Chapter 200
Friday, April 27th
(Demetri’s POV)
It’s been over three weeks since I moved Cole into his new room on the first floor and asked for his help with the big brother program. I ultimately decided to postpone his testing after he fell apart later that night.
It took a while to get his padding in. I was hoping that it would reduce the stress of testing his sparring skills but so far he’s gotten so nervous just putting them on that I didn’t engage him in any actual sparring. I would love to see his defensive skills but I’m waiting for him to need sparring before trying again.
He has made changes to his schedule to accommodate the additional things we have asked him to participate in. After showing him where the other prospects were training at, I have seen him rotate between the three groups depending on the usefulness of the training for him.
Even though I have essentially dropped him from this run as a warrior prospect I refuse to send him home. As far as he and the council knows, he still is one. I have encouraged Damian, Dominic and Patrick to include him in their training. He refuses to participate in any actual sparring but has shown all three of them some of his knowledge by working with them like he did Jackson. They have all submitted papers checking off skills that he has either politely corrected or shown them something different from their normally taught skill set. They all compliment him regularly.
He only spends two to three hours with them each morning before he heads back to the pack house around noon. After he eats lunch he takes over my computer for three to four hours until I force him off for dinner. I never imagined it would be such a huge undertaking to sort out Lucas’s sex life but the severity to which he broke not just my rules, but my pack law, I feel warrants such an invasive investigation.
I take a look at the time, seeing that it’s 12:45, I start wrapping up what I’m working on. After I dissected his schedule I started nudging him out of his comfort zone this week. Every day he returns to his room to rest from just after twelve until lunch is available in the pack house. Monday I stopped by his room and invited him to join me for lunch. I was surprised when he agreed only to change his mind when he saw we were headed to the banquet hall. I persuaded him to continue.
That first lunch with me was awkward for both of us but as the days have gone by they have become more comfortable for him. It’s given me an opportunity to observe him around the members of my pack and their reactions to him being here. I’ve shut multiple members down that were talking up Lucas, exaggerating what he did to Cole and why. Once Cole came to understand that I wouldn’t tolerate their antics he finally started to relax and yesterday’s lunch was actually quite pleasant.
I stack the papers I’m working on and put them on the opposite side of the desk so I can continue with them after lunch before heading out of my office into the hall. I quicken my pace as I hear whimpering coming from Cole’s room. I open the door slowly, not wanting to scare him by entering too quickly, revealing a sleeping but very disturbed Cole.
“Cole?”
I call out to him hoping his sleep isn’t too deep. Unfortunately, he doesn’t respond. I watch the young man for several seconds as he whimpers and lightly moves his arms and legs. Sitting on his bed gently I reach over and touch his head.
“Cole, wake up son. Everything is okay.”
He freezes with my touch, including his breathing. I’m struggling to figure out if he’s awake or not.
“Alpha?” He finally breathes out.
“Yes Cole, it’s Alpha Demetri.”
I slowly run my fingers through his hair as he continuously flinches beneath them. He remains completely still, giving me the impression that he’s concentrating heavily on my touch.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask knowing what the answer is.
“Talking makes it real.”
He gives an answer I haven’t heard from him before. His breathing and heart rate slowly return to normal as he calms from the nightmare I intercepted.
“Are you ready for some lunch?”
“I’m not certain if I can eat right now even if I take a Zofran.”
I nod silently knowing that he’s finally willing to be honest about how he’s feeling, at least partially.
“Go ahead and take one and maybe everything will calm down during our walk to the banquet hall.”
He slowly sits himself up. The way he moves makes me wonder how much pain he’s not telling me about.
“How long have you been in pain?”
I ask hoping to get an honest answer. He only stops for a moment before barely whispering that he’s fine. I watch him take several pills and swallow them down before leaning on the entertainment center with his head in his hands.
“Cole.” I stand from the bed.
“I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me. If you’re in pain, for whatever reason, then I need to know so we can talk to Angela about getting you something that will relieve it.”
He shakes his head in silence. I can tell by his breathing that he’s struggling not just physically but mentally today.
“Are you ready to take a walk?”
He nods easily yet his continued silence is deafening. As much progress as he seems to have made with me I know he’s still stuck. No matter how often I tell him that he needs to talk, that I need him to tell me why he’s struggling, he refuses to do so.
“Come with me, Cole. I’m going to do things a little differently today. We are going to go for a real walk, not just to the banquet hall. Is your pain level low enough to tolerate that?”
He nods his head before he finally speaks.
“An easy walk might loosen it up.”
“Okay it’s a warm day without any threat of rain so let’s go on a long walk. Perhaps you could tell me what’s bothering you while I show you the territory.”
“Do I have to?” He whispers.
One look into his eyes tells me he didn’t mean to actually say it.
“No, you don’t have to but it really would help you.”
I step outside the door and across the hall giving him plenty of space to grab his shoes and join me. It’s as I exit the pack house with him following behind me that I decide where I want to take him. I start heading west towards the child care facility. Watching him work with Jackson has given me a ton of ideas on how useful this young man could be for me.
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