The Beta

LIX

*Rian*

"What is going on?" My voice was eerily calm. On the contrary, my heartbeat sounded like a freight train and so did everyone else's.

Keaton wet his lips nervously, glancing between me, Faye, and my mother. I already didn't like the man. He hadn't been able to properly diagnose Titus with anything yet and basically said there's no treatment. Then again, he'd only been here for a few hours. I wanted answers, though, and he wasn't handing any out. Now he was touching the bare skin of my girlfriend's shoulder with a guilty look in his eye. He must have wanted to get on my bad side.

"I think we have a problem," Keaton told me. "You scratched Faye during your fight with the Omega and the wound isn't healing."

"What?" I strode into the living room, gaze boring into Faye's downturned face. "You're hurt? Why didn't you tell me?"

She lifted her face. Tears shimmered in her eyes. "Fanny told me not to. She said you'd be upset if you knew. Even if it wasn't you...and I didn't think it was. But Dr. Keaton thinks it was you and-"

"Shhh, it's okay." I silenced with her a kiss. "I'm not mad at you."

Faye couldn't seem to gather the strength or motivation to speak, so she just stared at me. After brushing her damp cheeks with my thumbs, I moved to get a closer look at the scratch. She tried to shift away, but I held her steady.

"Scratch?" I hissed. "That's a gouge!"

They all grimaced.

"Why isn't it healing?"

"Well..." Scratching the back of his neck, Keaton took a deep breath. "As I explained to Faye and your mother, a human injury inflicted by an Alpha heals slower than one by a normal wolf. I think your Alpha is dying and the power is being transferred to you."

"We know he's dying. He has cancer," I spat.

He shook his head. "You're not hearing me. He's dying. He is very close to death right now. The power only transfers as life is leaving the body."

"No...oh, no. God..." My mother gasped. Then she bolted for the door.

I was still trying to process the doctor's words. Alpha is dying. Right now. The life is leaving his body.

"You should go," Faye said, meeting my gaze. "Go be with him. Dr. Keaton will stay with me."

"No," I instantly countered. "I'm not leaving you."

She took my hands into hers and kissed them. "There is only so much you can take at once. Please, Rian. You'll regret not going to him. I'll be okay."

My mind and heart was torn. The anima bond wanted me to process what I had done—how I had hurt my anima—while my mind assured me that Faye was right. I would regret not being with my Alpha during his last breaths. Even if we never got along one-hundred percent of the time. There was also the obvious that I couldn't yet comprehend...

I would be the Alpha soon. Really soon. I never finished my training. Why hadn't I tried harder? Why hadn't I thought ahead? Now I had no clue what to do. Fate must have deemed it time for my pack to crumble, because there was no way I could run it successfully.

"Rian?"

Her voice pulled me back into the present. The look on her face broke my heart. She was begging me to go. Finally, I decided and nodded my head. I kissed her once more before starting for the door. When my fingers brushed the knob, I turned back to burn a glare into Keaton.

"Find a way to heal her," I ordered. "My pack is falling apart and if you don't find a solution by the time I come back, you will be the one falling apart."

Blood burning like fire in my veins, I stormed out of the house and sprinted down the street to the Alpha mansion. I followed the sound of sobs up to the second floor master suite. My mother was crouched beside the enormous bed. Her only companion was the small, thin figure curled in the bed sheets.

A gray wolf stared up at me through bleak, silver eyes as I neared the bed. My mother didn't look up at all. I put my hand on her shoulder and sat on the edge of the bed. Alpha whined. A moment later, he mindcommed me.

I'm sorry it came to this, he told me.

In our heads, he still sounded strong. He would want to be remembered that way, which is why I assumed he transitioned. His human form probably felt even more crippled.

Why? I asked. You didn't ask for this.

There is still so much you need to know. I wish we had the time.

Don't worry about that now. Is there something you want me to tell my mother?

He whined again. Just that I love her and don't want her to miss me. Death will be a blessing after these last months. I'll finally get to see our parents again, and I'm happy for that. She should be happy, too.

I nodded. A tear slipped down my cheek before I could catch it. My mother suddenly notice my presence. The look of concentration on my face must have given our conversation away.

"What's he saying?" she demanded. "Rian, tell me what he's saying!"

Tell her I love her.

"He says he loves you," I replied.

All I ask is that she keeps you in check while I'm gone.

Smiling slightly, I rolled my eyes.

"What?" she pressed.

"His dying wish is that you would keep me in check."

No. My dying wish is for you to become the man and Alpha you're supposed to be. You were chosen, Rian. I won't live to see the reason, but hopefully you will.

My mother grabbed his paw and blinked back her own tears. "I wish you didn't have to go so soon. I wish Mother and Father were still here."

His whine was cut short by a bout of hacking. He was losing breath. Right as his eyes closed, the bedroom door swung open and the room was flooded with other pack members. My father. Sarah. Alpha's closest friends.

They were all just bodies to me and the corpse of our lifeless leader. I was pushed aside until my back met the bedroom wall. My eyes wouldn't relinquish their spot on the closed lids of the gray wolf.

This was it. This was the end.

The end of my uncle's life.

The end of my pack.

The end of every good thing in my life.