The Beta's Fate

The pain that ripped through his chest was like fire.  He took deep breaths to calm his racing heart.  He dropped to his knees in the middle of his suite clutching his bare chest.  

What is wrong with me? He thought.

He slowly got up to his feet as the pain subsided.  He walked to his closet and pulled on a pair of gray sweats and a black t-shirt.  He stuck his size 15 feet into his custom made slides.  Still taking deep breaths at the lingering pain, he grabbed his phone and saw it was ten in the morning.  He had missed training, but he was up half the night helping Alpha Maddox go over this year's tournament list to see who they were bringing to the Tournament of packs.  He texted his mate and asked where she was.  She had her mindlink blocked and he wondered why.

He walked out of his suite and down the stairs and out of the packhouse.  He was going to the pack hospital to find out what the hell was wrong with him.

He walked in the hospital and up to the nurse's station.

“Beta Koda, how can I help you?” the cute little blonde asked all teeth when she smiled.

He smiled back at her, “Hey Mila, can I see Dr. Ross.  I am having some pains I need to talk about.”

“Sure thing.  Go to exam room three, he’ll be there in a minute.”

Koda walked to the exam room and sat on the bed that was there to wait for the doctor.  He checked his phone.  His mate still hadn’t messaged him back.  He sighed.  Things between them hadn't been great.  He chose Iris as his mate a year ago because he thought his lust was love.  They had been going at it hot and heavy and even his wolf Kenji liked her wolf Marie.  When she agreed to mate with him, they had a Beta ceremony, and he marked her in front of the whole pack.  The next day it was like a switch went off in her.  She stopped being nice, started abusing the Omega’s that cleaned their suite.  She even started getting lippy with Luna Carrie and Alpha Maddox.  He had apologized profusely for her to them.  They fought constantly.  He wanted to start a family, but she didn’t.  She did a total 180 from one day to the next.  3 months after their mating, he started to get these extremely sharp pains in his chest.  He thought he was having some form of anxiety attacks.  He tried to take the pain and live with it, but for the last 6 months the pains had increased in frequency.  They went from once a week to every other day, and he just couldn’t take it anymore.  

The door opened, and a tall lanky man stepped through it with short, brown, cropped hair.  He had a hawk-like nose, nice brown eyes and a ready smile.

“Hello Beta, what can I do for you?”

Koda explained his symptoms and the frequency they have been coming on.  As he explained, the doctor's smile slowly dropped, and he started to look uncomfortable.  When Koda stopped talking, the doctor cleared his throat and gave him a pained sympathetic smile.

“Koda, have you ever heard of betrayal pain?”

Koda looked confused and thought about it. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Betrayal pain is when one’s mate is cheating on them with someone else.  You know you can feel everything your mate goes through. Well, I’m sorry to tell you that you also can feel when your mate cheats.”

Anger swept through him. “How is this possible?  I thought it was impossible to cheat on your mate?”

“Is she your fated mate?  It is supposed to be impossible to cheat on your fated mate.  A fated mate isn’t supposed to be able to get it up if it is the male trying to cheat, and if it is the female, she isn’t supposed to get aroused.  However, there are certain herbal drugs that can help with those problems, but it is rare to see fated mates betray each other.”

“She is not my fated mate, she is my chosen.”

“Then I am sorry to tell you that she can betray you with no problem.  I am so sorry Koda.”

Koda got up stiffly and nodded to the doctor in thanks.  He then left the pack hospital in a rage.  Where was this b*tch?  Just then the pain ripped through him again and he roared.  His anger pushed him on as sweat broke out all over his body.  He stumbled when he got to the packhouse.  The Alpha saw him and hurriedly walked towards him.

“Koda, what is it?”

“She’s betraying me.  F*cking someone else,” he said through gritted teeth.  He grunted as the sharp pain sliced through him.

