Bound by Spirit - Completed

24. Punishments

THE BROTHERS' POV

Home room went too quickly for Van but he was looking forward to the lunch period, after that Gray had her as his TA. He had made up a test for her to see where she stood in her courses and what they needed to help her with in order to graduate. He had her work on that while he taught his class. He was very surprised that she had completely finished it before the class was over. He had thought that it would take at least one more session for her to get through all of the questions. He reluctantly let her go off to her next class, French, when the bell rang. He too was anxious for the lunch hour to come.

Once the dismissal bell for second period rang all three of them came to Van's room where Wren had promised to come. Ian came carrying four heaping trays of food from the cafeteria each stacked up on top of each other. Van smirked at his entrance, "So Ian, did you leave any food behind for the students?"

"Ha, ha Van, hilarious as always." Ian rolled his eyes. "For your information, one of these are for you and one is for Gray. You're welcome." He set the trays down on the high table and waited for Wren. They were beginning to wonder if she forgot, as it had been almost twenty minutes since the bell had rang, and she still hadn't entered the room. Gray was about to go find her when they sensed her coming and they breathed out a sigh of relief.

The door creaked lightly as she swung it open. She smiled as she neared them, "Hello." she greeted them sweetly and she shivered when they responded in unison, "Hello Wren."

She sat herself on one of the stools, between Van and Gray while Ian watched her from across the table. He was about to take a bite out of his sandwich when he realized that she didn't bring anything with her to eat. "Little Bird, where's your lunch?"

She blushed and looked down at her clasped hands, "I'm on a fasting punishment today." All three of us tensed and Van gently inquired, "What do you mean Angel? What did you supposedly do wrong? Who is punishing you? And what exactly does this punishment entail?"

"Um, well Mrs. Williams was upset that I had one of the good steaks on my plate last night, so she took it away and told me that I wasn't allowed to eat anything for the next 24 hours." Our jaws and fists clenched as we fought the desire to go over and teach that woman a lesson. Apparently our anger was quite visible to our mate, as she rushed to try and sooth our emotions. "It's okay guys, really. I promise you that I'm perfectly fine. It won't hurt me any to miss a meal or two." She tried to joke but it fell flat when we just knew that she had to have heard that from none other than the dragon lady who was supposed to be her mother. Ian slid his trays over in front of Wren, "Little Bird, you eat whatever you like from these, and as much as you like."

Her face was a mixture of thankfulness and love but with a dash of nervousness as well. "Thank you Ian, but I don't want to get in more trouble. If I do something wrong during punishment it gets tripled."

"How often do you get this kind of punishment?" Gray asked from between clenched teeth.

She brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "Hmm, I'd say that one's probably about once every other week or so."

Ian could feel his wolf trying to claw his way to the surface as he growled out, "What other kind of 'punishments' do you receive? And why?"

She looked startled by the guttural sound of his voice, "It depends on what I've done wrong. The punishment always kind of matches it, like a theme you could say. Let's see, ah, when I am late making dinner or mess it up somehow I get the fasting punishment too, that's why I have it so often. I am only allowed 15 minutes in the shower, for every minute I go over the allotted time than I can't have a shower for the that many days. I haven't had that one in a long time. The first time was in the first few months with them. I had to go fifteen days without a shower. It was during the school year and we had P.E. Classes that were very strenuous, so you can imagine I didn't smell good at all. Everyone made fun of me, the worst part was Veronica. She told everyone that I practically lived like an animal. She very easily got all the kids to feel sorry for her having to deal with me in her house. Another one is the laundry, if I don't get it done when they want it, I'm not allowed to wash my clothes and if I ruin an item one of mine gets taken away. I don't have to be the one actually responsible for the damage either. One time Mrs. Williams spilled wine all over her white cashmere sweater and let it set for days before she gave it to me to wash. I wasn't able to get out the stain so she took a few of my shirts and gave them to Goodwill." Her eyes were distant as if she was lost to her memories. "The worst is when I get caught in the living areas of the house without permission. They don't like it when I am out of my room. The only time I'm allowed down there is when they have asked me to for some reason or another, usually to cook or clean but every now and then it's because Stan asked for me." She fell silent for a few moments.