---Ezra's POV---
I was busy cooking dinner when I heard Jeremy's voice shouting my name, his little feet rushing over the floor before he zipped into the kitchen and nearly crashed into the cabinet beside me. Glancing down, I frowned slightly and gave a last stir at the bubbling stew before crouching to Jeremy's height.
Blonde curls dangled over his cute button nose and hazel eyes while Jeremy jumped up and down, splattering mud all over the former creamy tiles. Not that Jeremy noticed any of that; he was too busy in trying to tell me something, but his excitement and animal wasn't making it easy.
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm. Down. Take a deep breath Jer and tell me what's wrong." I finally said, grabbing the kid's muddy wrists in my hands, briefly wondering why he was so filthy anyways. I had only sent him out to Miranda to borrow some bay leaves to put in the stew.
Jeremy inhaled dramatically, still bouncing on the tips of his toes before he started from the top. "Miranda said I had to come get you so I did, but you weren't listening to me while we need to go to the pack quickly but you're just standing here and she needs help and Luke's being punished and Miranda's angry-"
"Whoa! Hold on there, slow down." I couldn't help but laugh as the boy had to take several breaths, having run out of air during his rushed and extremely long sentence. Just breath! I snorted and stood up, pulling everything from the stove and making sure my house wouldn't burn down before I grabbed Jeremy and walked out the door.
"Did she tell you why we're needed there?"
"Yeah, Luke attacked a cat and now it's stuck under their house. I've never seen a cat before and Luke said it's a shifter, but I said 'No, its not!' Shifters don't smell like that but he wouldn't believe me-"
Jeremy bounced instead of walking, holding tightly onto my hand as he skipped from side to side, never taking a moment to collect his breath until I placed my hand over his mouth, earning an amused chuckle.
"Miranda gave you chocolate again, didn't she?" I groaned out loud, not needing his excited nod to know I wasn't going to get any sleep this night unless I shifted and played with him for hours and hours.
Well, after a much needed bath; I remember dressing Jeremy with a pair of cotton gray sweatpants and a loose red shirt, both a muddy brown and soaking wet by now. Did he swim in a mud pool again?
Just as I was about to ask just that, I heard Miranda's southern' voice chime through the air while she stood beside her house. What surprised me that she was sitting knee-deep into the mud, trying to look underneath her house with a distraught expression on her face.
"Oh Jeremy, thank you so much my dear for getting Ezra. Go on inside and warm up love, Bryce will have some soup ready for yah." She smiled as they boy cheered and zipped inside, leaving me beside the house with a concerned Miranda and a very guilty-looking Luke.
"What's wrong Miranda? I know you don't call me without a reason. And please stop giving chocolate to Jer. You know how he reacts on the sweets." She waved my protest away with a distracted motion of her hands before curling her finger, indication that I should come closer and follow her example.
Grunting as I leaned over, I first saw nothing in the darkness underneath her house, but when my shift kicked in and sharpened my senses, I saw a small form huddled against the farthest corner, facing the wall and ignoring the clicking sounds from Miranda.
"The poor thing was attacked by my dumbass son and now it won't come out. It doesn't respond, doesn't even move. Breaks my heart to see it suffer like that." She said with a click of her tongue, Luke crossing his arms over his chest and scowled at the floor at the scolding tone.
I took a few deep breaths, letting my senses do the work and discovered that the cat was still alive but bleeding. And from the smell of it, he was bleeding rather heavily too. Loud voices and doors opening broke my focus and I glanced up to see the pack-doctor Max stepping out of the house along with an excited Jeremy.
"We've tried everything we could to get it out but it won't budge sir." Max's voice was raspy and deep as he glanced over a pair of reading glasses towards the cat and back at me. "We thought your shift could calm the poor thing down so I can examine it, or put it out of its misery."
Hmmm, that does make sense but they're forgetting one detail. "You guys do realize that if I shift and crawl underneath to fetch the cat, your house will be ruined?" I glanced from Max to Miranda, feeling a bit uncomfortable and tense now that they both had the same, smug smile on their faces.
"That's why Jeremy here volunteered to go underneath and lure it out." Miranda said, glancing at said boy with warm chocolaty eyes. I started to protest but the second I even turned in Jeremy's direction, his clothes were already sagging down on the floor and a brown and white stoat was wriggling its way out of the muddy pile of cloths.
Ah. No wonder he got muddy. He probably checked the cat out before when no-one was looking. I grunted and pinched my nose bridge for a second before glaring at Max, as he covered his snickering with a cough.
"Don't get too close to it and don't get hurt, you hear me? If you have so much as a scratch on you, you'll be grounded for a week." I said while pointing at the 7,5 inch stoat, which blinked up at me with beady black eyes before it gave a nod.
Jeremy instantly scurried underneath the house, rushing to the cat before he stopped, wriggling his body in excitement. He dashed to the side, made a twist mid-air before feigning a charge to the cat, dodging at the last second. It didn't respond, not even a flick of its tail or twitching its ear.
As Jeremy followed his instincts and performed his little luring dance, I started to wander if the cat was ignoring him or was so badly wounded that it couldn't react. After a few seconds, Jeremy stopped and took a few leaping steps towards the cat before he hesitantly touched its fur.
No reaction.
I could sense Jeremy's determination and I winched when he nipped at the cat's ear, making it react slightly as a low meow rumbled through its chest and it moved away from Jeremy.
So it is alive. Then why was it ignoring us before?
