly, his face pressed into his dad’s leather jacket.
“I know. I know, honey. I’ve got you.”
Eventually, his dad stood with David still wrapped up in his arms. Gabe was so strong, it amazed him sometimes. He wasn’t a small kid, even if Asher was taller than him. Even so, his dad held him like he didn’t weigh a pound.
“You’re gonna have to put me down before we get back to camp.” David said after a while. He knew that there was a sizable portion of the pack in the woods surrounding them, shifted and moving in the darkness. He could feel them in his core, that new, foreign fullness in his chest. His threads strummed a strange music, pressed up against his dad, covered on all sides by the pack. Even so, this felt private, unobserved in the darkness. He didn’t want anybody else to see it. Embarrassment creeped into the edges of his exhaustion. “Ash’ll never let me live this down.”
“Ash was screaming that he’d gotten you killed.” Gabe chuckled. David twisted up his face.
“He’s so dramatic.” He huffed. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah.” Gabe replied. “Still not putting you down.”