Iron Claws and Fragile Hearts
Chapter 68: Heartbeat
Ethan lay on the ground in a thick pool of blood. Stiles knelt bare-chested beside him, blood gushing from a wound on his arm as he pressed his shirt against Ethan's torso.
"He's bleeding out!" Stiles screamed. "I can't stop it."
Isaac fought back a wave of stomach-churning terror, sprinted forward, and–
"Uhhmph!"
He slammed into a wall of pure energy and careened backward, stumbling to the ground.
He sat up and blinked, struggling to make sense of what had happened. The pool of blood surrounding Ethan was a perfect circle and rimmed in a thin barrier of black dust. Mountain ash.
"Sorry!" Stiles shouted, darting a backward glance at the woods into which the rogue werewolf pack had disappeared.
A second wave of cold dread arced down Isaac's spine as he followed Stiles' eyes and his gaze alighted on a new horror: a dead man dangling from a tree near the side entrance of the building, a playground rope swing twisted around his broken neck, his face purple and bloated. A slide, jungle gym, and picnic table dotted the grassy lawn in front of him.
Stiles kicked open the ring of mountain ash with one foot, not abandoning his position pressing his saturated shirt to Ethan's stomach. A viscous stream of blood spilled from the opening in the circle, and the sickening, metallic tang of Ethan's blood filled Isaac's nostrils, blocking all other stimulus from his mind.
"Ethan!" Isaac bounded into the blood pool, throwing himself down on his knees at Ethan's side.
He trembled as he took in Ethan's condition. His face and neck were slashed with clawmarks. The injuries continued down his arms, one of which was twisted and broken, a bone protruding beneath the skin. The worst of his wounds seemed centered around his chest and abdomen. He must have put on a t-shirt when he went back to the locker room for Aiden's keys, but it was shredded into bloody tatters and barely clinging to his mutilated torso.
"He fought them all off," Stiles said in a shaky voice as he pressed his shirt harder against what seemed to be a gaping wound in Ethan's stomach. "He could have killed some of them, but-but he didn't. I-I don't know why."
"That's not who he is," Isaac choked out as he clutched Ethan's cool, sticky hand. None of this seemed real. It couldn't be real. He had just left Ethan at the school. He had been fine. Now he was…now he was…
"I tried to get the mountain ash from the Jeep faster. I tried but they stopped me, and he had to protect me, and I think I made it worse, divided his attention, and I got us in the ring, and-and I texted you, and I tried to stop the bleeding, and-and–" Stiles sputtered for breath and gave Isaac a frantic look. "Is he still alive?"
Isaac nodded, focusing on the weak, uneven rhythm of Ethan's heartbeat. It sounded worse than Liam's heartbeat had that night on the way to hospital, when the only way to save him had been to–
Isaac cupped his hands around Ethan's and focused on their packbond, pouring support and pack comfort through their bond, pleading with the corresponding tendril in Ethan's chest to twine around his own and hang on tight until he could heal.
"Why isn't he healing?!" Stiles shouted.
"I don't know."
"Aren't you his packmate now? Isn't that supposed to help?"
"I'm trying!"
"I know. I know." Stiles leaned into him. "It's my fault. I should have called an ambulance. I didn't even think about it until it was too late. Till I couldn't take my hands away or…"
Isaac stared down at Stiles' blood-soaked hands. There wasn't a scrap of dry fabric or skin beneath them. Ethan would certainly have bled out already but for Stiles' efforts to save him.
"I don't know what to do," Isaac whispered, trying to leach Ethan's pain. There was barely any to take. Ethan didn't seem to be feeling much of anything. "His heartbeat's getting weaker."
"Oh god."
Isaac held his breath and listened as the beats grew fainter and the interval between them lengthened. It was all happening too fast. There had to be a way to save him.
Images of their time together flashed through Isaac's mind.
Dancing with Ethan at Sinema.
Sushi and their friend date.
Coffee that didn't affect werewolves.
Ethan in his white t-shirt and boxers, covered in coffee grounds and serving him charred eggs.
The next beat of Ethan's heart was almost inaudible, even to Isaac's ears.
Ethan protecting him from Iron Claw.
Ethan holding him, making him feel wanted and safe.
The look of approval on Ethan's face when he taught Isaac how to mask his scent. How to hide his…his…
"His heartbeat's gone."
"What?" Stiles let go of his bloodied shirt and smacked Ethan's chest. "NO!"
"Wait." Isaac released a halting breath and realized he could still breathe. His insides weren't shredded in agony the way they had been when he lost Erica and Boyd. He squeezed Ethan's hand tighter and clung to the warm but fragile lifeline still fluttering between them. "I can still feel our packbond. He's not gone…but his heart's stopped."
