SAVING BEN

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

Ben's cell was much smaller than where the special team was detained, and unlike the other cells I've passed earlier, it only had one wall of bars. The other three walls were made of stone... And from the side I could tell each wall was double layered.

Wow, I wondered what Ben did to make the warlock think he needed a reinforced cell... I mean besides the broken rubble damage along the way in... Okay, on second thoughts, it was pretty obvious Ben needed a reinforced cell to keep him in.

Ki opened the cell door for me. At first, I rushed in with a good mind to yell at Ben for being stubborn. Why couldn't he just sit tight like the other guys and wait to be rescued?

But the moment I saw him, it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I almost forgot to breathe.

Wth.

Someone, maybe it was Ki, had wrapped a shirt around Ben's waist. Otherwise, Ben was naked and still hanging from the stone wall. Ben's shirt was red stained on one side. I drew in my breath sharply at the sight and regretted it immediately when the fresh blood assaulted my senses. I immediately tried to regulate my breathing to smell it less.

River and Keanu were on either side of him, busy fumbling and turning over the the chains and bars.

"It's weird." River said, "I've dismantled as much magic as I could, but it's still locked."

"It has to be a physical lock then." Keanu considered the heavy chains in his hand, "But if it requires a physical key, the key hole has to be somewhere."

Keanu tried to check Ben's cuffs for clues.

Ben just angled his face away from them, his breathing was ragged. It looked like he was having difficulty just staying concious.

The small stone room felt too crowded. I edged myself towards Ben. How could this be happening right now?

I reached out my hand for Ben's chin, but he turned his head to face me and I could feel a light stubble scrap along the skin of my palm.

His eyes opened to meet mine, like emeralds under the unnatural light. "Sam..." Ben rasped.

I could only look back wordlessly.

Part of me was still reeling in shock. This wasn't happening! Those prophetic dreams, weren't they estimated to happen in our distant future?

But s***. Ben's stubble was real.

When did Ben suddenly grow up like this?

"Sam... "Ben rasped again. It was like he was really struggling to just say words.

"Don't talk." I told him, "Just hang on. We'll get you out of here."

But Ben shook his head, "It f***ing hurts, Sam. Just listen."

So I shut up.

Ben swallowed. I knew because I could see his Adams apple move. I hadn't remembered seeing it before, but it's not like I had ever looked up to him from this angle before.

Ben was chained up on the wall, his feet standing on a pile of heavy chains. There were a lot of chains in this room, like coils and coils of them, lying around like metal snakes.

Wilhelm had come in now to check the chains. Some of the chains ran in and out from gaps in the rock wall. Wilhelm said something about a contraption behind the wall. I'm seriously wondering what the heck the warlock needed such a room for.

What did the warlock mean to keep here anyway? A full grown gyaara?

"Sam..." Ben managed to rasp again, "I..."

Oh shoot. My beta was dying right in front of me, and I got distracted.

"Don't talk." I hissed at Ben, "We'll get you out of here!"

Ben paused, and then he rasped, "Get a knife."

Wait what? No way! I flared. Was Ben really going to play out his prophetic dream? I shook my head, "Ki's here, Ben."

"You." Ben rasped, "Sam. Please."

And then he closed his eyes and tilted his head away.

Oh s***. Did he die?

"As your beta, I am also your right hand, goddess." Ki smiled as he glowed next to me.

So if Ki did it, we would still be fulfilling the prophecy with my "right hand"?

Ki looked ready for it too. He was already running his knife through a flame. Ink held a bunch of other items next to him. I recognized a water flask and a towel.

"No dog, dammit." Ben growled when Ki approached him. He didn't pass out after all, "I don't want to find myself chained a second time with a bullet in me. Do it properly or kill me!"

Ben started coughing after that. It was very painful to watch. I briefly considered asking Cobra to come knock Ben out too. But given Ben's condition... Would that be the finishing blow?

And what was Ben saying? If we don't play out the prophetic dream just right? Would we really have to do it all over again? How many times was Ben going to get shot and chained in a dungeon?

Actually, he's already been shot in the stomach once, but there hadn't been a dungeon.

But seriously? If we had Ki fix it, would Ben be shot and chained in a dungeon again? And who would know what circumstances we would have found ourselves then? I wouldn't be able to guarantee that we'd always have a healer on hand, would I?

I looked at Ki who smiled at me, "Apologies, goddess, but time is not on our side. Beta has lost a lot of blood as it is."

"He's still bleeding?" I asked stupidly. But I really should have known just from the smell of it.

Ki nodded, "Apologies, goddess. I've done everything else I could think of to slow it."

"Can you take it out?" I asked. Because unlike Ben's dream, I wasn't alone. We had Ki - powerful healer adult Ki!

"I can, but..." Ki explained.

I felt my hair threaten to flare, "Nevermind what Ben wants. Just do it!"

Sometimes, for all his smarts, Ben was an idiot.

"But the prophecy!" Ben rasped. Did he sound weaker or was it my imagination?

