Chapter 496: The moment....

Noah.

The heavy double doors of the pack house slammed open against the stone walls as I burst inside, my boots skidding across the polished marble floor.

"Get out of the way!" I roared, my voice echoing off the high-arched ceilings of the main foyer. Servants and guards scattered instantly, clearing a direct path toward the lower wing.

My arms were trembling violently, the muscles in my back and shoulders tearing with every step I took. The wolfsbane lingering in my blood felt like liquid acid, but I shoved the agony down into the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t drop her. I couldn’t stumble.

Maria’s head hung loosely against my chest, her skin cold, her breaths so faint I could barely feel the warm air brushing against my collarbone.

Damien and Adrein flanked my sides, their heavy broadswords drawn, their sharp eyes scanning every doorway and corridor we passed. They were operating on pure instinct, acting as my vanguard in a territory that wasn’t theirs, completely focused on the pale girl in my arms.

"Which way?!" Damien barked, his voice laced with frantic urgency as we rounded the corner into the medical wing.

"Straight down the hall!" I rasped out, my vision blurring at the edges. "The double oak doors at the end!"

Before we even reached the threshold, the wide doors swung open. Physician Thorne stepped out, his grey hair disheveled, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Behind him, two assistant nurses were rapidly preparing a clean leather cot, laying out sterile glass vials, copper basins, and silver needles under the bright overhead lanterns.

"Alpha Noah!" Physician Thorne gasped, his eyes widening as he took in my bloodied clothes and the limp form I carried. "We received your link, but I didn’t expect—"

"Save the talk, Thorne!" I growled, cutting him off as I pushed past him into the room.

I carefully lowered Maria onto the padded cot. My hands shook as I unraveled the thick layers of wolf furs, exposing her frail frame to the warm air of the infirmary. Her face was paper-white, her lips a faint, terrifying shade of blue.

"Check her," I commanded, stepping back just half an inch, though my fingers refused to let go of her cold hand. "She was poisoned with refined wolfsbane. Small doses over a month in captivity, accelerated over the last few days."

Physician Thorne’s face drained of color as he instantly stepped up to the cot. He pressed two fingers against the side of her throat, feeling for a pulse, before pulling back her eyelid to examine her pupil under the lantern light. He let out a low, grim breath.

"Her pulse is thread-thin, Alpha," Thorne said quickly, turning to his assistants and snapping his fingers. "Prepare the silver-willow counter-tonic immediately! Boil two ounces of moon-root and fetch the blood-purification kits! Move!"

The assistants scrambled across the room, glass bottles clinking as they worked at top speed.

Damien stepped up to the opposite side of the cot, his broad frame towering over Maria. He looked down at her fragile face, his jaw working in tight, furious motions. "Can you flush it out of her?" Damien demanded, his voice dropping into a dangerous, threatening low tone. "Can you save her?"

Physician Thorne didn’t flinch under Damien’s aggressive glare, his professional focus locked entirely on Maria. "The wolfsbane has bonded directly to her internal wolf spirit, sir. It’s suffocating her bloodline from the inside out. If we don’t start the blood-cleansing process within the hour, her wolf will go completely dormant, and her heart will give out."

Adrein let out a sharp, ragged breath from the doorway, resting his hand against the doorframe to steady himself. "Then do it," Adrein said, his voice raw with desperate emotion. "Whatever you need. Whatever it takes. Just fix her."

"I need space," Physician Thorne stated firmly, looking between the three of us. "The air in this room needs to stay clear, and I cannot operate with three dominant Alphas crowding the table. Alpha Noah, you need to step back."

I locked my jaw, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped beast. Every cell in my body screamed at me to stay right beside her, to keep my grip on her hand, to crush anyone who tried to touch her. My Alpha pride burned red-hot, fighting against the physician’s order.

Damien reached across the cot, his hand hovering near mine. He looked up, his golden eyes meeting my dark gaze. There was no mockery in his expression. No challenge. Just the same hollow, terrifying dread that was tearing me apart.

"Noah," Damien muttered quietly, his raspy voice cutting through the quiet tension of the room. "Let the man work."

I stared at Damien for a long, heavy second before slowly, agonizingly, pulling my fingers away from Maria’s cold skin. The loss of contact felt like a physical physical blow to my chest, but I forced myself to take three steps backward toward the wall.

Physician Thorne immediately stepped into the space, taking a long silver needle attached to a copper tube and carefully inserting it into the vein of Maria’s forearm. Dark, tainted blood began to trickle slowly down into the glass container below the cot.

"The silver-willow will neutralize the poison in her bloodstream," Thorne explained, his fingers deft and steady as he adjusted the binding straps around her wrist to keep her still. "But her wolf is deeply suppressed. She needs warmth—not just physical heat, but the warmth of an intact bond thread to draw her out of the coma."

Adrein stepped forward from the door, his face pale but resolute. "I can give her that," he said quietly. "My bond thread is still open. I fed her warmth."

Physician Thorne nodded sharply. "Do it, sir. Position yourself at the head of the cot. Keep your hand on her forehead and feed your spirit into hers slowly. Do not force it, or her body will reject the cleansing."

Adrein didn’t hesitate. He walked straight past me, taking his position at the top of the cot. He placed his broad, warm palm over Maria’s forehead, closing his eyes as he focused his entire mind on sending a steady stream of soothing Alpha energy straight into her dormant wolf.

Damien stepped back toward the entrance of the infirmary, his hand resting comfortably on the pommel of his broadsword. He looked over at me, his eyes guarded, but his stance unified with mine.

"Adrein handles the bond," Damien said, his voice flat and steady. "Noah, you stay here and oversee the physician. I’m taking the doorway. Nobody gets into this room unless they step over my dead body."

"I’ll have my elite guards double the perimeter around the medical wing," I replied, forcing my raspy voice to stay firm as I leaned against the stone wall to keep my heavy legs from buckling. "No one enters this compound without my explicit command."

Damien gave me a single, crisp nod, stepping out into the hallway and pulling one side of the heavy oak doors shut, leaving just enough space to keep watch.

I turned my eyes back to Maria.

The dark, poisoned blood was continuing to drain into the glass basin, drop by drop, while Adrein stood motionless at her head, his palm glowing with a faint, radiant warmth over her skin. A tiny, barely visible flicker of color was slowly returning to the edges of her pale lips.

My body was exhausted, my ribs were throbbing, and my own blood felt like fire, but I didn’t care. She was here. She was inside my walls, protected by my guards, and receiving the treatment that would bring her back to us.

I slid down slightly against the stone wall, keeping my eyes fixed on her face, waiting for the moment her eyes would finally open.