Chapter 68
“Even though Jon wanted Cole to move in he didn’t trust him with the kids?” Patrick finally found his voice again.
“I don’t think Jon anticipated getting injured during training and being held at the hospital until midnight when he brought Cole into the home. While he wanted to give Cole a break from his father. I also feel he was uncertain as to the truthfulness of the rumors surrounding Cole and the pups. So I’m certain after getting hurt and spending hours in the hospital it was easy to take his frustration out on Cole.”
I pause for a quick drink before continuing the story.
“Jamie’s mom woke him up asking the same question. He said it pissed him off when she did. When the two of them got to Cole’s room he was in a full panic attack begging Jon to beat him.”
“If he didn’t do anything more than wash the kids, why did he want to get beaten?” Dasha asks.
“Jamie said that Jon kept asking the same question but Cole’s panic wasn’t something that Jon could easily calm. Cole told Jon that if he so much as thought he was inappropriate with the kids, it didn’t matter if he actually did something bad or not, that he had the right to beat him. He told Jon to take the belt around his waist off while he stripped naked. That he would lay naked on the bed and would silently take as many hits at whatever force he wanted until he was satisfied. When Jon told him no, Cole got desperate. Yelled at him to beat him because he couldn’t handle another from his father. Cole didn’t calm down until Jon allowed him to strip naked but Jon wouldn’t allow Cole to lay down which spiked his anxiety again.”
“What did he do? Beat him standing up?”
Dominic chuckles lightly at the thought but he’s easily shut down when several of us growl. I’m pleasantly surprised to hear both Lilly and Patrick growling with me at his remark. I stand from my seat and shuffle through the pictures until I find the one of his chest, the one with the clearest picture of the cuts and bruises left from the belt.
“Once he was naked Jamie saw cuts and bruises just like this,” I
place the picture in front of Dominic, “all over his back, butt, and the backs of both his thighs. When Jon got him to turn around, his chest, abdomen, front of both thighs and his dick were the same way.”
I emphasize ‘dick’ as I grab the top of Dominic’s head and push it towards the picture. He goes so quiet when he stares at the picture that I intercept Dasha’s attempt to smack him in the back of his head.
“He gets it, Dasha.”
I whisper loudly as I release her hand from mine. She nods silently and slowly takes her hand back as I make my way back to my seat. I sigh as I sit again in my chair.
“I actually asked the same question about Jon. If he had beat Cole standing up. But there was nothing funny about what I saw from Jamison when he told me what of the aftermath he saw on Cole. Cole was eighteen when Jamie first saw the damage Alpha Redmen was willing to inflict on him. Unfortunately that wasn’t the worst of it.”
“How can it get worse than this?”
Dominic speaks in awe, finally coming out of his shock from really looking at the photos.
“The dynamic between Cole and the Jenkins changed that night. They took care of him and when he started feeling better they allowed him to take on a lot of the care the youngest child, Jeremy, needed. This show of trust allowed Cole to relax with them and allowed them to see the real Cole. The person beneath the fear and anxiety. But, as Cole predicted, the peace didn’t last. His father got worse.
Three months after the accident his father demanded Cole to meet with him the first and fifteenth of every month, then two months later it was every week until he left them six months later.
Jon gave him a key which he used to escape his dad several times over two years. About a year after he left he came to them extremely sick. Jon ran him to Red General. When they stripped him of his clothes they found evidence of multiple injections being given to him. That along with his statement of being overdosed led Jamie to believe he was drugged but he doesn’t know with what.
A year after that they found him in Jeremy’s room badly beaten. Jon convinced Cole to go to the hospital. That’s when the Jenkins found out about how bad Cole’s hospital experience usually is. Jon ended up giving permission for Dr. Carter to use Jamie’s account to pay for the tests that Cole needed as well as his care. The injuries that Jamie heard about included a fractured skull, fractured eye socket, every rib was bruised or broken, and mild swelling in his brain. His body was covered in bruises in various stages of healing. His ribs were the same way as he had become his father’s punching bag for six weeks.
He stayed in the hospital for a week before he was allowed to stay with Molly and Jon for two. It was at the end of the second week with them that Jon took the beating that Charles had been itching to give Cole. My understanding is, unlike the full body beating that Cole seems to get, that the alpha stuck to just beating his ass.
Cole blew up on Jon before running off. He did return three days later but he stopped coming to them for help after that.”
For the first time I feel that everyone finally understands what’s going on. How bad off this young man has it. Damian and Lucas have stopped eating, they are the only ones with food left on their plates. Their heads are cast down and Lucas is steadily rolling a carrot around. Patrick is gently rubbing the back of Parker’s head while Parker has closed his eyes. Dominic is holding Dasha who’s actively sobbing into his chest. I look to my right and see my own mate Lilly, with silent tears of her own streaming down her face. Patrick and I are the only ones holding it together but I do feel I have finally made my point with him. He appears deep in thought as he comforts his son beside him.
He keeps putting his hand up presenting a single finger with it before drawing it back and repeating. I’m familiar with the behavior and wait patiently for him to gather his thoughts and ask the question that is bothering him.
“I made the statement that it didn’t make sense for Cole to be punished for accusations that are unproven. You responded that it didn’t make sense for the child with the most need to have the lowest medical budget. You also mentioned Jon Jenkins authorizing the use of Jamie’s medical budget when Jon took Cole to the hospital the second time. Can you explain what’s going on with the medical situation and Cole? I know you mentioned nutritional and medical neglect. I also know every pack runs differently. Some follow what the humans call socialism, some are purely capitalist and some, like us, are a mix between the two.”
“I’m not certain of the social and financial structure that Alpha Redmen follows. According to Jamie, every wolf in the pack is allotted a specific yearly amount of money for medical needs but he doesn’t know how much that allotment is or how that amount is determined. What he does know is that what isn’t used during the year is added to the next year’s budget. Jamie wasn’t accident prone so over seventeen years he had quite a budget built up. According to Dr. Carter, out of Charles’s six kids, Cole gets the least amount of money and tends to need the most care. This puts Dr. Carter in a situation where comforting a highly stressed and scared wolf doesn’t happen.”
“I remember Angela mentioning him getting multiple shots of steroids in his arms and legs.”
“Not just steroids Pat. He receives high doses of Valium and any other medication that he can’t take by mouth. Based on what I’ve seen today, going into a crisis like this makes him vulnerable. That vulnerability decreases his ability to control his fight or flight response and essentially turns him, emotionally, into a child. He has no support system at the hospital so when he gets into a crisis situation, outside of the two times that I know Jon took him, he has to make his way to the main hospital on his own. I have found no record of him applying for or receiving his license to drive so I have to assume that it’s on foot and with the level of air constriction we found him with this morning, I can only imagine how agonizing a several mile walk to the hospital would be. Combine that with the knowledge that as soon as you get there you’re going to be placed in hard restraints with a catheter placed in your bladder and a feeding tube up your nose into your stomach and the fear he displayed this morning is quite warranted.”
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