Book 1: Chapter 47

Charles was waiting for me when I got to the station. We went over the paperwork and the details of the conditions of the bail. Once I signed and paid, Charles motioned for one of the other guys to bring Nate out.

“So they managed to squeeze in the court date really soon. Sometimes they can take months to get a date but I think it’s because they know it’s not someone who lives in town, they are expediting it. It helps too that no one is pressing charges.”

“When is it?”

“Two weeks from Thursday. It should be short.”

I saw Nate walk down the hall, his head bowed low as he shuffled after the officer that had gone to get him. “Do we know the range of what could happen?”

Charles shrugged. “I mean we are looking at least some serious community service, maybe some therapy time? On the other end we are looking at hard time. I don’t think it would be much but it could. You never know with the judge.”

Nodding, I grabbed the folder he gave with all the documents we would need, mixed with copies of the report and my receipt. Charles pulled up the counter and Nate walked through it, standing next to me. He still didn’t look up, his hands buried in his pockets, and his shoulders slumped. Reaching out, I shook Charles hand. It was weird being so formal but it was necessary in a situation like this.

“Thank you. I’ll keep you updated.” I smiled at him.

“How was she?”

Nate next to me flinched. I ignored him though. “I mean, she’s in good spirits for the most part. Her body is the thing that’s failing her at this point. There is only so much she can do about that. It will take a couple days probably before she is back on her feet.”

Charles wrinkled his nose. “Alright. I’ll reach out to her later to check on her as well. We’ll need her official statement for the court but we have a little time.”

“Sounds good. I’ll talk to you later.” Turning, I put my hand on Nate’s back as I lead him out the station.

I opened up the passenger door the truck for him and closed it after he got in. Getting into the drivers seat, I pulled out and we headed back up to the territory. It was completely quiet and as I glanced over at him, his eyes never left the window. His hands were clutching his jeans tightly. Sighing, I just turned back and focused on the road ahead of me. Right now, there was nothing I needed to say. Not until we got home at least.

Pulling into pack house, I parked next to his Jeep. Sam had parked it straight in and it made me smirk. Never would his Jeep be parked so straight again. Nate couldn’t part straight if his life depended on it. He would say that as long as he was in the lines, it didn’t matter how crooked he was but that didn’t help when the pack house didn’t have lines.

Nate got out when I did and Sam opened up the door as we were walking up. He looked from Nate to me, his eyes searching for answers that I knew he had at least two dozen questions. Shaking my head slightly at him, he moved out of the way letting Nate past him. He started to head up the stairs when I spoke to him directly for the first time since this morning.

“Nate, I need you in the kitchen for a moment before you go up.”

“Alpha, I need to really shower…”

Him calling by my title threw not just me but Sam for a loop as well. “I know and you can. But I need to speak with you first. Now please.”

Nate slipped his foot off the first step and headed into the kitchen. I walked after him and eventually around him to the fridge. Pulling out two water bottles, I slid one to him but he didn’t take it.

“What, Alpha?”

My eyes narrowed. “Don’t ‘what’ me. You’re not a child, Nate and I’m not going to treat you like one.”

He looked up at me, that same broken look in his eyes as before.

“Both Aelia and Officer Ludwig have decided not to press charges against you.” His eyes widened but I held up my finger. “However, you still have a court date because it is still illegal to assault people.” His face fell but I continued. “Luckily it’s in a couple weeks and they will decide if it’s something stupid as community service or as bad as you getting locked up. Do you understand?”

Nate nodded but didn’t reply verbally.

“On top of that, Aelia also already spoke to the Alpha King.”

If he could have shrunk any smaller, Nate would have but he already was hunched as far as possible for someone who was six foot two.

“The Alpha King, though very upset that his adopted daughter was almost forcibly marked, agreed to hand over jurisdiction for the punishment to the First Alpha Prince.”

“What? No! Silas! You can’t! You can’t let her!” Exactly as I predicted, the pure anguish in his face and voice was more than the pain of whatever punishment that was going to be enacted would be.

