The Tortured Luna

Lorna's Emergency Surgery

Just as Lorna closed her eyes, Dr. Waters spoke, 'Alright, she's out. Beta Jack, please lift her up and place her on the hospital bed, then wait here. Team, let's get that thing out of her now. Remember to be quick and careful! Beta Jack, please wait here. Let's go!!!" with that, she was immediately transferred into surgery. Jack didn't even realize he was walking with the doctor until he was told to stay here. He did the only thing he could think of... he mind-linked his brother... his Alpha.

'Atlas, I need you, bro. This isn't good... and I'm confused. Three doors down from Luna Rose.' within a minute, Atlas came through the doorway.

"What's going on, bro? Where's Lorna?" Atlas asked in confusion.

"She's in surgery, and according to Dr. Waters, it's critical."Atlas' eyes widened in shock before he started asking questions.

"What's wrong with her where she's in critical condition? What happened? How?" Jack started shaking with rage and worry... both him and his wolf Slade were fighting to stay under control so they can relay the information despite claws and fur constantly coming out and receding

"Alpha Krassus is poisoning his she-wolves with wolvesbane! He made a serum that won't kill them but will keep them weakened, especially their wolves. They're given a small weekly dosage every few months, and he Alpha ordered the doctors to do it. He only gives them a break from it during pregnancy and breastfeeding to keep the wolvesbane from affecting the males. She managed to get a full dosage in a surgical steel capsule and implanted it in her left breast to smuggle it here. Before she lost her mate, they were planning to come here to talk to you and tell you everything and seek refuge. She's had it in her body for so long that it put her in critical condition. She's scared of doctors and I wouldn't put it past her to be scared of hospitals in general after what that sicko did to her and keeps doing to she-wolves!" by the end of this ranting recounting, Jack was pacing back and forth looking at the wall clock every ten minutes with his fur and claws constantly coming out and receding again.

Atlas' eyes went wide while his canines came out, and a low growl reverberated from his throat as he dropped to the chair behind him. "I knew he was horrid, but I didn't expect this. We may be able to dissolve that pack quicker than we thought." Right at that moment, Nurse Greene came in with the capsule in a small metal surgical tray.

"Beta Jack, Alpha Atlas. I thought you'd like to have the serum capsule as quickly as possible. It appears that it's started to eat away the capsule itself and leak through. Judging from the condition it's in, I'd estimate she's had this in her body for about six years. If you look at the ends of the capsule here, " She raised her free hand, pointed to each end of the capsule and continued. "If you look here at the ends on each side, you'll notice that it started to erode. This side right here has a small pinhole in it. In all appearances, it suggests that her body was fighting it as a foreign substance and was trying to destroy it. I'm not completely sure without testing it, but I believe that the capsule was also made with wolvesbane mixed into it."

"So in other words, Alpha Krassus developed not only a wolvesbane serum to weaken she-wolves and their wolves, but also a slow killing system to try to prevent this exact scenario." Atlas stated.

"It appears that way, Alpha. We won't know everything for sure until we test both the capsule and the serum." Nurse Greene responded.

"Are you able to test it here?" Jack asked.

"I believe so, Beta Jack. I may need some more equipment, but it should be possible. I'll let you both know if I need anymore equipment." Nurse Greene replied.

"Nurse Greene, how do you know the scientific aspects of all this?" Beta Jack asked curiously. "I knew you studied medicine, but..." she chuckled a bit before responding.

"I majored in science in a few branches and minored in medicine. I learned how to both engineer and reverse engineer things like this. Now, for Lorna's condition. The area the capsule was in as well as the surrounding area is severely infected and some of the flesh appears to have been eaten away. There are signs of silver poisoning as well. We had to cut away the infected parts due to the suspicion of silver and reconstruct it. I'll test it when I test the capsule. She should be out of surgery in the next hour or so. I'm going to take this to the lab and get started. Dr. Waters has the rest of the team in there with her so I can get started on this now."

"Thank-you, Sherry." Atlas said before Nurse Greene walked out and headed to the lab. They settled down on the chairs in the medical room and waited. "I completely forgot to check on Laurallee after that sorry excuse for a so-called Alpha attacked her." Atlas said aloud almost to himself.

"Alpha... Atlas, you've been dealing with a lot thanks to Krassus. It's to be expected. She's in critical condition and in a medically induced coma. Lyonal is with her now and hasn't left her side. I made sure he could stay with her throughout the whole time she's here. He believes they're mates. When I mind-linked him to tell him he has some time off to be here with her, he thanked me and told me he feels faint sparks and just wants her to wake up so he can see her eyes." Jack said quietly.

After a little over an hour, Dr. Waters wheeled a still-sleeping Lorna back into her room with a portion of her shoulder and chest missing above her left breast and on oxygen. They were stunned, and their expressions showed it. Dr. Waters turned towards them and gave them her report.

"Alpha, Beta... the prognosis isn't completely good. I was able to remove most of the infection from her shoulder and breast. The capsule was treated as a foreign body in her system, so her body attacked it. Unfortunately, I also believe this has affected her wolf, Kiera. Her body shows signs of having wolvesbane in her system since she was a kid. I'd say roughly ten. Unfortunately, there are also signs of silver poisoning. In short, even if Sherry manages to reverse engineer the wolvesbane serum because there's so much damage from years of forced use of the wolvesbane and evidence of silver in her body, that leads me to believe that the outside of the capsule is the surgical steel designed to dissolve slowly over time and reveal the silver layer underneath it." Right as she finished speaking, Nurse Sherry Greene walked in.

"That's correct. The capsule itself is a really thin layer of normal steel instead of surgical steel with the layer of silver underneath it. Apparently, whoever developed this serum knew that someone at some point would attempt to do what Lorna did, so they designed a way for them to appear that it was doing what they wanted while slowly dissolving to kill the host without any evidence being left behind. I haven't even gotten to the serum, yet." All three of their eyes went wide.

"Elaborate, if you please. I may not be ready, but she's now my mate, and I need to know this stuff...." Jack said.

"Yes, Beta Jack. The capsule was designed where the outside layer would dissolve slowly to get where the contents would go into the bloodstream. The inside of the capsule is the wolvesbane serum and the silver layer, designed to meld together and slowly leak out of the outer layer of the capsule. Unfortunately, that means that some of the serum and the silver leaked through the outer layer and into the host's body. In this case, our new Beta Female. We can give her medicine to counteract the wolvesbane and the silver, but it's not a good idea until I can reverse engineer the serum if it's even possible. I don't know how it'll affect her, so if we do it, it needs to be a slow and small dose. Unfortunately, it's always going to be in her system. I can create a medicine to keep her condition from spreading to future pups, but I can't reverse her condition. I'm afraid she's slowly dying." Nurse Sherry reported.

"I'm afraid that coincides with my discovery throughout her surgery. The capsule was not just her chance to save the she-wolves of Dark Raven, but also a...." Dr. Waters said.

"Yeah. Thank-you both. Keep us updated on the serum." With that, the doctor and nurse left, and they sat back down.