A determined look formed on Stiles' face and he laced his hands together before slamming them against Ethan's chest – Once. Twice. Three times – until he had established a steady rhythm of compressions.
"You're pushing the blood out!" Isaac covered the sopping shirt and held it in place over Ethan's gaping wound.
"C'mon, c'mon!" Stiles kept thumping Ethan's chest as he turned to Isaac in desperation. "Do you hear anything?"
"No, I–" Isaac stopped and tilted his head in the opposite direction.
"Is his heart beating?!"
"No…but I hear sirens." Isaac channeled renewed reassurance and strength through his bond with Ethan. "Someone's coming, Ethan. Just hang on. You're gonna be okay. Just. Hang. On."
It was only about a minute, but it felt like an eternity until an ambulance screeched into the parking lot and barreled to a stop behind Stiles' Jeep. The driver's side door burst open and Aiden leaped out.
"Get out here with the defibrillator! NOW!"
"Your brother's here," Isaac whispered, clenching his bond with Ethan impossibly tighter. "And he brought an ambulance. You're going to be okay."
Stiles didn't stop his chest compressions, keeping whatever blood Ethan had left artificially circulating, even as fresh rivulets of Stiles' own blood flowed from the deep gash on his arm, expelled at a faster rate as his muscles strained and flexed from exertion.
On one level, Isaac was worried about Stiles and how deep the wound on his arm went, but he couldn't allow anything to shake his focus from his tenuous bond with Ethan. It was growing thinner and more raw, ready to snap and send Ethan hurtling into the abyss forever. But Isaac wasn't going to let that happen. Neither was Stiles. Nor Aiden as he hustled toward them with his arm locked around a frazzled young man in a paramedic's uniform toting a defibrillator pack.
"Are you sure his heart's stopped?" the paramedic asked. "If it hasn't, shocking him could–"
"We're sure." Aiden shoved him over the broken mountain ash ring toward his twin. "Do it."
The paramedic visibly swallowed before looking away from Aiden and taking in Ethan's condition as he opened his pack and pulled out the defibrillator paddles.
"How long has it been since his heart stop?"
"Just a. A minute or so. Ago," Isaac answered, struggling to keep his composure. "Stiles has been doing CPR. I've been hanging onto the…"
"Hand?" the paramedic finished as he nudged Stiles away and tore open the remains of Ethan's shirt.
"Yeah, hand."
Aiden gave Isaac a faint nod as he crouched on Ethan's opposite side and set about realigning the bones of his broken arm.
"No." The paramedic shook his head and waved Aiden and Isaac off. "Clear. Err, everyone let go of him! Get back."
As soon as Isaac dropped Ethan's hand the paramedic jabbed the electrified paddles to Ethan's chest.
A spark jolted through their packbond and Ethan's eyes shot open as he gasped for breath.
"Wow…" The paramedic blinked and turned the defibrillator off. "I didn't think he was going to respond that well." He glanced in awe at all the blood that surrounded them. "Or at all," he added under his breath as he stood. "I'll get the stretcher. Someone will need to help me load him onto it."
The paramedic was already running back to the ambulance.
Aiden wrapped his arms around Ethan's shoulders, and without thinking about it Isaac went in for an embrace too, pressing the three of them together in a weird pseudo-hug.
"Hey," Ethan croaked in a weak, dry voice.
"Dumbass," Aiden whispered, sharp and urgent.
Isaac discreetly kissed Ethan's collarbone.
"Uh, he's still bleeding." Stiles had swapped sides with Isaac and was once again holding the bloodied shirt to Ethan's abdomen.
As if to underscore Stiles' point, Ethan let out a ragged breath and slumped against the ground as the tight, constricted tension in his muscles from the defibrillator shock gradually ebbed away.
"Hurry up!" Aiden shouted at the paramedic, who was out of view behind the ambulance.
"I'll go help him," Stiles said, motioning with his head for Isaac to take over holding Ethan's stomach, then getting up and bounding away as soon as he did.
"How did you get a paramedic to come with you and let you drive the ambulance?" Isaac asked, trying not to concentrate too much on the squishy, cavernous sensation under his hand where Ethan's firm stomach should have been. It felt like he had been damn near disemboweled.
"I didn't really give him a choice," Aiden answered with a shrug.
Great. The next sirens Isaac heard would probably be the cops.
"There's a dead body over there," Isaac said with a nod of his chin toward the corpse in the tree in an attempt to make small talk.
"Yep," Aiden agreed. He sucked at making small talk.