I took a drink of water. “It’s not up to me, Nate. It’s a conversation between the Alpha King and the First Alpha Prince. I’m just an Alpha. What they want is what I have to agree with, you know that.”

Nate looked like he was going to start to sob again.

“You are being taken off all duties as Beta for the time being as well.”

“What?” His voice was a hoarse whisper now.

Sam stood up straighter and I nodded to him as I continued. “Sam will be taking up some of your duties as Beta and I will take over what he doesn’t feel comfortable with. I will also be handling morning practices for the foreseeable future.”

“Silas! You can’t!”

I felt my eyes flicker as Eros tried to step forward, finally fed up with Nate talking back. This made Nate slam his mouth shut quickly and take a step back.

“You will listen to me, Beta. You’re lucky I’m letting you keep that damn title. You fucking assaulted my little sister! The one who is having enough of a hard time without you adding to it. You think you can talk back to me after that? You are confined to this pack house. You are not allowed to leave. If you want to fight me any more on this, I can change that to the dungeon, is that understood?”

“Yes, Alpha.” Nate had shrunk back down and was shaking like a leaf. “Can I…”

I huffed and shook my head. “Go, Nate. I’ll go over the specifics of the court date with you later.”

Not needing to be told twice, he all but evaporated from the spot he was standing and I listened as his door quietly shut. Running my hand over my head, I cracked my back. Looking at Sam, I gave him a small smile.

“I didn’t mean to spring it on you like that. But I thought about it as I was trying to decide where I was going to confine him.”

“Honestly, I’m more surprised you agreed to cover the morning practice.”

Laughing, I shook my head. “Don’t get me started, Gamma. Just do a quick run though of Nate’s desk. Any paperwork still needing to be done that you don’t feel like you know enough about, add it to the pile on my desk.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“Oh…and Sam?”

He hummed, stopping mid-stride towards the stairs.

“Give him some slack. Don’t make it worse than it already is for him.”

Sam nodded. “Yes Alpha, of course.”

He headed up the stairs and I sighed. Meredith came out from behind the kitchen door I knew she was hiding behind. My eyebrow rose as she came in and started to make it look like she was busy doing something in the kitchen.

“You know I can hear you on the other side of the door, right?”

She turned and smirked. “I’m not sure what you mean, Alpha.”

Rolling my eyes, I patted her on the shoulder. “Do you mind making me a snack and bringing it to my office?”

“Of course, Alpha. Anything specific?”

I shook my head. “Surprise me.”

-

I sat in the chairs behind the dark wood barrier. Charles sat next to me after brining in Nate from the police station. Nate was sitting at a desk on the other side of the waist high barrier. There was, of course, another guy in a suit at the table on the right but there was only the court reporter on that side. It was early in the morning and there really wasn’t anyone else interested in the case.

“All rise for Judge Demora.” The bailiff spoke and we all stood.

I’d seen the judge before in passing but never in a situation like this. Judge Demora was a short black woman and she was known for being hard but fair. It was a relief we got her and not the other judge. He was known for being an asshole, especially in the early morning sessions.

“Sit. I’d like this to go as quickly as possible.” Her voice rang out and we all sat down. “Nathaniel Rivers.”

“Yes ma’am.” Nate stood, his nerves getting the better of him as I watch him rub his thumb over his fingers, fidgeting.

She put on her glasses and pulled up some papers already on her desk. “You assaulted a woman, as well as an off duty police officer. When called in, you also fought the police trying to arrest you. Is that correct?”

His head fell. “Yes ma’am.”

“However, both the woman and the police office you assaulted did not press charges.”

“Yes ma’am.”

She clicked her tongue, setting her papers down. “Do you know why that is?”

“No ma’am.”

