Chapter 66
Patrick has gone back to eating slowly, looking to be deep in thought as he does.
The entire table is quiet when Damian randomly blurts out what he’s asked me about earlier today.
“He acts like a pup.”
We all stop and look at him as he quietly plays with his food.
“I don’t know why that’s bothering me still, but it is.”
“What do you mean he acts like a pup?” Patrick asks.
“When I couldn’t handle Red Fang’s whining about the track anymore, I took a break and visited Cole in the wing. I’ve never seen such confusing behavior before. He’s absolutely terrified of dad. Yet once everything calmed down and dad was able to convince him he wasn’t in trouble. He became a pup. Even though he jerked and twitched with dad’s every touch, just like a pup, dad holding him was what he needed to calm down.”
Patrick is looking straight at me with his head cocked to one side, silently asking the question everyone wants to know.
“Right now Cole is very sick and injured. As a result of his weakened state he is extremely vulnerable. Angela and I have gone through some psychological evaluations and based on what we’ve seen from him today, his emotional maturity in this weakened state is approximating eight to twelve years old.”
Patrick chokes on his tea again, spraying it all over his son causing Parker to squeal in surprise yet does nothing more but stare at me. My tone is soft with a note of sadness but I know I got the message across by the way he looks at me.
“He is capable of an adult level of emotional maturity. We all saw that last night when they got off the bus. Despite his heightened anxiety, he was cautious but relatively calm and very polite when I gave him his space. It was only when he couldn’t comply with my requests making him feel like he’s done something wrong or I had my hands directly on him that he struggled. His extreme swings in emotional maturity, going from a mature adult last night to an eight year old pup this morning and continuing to swing dramatically between them depending on the level of stress he’s experiencing, is also indicative of extreme, long term abuse starting in early childhood.”
“You mentioned neglect as well. What are you looking at there?” Patrick and I have finished eating at the same time so it seems like the conversation has switched to him and I again, at least for the moment.
“I haven’t seen his numbers to know exactly what is going on but based on the number of supplements he’s received shots for today, I am willing to assume that he is malnourished.”
“What has he received?”
“So far he’s gotten potassium, magnesium and vitamin k late this morning. Then he got potassium, magnesium, vitamin d and iron before I came out to dinner this evening. Medically speaking he’s receiving antibiotics, a silver binder, anti nausea medication, pain medication, steroids, and sedation, as well as oxygen and nebulizer treatments. We haven’t yet started him back on his regular asthma and anxiety medication.”
“Why isn’t he on those now?”
“Alpha Redmen doesn’t want him on them.” I reply simply.
“That doesn’t make any sense. You can’t just deny your child medication simply because you don’t want him on it.”
“It doesn’t make any sense for the child with the most issues to have the least amount of access to medical care nor does it make sense to beat the shit out of your child three days before sending him to another alpha’s territory but that’s what Cole is working with right now. Which brings me to the next issue. If Cole is who I believe he is, he’s not the only one I need to get out of Red Fang.”
“Why is that? Who else would need to leave?” Parker has picked up where his father left off.
“Dr. Carter and his family as well as Jamison Williams and his family.”
“Jamison? Isn’t that the warrior that Dallas and Richard were beating on right before dinner?”
“Yes, Damian. Jamison goes by Jamie and Cole was right to be concerned about him going back to his room tonight. Unfortunately, I made my move too late to keep him from the pain he’s in now.”
“That’s why you were at the prospect’s housing so late? You went back to take Jamie out?”
“Cole’s extreme reaction when you came to get Jamie earlier this afternoon made an impression on me. It took a bit of thinking about it but considering when he tried to walk away from Dallas the first time and Richard kept him from doing so made me reconsider keeping him with the others involved in the fight. I had intended on putting him on house arrest until the investigation was completed here in the pack house when I stopped at the building to get my clothes. Just thirty minutes after dropping him off and you all can see the damage that was done.”
Patrick is silent as he nods his head to my answer.
“I’m still having a hard time understanding why if you remove Cole from the pack why would you need to remove the others as well?”
“Going back to the true reason for this meeting might help answer your questions a little better. My original intent for the meeting was to introduce everything I’m seeing and why I’m taking the actions that I believe are necessary so that our future leaders of this pack can understand and recognize the difference between a troubled wolf in need of help and a trouble maker that needs to go. What we know right now is three days ago, Alpha Redmen forced Cole into the training room for physical punishment based on the accusation that he had raped Luna Sasha. We also know that the cuts and bruises all over his body are a result of that physical punishment.
Now, if those cuts and bruises were on just his bottom, then there wouldn’t be quite as big of an issue. Although the marks on his rear can be argued as excessive force the council does allow for increasing force to be used on repeat offenders. Now if Alpha Redmen was reporting these assaults on the future luna to the council as he’s supposed to, then after the third offense the council would force Alpha Redmen to turn his son over for a trial. If it was proven that he was indeed raping the luna he would be physically punished by the council and sentenced to between one and five years in prison. Once he serves his sentence he would then be forced into exile and permanently banned from joining any pack. Additionally, if the council forced Alpha Redmen into a trial over his son and his son was found guilty of the offense then Charles Redmen would be forced from his position due to his failure to protect the pack.
The issues at hand with this particular punishment begins with this being the sixth time Cole has been accused and punished without the proper evidence to prove his guilt. The next issue is Alpha Redmen choosing to use the buckle end of the belt. Combine that with five separate locations in addition to his rear and now you're looking at excessive force or abuse. Additional issues include the concentration of hits on his back to the point that it broke two of his ribs, multiple hits to his genitalia with the buckle end of the belt and tying silver around his leg tight enough and for a long enough time that it caused a second degree burn. The denial of medical treatment of the burn has allowed the silver to continue burning him until it’s nearly reached the level of third degree putting him at high risk of sepsis. All of these elements, both separately and together, are considered torture.”
I pause a minute trying to allow the rest of those at the table to finish eating. My main concern is Lilly as she’s always been very sensitive to abused wolves showing up and considering the internal injury she sustained today I need to make sure she eats.
“With all this evidence that he was recently tortured why can’t you just pull him out of his pack?”
Dasha, Dominic’s recently found mate, asks.
“That’s why I called Xavier. While I do believe that there are laws that would allow me to pull him from his pack immediately based on protection from torture laws, the laws definition on what is considered torture may have changed over the four years since I’ve needed to protect a wolf. While I feel that beating him with a belt between the legs until you can no longer tell he’s a male and purposely causing a second degree burn with silver would be considered torture I can not make a move without the council agreeing that it is.”
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