Ethan kept his eyes open and reacted when Isaac or Aiden caught his otherwise unfocused gaze, but he didn't try to talk or communicate. Isaac counted it as a massive win. Ethan looking at him and reacting felt like a world of interaction compared to only the thin, warm tendril that had served as his final connection to the land of the living. That connection itself felt stronger and warmer now too.
Stiles and the paramedic returned with the rolling stretcher and collapsed it on the ground beside Ethan. A large, red bag hung from the paramedic's shoulder, which he set down and opened to pull out gauze and medical tape.
Stiles shuddered and looked away as the paramedic removed the bloodied shirt from Ethan's gaping stomach wound and began packing it. Isaac looked away too, but not before the image of Ethan's shredded, ripped open abdomen emblazoned itself on his mind.
"Okay," the paramedic said as he finished taping Ethan up. "I need to get him on the stretcher with minimal jostling and–"
Isaac was already taking hold of Ethan's calves and together he and Aiden gently lifted him onto the stretcher.
"I– Uh, o-okay." The paramedic set about strapping Ethan into place. "I was going to– Uh, well good job, I guess."
Isaac frowned and regarded the guy more critically. He looked awfully young, more like a college student than a seasoned professional. He shot Aiden a glare.
"What? I didn't have time to check resumes," Aiden answered, holding up his hands.
The paramedic looked between them and frowned as he raised the stretcher back up on its wheels and springs with Stiles keeping the other end steady.
"What's your name?" Stiles asked as they rolled Ethan toward the ambulance.
"Lucas."
"Well Lucas, thank you for saving my friend."
Lucas nodded and looked past Stiles at the corpse in the tree in the distance.
"Ignore him," Aiden said.
"I have to call it in."
"Ignore him!" Aiden shouted, a growl ringing in his voice.
Fear spiked in Lucas' scent, and he nodded as they stopped behind the ambulance.
"Ethan's your only priority right now," Aiden continued.
"And don't fuck up," Isaac added, letting a growl enter his own tone.
Lucas licked his lips and frowned. "He's lost a lot of blood," he said as Aiden replaced Stiles on the other end of the stretcher and they lifted Ethan into the ambulance. "I don't know if he'll make it to the hospital."
"You're going to transfuse him with my blood on the way," Aiden said as he settled into the back of the ambulance beside Ethan's head.
"What? No, I can't–"
"You will," Isaac assured Lucas, roughly squeezing the back of his neck before hefting him up into the ambulance.
"I'll drive," Stiles said as he jogged to the front of the ambulance.
Isaac climbed into the back and shut the door.
"Hurry up, Stilinski," Aiden shouted through the front wall of the vehicle.
"Yeah, I'll use the sirens and everything!" Stiles shouted back. The sirens started a moment later as the ambulance reversed away from the Jeep.
"Get going," Isaac rumbled to Lucas as Ethan's heartbeat began to waver. He had lost consciousness again. "He needs blood. Now."
"I've never done a direct, person-to-person transfusion."
"First time for everything," Aiden said with a grunt, his hand on Ethan's shoulder. "Where do you want me?"
"Uh, okay, so…" Lucas raked a hand over his dark, buzz-cut hair. "I need to draw the blood from one of your arteries and put it into one of his veins."
"Whatever, just do it," Aiden answered.
"Uh okay. Okay. I need IV lines." Lucas wrenched opened one of the drawers that lined the inside of the ambulance, but yanked his hands away without touching anything. "Gloves first."
"Infection won't be an issue for him," Aiden said.
"What? Of course it will," Lucas answered as he dumped his old gloves into a bin and pulled on a fresh pair.
"Just let him," Isaac muttered under his breath.
"We need to hurry," Aiden muttered back, loud enough for Lucas to hear. What little color Ethan had gotten back after being shocked had drained away, leaving his face with a cold pallor.
"I'm hurrying. I– Ahh!" Lucas banged his hand against the drawer he had been reaching for as the ambulance swerved.
"Stilinski, watch it!"
"I'm goin' around a car that doesn't know how to fuckin' get outta the way for a fuckin' ambulance!" Stiles shouted. Isaac recognized his tone and was pretty sure Stiles was flipping off the other motorist.
Lucas had retrieved an IV line and attached needles to each end. He clamped one end and held out his hand to Aiden. "Give me your wrist."
Aiden did so and Lucas gnawed his bottom lip as he worked the needle into Aiden's vein.
"Got it."
Blood filled the end of the tube but stopped at the clamp. Lucas fumbled with Ethan's arm as he attempted to insert the other end of the line into the vein in his inner elbow.
