Chapter 124
“I told you last night that I don’t handle lidocaine shots well. The burn is a reminder.”
“A reminder of what?” I ask as I start running my fingertips along his temple.
His eyes are closed as he moves his left arm blindly, not knowing what to do with it.
“Put your hand on my side. Grab hold of my shirt.”
“Please alpha.”
He barely speaks as he settles his hand against my side.
“You did wonderfully downstairs last night. Don’t psych yourself out of getting relief that you need.”
“This is different alpha. I swear to you. It’s a deep burn and I can’t handle anything on top of it.”
“Are you certain you don’t want to try?”
“Please alpha. All it’s going to do is trigger the memory of this and so much more. I barely held on last night. I can’t handle round two. Not all the way around my leg.”
I sigh but there’s something about what he’s saying that I ultimately understand.
“Angela, what can you do to get him comfortable for the night without the shots?”
“That’s the best thing I have, Demetri. I thought you came in to help him get through them.”
“I did but he knows the level of pain he’s already in. He knows how the local anesthetic feels.”
“Wimp.” Lucas scoffs.
I can feel his body jerk to the sounds of Angela putting everything she was going to use for the anesthesia back in the metal bin. As much as I wanted to address Lucas’s comment I turn my attention back to Cole.
“I know you’re going to yelp if I touch you so I need you to stifle that. I don’t want you to wake Madilyn. I’m not going to hurt you. Squeeze my shirt.”
I say everything quietly as I place my hand on the back of his head. His body goes rigid at my touch, his breathing becomes short pants as he holds his breath.
“What a fucking baby. Can’t even handle hearing the shit getting put away.”
“Lucas” I growl as Cole cowers into the bed.
“I’m sorry alpha. I’m sorry I’m weak. I can’t do this.”
He struggles against my hold, separating himself from me and similar to what he did last night, quickly brings his hand from his side to his face. The difference this time is I see his mouth open as he tries to dive for his hand.
Fortunately, I’m not the only one seeing this behavior resulting in three of us grabbing his arm and pinning him down. He whines hard, nearly yelping at our sudden actions preventing him from what he seeks.
“What the hell, dad? He was getting ready to give us a nice little show. One that would send his ass back to where he came from.”
Our growls resonate through the small room. Even Lilly and Angela’s growls are deep and guttural causing Cole to yelp and fight our hold on him.
“Lucas,” I growl, tired of the callousness I’m hearing from my own son. “At this point you will remain silent or you will incur the original punishment I wanted to implement before your mom mentioned Cole’s request. You will remain in this room until I explain what your options are for the behavior you’ve displayed. Afterwards, Patrick will take you to your room. I don’t even want to hear your shoes squeaking when you shift your weight so if you need a chair, now is the time to request it. Do you understand my expectations?”
My voice is strained as Cole fights to get away from us. My aura is blazing hot which is making him fight, almost violently, to get away from me.
“Lucas, you are to respond to my question.”
“Yes, I understand.” He disrespectfully growls out.
As much as his response deserves to be addressed, I shut my aura down instead. At the moment, Cole is far more important. He’s struggling against us so badly that nearly everything is on the floor and I use that to my advantage.
Lilly and Angela back off just as I jump up. Cole rolls to his stomach not realizing I hadn’t left the bed. I straddle his waist as he rolls causing him to yelp even worse as my body closes in on him.
He attempts to stuff his hand into his mouth but this time I’m not so certain that it’s to cause himself harm. I’m certain that the way he’s fighting me is causing him enough pain as his fear filled yelps have progressed into immensely painful ones. I grab his wrists in my hands, cautious towards the deep bruising discoloring them.
“Enough.”
My voice is shockingly soft and compassionate considering the sudden switch I had to take. I’m on my forearms and knees as I straddle his waist. My hands are gentle around his wrists positioned comfortably beside his head. To my surprise his yelps have stopped completely but soon realize that it’s because he’s literally biting the only pillow left on the bed.
His body is stiff except for his tremors, his breathing is inconsistent. I can hear him panting through his clenched teeth for a few seconds before he holds his breath for longer than he was breathing. I lower myself even closer to him, he immediately whimpers and squirms with the confinement.
“I’m sorry Cole, none of the anger you felt was directed towards you. Open your mouth Cole. Let go of the pillow, I need you to breathe.”
Lilly is beside me again, removing the pillow as he starts to relax, more from the sheer exhaustion than any type of willingness to do so. His eyes are closed as he lays the side of his head on the mattress. He’s panting hard trying to catch his breath. I can no longer ignore the wheeze that has settled into his chest.
“Angela, we need to get his leg wrapped up. What do you need to do?”
“I need to get him back on his side. Use the lidocaine wash to clean it off and put more salve on it before I can wrap it.”
“Just leave it be. Please. I can’t do this.”
He whispers with a whine in his voice. I move my hands into his, gently rubbing the backs as he pulls away. I follow his movements until my arms are wrapped around him.
My body has slowly lowered until I’m nearly touching him. He’s shaking badly from the pain and fear he feels, a soft whimper has become constant.
“I know you’re in a lot of pain right now but we need to get this sheet changed and you better positioned for bandaging your leg. I know you want it left alone but your denial of care after this beating is what got your leg in such bad shape. The local anesthetic is not a necessity but treating the infection in that burn is.”
He squeezes my hands, moving them out slightly until he can lay his head upon them.
“What’s next alpha?”
“I help you off the bed and hold you as the sheet gets changed. I will continue to hold you while Angela and Lilly work on your leg.”
“I’m sorry alpha.”
“You say that a lot. What are you sorry about?” I speak gently as he leans his head against my arm.
“What I said downstairs. It was wrong to speak of such a personal matter in front of everyone. I deserve what I feel.”
“No you don’t. Is that why you went after your hand?”
“You’re holding out on me alpha. I deserved to be tied up last night, to be laid into like he does but you held me instead. I threw Lucas under the bus trying to get him off my back. What he’s doing is wrong but the way I told you is wrong as well.”
“Lilly’s back with the sheet. Let’s get you up. Stay still while I get up first.”
“Moving hurts.”
His whisper is barely perceptible as I start cautiously moving from on top of him. He releases my hands as I move around more, overlapping them in front of him. He tries several times to lay his head down before simply placing his forehead on his hands and even that sounds painful.
Once I’m off the bed I squat down beside it.
“Cole, I know you’re in a lot of pain but I need to get you standing so the sheet can be changed. Then we will lay back down together so Angela can get your leg bandaged. I will help you stand. Do you think you can get yourself sitting on the edge of the bed?”
I stand as he nods before slowly trying to push himself up. I can tell immediately that he’s stifling his yelps by holding his breath, that every move he makes is painful and exhausting. I place my hand on his shoulder as he sways slightly from his change in position.
“Holding your breath is making everything harder for you.”
I stop his attempt to stand resulting in a panicked yelp that is cut short by his own hand. I step back, looking at him with great concern before reaching for his wrist.
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