Chapter 72
I look around the room, making sure I get a nod of understanding from each one of them. He’s already had several extreme reactions to me touching his neck and considering the bruise I see on his neck that’s one trigger I need to limit activating.
“Now, more immediately speaking. I feel it’s fair to update you on the young man. With a lot of patience and support we have broken the panic induced asthma cycle. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been broken in a day. As long as he continues breathing normally, I will be looking at moving him from the medical wing to the medical room that’s next door to mine on the second floor tomorrow. I know I have tasked you, Damian, with moving Jamie to the efficiency next to Cole but I would also like you to get into Cole’s room and bring him some clothes. The only thing we didn’t cut off today was his sweatpants.”
I get a nod from Damian.
“I plan on keeping him in the pack house until he’s better acclimated to his surroundings and the medication he’s on takes effect. Once I feel he’s no longer in danger of another major panic attack I will allow him to move back to his room.”
“If his father is the one abusing him, don’t you think being so close to you will upset him?” Damian brings up a good point.
“Yes, it may, but I’m working on gaining his confidence, his trust in me that I’m not going to beat him down or belittle him for everything that he does. That he can relax here. Getting him relaxed is how I will get to know who he is. It’s also when he’s relaxed that any of the negative rumors about him, if they have any truth at all to them, will come to light.”
Patrick and Lucas give me curious looks.
“I thought you didn’t believe the rumors?” Lucas blurts out.
“I’ll tell you what I told Cole. I cannot simply ignore rumors as dangerous as rape and pedophilia but I can give him a chance to prove them wrong.”
“And how do you expect him to prove them wrong?” Patrick challenges me.
“You said he has no record with the council. What if he’s simply being sneaky about it?”
“All predators eventually get caught. I have a hard time believing that Alpha Charles hasn’t found a shred of evidence supporting the pedophile claim in five years. In regards to no record with the council, keep in mind he’s been to three packs as a warrior prospect before mine. Nothing that would kick him out of the program was ever reported. Every pack is required to report any incidents of assault, rape, theft, and drug or alcohol abuse, so unless there’s a pandemic of under reporting these issues, I’ve got to believe that he’s had no issues at the other packs. In general, my position on the rape allegation is that it’s a false claim designed to get a cheater out of trouble. My position on the pedophilia allegation is neutral. Guarded, but neutral.”
I take a moment to look around the room. I know the moves I’ve already made will anger Patrick considering his stance against Cole but even if he is a dangerous pedophile, and I highly doubt that he is, no one deserves to live like this. Life in prison would be a luxury compared to what I’m seeing right now.
I continue informing everyone of what I’ve done and plan to do since I’m not seeing anyone with questioning eyes.
“I know I mentioned Xavier’s name early in this conversation about Cole. How many of you know who Xavier Bluemon is?”
I look around again, this time seeing shaking heads or curious eyes.
“Xavier Bluemon is a psychiatric doctor who joined the council fifteen years ago when I became alpha. Over the ten years that I’ve been dealing with the prospect program I’ve come to rely on him for information pertaining to helping abused wolves escape their pack. Eight years ago the council decided that there were too many cases of abuse coming in for the general council to deal with at which point they made the abused and tortured wolves department. Xavier was promoted to the head liaison position in that department. As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve made contact with Xavier earlier tonight seeking advice on how I can help Cole without Cole’s willingness to talk. I turned over the photographic evidence I have without mentioning his name or pack. When he told me that getting a meeting with the council could take a while, I took the time to make a formal request with the council to access his medical records. I want to see what the other packs found out, what they did to him medically, and what they reported back to the council. I have also made a formal request for information pertaining to why the council has visited the Red Fang territory a month after Cole was sent home early from the packs he visited. Unfortunately I’m not anticipating a favorable response as I left out one of the more important answers that the council would want to know. Why do I need this information? I see a puzzled look on your face Pat. What are you suddenly thinking about?”
“You keep saying that Cole isn’t talking but you seem to have a lot of specific information on him. What exactly is he not talking about?”
“To offer him protection through a protection from abuse or torture orders he has to agree to digitally record at least one incident of torture or multiple incidents of abuse for submission to the council. The submission can’t simply be ‘he hit me with a belt’. No, not at all simple. It’s actually quite traumatizing for the wolves who have actually been abused to go through the process of reliving the abuse when they have to describe in detail what happened to them. Can you seriously imagine what it would be like to detail how many hits you took to your groin before you became desperate enough to break the chain that’s holding you? That’s the only information so far, that Cole has directly said. That and he explained what’s going on with the luna. Everything else has come from secondary sources which doesn’t count as reliable testimony.”
“You’re telling me that Dallas, a wolf that hates Cole, telling you he saw Alpha Charles kicking Cole in the stomach can’t be used as evidence?”
Damian’s voice is incredulous as he tries to understand what I’m saying.
“When I mentioned what Dallas said, Cole neither confirmed nor denied getting kicked over a dozen times in his abdomen. The only thing he has directly told me about was that he had bruises on his wrists from breaking the chain. That he knew he couldn’t take all the hits without yelping so he did what he could to protect himself. Everything else I know has been put together from information given to me by Jamie, Dr. Carter and direct observation of his behavior.”
“So what’s going to happen to him if he doesn’t talk?”
Damian is starting to sound quite worried about Cole.
“If I haven’t heard from the council by the end of the first run and I can’t convince him to talk then there’s nothing I can do. I will have to let him leave.”
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