“I was curious as well. Considering the counts brought against you. So I actually spoke to the two of them early this morning.” She brought her arms up and laced her fingers together. “Officer Ludwig said that he has known you for a number of years. He had never known you to lash out in such a way and that if you showed zero remorse, he would have pressed charges. But that whatever was going through your head at the time faded, you broke. He said that nothing the court could do to compare how hard you are on yourself. Is that true Mr. Rivers?”

Nate hung his head. “I…most likely…ma’am.”

“Now whose testimony I found interesting was Solaris Ulrich. She came in this morning, providing some insight and documentation to me.”

My head snapped to the judge and I was as surprised as Nate and Charles next to me.

“Mr. Rivers, Mr. Penn, and Chief Pierce please approach the bench.”

Standing up, I followed Charles as we passed the barrier and walked up to the judge. She narrowed her eyes at us. Her voice was kept low though, out of earshot of the court reporter.

“I’m well aware of your kind, Alpha Penn. Miss Ulrich explained to me that Mr. Rivers here was already going to receive punishment under your kinds rule.”

I nodded. “Yes, ma’am. His punishment is already set and we were only waiting on this court date.”

She nodded. “Miss Ulrich explained to me the details of that as well. Though she didn’t seem happy about it either. She also gave me some context about the episode. While I may not understand what it means to have a mate, I do understand love can drive us to the edge. Especially when we are going to lose that person.”

My eyes widened and I looked at Nate, his eyes locked with Judge Demora. Apparently, Aelia had given more information than I thought she would.

“I’m not going to punish you twice for a crime, even if it’s technically not on the books. I want you to understand that. However, I still will need to punish you under our laws.”

Nate nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Mr. Penn and Chief Pierce, I do this under the understanding that he will be punished under your law and the both of you will witness it. Go back to your seats.”

We turned and walked back to our seats but before any of us could sit, she called out to the room, “All rise.”

“Nathaniel Rivers will serve two weeks of community service. Six days a week, 6 hours a day. It will be signed off by the residing officer and the community service shall be dictated by the Jackson Police Department. That is all.”

The man in the suit was about to retort but she banged the gavel and stood up. I sighed in relief and I saw Nate fall into the chair, his head in his hands. Walking over to him, I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Come on, Nate. Let’s go.”

He didn’t move for a second but when he finally did, I could see he was about to cry.

“She…she protected me…even when I…”

I smiled. “She’s done nothing but protect us. She partially blamed herself for what happened, I think. She’s taking her own punishment in the form of punishing you. You’re not getting off easy though. You know that.”

He nodded and got up, walking around the side of the barrier. “Do you think…”

I shook my head, cutting him off. “I don’t know the specifics, so I can’t answer any questions you have about it. I do know it probably will happen soon, now that this court is done. They won’t wait for your community service weeks to be done. We don’t know how long that will take.”

“Not very long, but we are looking about a month out. The force will decide where to put you or what needs to be done.” Charles came up to us, putting a hand on Nate’s shoulder. “I’ll make sure to take into account your condition depending on when the punishment happens. The judge is requiring I be there and sign an affidavit that you have been punished under your law though. For her records.”

My jaw set. “You going to be okay with that?”

He laughed nervously. “I’m not sure. I don’t really know what your punishments involve.”

“Lashes usually. The severity ranging from poison tipped, the type of whip and the amount. That’s your most basic punishment. It can be worse but I’m not sure if Aelia would allow that to go further.” I looked at Nate sadly. He shivered at the thought. “Our punishments are about both setting an example and causing pain to remind us not to do it again. We are stronger than just about any race out there, so it’s easy to forget that we are breakable sometimes. Also of the punishments revolve around reminding us of our humanity.”

This time Charles shuddered. “So then no. I’m not okay with it. But I’ll be there anyways. Not just for the court but for you as well.” Charles squeezed Nate’s shoulder. “I’ll be there to support the most that I can.”

“Thanks Charles.” Nate’s voice was quiet and he shoved his hands in his pocket. “We can go back home now?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we can head back home. Charles, I’ll reach out to you soon.”