For the next twelve hours wounded wolves and witches filtered into Alcina's home looking for aid. Alcina and the volunteers the doctor brought were quickly overwhelmed by the amount of people who needed their help. As the hours drug on Alcina's worry and anger steadily grew. Xavier had yet to show even after hundreds of wounded had arrived and been treated.
"Luna queen! Look!" Fae said from the blanket she was laying on. Alcina jumped up, releasing the bandage she had been wrapping, and turned to where Fae had pointed. Struggling to concentrate for a moment she squinted, trying to see. Seconds later she saw a large black wolf on the verge of collapse limping to the edge of the woods. She ran quickly to him and pulled the other three from his back.
"I need help here!" Alcina screamed just before Xavier collapsed into unconsciousness. Six people came rushing forward and grabbed the others while Alcina used all the strength she had to drag Xavier into the yard. It wasn't as challenging as it would have been since he shifted back to human form when he fainted. Just as she got to the tree line a pair of hands grabbed Xavier's other arm and began pulling with her.
Looking to her right she saw Fae holding Xavier's arm. Fae simply nodded and both women began to pull. Getting Xavier to the center Alcina began to inspect him. His arms and legs were covered in slowly mending claw marks and his chest and back had both healed and unhealed bite marks. She shifted his head to the side to check his pulse when she noticed to symmetrical round puncture wounds on his neck. Without thinking her hand flew to her mouth with a gasp. She stood up and ran in the opposite direction knowing she had to report the news.
After a fifteen minutes run across the pack, Alcina finally reached the elders house. Not bothering to stop and knock she burst through the door and ran immediately to the council room where a few elders were sitting, waiting for news. Elder Ezekiel, elder Damien, and elder Hugh all instantly looked in her direction. Gasping for breath she struggled to even find air. All she could manage was a shake of her head.
"Luna queen, what are you trying to tell us?" Elder Ezekiel asked placing his hands on her shoulders. "Relax. In through the nose, out through the mouth."
Elder Hugh appeared at her side with a glass of warm water, which gently soothed her burning throat and quenched her thirst. Followed by a few more deep breaths she delivered the news.
"We've failed. The king bears the proof. A bite that's not healing. Perfect circles on the jugular. Thankfully he's no longer bleeding but he's unconscious so we can't know how many. Hundreds were wounded. I don't know how many dead." She said as her legs began to tremble. Silently, elder Daniel left the room head hung low as he went to inform the others. Alcina's head spun so quickly she thought she might get sick How could they fail? After such careful planning and the backup plan they made just in case?
Within hours the five closest packs were under war lockdown and within a matter of days every wolf who lived outside of pack limits was with family. By the end of the fifth day every pack in the country was on high alert and the border to the badlands had tripled it's guard. Xavier was still unconscious at the end of the week and Alcina had truly begun to panic inside. She had contacted every healer known and none could help.
"Ali, it's me." Eli said on the other side of her office door.
"Enter." She said putting away her research.
"I think I have a solution." Eli said stepping in and holding a very old book in the air. She lifted her head with curiosity and waved him inside. He rushed forward and sat the book on the table and opened it to a page. The page was written in a different language and she looked up at her brother.
"Okay, what is this?" She said sitting back with a sigh.
"Sorry. This is our mother's grimoire. This page here details that if a wolf is bitten the venom will act as a sedative until the wound is properly treated. It gets kinda gross from here. It says that someone needs to suck the venom from the wound then slice it to reopen the wound to trigger the regeneration process." Eli said with a grimace. Alcina stood up and swiftly left the room, leaving Eli to scramble after her.
"Where are you going?" He asked when he caught her in the hall.
"To save my husband." She replied taking the stairs two at a time.
"Al, if you do this, there's a chance the venom could poison you." He said grabbing her arm.
"You may never understand this Eli, but he's my mate. I'd die for him no matter what." She stood firm on her plan. Gently pulling Eli's hand from her arm she turned around and left, leaving Eli in shock about what to do. Marching into the hospital, she went directly to Xavier's room and removed the bandage from his neck. It has started to become inflamed and swollen. Looking around the room she found a sterile surgery kit in one of the cabinets and took it over to the bed. Taking a deep breath, she removed the scalpel and set to work. First sucking the venom from the wound, she was careful to spit it all into a small vial and swallow none of it. Once she began to taste blood she reopened the wound with the scalpel and stitched it closed. Now the wait would begin.