Saturday July 30th
Saturday July 30th
(Demetri’s POV)
It’s an early 7am for a Saturday as Patrick and I work our way around the training annex. It’s a sunny morning so far yet the disturbing news I learned about two weeks ago just hasn’t quite left yet. I guess promising Declan Jacobs a way to get those who wish to leave a way out will do that to a man with morals.
I roll the cart we place the sparring mats on to the middle of the floor giving Pat and I the shortest distance to walk with the heavy and unwieldy mats, stacking them neatly until the ring is completely disassembled. I roll it into the storage closet as Patrick gets to work transforming the area into a conference room. Two carts holding the padded metal folding chairs are wheeled out of a separate storage closet into the middle of the room before he engages the wood partition that separates the workout machines from the sparring ring. While I’ve had plans to have my carpenters and engineers draw up plans for an actual conference room closer to the pack house I just haven’t had the time to make it happen.
“It’s been a while since you’ve scheduled a meeting on a Saturday. What’s the urgency?” Pat chuckles lightly as we continue setting up the room.
“I’ll explain fully once everyone is here but it has to do with the gentleman Damian attacked two weeks ago.”
“Have you figured out his punishment for that?” He becomes more serious as he asks.
“I’m not proud to admit it as there was no way to know he was going to be so sensitive but the spankings he received when he was younger scarred him enough that I’m having a really hard time with the council’s requirements.”
“You’re hesitant to spank him when he broke Beta Declan’s ribs?”
He sounds shocked at the truth.
“I was heavy handed with him, Pat. Before you returned I was overwhelmed by trying to be the alpha, beta, a doctor and a father. That frustration, shamefully, became anger towards Damian for simply being a child. Even though I implemented strict policies on spanking the pack’s pups, I was quite liberal on spankings with Damian. No matter how much Lilly protested, at five years old when he broke a glass I took him by the neck and led him to my office. I explained that I had warned him several times what would happen and the glass broke because he refused to obey. I didn’t explain the rest. I simply removed his bottoms, laid him across my lap and hit him hard five times with my hand. When I was done, I put him on his feet and dressed him before carrying him outside the office where I left him screaming in the hall. He became a lot more sensitive to following directions after that so I didn’t think anything of my harshness. If anything it fueled me. Somehow every month or two on my hardest days he would find himself laid across my lap getting his age to his ass. I don’t even remember what he did that pushed me over the edge but I do remember that by the time he turned six he wouldn’t come near my office.
Although the frequency changed he was still getting spanked regularly around the time you returned. He got caught up in bullying a young omega child. He was around eight years old and I didn’t know it then but he was actually trying to protect William. But I was angry and stubbornly refused to believe him. Just like the other five boys involved he was brought to my office, forced to lay over the desk and received his age with the belt wearing only his boxers. He was eight and unlike the others, he didn’t have his father to hold him when I was finished, I just left the room. Let him clean himself up on his own. It was the first of three times that I punished him without doing the research first.”
“Do you feel that you have abused him?”
“That’s the problem. I don’t feel like I abused him but….”
I trail off as I finish setting up the last of the chairs.
“But?” He encourages me.
“His reaction to me last year when he wrecked the car and what he told Declan is enough for me to realize that my actions hurt him far more than anything I desired. His reaction to the first spanking should have told me what I needed to know.”
Our conversation gets cut short as the first of the warriors start making their way inside. I look at my watch and as anticipated, I find it’s quarter of eight, the earliest I expect them to arrive for an eight o’clock meeting.
I busy myself the fifteen minutes leading up to the start helping the kitchen omegas finish setting up a simple breakfast bar of egg, sausage, French toast sticks, coffee, milk and juice. Everything settles just in time for me to get started.
“Welcome, ladies and gents. I do apologize for the suddenness of this meeting but a member of the Blue Ridge pack recently crossed over our border seeking me in a time of great desperation. He brought me disturbing news to say the least and it is time to return to the neighbors we used to be.”
I get straight to the point with many of my youngest warriors cocking their heads in curiosity. Many of them, like Damian, were six to twelve years old when I was forced to close the border.
“Before I go any further, how many of you were warriors when our borders were open to Blue Ridge?”
I see my five most senior warriors raise their hands.
“As I suspected my five oldest in the back. I thank you for your service.”
They all give me a thumbs up before putting their hands down.
“Can any of you tell me how long ago I closed the border to the Blue Ridge pack?” I ask as I pace in front of the crowd.
“Ten years, maybe a little more.” The youngest of my seniors, Ron, responds.
“Yes sir.” I praise. “Ten years ago I was forced to close my borders with Blue Ridge. Now before I get started on the reasons behind my meeting I would like to introduce a little history. Does anyone here know anything about how the Blue Ridge pack started or how it got into the state that it’s currently in?”
I look around the room but only manage to see shaking heads.
“Very well. About forty years ago when my father, Allen Black was the alpha, news came from the council that we would soon have neighbors. After decades of only one child surviving to adulthood in the Blue Fang pack, Alpha Herman Blue and his Luna Amber got all four of their sons to adulthood. Similar to our pack, the Blue Fang pack is an old pack, one of the originals that came together shortly after individual wolves started discovering what they were. While on the surface the Blue Fang pack was rumored to be as merciless and cruel as our own they were just as unique. Just like us, they were the first in their state to understand the importance of how women and children were treated. That the treatment of the smallest and weakest members was a window into how the pack functions as a whole. Just the recognition that our Goddess Diana is the mother of werewolf kind should have changed the minds of all werewolves but unfortunately we have yet to hit that time.”