I hear Jamie gasp as Andrew exits the room. I look towards the ground to see Damian holding Jamie over the mat, now drenched in blood and saline as Jessa attempts to clear blood from the young man’s nose and mouth, whimpering softly from fear and pain. A soft knock at the door alerts me to the presence of the warriors I requested, twin deltas, Darren and Derrick have arrived to watch over Andrew. I step outside the room as Jamie yelps and fights briefly when Damian lays him in his lap while Jessa puts pressure on his still bleeding nose. I speak to them briefly explaining the schedule, what his punishment is and what my expectations of them are before returning to Jamie. I freeze in Jamie’s doorway as I’m shocked by the young man’s appearance. Both eyes are nearly swollen shut with blood tinged tears slowly falling from his eyes. His nose and mouth are red and swollen, stained with the blood Jessa used silver nitrate to finally stop from flowing. Jessa is the first one to sense my
I ride in the back of the ambulance with Jamison strapped to the gurney. The young wolf is looking bad but seems, overall, to be handling it well. His eyes are swollen shut at this point so I’m making certain I talk to him and keep him calm. His lack of response ever since we got off the elevator is concerning me. To my relief Angela is waiting for us as Jessa pulls the ambulance up to the door. We get Jamie out and quickly into Cole’s room where Jessa immediately goes to the cabinet and starts getting an IV kit. By the time we get Jamie transferred to the other bed she’s come back over. I back off to give the ladies space to work as Angela cuts Jamie’s clothes off, leaving him clad only in his boxers as Jessa wraps a band around his arm. His continued lack of response to the uncomfortable band reinforces my concern for him. Jessa makes quick work of the IV, getting pain medication and saline started as Kathy enters the room. “The scanner is ready when you are.” “Excellent.” I h
I take a moment to stop and look at my sweet, sensitive Madilyn. I brush her hair out of her eyes as I smile gently at her. “I know. He’s very afraid, Lynnie. That’s actually why he ended up here. He got so afraid that he couldn’t breathe so we brought him here to help him. Like you, he’s afraid of shots. But that’s because he had a doctor who gave him too much medication. It made him very sick for quite a while. But that’s not going to happen here. He’s only getting what he needs. Do you want to help me make him less scared of the shots? Jamie told me that he really likes the little wolves. He cares for them when their parents can’t be there.” She looks fearfully at the tray of syringes before looking back at me and nodding. Angela has added to his list of medication and I’m torn about giving them all at once. It’s obvious by the number of supplements she’s added that he’s malnourished as the only time we give IV or IM injections of supplements is when they are dangerously low. I
“Cole, I’m not mad or upset with you. This wasn’t exactly planned. I tend to follow my instincts when it comes to situations like this. When Lynnie came looking for me after she’s been uneasy all day I felt that allowing the two of you to lay together would help both of you in different ways. Lynnie, do you want to lay with Alpha Cole and help him with these shots?” “Don’t force her alpha. I’ve already upset her enough.” “There’s no force here Cole.” “l’m sleepy.” Madilyn manages to talk through her yawn. “Can you do something for me Madilyn?” I’m shocked that he’s talking directly to her so soon. “Sure,” she says, yawning again. “Will you drink one of those protein drinks that’s in the fridge? You’re too young to not eat something.” “Okay. Can I sleep with you?” “It’s up to you and your dad.” “I want to help you. Don’t be afraid of me.” She climbs off my lap and finds the mini fridge in the room before coming back with a drink. “Can you help me?” She asks handing me the
I walk with Lilly back over to Cole’s bed. Both he and Madilyn appear to be sleeping. I guide Lilly to the stool I was sitting in before I started then stopped giving his medication to him. She sits down gently as I do the same on the bed. I run my hand through his hair a couple times before speaking to him. “Cole, I’m sorry for the delay. It looks like my helper has fallen asleep for the night. You met Luna Lilly this morning when we discovered the injuries to your chest and abdomen. She’s going to coach you through the slow count as I give you the steroid. Unfortunately, the feeder we have been using won’t do this smaller amount over an hour so I will give it by hand over about a minute.” I feel him nod his head in my hand as I place my hand in his. “Lilly, he can’t handle anything on his neck but gently rubbing the back of his head seems to be quite comforting. Put your hand where mine is.” I can feel that Lilly is a lot more timid in being hands on with Cole then I am. Unfortu
“Keep talking to me Cole. It will distract you from the shots. I’m going to take the first one slow but the rest will go fast, in a straight line down your arm. Just stay still for me.” I place his arm in a relaxed position so that I can easily access the muscle. “Tell me more about what's going on with this luna. You said you don’t like her. Why? Did she do something to you? Before she started accusing you of rape?” He sighs heavily but surprisingly decides to talk.“Alpha Andre is the next in line for the pack leader. Dad has spent a ton of money going to every pack in the lower forty-eight that has an unmated luna in an effort to find his fated mate. They succeeded in finding her but she was the only child of Alpha Oliver in California. Alpha Oliver was very selective about who would take over his pack and found out about my father’s reputation. As a result, he refused to simply accept Alpha Andre as his daughter’s mate. Instead he created a series of tasks to test his character
“No, Alpha. It didn’t go over well. Three days after I was taught a lesson by Andre, dad made a special point of publicly reinforcing that lesson in front of Luna Sasha and the higher ranks of the pack.”I can tell by his eyes, breathing and hands that he’s headed into a flashback. Since he’s skirting around the exact nature of what these lessons are I don’t want him to get too deep. I gently place my hands upon his fists as they curl around the blanket he’s sitting on. He startles me when he yelps, pulling his hands away and quickly assuming a defensive and protective position with them in front of his face. I gently place my hands on his again, calmly persuading him to lower his defenses. His eyes are filled with fear as I apologize for startling him before encouraging him to continue. “Per the contract with Alpha Robert the union ceremony happened three weeks later, exactly six months after she came into the pack. About a month later was the first time my dad grabbed a hold of me
“So what’s on your mind, boss? The only time we eat this late without your twins is if you have something big going on.” I nod my head as I jot down a few more things. My notes look more like lists right now but they’re enough to remember my train of thought when I go back to them later. “I’m getting involved with the prospects this time around.” I see Damian and Lucas slow down their eating as I come straight out with the main aspect of tonight’s meeting. “You’re always involved with the prospects, Demetri. You always have. More than any alpha that I know of that’s involved in this program.”“Yes, I do tend to be more involved than the average alpha as, considering the pure size of my pack, I’m extremely picky as to who I bring back let alone who I transfer in but that’s not what I’m talking about. This is beyond the meet and greet as they get off the bus. My insistence on being the main speaker for orientation and going through all the paperwork I have each of you do regarding t