A tugging at my pants made me look down at Jeremy, who yanked a few more times to get my attention before running to the cat and back to me, before laying down and dragging himself forwards with his front paws.
"Jeremy, don't-"
Jer wriggled around some more before repeating the same action again, looking pointedly to the cat and back to me. Such a shame that he was too young to simply tell me what was wrong through a mind-link but eventually I figured out what he was telling me and sighed deeply.
"Miranda, do you have some rope? It appears the cat can't move its hind legs anymore." I asked politely, feeling amusement bubble up inside me as the southern bell took one second to take my request in and motioned for Max to fetch the rope.
And then she turned on her son and had his ear in a firm grip, twisting it slightly so Luke's muscular body that usually towered over his mother, was now bowed down. "You're going to pay the bills to fix that cat, do you hear me Luke? Every single penny comes from your account." She fumed as Luke twisted slightly to get away from her, yelping when that only tightened her hold.
"Yes ma'am. I'm sorry, I thought it was a shifter!" He apologized, letting out a released breath when his mother released him. "Oooh, she's going to skin him alive." I grinned slightly as I watched Luke dig his grave even further, continuing that the cat was on their territory and had made the first move anyways, justifying their attack.
"Lucas Edward James. That is a deplorable excuse." Miranda started as she placed her hands on her curvy hips, her dark brown hair a mess while she looked up at her boy. Luke paled slightly and shot me a pleading look but I knew better than to step in here. His mom might be about 5'3" but I wasn't going toe to toe with her.
She'd eat me alive and spit me out! Especially if she was so mad that she cursed, because Mirada detested cursing. Instead, I took a few steps back to shield myself from her furry as she proceeded to point out that the cat underneath her house wasn't in fact a shifter and even if it was, no-one should be attacked without a cause.
After her scolding, Luke seemed to feel like two inches tall before he scurried inside with the proverbial tail between his legs at the same time Max came out with the rope. He quickly tied it loosely around a bouncing Jeremy and then held one end as Jeremy shot off towards the cat, looping around the poor thing and even crawled under it a few times before slipping a knot in the rope by jumping through the twists he created.
"Okay doc, let's pull him out."
A few seconds later and the cat was close enough to be scruffed and taken into daylight but as soon as I did, I wished I hadn't. Miranda gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth in astonishment as I gently held the bundle of fur in my arms.
I couldn't even see the original color of the cat, its fur tangled with sticks, leaves, mud and bloodied all over. The feline's shape was barely visible through the caked mud that was already drying on its head and back. I gingerly tapped at the corner of its eye to see if it was still reacting, and it blinked but never really opened his eyes.
The cat was purring with half-closed eyes but that wasn't a good sign at all; cats purred when they were happy, yes, but also when they were hurt pretty badly. And judging by the way its pale pink tongue was poking out as the feline panted, its condition was very bad.
Housecats rarely ever panted.
"Oh dear..." Max said, his whole expression turning serious as he observed the little thing, nudging his glasses further up his nose. "Ahum, we'll need to wash it so I have a clear visual on the wounds. Can't treat the animal if I can't even see its wounds."
Without making a noise, I turned around and carried the cat inside while holding it against my chest. The chatter inside stopped as soon as we got in and rushed closer to the fireplace while a drenched Jeremy rushed into the kitchen and turned the water on.
Miranda quickly rushed after my foster-son while Max placed his bag on the table and started to sort his gear out. Meanwhile, I was busy rubbing the cat gently, trying to get it warm and reactive to us. I could feel my own shift reaching out and try to sooth the wounded animal as it twitched its claws and let out a pitiful yowl.
"I know, I know." I hushed softly, accepting the bowl of water and a cloth from Miranda as I started cleaning the animal up as best as I could. Miranda sat down on the other side and did the same, not caring that she was getting her clothes and apron all muddy and covered with blood.
"This is not gonna work, we need to wash him off in the water."
I sighed and nodded before picking the cat up and walked over to the sink, testing the warmth of the water with my hand before I gingerly placed the feline under the stream. Another pair of hands brushed through the fur and gently pried the mud away, but I was surprised when I looked up and spotted Luke instead of his mom.
The teen had regret and shame written all over his face as he cleaned the cat, watching how the water colored brown, then red while it slipped through his fingers. "Damn...I-I didn't think. I messed up." He sighed, shaking his head and averting his blue eyes, focused on his job.
"As far as I see, you're making up for your mistake." I said, looking down at the cat before I shared a reassuring look with the teen. It wasn't that uncommon that the wolf shifters chased another shifter that came into their territory. Usually they stopped but I guessed since in this case it was a real cat and not a shifter, the animal's fear and scent had riled the teens up completely.
"Okay Ezra, bring 'em in here. He's clean enough to see the damage now." Max's voice rasped, clearing his throat slightly as Miranda came in and took the cat from my hands, huddling it in a blanket and dabbing its fur dry as she cooed and fussed over it.
I sat down in the couch and smiled as Jeremy plopped himself in my lap, crossing his legs and staring intently at the doc. Closing my eyes for a moment, I sighed and took a few deep breaths, enjoying the warmth of Miranda's house, the smell of freshly cooked dinner reminded me that both Jeremy and I hadn't had any supper yet.
Well, Jer had a bowl of soup, so he was good till later but my supper had to wait for a while. I wasn't going to go home until I knew what was wrong to the cat and how I could help it. They probably needed me to take care for it anyways; a cat in a house full of wolf shifters wasn't the brightest of ideas.
I just hoped the poor thing would get through the night.