Chapter 77 Chapter 77
A surge of sorrowing pain plunged into Reynard’s chest, realising his best friend and mate may never be able to connect with nature and her wolf spirit ever again. He looked at Brendan, sensing his own suffering down the bond, and his eyes widened when he saw a puff of his smoky shadows emit from him.
‘Brendan,’ Rey quavered down the bond. ‘You need to relax.’
“Zale, please see your friend out; he’s interrupted enough,” stated Alpha Wilder.
“Yes, sir,” he responded, already on his feet, leading Brendan out with a firm grip.
Before he could force himself back in, Reynard pushed down the bond to stop him. ‘I’ll fill you in when the meeting is over.’
Clenching his jaw, Brendan nodded once and stopped fighting against his friend’s force.
The meeting continued.
Machiavelli sat back down and composed himself once more. “Based on the rate at which the serum has been improving by this unknown enemy, we can assume they’re in a rush to get it in a state where it completely eliminates our connection to our wolf spirits with no return. Our best bet right now is to learn what we can of the serum and see if we can reverse the effects.”
Alpha Wilder nodded. “Thank you, brother. Moving on to Cassandra and Doctor Alonso.”
Cassandra and Doctor Alonso stood and bowed to the Alpha.
“Thank you, Alpha.” Cassandra cleared her throat and spoke promptly, “Thanks to the generous blood donation of Suki Twyla, we were able to conduct extensive tests to determine exactly what is occurring to our brothers and sisters of the werewolf community. When I struggled to find a magical connection–”
“–And I struggled to find a medical connection,” Doctor Alonso tuned in. “We both decided we needed to look at it both ways, both scientifically and medically.”
Cassandra smiled at their collaboration.
Alpha Wilder hummed, “Good, so what was it that you discovered?”
“Technically, nothing,” said the doctor.
The people of the room muttered and groaned.
“But,” Cassandra chimed in rapidly. “Then we decided to stop looking for a distinctive substance attacking her blood and instead looked for any anomaly in her blood.”
“…And?” the Alpha pushed for more information, agitated.
Cassandra looked to the doctor. “Alonso, this is your area of expertise.”
“Of course.” He turned to Suki’s father. “Suki’s blood type, what is it, Beta Machiavelli?”
“AB-.”
He nodded slowly. “Yes, that is correct. However…” He pulled out a document with her blood results on it and slid it across the table. “These tests state that another blood type was in her system; this type is O-. Had she recently received a blood transfusion for any reason?”
Machiavelli shook his head, scanning the document again and again, confused. “No, she’s fit as a fiddle. Reynard, had anything happened to her whilst I was away?”
“No, sir. Not on my watch, and even in our personal time together, she was never injured or harmed until this incident.”
Doctor Alonso sighed, “That was my concern. With that confirmed, I strongly believe the serum these poor werewolves have been poisoned with contains the blood of another being. This blood is the source of eliminating their connection to their wolf spirit.”
“Impossible,” Alpha Wilder protested. “Our blood works just like human blood. It’s our own souls that are connected to wolf spirits that the Moon Goddess blessed us with. If we were injected with human blood, it shouldn’t change that.”
“That’s where I come back in,” Cassandra lamented. “This exceeds any kind of blood magic I’ve ever seen, but the witches and I believe that the darkest of magic has been used to curse this person’s blood and turn it into a lethal poison against the magic of the werewolf race.”
Reynard blinked. “Is that seriously possible?”
“It would if a witch could harness enough power, but I’ve never heard of or witnessed that kind of power in all my years of practising witchcraft.”
“Could there be another possibility?” asked Machiavelli.
Doctor Alonso exhaled, “Possibly – a scientific approach could be potential, if this person’s blood was already diseased or a type of rarity that diminished a connection to the werewolf spirit. Someone could utilise the elements of their blood and turn it into a vaccine of sorts, which would then counteract the powers of a werewolf. The blood type being O- would also make it easier to spread it through injection without creating complications, and without a trace of anything attacking the system.”
The cogs of Reynard’s brain spun faster and faster. He approached the table and pressed his fists against the surface, leaning forward. “Could the blood of a wolfless person, born of a werewolf family, be used in this scenario?”
Everyone turned to face him.
“I… Yes, I would believe so. In fact, they would be the perfect candidate, someone who is and isn’t either side of the coin – not fully human, not fully werewolf. Their blood would be ideal, but that is just a hypothesis; we haven’t had a wolfless who didn’t eventually come into their wolf in… well, ever. Not to mention, this would take a genius and a lot of blood to achieve; the blood source would be needed constantly, meaning it wouldn’t be stolen. The person would have to be voluntarily offering it.”
Reynard spoke so quietly that the air from his lungs escaped him in shock. “But… There is a wolfless man among us.”
Alpha Wilder shot to his feet. “What?!”
“Are you sure about this?” Machiavelli asked.
He turned his head to the door, wondering if Brendan was listening to the conversation, wondering if he realised what Reynard was insinuating. “Yes… I met him. He met Suki… It could be him.”
“What is his name? What pack does he belong to?” the Alpha voice boomed with a fire, ready to explode with wrathful vengeance for his brothers and sisters across.
Sweat beaded across Reynard’s forehead, conflicted whether his suspicions were right or not. If they were, they were a small step closer to finding Suki; if they were wrong, he could be throwing someone else he cares about under the bus. Someone who isn’t even involved in it all. Someone he was growing to care about.
“Otake,” the Alpha’s tone fired with demand.
He straightened his back. His gut instinct was never wrong. Never. “His name is Hadeon Ateos, of the Nighttide pack.”