Page 13 of Shattered Soulmates

"Follow me, Alpha, gentlemen." She just eyes Marissa without acknowledging her.

We enter a conference room. "Have a seat facing the screen."

"Dr. Skye." I pull her to the side. "I don't want her or her lover to know about Amra just yet. It's complicated, but trust me. Leave that part out."

"You're the Alpha."

Over the next twenty minutes, Marissa, the enforcers, and I are shown every sad, destructive aspect of CMS. The photos depict ravaged bodies and highlight the gruesome toll of a betrayed bond. And because Paisley’s condition was so dire when she arrived, actual footage from her complicated surgery was added at the end of the presentation.

By the end of it, Marissa is in tears. "I had no idea.I'm so sorry," She sobs. At least it seems she really does have a heart, maybe.

"Well, now, let's go meet Jane Doe." Dr. Skye grimaces. "So, you can see precisely what cheating with her mate did to her.

"I don't want to." Marissa struggles to break free from North's grasp. "I'm so s-sorry. Please don't make me."

"I had to deal with it last night, Marissa, while she was dying on the chopper. I didn't know if she would make it," North growls. "At least she's stable now and notbleeding from wounds in her stomach while I gave her bag after bag of blood."

"Marissa," I order, pushing out my Alpha aura. "You will stop struggling and come with us to see your and Miles' handiwork. And you will not tell a soul what you are about to see."

Her struggles immediately cease, but you can tell by her face that her inner wolf is fighting against my dominance.

"You know, for some, this might be a good way to deliver a wake-up call,"Dr. Skye muses. "But believe it or not, there was a cheating male who brought his pregnant spouse to the ER. Their pup succumbed to the injuries while the mom nearly did too. Even after everything he saw his mate go through, and after losing their pup, he went right out the next day and cheated with his mistress again. His mate was still lying in the hospital bed, deathly sick."

“I know this for a fact because I was brought in just before her, suffering from CMS. Luckily, my pup survived, and my mate refrained from sex until I was able to get on Amra and take care of the problem.”

I’m shocked by her revelation, but it makes perfect sense. She’s so passionate about the health of her patients with CMS. She’s the foremost authority on thesubject. It’s rumored she’s publishing a paper and working on a book about Cheating Mate Syndrome and Rejected Mate Syndrome. RMS symptoms are mostly the same as CMS, and Amra treats both conditions.

She shakes her head. "What you’re doing here is great, Alpha! I never thought to prosecute the outside party for mate bond tampering, but you’re right. This may be just the impetus to change laws. Thank you, Alpha.”

She pauses, voice firm. “Next stop, criminalize the cheater, too.”Yes, people have choices, but if they just dissolve the bond, it begins the healing process for the victim and lessens the impact.

"I’ve been petitioning Stone Mountain’s Elder's Council to recognize CMS as abuse for months. It’s been near impossible. While wolves are faithful to their mates, their human counterparts are often carnal and prone to cheating. But infidelity damages people, relationships, mates, and families, and I've had my fill of it. Still, to each their own. If that's what they want and their mate is agreeable, we can medically intervene to make it a pain-free and safer practice. Or, you can renounce your mate bonds and live however you wish, or go your separate ways.

Just 10 years ago, CMS was unnamed and unknown, and the victims often died. Today, it's preventable and even curable. The key is education. Until it’s recognized as abuse, and since I’m the top surgeon treating it, my days are spent healing the victims. Good wolves shouldn't die for this unjust reason. It has to stop."

She leads us intoJane Doe’sroom. Paisley's small, pale shape looks so tiny on the bed. I approach and caress her hair; her face is so swollen and bruised, she’s unrecognizable.Tubes and wires are everywhere: a catheter, an IV, a heart monitor, a blood pressure cuff, probes, needles, and a bank of machines breathing for her while they chirp and beep.

Dr. Skye lifts the hem of Paisley’s gown, revealing her bare abdomen, covered in stitches and welts. "These need to stay exposed to air to prevent infection," she explains. There’s not a single part of her body without a mark, a cut, or some medical device keeping her alive.

“Her wolf healing is slow to respond due to her extensive injuries. We hope it kicks in soon. She's in a coma, but it’s not medically induced. It could be weeks, even months, before she regains consciousness. We just don't know."

"All that pleasure you had last night, Marissa, did this!" North spits, the words coming from out of nowhere.

My other enforcer stumbles into the bathroom and immediately retches. We hear him losing his breakfast behind the door.

Marissa sobs pitifully

"Marissa," I say calmly. "I want you to understand that your decisions have consequences. Instead of jerking Miles around for ten years, you should’ve settled down, mated, and stopped running away before you lost what you had. You could’ve been chosen mates a long time ago. Then his true mate wouldn’t have been dragged into your games. She would’ve been paired with someone else and spared this pain.

“Do you see these physical wounds?"

She cries, "Yesss!"

"These aren't so different from the psychological wounds you’ve inflicted on Miles, until he reached the point where he emotionally and physically destroyed someone who didn't deserve it," I hiss. "He may not have known about CMS, and you may not have either. But now you do. I hope you move forward with this new knowledge and stop hurting others.

“To respect Miles’ true mate’s wishes, you’re not to speak of her injuries, nor her being in the hospital, to anyone, especially not Miles. Understand?" I ask, my tone infused with my Alpha power.

"Uh-huh," she sniffles.

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