Chapter 176
I close my eyes as silent tears fall. I will never admit to it but my father’s abuse has been getting worse over the last two years. Enough that I struggle every morning to get out of bed as I can’t help but wonder if that day is the day he’ll put an end to my misery.
“I need you to connect with the bond. Let it relax you, calm you so that my read on you doesn’t hurt. You’ll feel me because of your sensory sensitivity but I really want to make this painless and I need you to relax for that.”
I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly. I can hear alpha in the background talking with Dr. Pierce.
“Radiology wasn’t a strong subject for me in med school but considering he’s never had cracked ribs before it certainly does look like he has them now. Is that all he’s complaining about?”
“He’s complaining about his wrist and ankle as well but Jessa didn’t get strong pain signals from those areas.”
“She’s wrong dad. How many times have I got to tell you to stop relying on that bitch?”
I cringe and whimper as I hear such a hateful word being directed at my mate. I feel her hand, gently laid upon the side of my neck as I attempt to push myself up.
“No, Cole. You will stay with me.”
She speaks calmly as my wolf rages inside me. I cringe and whimper again as I close my fist around the sheet on the bed after a hard slap echoes through the room.
“If you ever refer to a female in my pack as a bitch again I will do more than slap it out of your mouth.”
“Come on dad. She’s a wolf. By definition she’s a….”
“No.”
For some reason I’m having a terribly difficult time just listening to this interaction between them.
“She is an alpha and you will treat her with dignity and respect. Calling any wolf in my pack a bitch, I don’t care if it’s a non-shifting omega, is a disrespect I will not tolerate. Am I understood?”
“Dad, tons of packs call females by that name.”
“Yes, I have visited packs that use the term and I have never encountered a single one that uses it in a demeaning manner. You will respect the fact that we’re not one of them.” I hear him growl out.
“Anyway,” Dr. Pierce gets them back on the subject they were on.
“As a precaution, Jessa did recommend getting X-rays of those as well. I’m not seeing anything on either.”
“Considering I have a report that he sparred with multiple warriors and prospects before forcing Cole to spar without equipment for any of those involved, I’d like you to send all his X-rays and those we get on Cole to Dr. Fawn at General. He will have the final say. Set him up with a brace for both his wrist and ankle. He’ll be on house arrest outside of school hours for the next three weeks.”
“Three weeks! What the hell dad? How dare you believe him over me!”
“Enough! I will not tolerate your continued targeting of Cole. Right now your punishment is three weeks on house arrest. Your mother, brother or I will take you to the bus stop and one of us will escort you home. No training or other activities will be allowed during that time frame. You will either be locked in your room or helping your mother or myself. If the video footage confirms the information that I have received and you actively forced Cole into sparring then you will be punished for assault.
Keeping with sensitivity towards Cole I will give you the choice. If I find you have assaulted Cole again you may choose between ten bare bottom hits with Patrick handling the belt or two additional weeks on house arrest. I will let you know when your decision needs to be made but in the meantime your mom will be escorting you to your room for the rest of the day. We will come get you for dinner.”
I hear a frustrated growl before the movement of feet outside of my field of view.
“Take a seat.” I hear a feminine voice growl.
It must be luna, I had almost forgotten she was here.
“Is there anything else going on with Lucas, Ange?”
“No sir. He will be free to walk back to his room once he’s fitted for the braces. He’s been given prescription ibuprofen for the pain. Light duty for seven days and I will set up an appointment for him to come see me next Monday right after school.”
“Thank you. Are you okay with taking him to his room?”
It sounds like he’s talking to luna now.
“Of course. He won’t give me any issues, will you?”
She definitely seems to have changed from that very first evening we met in the hospital wing as it sounds like she’s challenging her own son. If my mom simply felt the need to do the same with me I would have been slapped in the face before I could dare to think of giving her a hard time.
“No ma’am.” His voice is clipped with anger but hopefully truthful in nature.
“Very well. I will see you at dinner. You best change that attitude of yours, son. Cole will continue being treated as part of the family until he leaves at the end of the run and hurting him will not get him sent home early. He’s here until the end of July. Do you understand me? Your punishments will only get worse the longer you hang on to this unbridled hatred you have towards him. If you assault him one more time you will force me to involve the council.”
“I thought you’ve already involved the council so what difference is it going to make if you involve them. Why are you choosing to ignore the fact that he’s a pedophile and a rapist?”
“Goddess Luke, what is wrong with you?” Alpha sounds exasperated with his son. “I have already explained multiple times to you and the rest of the trainers that what’s going on with Cole at his home pack are unsubstantiated rumors.”
“What the hell dad? Dallas said he saw a seven year old running around with his mark. How can that be an unsubstantiated rumor? He saw the mark.”
“Why are you so willing to take the word of an actual rapist? How would Dallas know who made the mark? With the cruel and unforgiving kind of pack Red Fang is, what’s to keep a father or teenager from creating that mark and blaming it on him?”
“Why would they set him up if he’s not doing anything wrong?”
“Because he’s the only wolf strong enough to handle his father’s beatings!”
My breath hitches briefly when I hear his desperate explanation. One that I have never once ever considered possible. Strong? Me?
“Because he was made the scapegoat for his family at a very early age and his pack naturally followed their leader.” His voice has softened from where he started with his son.
“Normally when abuse happens, especially abuse as severe as Cole’s, the alpha is trying to prepare the oldest child for the iron fist that most believe a pack needs to be ruled by. It’s rare to find the youngest of six kids taking on the brunt of such cruelty. From what little he’s said about his siblings, Alpha Redmen has punished all of them harshly but none of them have been put on death’s doorstep like Cole has. Although he has not spoken of it, I have no doubts that his brush with death five weeks ago wasn’t his first. He just happened to be in the right pack for saving his life as I doubt he would have survived in his home pack.”
He sighs hard as Lucas remains silent.
“If you were to attack Cole again, unprovoked, then I would have no choice than to report you to the council. They would come out and interview you to find out why you keep attacking him and recommend a series of hard penalties to be implemented. Since you are my son, you would be taken to the council headquarters closest to our territory where they would implement physical punishment. Your mother and I would not be allowed to come with you as too many parents have attacked the council for implementing the punishment you’re sentenced to.
My understanding is that you would be chained with silver restraints with your hands above your head so you couldn’t break loose. They would then disrobe you from the waist down and you would receive your age on your bare bottom from a delta male of their choosing. It’s only because you’re sixteen that they would select a delta. At eighteen it would be a beta and at twenty-one, since you would be considered an adult alpha, it would be an alpha. Who mans the belt is chosen based on the wolf’s birth rank and can only go as high as their own rank. They would then escort you back to me where we would be instructed to offer only enough medical care to prevent infection and you would be sentenced anywhere from a week to three months in jail. That’s considered a light sentence and you would only receive that because it’s your first offense and you’re only sixteen.
Obviously I don’t want to involve the council because unlike me, where I called Delta Anthony off after only thirty seconds on your clothed ass, their delta will be allowed to put his full strength into your backside as fast as he wants to go as long as he doesn’t go past your age in hits.
The other reason I don’t want to involve the council is because of your reasoning for the attacks. If the council gets a hold of the rumors that Cole has been punished six times for raping his future luna and goddess knows how many times for the marking of children all hell is going to break loose at that pack and if Cole is there when it happens.”
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