"Missed." Lucas hissed through his teeth as he eased the needle back out. "Crap, I didn't hook him up to the monitor. I think his heart might have stopped."
Ethan's breathing and heart rate were barely perceptible, but they were there.
"It didn't. Keep going," Isaac said, holding Ethan's arm steady for Lucas and massaging his forearm with his thumb.
"You can't know that. If it did stop, I need to–"
"Keep going!" Aiden roared, his eyes flashing icy blue.
Lucas gaped for a second, then whipped his head down and refocused on his task. It was no use. His hands were shaking too much.
"It's okay." Isaac caught Lucas' trembling hand and gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Just concentrate. You know how to do this." And if you fuck up again, I'm going to break both your arms.
Lucas nodded and took a deep breath. A little while later he had the IV in place and was opening the clamp. A stream of blood flowed from Aiden's wrist into Ethan's arm.
Isaac and Aiden breathed a sigh of relief as the transfusion started, and gradually Ethan's heartbeat grew stronger and steadier.
"I think it's working," Lucas said as he changed his gloves again. "I need to setup the monitor and get another IV with some fluid going."
"Do the IV first," Aiden said, flaring his eyes again. "We're monitoring him."
"Uh, r-right." Lucas shot Isaac a glance as if to ask, are you seeing this shit?!
Isaac smirked and let his own eyes glow golden.
Lucas swallowed and radiated fear as he set up the fluid IV and connected the equipment to Ethan that would monitor his heart and other vitals.
"He's weak but stable for now," Lucas said in a soft voice without looking up.
"Thank you," Isaac nudged Lucas' arm and gave him a genuine smile. He regretted the need to intimidate him earlier.
Aiden sighed and squeezed his hand down his arm toward his wrist. "I think it's slowing down."
"You might be clotting."
"Fix it."
"Uh…"
"It's okay." Isaac bumped Lucas' elbow and gave him another tentative smile. "We'll let you go when we get to the hospital, but in the meantime, please do what you can to get the blood going again, okay?"
Lucas nodded and let out a shaky breath as he looked around, obviously at a loss for what to do next. He was spared from deciding as Stiles slowed almost to a stop and then turned. A few moments later the sirens stopped and they parked.
"We're here," Stiles shouted through the partition between the front and back of the ambulance.
Lucas re-clamped the IV line at Aiden's wrist and set about removing it as Isaac opened the rear doors and psyched himself up to wheel Ethan into the ER and demand they take care of him.
"That's it! That's our stolen ambulance!" an unfamiliar male voice shouted.
"Aiden, are you in there?" a second, female voice called. Isaac's eyes widened as he realized he recognized the voice.
"Wait, you know the thief?" the man exclaimed.
"Get out here!" the woman demanded. "What do you mean stealing one of my ambulances?!"
Isaac climbed out of the back of the ambulance and gave Liam's mother an awkward wave. A man in a doctor's coat stood beside her.
"Isaac." The frown on her stern face deepened. "What happened?"
Isaac wasn't trying to ignore her, but he was too concerned with helping Lucas and Aiden ease Ethan's stretcher out of the ambulance to answer.
"Joyriding teenagers, I might have known," the doctor declared as Stiles hopped out of the front of the ambulance. "What gall to– oh, you're covered in blood."
Mrs. Dunbar gasped and crowded into the space opposite Isaac as Lucas raised the stretcher and readied it for rolling. She darted glances between Ethan's monitor and his injuries, then lingered on his face before looking up at Aiden.
"Aiden." She sounded faintly relieved, and Isaac realized she had been confirming Ethan was the injured twin and not Aiden.
Anger lanced through Isaac and he growled as he stroked Ethan's unbroken arm.
"What happened?" Mrs. Dunbar asked Aiden as they rolled Ethan toward the ER's sliding doors, the unfamiliar male doctor leading the way with Stiles bringing up the rear.
"He was attacked by…"
"Right." She gave him a gentle nod of understanding.
Aiden shivered and looked away from her to his brother. "We gave him a transfusion in the ambulance, but he needs more blood."
"I'll get an OR prepped and–"
"No," Mrs. Dunbar said, interrupting the unfamiliar doctor as they entered the ER but didn't slow down. "I'll handle this myself. Go back to your rounds."
"But you're not a surgeon, and he needs–"
"Back to your rounds, Doug."
He looked like he wanted to argue but sighed and raised his palms. "This isn't going to end well, Jenna," he called after them as Liam's mother guided the stretcher through the ER and up to a set of closed, double doors. She pressed a square metal button on the wall.
"Wait." Lucas tried to pull the gurney in the opposite direction as the doors opened, but Isaac and Aiden held it in place. "The OR is the other way."
