Moon Shifter 02 - Primal Possession

to get to the ranch, though.” His brother wasn’t a doctor by a long shot, but he’d extracted bullets from him before. If the silver was allowed to spread through his system, it could weaken him for days and eventually kill him.

Chapter 10
    S tretched out on the floor in Ana and Connor’s kitchen, Liam gritted his teeth against the probing surgical tool. His arm wasn’t gushing blood, but they needed to get the rest of the bullet out so his wound could start healing. Due to the blood loss he was weaker than normal, and if he’d been human, he’d have passed out by now.
    His body was working overtime and the wound was fighting to close itself. The remnants of silver on his skin wouldn’t let it.
    “This is it,” Connor said.
    He grunted in pain as his brother finished pulling the last bullet fragment out.
    “Quit being such a baby and stay still.” Ana held Liam’s arm straight as he tried to jerk away.
    He glared at his brother and Ana. “Next time you get shot, I’ll see how you feel.”
    “I thought male wolves were supposed to be tough.” Vivian, the little jaguar cub Ana and Connor had adopted, sat at the kitchen table with her chin propped betweenher hands. Her eyebrows drew together in curiosity as she watched him.
    “Damn it, Ana. Why are you letting her watch this?” This was tough enough without a ten-year-old cub questioning his masculinity.
    “Ooh, you said a bad word, Uncle Liam!” Vivian looked expectantly at Ana and pressed her lips together.
    Ana shrugged as she began cleaning his wound. “She wanted to, and besides, she needs to understand why we’re so different from humans. And do
not
curse in front of her.”
    “Don’t feel bad, Uncle Liam. I fell off my horse last week and cried for an hour. It’s okay if you want to cry.” Vivian stared at him with those big brown eyes as if she expected him to do just that.
    “Yeah. Go ahead and cry, little brother.” Connor dropped the last shard into the metal pan he’d set next to Liam’s head. His lips twitched as he fought back a laugh.
    “F— Screw you.” Lying there, he tried to picture December’s face while Ana sanitized and bandaged him. Anything to distract him. Unfortunately it didn’t work. The adrenaline had worn off and after being stabbed this morning, he felt as if he could sleep for a couple days straight. He’d tried calling her at work, but she must have left already. And she hadn’t answered her cell. Though he wanted to jump up right then and call again, he’d try her once he was sitting up and dressed.
    As Ana continued to bandage him, he could already feel himself getting stronger. Since the foreign object was gone, his body would naturally push out any remnants of silver, but it might take a day or two until he was completely back to normal. The silver slowed the healing process and even though most of it was gone, he knew he wouldn’t be at a hundred percent.
    “So when are we going to meet your girlfriend? Ana says you’re just like Connor and don’t know how to—”
    Ana cleared her throat loudly. “All right, little one. Let’s leave Uncle Liam and Connor alone.” She dropped the bloody towels into the trash bag she’d laid out and scooped Vivian up into her arms.
    “But I don’t want to leave,” Vivian pouted.
    “Too bad. You need a bath before dinner.”
    Vivian grumbled under her breath, but she wrapped her arms around Ana’s neck and laid her head on her shoulder as she did.
    Once they were out of sight, Liam sat up. More than pain, annoying discomfort pitched through his arm. He ignored it. “So how is it being newly mated and living here with the extra females?” One of Ana’s sisters had died, so they’d moved back into the main house with her other sister, Noel, along with Erin and had also adopted Vivian.
    Connor grinned slightly as he started wiping up the blood on the tile. “Sometimes we have to get…creative, but it’s good for Ana being near Noel all the time.”
    Liam bit back another groan as he pushed off the ground with his good arm and slid onto one of the chairs. “What about Vivian? How’s she adjusting to living with a bunch of wolves?”
    “I don’t think she cares one way or another, but she has been having a lot of fun shifting in the middle of the barn and scaring the shit out of the horses.” His brother shook his head. “You going to see December after this?”
    He nodded.
    “How are you going to explain that?” He gestured to the