Chapter 201
I stand from my desk after a glance at the time on my laptop. Cole has been working on my computer for a good three hours and we’re quickly approaching dinner time. Despite the awkwardness of being around Lucas he has at least relented to sitting at the table with us during dinner. The girls keep him fairly entertained and often feed him from their plates while he’s there. He doesn’t often eat a plate of his own or talk unless he’s spoken too but it’s still progress. At least he’s not so isolated now.
Something is weighing heavily on the young man’s mind. Has been for days and I’ve noticed tics that he’s never displayed before getting worse everyday this week.
Letting him care for some of our youngest pack members for an hour in the care center allowed him to forget but it only lasted that one hour. He’s been eerily quiet since we left. Even though he’s maintaining a very calm and collected outward appearance, his persistent grasping tic and scanning eyes tell me a very different story. The young man is either on the edge of a panic attack or enduring a massively long one.
I walk around to the other side of the desk and take a look at the screen. Over the last three weeks he has taught me what to look for when he’s in the middle of a time stamp. Even though I have created many of them I have never looked for the tell tale signs that someone else had started one leading me to accidentally interrupt him before he was finished.
“We need to finish for the day, Cole. Dinner time.”
I gently play with the hair on the top of his head. He whines nervously when I touch him, making me pause briefly.
“Talk to me, son. What’s wrong?”
He shakes his head as he finishes and saves the video feed he was working on.
“It’s been weeks since you’ve whined from me touching you. I know something is deeply bothering you. It’s okay to talk to me.”
I try to soothe any apprehension he may have with opening up to me.
“It’s never been okay to talk. Talking makes it real.”
He whispers as he stands, his eyes towards the ground. I step in front of him, side stepping his every attempt to get around me. I wait patiently, silently for him to give up his little dance with me before putting my hands on him again.
“Don’t fight me.”
I speak softly as I pull him into me, gently encouraging him to lean into me, to lay his head upon my shoulder and accept my embrace.
His body trembles as I rub his back between his shoulders, the only place on his back I’ve been able to physically touch without upsetting him.
“I can tell by the way you move that the Motrin and lyrica are not enough. How long have you been hurting? How long has this anxiety been building to bring you to this point?”
I whisper near his ear as I hold him. It’s another thing we’ve made progress on, his ability to accept my touch, my interactions with him without him automatically assuming the worst. Unfortunately, he still assumes the worst for every minor infraction he feels he commits. That’s an area that has had no progress at all.
I slowly release my hold on him as he lifts his head and stands on his own.
“Let’s go get us something to eat, shall we?”
I give him a playful sideways glance trying to get a small smile from him but I get a shaking head instead.
“I’m not hungry. I feel sick if anything.”
He slowly admits what he knows I don’t like hearing. He steps back from my outreached hand before finally moving past me towards the door. I follow with a disappointed sigh. He was doing so well for the last week that it’s hard to see him like this again.
He knows exactly where to go and sits silently in his seat beside me. Dinner is already set on the table by the time we arrive. Patrick is helping Lilly serve the girls their plates as Damian has taken the opportunity to wrap long bibs around their necks.
“I’m not a baby Day.”
Madisyn protests her brother’s efforts to keep her clothes clean.
“It’s barbecue chicken Maddie. You always make a mess with anything that has sauce on it.”
He explains with a chuckle as she flops down into her chair. Her pout completely disappears once her plate with a barbecue leg, green beans roasted with bacon, mashed potatoes with gravy and buttered cornbread is set in front of her. Madilyn’s plate follows just seconds behind hers.
I smile when Patrick offers to fix Cole a plate. He really has turned his attitude around in the three months he’s been here. He’s told me many times what a pleasure Cole is to work with.
He sighs hard when Cole politely refuses a plate before sitting in his seat, putting his head down into his hands. Everyone remains silent as we all fix our plates and for a while all you can hear is the clanking of silverware on ceramic plates.
“Have you given any consideration to my suggestion?” Patrick is the first one to speak as he helps himself to seconds.
“Yes. I’ve been observing both directly and indirectly. Damian made it clear on the bus and I repeated it during orientation that training is their job. After an extensive email chain with the Department of Warrior Exchange they did confirm that I can send them packing if I have evidence that they are freeloading. They gave me instructions on how to upload video into each of their digital files so other packs can view it.”
“I think this is the first time I’ve run into such a thing. I’ve been slowly introducing Jamison and Micayla into the other groups. They are both well above everyone else that will be left if you follow through with purging the ones refusing to work.”
“I like what I see in both of them. I am curious though, what’s with the flirting? Are they mates?”
“I’m not sure. They’re doing a hell of a job keeping themselves under control if they are.”
I notice Cole’s slightly nodding head as Patrick finishes his comment.
“Has Jamie said something to you?”
He lifts his head from his hands and looks towards me as he speaks.
“He told me in February that he had smelled his mate here; he just wasn’t certain who she was. He never updated me on what her name is but based on what I’ve seen at beta Patrick’s training, whoever the female in his group is, they enjoy each other’s company.”
“You don’t use your pack link with him?”
Patrick asks, shock in his voice. Cole shakes his head as he places it back into his hands.
“You used it in the medical wing so I know you have it.”
I cut into the conversation.
“Cut the crap alpha. He’s in my head.”
I’m taken back by his sudden harshness.
“Cole?”
“Cut the crap, alpha. Stop pretending you’re nice. The drunk bastard is in my head.”
His voice is even louder the second time, emphasizing a harshness I’ve never experienced with him before. I stand slowly from my chair, allowing my aura to blaze throughout the room. It’s powerful but not angry as I lean in towards Cole. It hurts to see him cower even further into his hands but my instincts are screaming to play along.
“Do you really want me to stop playing nice? To cut the crap?”
I growl into his ear. He shakes his head as he whimpers into his hands.
“You have two minutes and when I come back your attitude better have changed or I will change it for you.”
I jog in a hurry down the hall to my office. I need a notebook and pen. Most links can only be created within a three hundred mile radius of the person creating it. Anything longer creates physical issues and for some permanent damage to their brain.
While most links, outside of biological children and mates, can only hear what the individuals wish to communicate most parents can usually hear and feel what is going on around their pups. In most cases the farther the wolves are from each other the less they are able to hear and feel of the environment but considering Cole is over six hundred miles from home I imagine his father has found a way to enhance his link making anything possible.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
