Chapter 244: If either of you bleeds on my patients because you’re too stubborn to bind yourselves, I will kill you personally

Chapter 244: Chapter 244: If either of you bleeds on my patients because you’re too stubborn to bind yourselves, I will kill you personally

Content Warning: violence, blood, injury, and children in danger.

The male grabbed him.

Something pulled.

The man screamed.

Kael’s forelegs strained.

His shoulders bunched beneath black fur.

Soren shoved his tail beneath one slab and lifted it only a finger’s width.

"Now."

Kael pulled.

The man came halfway free.

Then a Hollowmaw’s hooked limb punched through beneath his thigh.

The claw sank in.

The male shrieked.

Blood sprayed across Kael’s paw.

Kael bit down on the back of the male’s hide wrap and pulled.

The Hollowmaw pulled the other way.

For one awful second, the man was stretched between them.

"CUT IT!"

Someone cried from beneath the rubble.

Kael could not get to the creature.

Soren could.

His tail vanished into the crack.

There was a wet crunch.

The pulling stopped.

Kael dragged the male free.

His thigh was torn open.

He was alive.

Barely.

Kael shoved him toward two waiting warriors.

Then immediately looked back at Swanly.

Always back at Swanly.

Through smoke and broken beams, he could see her holding the cubs.

He could smell their fear.

His mate bond was hot with it.

Soren lowered his head beside him.

Kael growled:

"We need to cross."

"I know."

"Now."

"There are still people under us."

Kael’s tail lashed hard enough to strike stone.

"I know."

Soren looked toward the damaged platform.

His daughters were crying.

Something changed in his eyes.

Cold became murderous.

"If I move my full weight onto that section, it collapses."

Kael bared his teeth.

"So we stand here?"

"No."

Soren’s tongue flicked.

He tasted the air.

Looked upward.

Broken roof beams.

Tree branches.

One surviving wall.

He was calculating.

Kael noticed.

"Find a way."

Soren’s gaze never left the children.

"I am."

The next scream came from the treatment area.

Tilla heard it before she saw what happened.

A young male carrying ash stumbled.

His foot came down beside an open crack.

A Warder seized his ankle.

He dropped the basket.

"NO!"

Ash scattered.

Tilla lunged.

She still had Tavi tied against her back.

"Tilla!"

Mora shouted her name.

Too late.

Tilla caught the male beneath his arms.

The Warder dragged.

Tilla’s little mink body slid across the boards.

Tavi screamed against her back.

"MAMA!"

"I’M HERE!"

The Warder pulled harder.

The male’s ankle twisted.

There was a crack.

He screamed so loudly Tilla’s ears flattened.

Mora grabbed Tilla around the waist.

Raku caught Mora.

Three people against one buried arm.

"PULL!"

Raku roared.

They pulled.

The Warder jerked again.

The male’s skin split around the ankle.

Blood poured.

Tilla screamed with him.

Then Raku transformed.

His huge crocodilian claws tore into the boards beside the crack.

He shoved his jaw down.

Bit.

Twisted.

The Warder’s arm ripped free.

The young male collapsed.

Tilla landed backward on Mora.

Tavi was sobbing.

The male stared at his foot.

It was still there.

Barely.

Nahla came running.

One look.

"Platform. Now."

"He’s losing too much blood."

"I can see that!"

Sari shoved cloth into Tilla’s hands.

"Press here."

Tilla did.

The male screamed.

Tilla flinched.

"I’m sorry."

"DON’T STOP!"

"I won’t."

Her hands were shaking.

She pressed harder.

Raku stood above them, blood dripping from one shoulder where a Hollowmaw had already torn through several scales.

Mora noticed.

"You’re hurt."

"It missed muscle."

"That was not what I said."

Raku looked at her.

Mora ripped a strip from her hide wrap and threw it at his chest.

"Wrap it."

"I am busy."

"So am I."

Raku stared.

Mora stared back.

Then Nahla snapped:

"If either of you bleeds on my patients because you’re too stubborn to bind yourselves, I will kill you personally."

Raku silently wrapped the shoulder.

Mora smirked.

Even now.

Even here.

Then a woman screamed from the next platform and all three moved.

No time to enjoy anything.

Nerin stood on a roof with one hand locked around his broken antler.

Blood ran between his fingers.

The ground was screaming to him.

Not with sound.

Pressure.

Movement.

Too much movement.

His knees buckled.

Tilla saw him.

"Nerin!"

He caught himself.

"I’m fine."

"You are never allowed to say that again!"

Nerin’s ears flattened.

"I..."

His antler pulsed.

Pain exploded.

He gasped.

Then pointed violently toward a family shelter.

"GET THEM OUT!"

Nobody moved fast enough.

Nerin jumped.

He hit the neighboring roof, nearly slipped, recovered.

"OUT!"

A father looked up.

"What?"

Nerin screamed:

"NOW!"

The male grabbed his child.

His mate followed.

They made it three steps.

The shelter floor erupted.

Six Warder arms punched through at once.

One caught the last female by her hair.

She screamed.

Her mate grabbed her.

Nerin jumped from the roof.

Tilla shouted:

"NERIN!"

He hit the raised walkway badly.

Pain shot up one leg.

He kept moving.

Caught the female’s wrist.

A second Warder grabbed him around the calf.

Nerin went down.

Tilla swore.

She shoved Tavi into Sari’s arms.

"Hold him!"

"Tilla!"

But the mink female was already running.

She moved the way minks did.

Fast.

Low.

Through gaps nobody else would think to use.

She reached Nerin.

Stabbed the Warder hand with a bone spear.

Once.

Twice.

The hand released him.

Nerin dragged the female free.

Tilla grabbed his arm.

"You almost got yourself killed!"

"She would have died."

"And then what? Swanly gets to bury you?"

Nerin froze.

Tilla was crying.

Actually crying.

Angry tears.

She shoved him toward the platform.

"Stop acting like being useful means you are disposable!"

Nerin stared at her.

For one second, amid screaming and blood and monsters, Swanly’s words came back to him.

You’re allowed to just exist.

Nerin swallowed.

Then nodded.

"I’ll try."

Tilla grabbed his antler cloth and tightened it.

"Try harder."

Back at Swanly’s platform, another Hollowmaw appeared.

Then two more.

The children saw them.

Sira immediately leaned toward the railing.

Swanly caught her.

"No."

"Bad!"

"I know."

Sira hissed.

Eira copied her.

Both daughters tried to crawl around Swanly.

"No venom unless it reaches you."

Eira pointed.

"Bad."

"Yes."

She pointed again.

"Bad."

"I can see it."

Another one emerged.

Eira stared.

Then slowly lifted a third little finger.

"Bad."

Swanly looked.

Three.

Her heart sank.

"Very good counting, baby. Horrible timing."