"I said I was going to handle this," Liam's mother reiterated with the same steely authority she had used with the doctor.
Lucas let go of the gurney and eyed Isaac and Aiden as he stepped back, almost bumping Stiles. "Fine, you handle it. I'm going to call the police and report that other body at the temple, along with whatever the hell ritualistic murder attempt led to him" –he motioned to Ethan– "getting carved up and lying in a perfect ring of blood."
Mrs. Dunbar's eyes widened and she shot questioning looks at Aiden and Isaac. Aiden shrugged and Isaac looked away as they wheeled Ethan through the double doors and down another long corridor, passing doctors, nurses, and orderlies as they went, all of whom seemed confused and alarmed that Mrs. Dunbar was wheeling the stretcher away from the ER with three blood-soaked teenagers flanking her.
"I'll go call my dad and try to head Lucas off," Stiles said as they paused at another set of closed double doors.
"You need to get that sewn up," Mrs. Dunbar said with a nod of her chin at Stiles' arm, which was still slowly dripping blood.
"Yeah, I will after I call," he answered, casting one more anxious look at Ethan and a reassuring one at Isaac before hustling away.
Isaac wanted to say something, wanted to get more information about what had happened at the…temple? But they were already rushing down another corridor, this one less crowded.
"We'll take him to the closed wing," Mrs. Dunbar whispered, "where Liam was treated after he was bitten."
Isaac nodded, wishing he had told Stiles to call Melissa to come and help. Liam's mom had a plan in mind and seemed to be some kind of doctor, but he would have felt better with Melissa there.
"Liam," Mrs. Dunbar muttered under her breath as they reached intersecting hallways and turned down a new corridor.
"What about him?" Isaac asked, a new net of anxiety twisting around his chest as his thoughts turned to Mason's stabbing. He still had no idea if Mason had survived or how Liam was holding up.
"I took him to my office after Aiden left," she answered, not slowing their hurried pace down the hallway despite the thick worry in her voice. "He was–" She stopped speaking as they passed a series of open hospital rooms with patients and visiting family.
"Did Mason make it here?" Isaac wolf whispered to Aiden.
"Yeah," he answered in a normal voice.
"Is he still alive?" Isaac whispered.
"I don't know," Aiden answered, staring at his brother.
"Isaac, you need to go and check on him," Mrs. Dunbar said as they rolled through yet another set of intersecting hallways and veered to the right.
"Mason?" Isaac asked, furrowing his brow. What could he do?
"Liam," she answered with a brow furrow of her own. "He needs someone to help him calm down."
Isaac's stomach dropped. What could he do? Liam hated him now. Besides…
"I'm not leaving Ethan."
Mrs. Dunbar grumbled as thet turned down what, based on memory, Isaac believed was the final corridor before they would enter the closed wing of the hospital. As they were passing a bank of elevators, they were intercepted by a nurse in scrubs like the ones Melissa wore.
"Doctor, what happened?" She tried to step in front of the gurney but they pushed past her. "This patient needs surgery. And who are they?" She waved at Isaac and Aiden.
"Karena, this is Isaac," Mrs. Dunbar said to the nurse with a tip of her head at Isaac as they continued down the corridor into the abandoned hospital wing. "Take him to my office, please."
"What?!" Isaac all but growled. Hadn't he just said he wasn't leaving Ethan?
"Please." She gave him a meaningful look. "Someone has to help Liam. My son," she added to the nurse. "He's going through a difficult time, and Isaac is one of the few people he'll open up to."
"But…" Isaac brushed his fingers over the clammy, slashed skin of Ethan's unbroken arm and eyed the bloody gauze tapped to his torso.
"Go," Aiden wolf whispered to Isaac. "I can't leave him. He needs my blood. And we can't let Liam flip out and rampage through the hospital."
Isaac growled under his breath. Why did Aiden have to have a valid point?
"Fine." He channeled one more surge of comfort and reassurance through his packbond with Ethan and glared at Aiden as he and Mrs. Dunbar turned a corner without him, leaving him alone with the nurse.
"I don't understand where she's going," Karena mumbled to herself as she stared after them. "That wing is closed."
"Take me to her office please."
"I…" Karena blinked and shook her head. "No, I have to report this to someone. If that patient dies–"
"He won't!" Isaac growled, narrowly resisting the urge to flash his eyes and fangs. He took a breath and tried again as he pictured how agitated and wolfed out Liam had been the last time he had seen him. If he was alone in the hospital in that condition anything could happen…just nothing good. "Please. I really do need to go check on her son, and I don't know where her office is."
The nurse sighed. "Okay, follow me."
