Shifting Betas

   Sebastian Marlow was standing in the doorway of his hall bathroom that was decorated in light pinks and horrible diamond patterned linoleum in their house that was over a hundred and twenty years old listening to the screams of his wife as the midwife attempted to deliver the baby that they had already determined was dead. He was crushed, but now he just wanted Noreen to survive. He had little hope as he heard her wail and it took every ounce of restraint he had and then some not to push past the midwife and hold his dearest’s hand just in case it would be the last time.

   He stood on his tiptoes to see what he could and he wished that he hadn’t. Blood was everywhere. There was a unmoving lump between his wife’s legs and she was covered in blood from her wide hips down to her dainty ankles. Sebastian wanted to scoop her up and rush her to the nearest hospital despite the fact that it was almost an hour away and they were something that the public believed didn’t exist so he did what he could as alpha of the pack he tapped into her energy and wished he hadn’t. It was full of reds and oranges. Black lines streaked everything and holes were forming where they never should be.

   Sebastian brought on her change knowing that she would heal at supernatural speeds also knowing that in her state she would probably make the midwife a means to sustain her high metabolism. He didn’t care. He just wanted Noreen to survive.

   The midwife, whose name escaped him, began screaming at him, but he couldn’t understand her and he didn’t care to; she wouldn’t be around much longer anyway. Sebastian forced his energy into his wife’s and pushed her beast to the surface so that it could climb out and come to the forefront. Once it was there it took over.

   Noreen was powerful enough to push Sebastian out of her body and she did. Her wolf overcame her though and she started the agonizing pain of shifting. Her bones broke and reformed, her face elongated and a muzzle grew out of a perfectly symmetrical nose. Hair sprouted over her body and then the plasma erupted as she was a tawny wolf covered in blood, gasping for air in the bathtub. Now Sebastian heard the midwife.

   “You are killing her. She cannot handle the change. She will surely die. You have killed your wife Mister Marlow.”

   This time Sebastian lost his cool and picked up the large woman and threw her through the doorway he was just standing in. He grabbed a tuft of hair behind Noreen’s ear and whispered to her.

   “Please don’t die my dear. I don’t know what I will do without you. I don’t think I will be able to go on alone.”

   In his mind he heard her say her last words. “You will always have the pack.” She was gone. Her body slowly knitted its way back to human form and Sebastian just cried. He heard the midwife say something, but he didn’t care enough to listen. He didn’t know how long he sat there, but he felt the pull of familiar smells pulling him off of her. They drug him outside and slapped him around a bit.

   “He needs to be lucid,” came a voice out of the darkness. Hawthorn Michaels was Sebastian’s Beta. He tried desperately to get his alpha back from the brink. He knew if he didn’t Sebastian would go on a rampage and not one of them could stop him out of fear, respect and sheer force. He was desperate so he tried the unthinkable: he pushed himself inside his alpha. As a wolf he would think more clearly or he would kill them all, either way he had to take the chance. He wasn’t even sure if it was something he could do. He only hoped that in Sebastian’s weakened state he had let his guard down.

   Sebastian screamed out as Hawthorn pulled out of him. It had worked and their alpha was writhing on the ground in the midst of the brutal change.

  “I will kill you,” came the cry from Sebastian’s throat. The pack stood their ground ready for whatever their pack-master threw at them.

   When his shift was complete he stood there, condensation from his breath steaming out of his nostrils. Sebastian let out a howl and took off at a run. The rest of the pack shifted as fast as they could and went after him, but they all knew they would never catch him. Their alpha was gone and they didn’t know if he would ever be back. Oh, he would probably be back to his home, but to the pack, he may be lost forever.