Chapter 231
“She can’t be marked. She allowed her wolf to take control for about half an hour yesterday. By the time she decided to have me lay down in her bed, I could feel her wolf weakening.
By the time I finished telling her about my dating experiences with Allie, Rachel and Rebecca her wolf was completely gone. I wish I had known she had spent time with my pack when I was talking with her yesterday as it’s a lot easier to understand why she reacted the way she did and why she felt so badly once I got the truth out.
I accept our bond Jessa. I have from the start. I resisted everything about it because I was certain that you would reject me like every pack I’ve ever been to. I want to claim you, connect with you but your wolf is so weak that for the marking to take I would have to go deeper than normal which creates an unnecessary risk. One that I won’t take again.”
“Again?” Dr. Pierce questions.
“Yes ma’am. Is the door still shut?” I ask nervously. I don’t really want to share but I did ultimately open that door.
“Yes sir, it is.” Alpha reassures me.
“I have a variety of ages that come to me now but considering I was only seventeen when I did my first marking on Olivia, I’ve had a lot of learning to do with very few resources to turn to.”
“I’ve noticed that.” Alpha sighs. “I’ve been doing research on precocious heat and protection markings. I’ll spend a day on it at least once a week and it’s frustrating to say the least. Are protectors so rare that no one knows anything about how this works?”
I’m surprised by his level of frustration and it seems that Dr. Pierce and Dr. Richards have no answer.
“Remember when I told you about Sallie?”
“She was the third child you mentioned Olivia bringing to you.”
“Yes sir. She was seven, the same age as Olivia when we first met. I had forgotten that Olivia was eight the first time I marked her and the thought didn’t occur to me that different ages may respond differently to the mark. I scented her several times verifying that she was in heat but my wolf and I both noticed that something was different. She was the first little that my wolf was hesitant to mark. We still did but it was a mistake.”
I pause with my story as the memory of my mistake still haunts me.
“I did everything as I normally do to help her relax, set her in my lap and explained what we were going to do to each other. We marked each other but for the first time, it didn’t take. I waited three days for the mark to scab over before trying again. A new mark on the other side deeper than the first. Once again it didn’t take.”
I can hear the waver in my voice that comes from my desire to cry. Reliving the horror of what I did has never been an easy thing. I can feel Jessa squirming in my arms so I let her up but to my surprise and relief she stays on the bed with me. Everyone is watching me as the tears I try to hide, fall. I lay my head back, closing my eyes as the memory tears through my raging migraine.
“I gave it another three days. The first one had healed and disappeared so I felt I could try that side again. The second one had caused her a lot more pain and I repeatedly asked if she wanted to try again and she insisted that she did. I scented her the way I just did Jessa and my wolf was able to figure out how deep he needed to go. It was incredibly painful for her but it wasn’t until I let go that I realized how deep he went. She bled more than I was used to and I knew that I had fucked up bad. I bandaged her neck shortly before she passed out. It was late at night so I was able to leave the pack house through the front door. I carried her to general. I was able to get with Dr. Carter and he helped me save her. He drove us back to the house and I took care of her until her heat was over.”
“How old were you when this happened?” Dr. Richards asks.
“Eighteen. It was two weeks later that dad sent me to live with the Jenkins.”
“Did you ever figure out what the difference was?” Jessa decides to get curious as well.
“Not exactly. He can tell, in general, how deep the mark needs to go and we started classifying the depth by numbers. A scale from one to five. Three and below, we will mark. Anything higher we support with warm baths, heating pad, massage, Tylenol and Motrin.”
“Did you ever figure out a pattern?”
“What do you mean?” I respond to Dr. Pierce, confused by her question.
“A certain age or rank handling the mark better than others.”
“No ma’am. There is no pattern. Each girl is an individual and needs something slightly different each time they come.”
“Each time?” She’s in disbelief that it’s so complicated.
“Well I guess that explains the lack of information on it. It’s not something you can pin down.” Alpha adds to the conversation.
“Olivia was eight when I did her. Annabel was nine. It took three years of caring for Sallie before the mark worked on her yet her sister Samantha was the youngest successful marking at seven.”
“You are doing great talking to us, Cole. Thank you for that as I think we have all learned quite a bit from just this little bit of time. I do have one more question though.”
“What’s that alpha?” I have mostly recovered from my cry with only the occasional shutter.
“How old is the youngest that you care for?”
“The youngest I’ve marked….”
“No Cole.” I jump slightly with his interruption.
“You said you’ve been punished for marking boys but you don’t mark boys.”
I nod my head but I’m struggling to follow him.
“Do you take care of boy pups?”
He speaks slowly, testing my receptivity towards the question. It’s not something I have ever thought would come up.
“Yes sir.” I barely am able to whisper.
“What’s the youngest you care for? Not mark. You protect and care for.”
I lay back with a sigh not wanting to admit how bad my pack really is.
“A lot of the girls have siblings who they protect when things get rough at home. Leslie was the first one to bring her little brother to me. I was surprised because she wasn’t in heat but both of them had taken a nasty beating from her father. Their mother always left the house when he got drunk and upset leaving them to deal with his violence alone. After he beat them he passed out. She had heard about me and came to me three months previously so while he was knocked out and her mom hadn’t returned, she packed a small backpack of clothes for both of them and knocked on my window. It was 3am and I was sick from the marking I did earlier that evening but I knew only the littles came to my window. So I got up and opened it. I helped Leslie and Westin into my room, cleaned them up. They stayed for a week. Leslie was eight and her brother was five. He was the youngest before you let me care for Madilyn.”
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