Page 38 of The Alpha Wolf’s Secret Baby Boy

“I don’t remember much after that. I woke up in the pack clinic.”

Dorian nods solemnly before looking toward the woman standing near the wall. “Claire.”

Nightclaw’s healer steps forward, streaks of silver running through her dark hair, her posture straighter than ever. She was one of the healers who tended to Dorian when he’d been rescued from the rogues’ clutches.

“I’ve treated werewolves for over thirty years,” she says calmly. “I’ve seen silver poisoning, wolfsbane, vampire venom, even cursed wounds.” She pauses, glancing around the room timidly. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

She steps forward, then carefully peels back one of Ethan’s bandages. A collective murmur spreads through the room the moment his flesh is exposed.

The flesh beneath the bandage isn’t burned.

It’s gray, almost…withered. Like dying bark clinging to a tree.

“These wounds should already be closing,” Claire explains. “Instead, they’re spreading.” She gently replaces the bandage and continues, “His wolf attempts to heal them, but it’s as though something is preventing the process.”

“Can you remove it?” one of the alphas asks. I’m not even sure who it is, because I’m too shocked by Ethan’s injury.

“I’ve tried every herb and remedy available to us.” Claire lets out a quiet breath as she shakes her head slowly. “Nothing works.”

My stomach sinks. If something can stop a werewolf from healing…what chance do any of us have?

The chamber doors suddenly open, and every head turns.

Simon strides inside, carrying a satchel overflowing with journals and several glass containers.

“My apologies,” he says, slightly out of breath, his eyes grim. “The final tests took longer than expected.”

Dorian wastes no time. “Well, what have you found?”

Simon sets the satchel onto the table before removing a sealed glass jar containing one of the blackened leaves we’d collected from the forest. He glances around the room as he speaks. “I’ve examined every sample I’ve obtained. The corruption isn’t caused by disease, nor is it fungal.”

He removes another jar containing brittle grass, looking at Dorian.

“It’s not bacterial, and it isn’t poison.”

Confused murmurs ripple around the chamber.

“Then what is it, Alpha Simon?” Connor asks.

Simon hesitates, his jaw tightening. “The cells aren’t simply dying.” He holds the leaf toward the light. “They’re being drained.”

I frown. “Drained? What do you mean?”

Simon gulps. “It’s as though something is stripping the life force from every living thing it touches. I found the same residue in the dead animals.”

His gaze shifts toward Ethan. “And judging by his wounds…the same process has begun inside him.”

The room erupts into quiet conversation.

“That isn’t possible.”

“It has to be.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

Simon raises a hand for silence. “There’s more.” He takes a slow breath as the room stills again. “I detected residual energy within every sample,” he says as he looks around the room. “It doesn’t match any known wolf magic, or even vampire blood, for that matter. In fact, it doesn’t resemble anything documented in our records.”

He pauses through the silence, and then says, “The only conclusion I can reach…is that we’re dealing with witchcraft.”