He turned from his Alpha and used their bond to track her down.  He felt a pull in his gut and he followed it into the surrounding forest.  He stumbled a few times and fell once.  Finally, he crashed through some high bushes and came to a small clearing where his mate was on her hands and knees, and she was thrust into from behind by a warrior he knew was new to the pack.  He roared and they broke apart.  She stood, the warrior fell to his knees from the aura that Koda was throwing off, and he bared his neck.  With her hands on her hips, she faced him naked as the day she was born and smirked.

“It’s about time you figured it out.  Goddess, Koda, how dense are you? For nine months I’ve been f*cking humans I’ve met outside the pack, hoping you would figure out I wanted out of this mateship.  It finally took this warrior to bring you around.”

“Why not just say you wanted out, Iris!” he shouted.

“What fun would that be?  I wanted to be the Beta’s mate.  But then you started pressuring me about having pups and I never wanted to have pups.  You think I want to ruin this body?”

“You’re a shifter wolf, your body would have bounced back!”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it?”

Koda looked at the warrior and pointed at him.

“You saw her mate mark.  Go see Alpha Maddox now! He will deal with you.”  Koda then mindlinked his Alpha and told him the situation.  Maddox assured him he would take care of it.

“And you, you want out of this mateship fine.  I, Beta Koda Black of the Pinewoods Pack, reject Iris McNeal as my mate.”

“I, Iris McNeal accept your rejection, and I also reject the Female Beta title and the Pinewoods Pack.  I am now a rogue.  Tell Alpha Maddox I’ll be off the packland in 30 minutes.  I’m going to your suite to pack some stuff.”

“Don’t bother. I have already had an Omega pack a duffle bag with enough clothes, cash and food to last you a week.  It’s waiting for you at the front of the packhouse.”

With that, Koda shifted into Kenji, ripping through his clothes and ran off through the woods.  His anger and hurt fueled them for hours.  They hunted a wild hog and Kenji devoured it.  Then they ran more, for miles, off of packlands and into no man's land between his pack and the Greenwoods Pack.  Kenji and he consoled each other.

“I am sorry, Kenji, for you to have to lose Marie.”

“Marie had no problem letting her do what she did.  She didn’t stop her human or even try either.  I could hear her laughing at us.”

“No more women, Kenji.  They are nothing but trouble.”

“Agreed.  But if we find mate, maybe we could give it a try?”

“I’m not sure we have a mate, Kenji.  I am 25 years old.  We would have found her by now, even with a chosen mate.”

“Maybe you are right then.  No more she-wolfs.”

By nightfall, Koda had shifted back and was exhausted as he stepped into the packhouse.  He grabbed a pair of shorts from a box by the door and put them on.  

“Koda, my office please,” Alpha Maddox mindlinked him.

He made his way to his Alpha’s office.  The door was open, and when he stuck his head around the door Alpha Maddox waved him in.

“She is gone, been gone for hours.  I felt the packlink snap. The warrior was given ten lashes and will be on border patrol for a month.  How are you?”

“As expected.  I’m angry, hurt, feeling dumb.”

“No need to feel dumb.  Sure she was a mistake, but mistakes happen, and they teach us lessons.”

“Yeah, never to trust a she-wolf again.”

“No Koda.  Your lesson was not to let your d*ck write checks you can’t cash.”

“You could have talked me out of it.”

“Um, pretty sure both Carrie and I tried.  But you were like, I’ve made up my mind. She’s who I want,” Maddox said in a thick Texas drawl that sounded nothing like him.

Koda snorted.  

“Don’t close your heart, Koda.  You’re a great man.  You’ve been my best friend for five years, ever since I made you my Beta.”

“Thank you, Mad.  I’m just going to need some time to get my head straight.  I think I am going to travel for a few weeks.  Will that be okay with you?”

“Not a problem.  If you need more time, let me know.  Keep your phone with you.  Take the black card and the silver Bronco. You are to use the pack funds, not your own.”

“Thank you, Alpha.”  He got up and left and walked to his suite.  He slept for five hours and then got up at four in the morning and packed a duffle.  He left by five to mend his broken heart.