Bane's Regret, Stone Mountain Shifters

Chapter 5 - Earth & Orion

Dr. Skye

Stone Mountain City Hospital

Present Day

Footsteps pound down the corridor behind me. "Dr. Skye." My tech assistant, Ryder, calls. "There's a chopper landing with another female suffering from CMS." CMS is the shortened form of Cheating Mate Syndrome.

"Damn!" I curse and flip around to follow him to the ER. "These laws have got to change!" We get at least a dozen of these victims a week. That might not be much, but compared to our population, that's 20%! Mostly females. We do get the rare male. If you want to be with someone else, break your mate bonds first. We have medications and treatments now, so it is survivable. Just three years ago, I began treatment on our Alpha Commander due to his mate rejecting him. He is progressing well. I recently acquired a supplier of a homemade herbal treatment developed in the Northwest. It negates the effects of cheating on the mate's body and helps with Rejected Mate Syndrome, or RMS as well. It is truly a miracle drug. It is named for the alchemist who developed it, Amarazorathyzide or Amra, for short.

Upon entering the ER, I found the patient on the stretcher. My team is already here, and they know the drill. Amra IV drip, blood transfusion, and oxygen are the first line of treatment. After she stabilizes, we address pain measures. We have developed some drugs that ease the pain, but most of our patients arrive in the ER already past that point. They are out cold and near dead.

My biggest hurdle in treating CMS is education. Because it is brought on by an unfaithful mate, to speak of it is taboo. Therefore, the victim suffers in silence, mostly because they are not aware of what is happening to them, or if they do, they are ashamed and blame themselves. Thankfully, the episodes are brief. They usually last as long as the tryst lasts. Unfortunately, they occur every time. The more frequent, the more damage is done to the victim. Even with our advanced treatments, we still lose one patient in every ten. Better odds, but I don't want to lose even one patient to this preventable syndrome.

"If you're reading this on teenfic site or similar ones, you're reading on a mirror site. To read this (and other stories) by the actual author for free, go to Wattpad/Mellie_readsnwrites."

COPYRIGHT © 2024 by Mellie_readsnwrites

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.

That is why I opened my non-profit, supported by the hospital, the city and generous donations from my uncle. It is a shelter for victims of abuse of any type. We have victims of CMS abuse, RMS abuse, elder abuse, mate abuse, pup abuse, etc. The shelter population is made up of 99% females and pups, but we have a small number of males, as well.

I have been petitioning the territory Elder's Council to recognize CMS and RMS as abuse. It has been near impossible. Wolves are carnal and like to cheat. It damages mates, it damages families, and it damages relationships. I've had my fill of it, but, hey, to each their own. If that's your jam and your mate is okay with it, sans the pain, we can medically intervene to make it a safer practice. Or, you can just renounce your mate bonds and cohabitate however you wish or go your separate ways. Just 10 years ago, CMS was unnamed and unknown, while the victims normally died. The same is true with RMS. Today, those are preventable and even curable. The key is education. Until it is recognized as abuse, since I am the territory's foremost authority on it, my days are spent healing the victims.

And when my time is not spent healing, I have been blessed with my son, Earth. He is a blonde, blue-eyed cutie and looks just like his dad. I don't know where Bane ended up. I haven't looked for him. He deserted us, so I don't feel it's my responsibility to track him down. I have a few photos of him from when we mated, and I show them to Earth all the time. I tell him that his daddy is a protector and he is probably out protecting people right now. He is too young to ask questions, but I am sure he will one day. In the meantime, I want to normalize that he has a father, albeit absent.