"You're not allowed to die, Ben!" I flared at him. Did he think this was a Lycan storybook? Or one of our make believe games in the backyard? This was the real deal! To hell with the prophecy. This was real life - real life that people actually die from. It wasn't like Ben was in any position to resist anyway. Hahaha.

But then I realized it wouldn't be fair to Ben. I was scared, so scared my hands shook just thinking about what I had to do, but how did Ben feel? And even if we never had to repeat this episode or any episode like this again in our lives, wouldn't Ben have to live in fear of this day repeating itself in some sick way? What if it haunted him in his dreams every night?

If Ben died today, it would definitely haunt my dreams...

"Wait no." I changed my mind just as Ki lifted the knife, "I'll do it."

If anyone's going to live with nightmares, it should be me. I was the alpha. I can take it.

Ki stepped back and offered me the hilt of his blade, but I shook my head and took out my own.

Heller's gift. The sharpest blade in the world which could cut through anything, that was kept in the strongest sheath in the world that nothing could cut through.

This was my new dagger's first use - to save my friend's life.

Ki leaned over and prodded Ben's side, "You can feel the bullet here, goddess."

Oh! Okay.

I know Ki was trying to help, but the wound was seriously oozing and I... I summoned all my courage.

I can do this. I'm the alpha. How could I face my wolves if I freaked out now? Or worse, faint on the job?

At any rate, it seemed that Ki might just be able to help me operate on Ben the way he helped me ride a motorbike.

That would be half the battle won.

And as I lifted the knife, I realized I was wasn't alone. I had a lot more help than I expected. Besides Ki, who was glowing next to me in an assuring way. Ink had produced a bottle of alcohol from somewhere. Cobra was quick to hold Ben down when he flinched. Overall, my wolves weren't noobs at this kind of thing.

I made the cut, half guided by Ki's instruction, half guided by my lucky sense of direction.

And then before I could really think about it, I reached two fingers in, grasped the bullet between them... Oh! It burned. But I bit my lip and drew it out before throwing it to the ground with a yelp, "Ow! It burns..."

"It's silver." Ink commented on the side.

"Please allow me." Wilhelm bent down to retrieve the offending article on our behalf.

Ki got Barry to come in to help support Ben's weight. We still couldn't get the chains off. And then Torque forgot about his claustrophobia and came in to help too so that Ki would have two hands to stitched Ben up. It was weird, like watching Ki stitch up Sir Sparkalot, but this was real skin and flesh... I think I was really going to have nightmares after this.

Someone produced what the guys called a "field dressing" which was like an instant bandage with a pad attached to it in just the right size for covering Ben's wound and wrapping around his waist.

By now, Ben was properly unconscious, but still hanging from the chains.

"Eh, he's still stuck on the wall..." River fretted, "What to do?"

"We need to leave. It's already a miracle that the warlock hasn't come down by now." Keanu pointed out.

Which was a very valid point. Even if the warlock hadn't notice us enter the trap at the entrance, River had dismantled every spell he could find in this cell. Surely the warlock would have felt his magic unraveling down here!

"Let's just break the chains." Torque suggested.

"You may try, but don't break your young beta in your attempt." Ki warned.

So now the special team got to work. First they tried brute force, because guys with a lot of brute force applied it on every daily challenge. If you had ever seen Jonah open a bag of chips, you'd understand what I mean.

Next they tried applying heat first. That was their attempt at using their brains. They got Fluffy to heat up the chains so the metal would be softer - but then Wilhelm pointed out that the heat was travelling too quickly through the chain and we'd end up burning our young beta.

Wilhelm, the human, might be the most sensible person in our group right now. Was that something I should be worried about?

Anyway, we stopped Fluffy from heating the chain further and Torque tried breaking it where it was hottest, and ended up burning his hands.

This was when Barry came up with the bright idea of smashing down the wall.

Wilhelm's response was encouraging, "If that is possible, we might at least access the contraption behind it even if we can't fully break the young beta free."

"Okay, let's try that." I decided if Mr Sensible gave the green light, it should be safe enough.

We had a frenzied rock smashing party, and ended up with bloodied knuckles, broken walls, but the "contraption" turned out to be what looked like a metal wall.

Ki took my hands to heal them. Some of the guys raised their hands around Ki's glow as if warming them around a campfire.

"That was amazing." River said, "I've never seen wolves as strong as you guys."

Which pleased us all incredibly, but did nothing to free Ben.

And with all the rattling and smashing we had done, I was quite sure we had gotten the warlock's attention by now.

What should we do now?

I glared at the stoopid metal contraption. Could we pry it open?

As hopeless as it looked, we couldn't give up now!

"If only we had something to cut through these chains!" River sighed.

"That would not be impossible, your highness." Wilhelm answered, "But we would need an industrial diamond saw for chains of this thickness."

At that moment I realized who the biggest stoopid was in our group. I took out Heller's dagger. It had been cleaned and returned to the scabbard in my jacket after Ben's operation, "Maybe this would help."