Her scent radiated irritation as they tromped back up the hallway to the bank of elevators and she rang for one. He didn't doubt she was going to report what she had seen, just like Lucas and that doctor from the ambulance bay. Isaac only hoped nothing would come of it until Ethan had gotten more blood and was healing.
Isaac and the nurse rode the elevator to the third floor and stepped out. They had only gone about a dozen yards when she flagged down an orderly who was mopping the floor.
"Pete, can you take this young man to Dr. Dunbar's office? I need to get back to my station."
"Anything for you, Karena," the silver-haired orderly answered with a grin and a little bow.
The nurse laughed and thanked him before turning and heading back for the elevator.
"So, Dr. Dunbar, eh?" the orderly asked with another grin over his shoulder at Isaac. "You must either be real important or in a whole lotta trouble."
"I'm in trouble," Isaac answered without returning the smile.
"Hmm, I see that now," Pete answered as he looked Isaac over more closely, his gaze lingering on the smudges of blood on Isaac's hands and arms and the bloodstains on his shirt, pants, and shoes. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. Just take me to Dr. Dunbar's office please."
Pete hummed his ascent and led them down the hallway.
Isaac wondered what position Liam's mom held at the hospital to have her own office and to be able to get everyone to do what she said with minimal protest. He was curious, but he was also exhausted and brimming with worry. It didn't feel worth making chitchat with this stranger to find out, not when he could just ask Melissa later. Asking Liam seemed like an impossibility. He had no idea what he was going to say to him when they met or how he could possibly hope to calm him down when he was currently one of the biggest sources of stress and anger in Liam's life.
Pete must have taken the hint because he didn't try to engage Isaac in further conversation as they wound their way through the corridors until they reached another elevator. They entered and Pete pressed the button for the fourth floor, which Isaac hadn't realized even existed. The label beside the button read Administration.
As soon as the doors re-opened, Isaac caught Liam's scent. It would have been hard to miss, filled as it was with the pungent, distinctive aroma of rotting pepper coffee that characterized Liam's rage and sundry other negative emotions.
"I can find it from here," Isaac said, eager to be rid of the orderly so he wouldn't have to worry about him seeing Liam wolfed out.
Pete's brow creased with confusion. "I thought you didn't know where Dr. Dunbar's office was? Getting to the fourth floor was the easy part, but you're liable to get lost up here if ya don't know where ya going."
"I've been here before," Isaac answered with an easy smile. "It's all coming back to me now. I just needed to see the floor to jog my memory. I don't want to take up any more of your time."
"Well…Okay, but just so we're clear, head down that hallway." He pointed to the left. "Keep going straight, past the first turn, then take a right, then…" He paused and thought about it. "Another right. You'll walk down a short hallway, and her office is at the end of it."
"Yep, that's how I remember it," Isaac answered with a crisp nod. "Thanks."
"You take care of ya'self, son." Pete clapped Isaac on the shoulder. "I'm on the third floor until seven if ya need anything."
"Thanks," Isaac mumbled with more sincerity as Pete re-boarded the elevator.
Isaac took a shaky breath, trying to focus on anything other than the stomach-churning stench of his packmate's distress. Unfortunately the only other thoughts that came to mind were his own stomach-churning distress about Ethan, what all of this meant for Stiles, and how the hell they were going to solve the darach, Cosgrove pack, and Iron Claw problems. With those concerns at the forefront of his mind, it was almost impossible to resist getting tangled up in the visceral hurt and rage that guided him through the hallways like a blinking neon sign of chemoreceptors.
Liam's anger was affecting. It hot-wired Isaac's emotions, making his fangs drop into place beneath his lips and his claws unsheathe themselves in his pockets. It felt better not holding them back, not fighting his anger, and by the time he turned down the final short hallway and caught the blood-boiling thump, thump, thump of Liam's racing heart, he was equally furioushimself – furious at the darach, furious at Iron Claw, and fucking homicidally livid at that bitch Megan and her lowlife pack for what they had done to Ethan.
"Isaac?!" Liam's voice echoed up the hallway, more a howl than a shout as his heartbeat thudded with fresh fury.
Isaac wanted to answer with an angry howl of his own but didn't. Somewhere under his rage, he was aware that he had to calm Liam down, not bait him into a fight.
He stopped a dozen feet from the door and closed his eyes.
Liam's angry, wolfed-out face formed in front of him, snarling and taunting him with his betrayal. He willed the image away, but as soon as he did Ethan's blind, mutilated, slashed apart face from the night of Iron Claw's almost fatal attack appeared in its place. Isaac's anger intensified, but he pressed his fingers against his closed eyes and banished the gruesome image. In the flickering light spots that followed, the darach's hateful silver eyes materialized, glowing from Stiles' face and contorting his lips into a cruel sneer. Isaac growled until that image was gone too.
