Chapter 44
It was two years after he moved out when mom found him in really bad shape in the bed they left in Jeramy’s room. Both his eyes were bruised and swollen shut. There was a lot of swelling and blood all over his face and hands. Goddess he screamed as soon as my dad touched him. Dad took me from the room because I started falling apart seeing him like that. Dad explained that with his eyes swollen like they are he’s blind so he’s going to have an exaggerated fear response. If I felt I could handle it he really needed my help getting Cole into a salt bath. I pulled it together and went back to the room. Mom had managed to calm him down, got him talking to her. She explained that Alpha had been beating him daily for the last six weeks. Alpha had done it before so he knew he just had to hang in there until whatever was angering the Alpha subsided. Unfortunately, that day was one where Cole got called to the office four times and by the last one that evening he didn’t have the stamina to avoid his father’s hits. Cole managed to find his way to our house and let himself in. He knew when his eyes started swelling that he needed to get somewhere safe and we were the only ones he knew would take care of him. After mom explained all that he very quietly apologized for screaming. He said he was in a lot of pain and it was hard to control his response to touch when he can’t see what’s going on.
We got him up and took him to my room. He was crying by the time I got his clothes off of him. His chest and abdomen were various colors of black, blue, purple and brown. His back, butt and the backs of his thighs were even worse. He had the classic stripes of being beaten and cut by the belt alpha used all over his body. Everything looked to be in various stages of healing. I thought the first time dad put him in the salt bath was bad.”
Jamie stops in the middle of his story, tears are streaming down his face at the memory. I can only imagine what this young man witnessed when he starts again, his voice cracking with emotion.
“He screamed alpha. Goddess he screamed in pain from the salt. He fought against my father. Tried like hell to get out. He begged and cried unlike anything I had ever seen. I left. I couldn’t stand hearing him scream. I ran into Jerry’s room, closed the door and buried myself into the pillow. I cried like the day my grandfather died. I held my hands over my ears as I could still hear his screaming through the closed door of my brother’s room. I didn’t dare go back into the bathroom until he was done.
When I could no longer hear him I went back into my room. Mom looked like she had been crying and was sitting in the doorway of the bathroom. Even dad had tears in his eyes. Somehow Cole ended up getting turned around. He was sitting in dad’s lap. His legs were wrapped around dad’s waist, his arms draped over his shoulders. His head was tucked into my dad’s neck, red streaks lined his face and more were slowly falling from his eyes. Dad had his hand in his hair on the back of his head. His voice was soft and gentle as he spoke. I embarrassed myself but the first question I asked was if Cole sitting naked in his lap felt awkward. I was so.... so....”
“Distressed.”
He nods his head as he takes a drink of water before accepting a handful of tissues.
“Dad encouraged me to touch him but I didn’t know how. I was afraid of hurting him more but dad took my hand and put it in his hair anyway. He shifted slightly in dad’s lap causing him to whimper. I took my hand away from him but his voice stopped me part way.”
“What did he want?”
“For me to stay. I barely heard him but he said ‘please don’t leave me Jamie.’ I told him I wasn’t and asked about his hand, asked if it would hurt him if I held it. He told me no and held his hand open until I put my hand in his. Dad told me that Cole wasn’t happy about it as he’s very afraid of the hospital but he had convinced Cole to go to the hospital. He needed my help to get Cole out of the tub and into at least a robe for the ride to the hospital. He tried to hold back his pain but he couldn’t do it. He yelped repeatedly every time he moved. He yelped when I touched his leg to guide him out of the tub. He truly was blind and struggled with everything he did but dad managed to get a robe on him and together we got him in the car.
Dad had to drive slow because every bump we hit hurt him badly. It took longer than normal to get there but as soon as we did dad ran inside and got Dr. Carter. As soon as the doctor saw him he ran back in and grabbed a wheelchair. With dad’s help he got out of the car and inside the hospital. I was almost eighteen by that time so I parked the car before going inside too. By the time I found them Cole was in a room in an absolute panic. Dad had to keep talking to him because every time dad moved he thought it was the nurse doing something to him.
Once dad got him to trade the robe for the gown he encouraged Cole to wrap himself around him. To lay on him like he had in the tub. It helped Cole a lot. Such a simple thing as being held. Being touched without being harmed. It seemed foreign to him, yet so comforting. Dad got very protective of Cole. Every time a nurse came in with restraints he turned them away. One nurse tried twice to do the IV. After the second failure he ended up cussing her because she was blaming Cole when Cole was being very cooperative.”
“Did they give up on putting one in?”
“No. Dr. Carter came in and put one in near his ankle. He yelped and cried badly but he got it in. I was the one to point out the medication was hurting him. I was surprised when the doctor listened. He stopped and waited for Cole to calm down before giving him more at a slower pace. Dr. Carter explained to dad everything that needed to be done to find out the full extent of his injuries but Cole kept saying no, that his budget wouldn’t allow for such expensive tests to be done and would lead to his dad finding out that he went to the hospital. That’s when dad told him and Dr. Carter that the money to pay for his care was to come from my account with the hospital.”
“I thought medical care was budgeted?”
“It is. I don’t know where the funds come from or how things are determined but every wolf in the pack receives a certain amount every year and what isn’t used by the end of the year rolls over to the next year. I wasn’t accident prone so my hospital funds were quite high. Once Dr. Carter understood how genuine dad’s concern for Cole was he actually introduced himself as Alex and really went into details about each item as they came up. Dad stayed with Cole through everything. He talked to Cole during the CAT scan and MRI, stayed the night to help him use the bathroom and to eat. He ended up cussing several nurses because they kept bringing in a catheter and feeding tube. Dad figured out very quickly why Cole was terrified of the hospital.
Cole was in the hospital for a week. The only injuries I heard mentioned was that every single rib was bruised and broken in multiple places, he had a fractured skull, a fractured eye socket and a small amount of swelling in his brain. I’m almost certain there was more but I wasn’t there when Dr. Carter first started talking to dad.”
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