Chapter 49. Secrets Begin to Emerge

Xander’s POV

The study was suffocating, the air thick with frustration and desperation. For the first time in days, I sat at my desk, surrounded by towering piles of books, old scrolls, and scattered notes. The faint scent of aged parchment mixed with the bitter tang of desperation. My fingers tapped restlessly on the desk, a metronome to the chaos within me.

I flipped through another ancient tome, its brittle pages threatening to crumble under my rough touch. Nothing. Page after page of useless lore and vague remedies, none of which offered even the slightest glimmer of hope. My jaw tightened, the frustration bubbling beneath the surface.

Alison’s face flashed in my mind... pale, cold, and still as death itself. Yet, her wolf clung to life, faint but present, like a single ember in a pile of ash. The physician had called it a miracle, but I called it torment. She was here but slipping further away every moment.

A knock at the door broke my concentrati