"Isaac?!" Liam sounded just as furious, but this time Isaac caught the notes of fear and confusion in his voice as well.
The next face that flashed into Isaac's mind belonged to his father – and he was mad too, irate as he pummeled Isaac's ribs with his old championship swim team ring, and then dragged him down the stairs into their darkened basement. The rage had taken him completely and destroyed the man he used to be. But that wouldn't be Isaac's fate.
His eyes opened and he withdraw human hands from his pockets. "I'm coming, Liam," he called, lacing Liam's name with affection.
He opened the door to find what, under normal circumstances, was probably a very nice office, but which had clearly just suffered a devastating explosion from a Liam-shaped bomb. The heavy wooden desk was flipped on its side, a smashed computer monitor a few feet in front of it on the plush gray carpet. The blinds had been ripped from the windows. Leather couch cushions had been slashed and thrown across the room with the couch itself sitting in a broken heap beside the desk. One arm had been ripped off a desk chair, and a hole had been punched through the back of a wingback lounger. A toppled bookcase and smashed glass table completed the chaos.
Liam stood in the center of the room, his eyes glowing and his claws and fangs out. "Isaac!" he roared.
Isaac braced himself as Liam ran forward. He wasn't going to fight him, and he wasn't going to let him out of this office to do any more damage.
Liam slammed into him and sent him stumbling against the wall, but as Isaac wrapped his arms around him to keep him from getting up and running out of the room, the slash attack he was expecting never came. Instead Liam returned the tight embrace and clung to Isaac's back.
"Help me," he growled, burying his face against Isaac's throat. "I can't control myself."
"Yes, you can." Isaac stroked gentle fingers down Liam's spine.
"I can't!" Liam wailed, letting go of Isaac's back and pounding an open palm against his chest. It hurt, and Liam's claws grazed him, but sour desperation overpowered even the spicy, buzzing rage in his scent.
"We got this, Liam, I promise." Isaac pulled him back into the embrace and held him with every ounce of his supernatural strength. "I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not letting you out of here. You can be as mad as you want. It's okay. I gotcha."
"Aaaaahhhhhh!" Liam howled and slammed Isaac against the wall, thrashing in his arms. But a sense of relief pulsed through their packbond.
"It's okay," Isaac whispered, still holding him and trying not to flinch as Liam punched a hole in the wall behind him.
"MASON!" Liam snarled and punched the wall again. "The darach did that to MASON!"
"We're gonna stop him."
"I'm gonna fucking rip him apart!" Liam screamed, wrenching himself out of Isaac's grip and kicking a nearby table lamp that had until now avoided the line of fire. It shattered and Liam smashed the side table it had sat on with his fist.
"Okay." Isaac rubbed Liam's back and kept himself between Liam and the door.
"NO!" Liam howled and whipped around, gripping Isaac's shoulders and shaking him. "I'm going to rip him apart!" Liam's glowing golden eyes were desperate and terrified. "I'm going to rip Stiles apart when I see him."
"No, you're not," Isaac flared his own eyes with authority and tamped down on the defensive rage threatening to bubble to the surface. "You're not going to touch him."
"I don't want to," Liam said with a whimper, dropping his head. "I know it wasn't him, but when I see him I'm going to."
"No, you're not," Isaac repeated, gently squeezing Liam's neck until he looked up at him. "You're not a lunatic, and you know the difference between Stiles and the darach. So you're not gonna hurt Stiles."
"But…" Liam's lip trembled around his fangs and he sniffled.
"I trust you, Liam. We all do." Isaac channeled that trust through their packbond and squeezed his neck again.
"But look what I did." Liam's scent flared with shame as he eyed his mother's smashed monitor a few feet away on the floor.
"Yeah, to furniture."
Liam shrugged and sank to the ground in a nervous squat as he surveyed the wreckage. "It was expensive."
Isaac sat next to him and resumed rubbing his back. "Your mom'll forgive you."
"She's gonna be pissed," Liam said with wide eyes that had cooled to human blue. "But yeah, I guess she'll get over it eventually."
Isaac laughed and ruffled Liam's hair, confident the bomb had been defused. "What's she do anyway? She seems like a big deal around here."
"She's the chief physician," Liam answered, a touch of pride entering his voice. "She runs the hospital basically."
"Oh." Isaac nodded. That explained things.
"I trust you too by the way," Liam said softly, leaning his shoulder against Isaac's as he settled in beside him.
