Chapter 43
The tears were finally falling as Jamie remembered that night with his friend.
“His manhood was purple with red cuts. Painfully swollen unlike anything I had ever seen. I saw tears in his eyes when he turned to show dad. For the first time he was fully exposed to us and he was breaking down because of it. He didn’t want us to know. I heard his voice crack as he apologized. Over and over he was sorry for disrupting our peaceful home. He felt like he had brought his hell to us. That we didn’t deserve to be exposed to the brutality that’s part of his life. He thanked us for our hospitality but he wasn’t going to complete the apprenticeship. He had exposed us to too much of his problems and he had to go. He couldn’t expose us to anything more and his father will only get worse.
He started trying to get around dad. He was determined to leave but his movements were slow and easily blocked by my dad. It was only when he saw mom and I in the doorway that he completely gave up. He collapsed against my dad and bawled. Dad ended up asking mom to fix a salt bath which made Cole cry even worse. I remember dad trying to comfort him. He told him ‘I know the salt burns open wounds badly but you’re not doing it alone. I will get in the tub with you if it’s okay with you.”
“How did Cole respond to your dad’s willingness to help?”
I give Jamie a chance to collect himself. It seems like this ordeal with Cole has affected him quite deeply.
“He thanked him. Told him he can’t do the salt bath on his own. Dad had me take Cole’s dirty clothes to his hamper. Told me that Cole wasn’t going to be moving around much after the bath. I noticed blood on every piece of clothes in my hands. I couldn’t help but cry silently for him. After mom came out of the bathroom dad asked me to close all the bedroom doors. So I did. Closed Cole’s room when I left, the main bath was next to his room, then the girls’ room before reaching baby Jeramy’s room where I slept too. By the time I got back into Cole’s room dad was helping him into the tub. My mom grabbed hold of me before I could get into the bathroom with them. The worst sound I’ve ever heard echoed through the room. I had never heard a human’s scream combined with a wolf’s yelp before but the pain it carried was beyond anything I could comprehend at the time.
It only took a minute or two before he settled down into quiet whimpers but goddess it felt like hours. I cried like a baby in my mom’s arms just as she did in mine. The relationship between Cole and my parents changed a lot that night. Dad stayed for over an hour in the salt water, comforting him the best he could. He had Cole dress in a robe since it was the easiest thing to put on and helped him into bed. I think it was 2am by then. They took time off. The beta was already expecting it because of the accident. The doctor at General had already told Alpha Redmen and Beta Andrew that they needed off the rest of the week but they had insisted in the hospital that they were okay. Otherwise I don’t think he would have needed to call. Since it was an accident during training Beta Andrew told him they would still get paid and could still use the nursery for child care. He knew that caring for young kids while hurt would delay the healing process. Dad repeated the salt bath three more times that day.
For three days Cole was either sleeping or in the salt bath. He hardly ate anything and mom even had a hard time getting him to drink the protein shakes. He did good with water though. It was on the fourth day that he really started moving around on his own. He stayed in his room most of the day but managed his salt baths on his own and ended up feeling well enough that he joined us for dinner. He was still quite stressed but we all tried to take his mind off what had happened.
Almost a week later mom surprised all of us by giving a lot of Jeramy’s care to Cole. He was a nervous wreck but they tried to ease him into the responsibility by hanging out around him while he was caring for Jeramy without intervening after the first week. Seeing and feeling this level of trust from them changed him. We got to see who Cole really was once his confidence rose. Once he understood that no one in my family was going to hurt him, reject him, betray him, he truly changed for the better but just as he warned, the more relaxed he became with us the worse things got with his father.”
I hand Jamie a bottle of water, gently encouraging him to take a break. Telling his perspective of Cole’s stay with him is mentally and physically draining for the lad but I’m after every minute of information that he provides. After several swallows he starts again.
“Dad started examining Cole after every visit with his father. Cole didn’t like it and resisted at first, but the more comfortable he became with us the easier these exams became. Three months later his father demanded a meeting with him the first of every month as well as the fifteenth. He told dad that Cole was falling behind in his warrior training. Dad said he knew it was a lie but never explained to me why he felt that way. At the one year mark of being with us, Alpha changed his demands again. He made Cole meet with him every Thursday. We only had about three months to see the real Cole. It seems like as soon as he showed any happiness, any peace his father found a way to destroy it.
The last six months he was with us, dad kept his work light. The weekly beatings from Alpha Redmen kept him in constant pain and the pain served as a constant reminder of why he should be afraid. I would find mom or dad holding him in the middle of the night. They said he was experiencing night terrors from all the abuse.
We all cried the day he moved back to the pack house. Dad gave him an enchanted key. I’m not certain how it works but as an experienced carpenter dad is popular even among witches, warlocks, vampires and the sort so he got Cole a key to our house that to everyone else looks like a desk ornament. We didn’t see him for a long time after he left. I tried to run into him but I had a hard time finding him. I got angry with him. Really angry. I felt like he was avoiding me, avoiding us after everything we did for him. Dad and mom were a bit more understanding but I wasn’t. I started channeling my anger into beating up anyone who crossed me. After four months my parents started taking me to a therapist inside the White Moon pack. She said that I had gotten very attached to Cole and seeing the severity of abuse that Cole was suffering with had caused PTSD. I was put on medication for a while. I only recently came off them.”
“Was that the last you saw of Cole?”
He shakes his head. “No. Although the beating that led to him exposing the hell he was enduring never happened to that extent again while he was with us he did end up using the key. About six months after he left he started coming in the middle of the night. It was usually when alpha was extremely stressed and was using him as a personal punching bag for weeks at a time that he would come stay with us for a few days. I think he came three or four times over a year’s time frame.
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