Wednesday, August 28th
I sit quietly in the jail cell on the bed next to the young man my twin and I have been helping for the past two weeks. I can’t believe the turn things have taken with the kind and benevolent Colton Allen Xander. Leslie alerted me yesterday that he was struggling to come out of the drugs he was given, giving me the medical necessity I need to visit him in jail. He finally started showing signs of waking up late last night. I watch as he stirs, lightly whimpering as he moves his legs. He took a nasty hit, one in each thigh, of medication. The easiest way to down a wolf without fighting them.
“Move slowly until you know how you feel, Cole. Things haven’t worked out fast enough and for that I’m so very sorry.” I speak softly as he stirs even more. “It would be best if you stay lying down until you’re fully awake. Leslie has been taking care of you the last couple days.”
“How?” He speaks hoarsely.
“It’s important for you to remember that even though Leslie was the one to arrest you for crimes you didn’t do, he’s also on your side. He will not be cruel to you. If you communicate what you need he will do what he can to accommodate.” I watch him slowly nod his head.
“To answer your question, he watches you as much as he can. When he sees you stir around he comes in with a bottle of water and a straw. You’ve been doing very well drinking the water when he offers even though you’re mostly asleep. He was also able to figure out a way for you to relieve yourself without soiling the bed or standing.”
“What happens to me now?” He nearly whispers, ashamed of being who he is.
“May I come back to that question? There’s a bit of history that I’d like to tell you about the Purple Mountain pack.”
“Sure. I’m not going anywhere.” He states dryly as he sits himself up.
“Purple Mountain wasn’t always the dangerous, tyrannical pack that it is now. When the pack first grouped together it was a pack of rogues that had run from the very leader that half of this pack now supports. The original alpha is rumored to have been kind, a gentle leader who guided his pack by example over brute strength and fear. Alpha Marlin Amethyst and his sons reigned over the pack for four generations before Jesse Amethyst made the fatal mistake of making Darren Draven his beta.
Darren was a first generation pack member, meaning his father and mother were rogues taken in by the pack. He was the first pup from the Draven line to be born in this pack. Karsten didn’t have the sixth sense needed to judge rogues and their morality and the Draven bloodline is about as bad as you can get. Had he done the recommended research he would have found that Manric and Frida Draven weren’t simply rogues. They had been kicked out of numerous packs for assault and battery among other charges.
Manric had finally come to his senses while Frida approached her due date and managed to massage his way into the Purple Mountain pack. Darren was born in the territory and they both took the oath of loyalty making them members when he was three months old. At the time that Darren was born, Jesse was only about a year old.
Due to complications during the pregnancy Opal died during childbirth and he would end up being Karsten’s only heir. As time went on, the kids grew up together. Manric was one who always had his eye on power and despite his age, was determined to achieve it. He got close to Karsten’s beta and somehow managed to slowly poison him with arsenic until he passed away. While he was young it was assumed to be natural.
While it’s unknown how he did it, Manric then became Karsten’s beta. He was satisfied with the position and while rumors are he planned to poison Karsten, as luck would have it, Karsten was killed in a car accident while traveling home from another pack. Manric took control of the pack for a year until Jesse was coronated leader of the pack at eighteen years old, taking Darren as his beta.
Manric instilled in Darren the same lust for power that he had and within three years of taking the reins Jesse was dead. He never found his mate and never had an heir ending the four generations of Amethyst’s to rule the pack. Darren immediately took over and refused the standard hierarchy of appointing a beta or delta.”
“Considering what you know about them now, that seems appropriate.” Cole interrupts quietly.
“Looking into the past, yes. He obtained the power through deception and was paranoid that others would do the same. Darren took a mate instead of searching for his fated mate and was as cruel and merciless towards her as he appeared benevolent towards the pack. It was a slow transition to push the pack backwards but by the time his son, Diesel, took over nearly half the pack had returned to its wild ways. Women and children struggled the most. That’s when Melissa and I were born.
Diesel enjoyed terrorizing the pack and was the one to start showing his power through public whippings. Rogues would often stumble upon the territory and he would take them in. If they left fast enough they never encountered his deviant behavior but the ones who had a strict morality would often get stuck here, trying to change the way the pack was. Diesel would wait until they tried to intervene in an illegal act against a child or woman, putting them at the scene of the crime. He would then jail the unsuspecting rogue and find them guilty of the crime without so much as talking to them. He would turn false trial and other proceedings against the rogue into the council showing their guilt before scheduling the whipping. Diesel was so paranoid that his actions would be found out that the innocent rogues sentenced to public whipping would receive fifty lashings. He held ten such punishments and only one physically survived. Mentally he was so traumatized that he lived the rest of his life in the hospital.”
“Have you witnessed a whipping?”
“Unfortunately, with my parents being doctors, we were forced to be there.” I nod my head. “Dresden has continued the practice at an alarming rate which has resulted in having to witness five times what my parents did. How I have lasted this long in this pack, I don’t know.”
“Fifty?” He whispers as he stares at me. All I can do is nod my head.
“Dresden has since lowered the lashings to ten which had the desired effect; only five have died in the last ten years but the effects of being whipped when you’ve done nothing wrong is life changing.”
“What about me? Am I destined to be tortured?”
“I have several things going on in the background but now that you’re awake I won’t be allowed to visit you again. In two days time, Alpha Draven will carry out your sentence of ten lashings with the whip. I pray that I will hear from the council tonight and I will be able to help them plan for removing Alpha Draven permanently from the reins. I’m not certain how far it must go before they have the evidence needed to stop him but I certainly hope it will be before the first hit.”
Despite his calmness I know he’s terrified. Deep down inside I believe the marks I’ve seen on his back are from the very same thing. How he walked away being the benevolent protector that he is I will never know. Unfortunately my time is up here. I stand from the bed as Leslie approaches the prison’s door. I stop and look silently as the tears fall down his face.
“Hang in there buddy. I promise you, I’m doing everything I can to stop this.” He nods slowly but never opens his eyes as I exit his prison cell.
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