A wave of relief washed over Isaac and he pulled Liam in for a tight hug, which Liam returned with as much urgent desperation as Isaac.
"I'm sorry," Liam whispered.
"No, I'm sorry," Isaac answered, nuzzling Liam's head then pulling back to look at him. "You have to know that I would never–"
"Do anything to hurt me," Liam finished, his eyes sparkling and his scent flush with happiness. "I know. You're my First Bond."
Isaac couldn't have hidden the massive grin on his face if he had tried. "Still?"
"For sure," Liam said with a nod. "It's crazy how relieved I was to see you. Or how you got me to calm down when I had been flipping out pretty much non-stop since Aiden left." His eyes widened in distress. "Oh shit, Aiden, and you." Liam gripped Isaac's arm and channeled support through their bond. "Is Ethan okay?"
Isaac licked his lips and swallowed.
"Oh god, he's not?!" Liam gripped Isaac's other arm. "What happened?"
"No, I-I think he will be." Isaac said it as confidently as he could, desperate to believe it. "But he, um…"
"It's okay." Liam squeezed Isaac's hands. His healed-over knuckles were speckled with his blood, while Isaac's were still caked in Ethan's blood. "I gotcha too. Tell me what happened."
Isaac nodded and proceeded to do just that. He tried to maintain his composure, but he wasn't overly embarrassed when his voice broke or he needed to stop and collect himself. Liam just sat with him, leaning against him and channeling reassurance through their bond.
When Isaac had finished his story, Liam filled him in on what had happened since he and Aiden and Lydia had left for the hospital with Mason. Liam's step-dad had met them in the ER and taken Mason into surgery. Liam's mom had called Mason's parents and sat with Liam, Lydia, and Aiden while they waited. Then several things had happened in rapid succession that sent Liam spiraling out of control. Aiden had sense Ethan's injuries, stormed out of the ER, and stolen an ambulance just as Mason's parents had arrived filled with worry and even more questions. Moments later Mason had coded.
Liam had tried to storm into the OR, but his mom had stopped him just as they resuscitated Mason. The weak, but reassuring beat of Mason's heart had calmed Liam enough for his mom to drag him away, but as soon as he was on the elevator and could no longer hear Mason's heartbeat, he wolfed out again. His mom had helped him hide his claws and eyes and had gotten him to her office without Liam completely flipping out, but as soon as he was there, he had screamed at her to get out and taken out his rage on her office.
"So you don't know how he's doing?" Isaac asked softly, one arm around Liam's shoulders and his other hand patting Liam's.
"No." Liam stared at the floor, his bottom lip jutting out. "But he must still be in surgery or my dad woulda come told me by now, good news or bad news."
"Well let's go to the waiting room so we can find out sooner when he's done." Isaac squeezed Liam's shoulder and stood.
"You think it's safe?" Liam asked, his blue eyes stormy with worry as he gripped Isaac's forearm and stood. "What if I lose control again?"
"You won't." Isaac infused confidence into the statement, finding he even believed it himself. "He's your anchor, and he needs you, so you're going to be there for him."
Liam nodded and took a deep breath. "You're right. I got this."
"You got this," Isaac agreed, winding his arm around Liam's side as they headed for the door.
They entered the hallway and instead of letting go, Liam crowded closer and gave Isaac a pleading look. "I know you need to go check on Ethan, but could you come right back as soon as you do?"
A cold twang of disappointment twisted in Isaac's gut but he nodded. "Yeah, of course."
Liam sniffed the air and frowned as he released Isaac. "Never mind, I don't wanna be needy. I just…just never mind."
He accelerated his pace up the hallway, putting distance between them, but Isaac caught him as they turned the corner, gently gripping his shoulder until he stopped.
"Just forget it," he said, the prickling, bittersweet scent of his embarrassment swirling around them. "Concentrate on Ethan. I can handle things with Mason by myself."
"Yeah, you can handle things by yourself," Isaac said. A flash of hurt broke across Liam's face, but Isaac was already pulling him into a hug. "But you don't have to. Ethan's a badass former alpha. I know he's fine. I'm sticking with you."
Liam let out a slow sigh against Isaac's chest and held on for a few more seconds before letting go and resuming their trek to the elevator.
As Isaac followed him through the hallway, he concentrated on the steady, soothing, thump of his heartbeat and the strength and trust flowing through their packbond. Somewhere three floors down, beyond the edges of what he could consciously perceive, he was certain there was another steady, soothing heartbeat. There had to be. The warm glow in his chest refused to let him entertain any other possibilities.
-000-
End Notes: Feedback is greatly appreciated!