ANIMALS

46 || The Awful Truth

~Marius~

"What do you think happened to him?" 

I asked Jamie as he drove us to Tristan's high school. The police said the janitor found him in the locker room of his high school and he was refusing to move. As little as I know the eighteen-year-old, I do know that's highly unlike him. 

"Shit, I don't know but Mari..." Jamie paused and the car seemed uneasy as he drove. I knew what he was going to say I was just silently hoping he wouldn't. The rain wasn't helping our distorted mood either. 

"You're too hard on him," My husband goes on and I groan loudly. Here we go again. 

"I'm doing my best," I replied without wanting to go into detail. 

"Mari, I know raising Tristan has been...difficult," He starts and I burst out laughing. My own sanity was questionable as the laugh reflected back to me in the car window. 

"Difficult? We're raising the son of a murderer! The son of the most despicable man on the planet and yet you act like everything is fine!" I spit out the truth as Jamie pulls into the parking lot. 

"Because you're taking out Taehyung's death on an innocent boy who doesn't even know who his real father is!" Jamie matches my level of anger and I turn to face him.

"Leitus Walker helped abduct both of my parents, killed Taehyung and Aiden, aided in a mass genocide and nearly killed us twice! How am I suppose to treat his son like he's normal!" I plead with him but Jamie's dark brown eyes looked unsympathetic. 

"Because you're the one who brought Tristan home," He says a little quieter than before but it spoke volumes. 

Out of anger I slammed my small fists against the dashboard and took in a sharp, painful breath. 

"You killed Leitus in front of his own infant son," Jamie reminds me and I tug at my light blonde locks.

"Leitus Walker was going to turn every android in the city into an IED and Finley told me to do it. I had no other choice." I lament. I feel his hands wrap around my shoulders as he gives me a little hint of compassion.

"Marius, I'm not saying you were wrong. You did what you had to do to save Bridgeport. I'm reminding you that you brought Tristan home. You could have left him there, let the authorities find him, but instead, you brought him home. You shouldn't feel guilty about killing Leitus," Jamie says as he gently rubs my back and I let out a small sigh. 

"You should feel guilty about treating Tristan like his father. How did you expect him to turn out if he had the same environment as his father? Hmm? I always treated him like my son but you- you pushed him away like he was never wanted." Jamie brought us a good point but I didn't want to admit it. 

"Let's go find him," I grunt as I go to get out of the car but his words stop me. 

"No, lets go help our son," Jamie corrects me and I nod, slipping out of the car. It wasn't hard to guess where they were with all the police tape covering the scene. 

"There's too much press, we'll have to take him to the pack doctor," I whisper to Jamie and he nods in agreement. The officers recognize us instantly and one comes out from behind the holographic yellow tape to meet us. 

"Mr. and Mr. Caspian, it's been quite and ordeal. Sorry to snatch you out of the house so late," The officer shakes our hands and I stay close to my husband and mate. 

"Let's skip the small talk. Tell us what's happened to our son officer." Jamie asked and the officer nodded, leading the way into the boys locker room near the stadium of Tristan's high school. 

"He was found at 2300 on the shower floor, the room was in disarray, there were dents in the lockers which the coach claims are new, and there were large amounts of bodily fluids on the floor," he mentions as we slowly walk in, pushing past the crowd of officers that made way for us. 

"Bodily fluids? Like blood?" Jamie asked but being a doctor I knew what the word the officer was avoiding. 

"Blood and semen sir," He replies and my husband gasped. 

"Where is he?" I asked, my heart quickening as I just wanted to rush in and get him out of here as soon as possible.

"Tristan Keelser is around the corner but before I take you to him let me explain. His rape was brutal to say the least, his own teammates and good friends ganged up on him. Unfortunately, the incident was recorded and shared through social media. Due to its graphic nature and the words expressed, we believe this was a hate crime against your son being a lycan. He was drugged so his powers would be suppressed during the incident," He explains and I clap a hand over my mouth in pure shock.

"It's a shame, my kids were big fans of him," He sighs and I narrow my eyes at him, unable to control my anger I cup my hand around his throat. 

"My son is wounded not broken! Shame on you!" I spit in his face as Jamie pulls me back. 

"It's not worth it Mari, come on," He tugs my hand and I aggressively fix myself as I turned the corner. 

Tristan had his back turned to us as he was sitting at the end of a bench with a thin blanket wrapped around his shoulders. 

"Tris?" Jamie called out his name as we slowly drew closer. Tris slowly turned his head towards the sound of his voice and we could see he clearly defined black and blue bruises dipped with drops of his own blood with every section of his face which he revealed to us. 

"What our his mates?" I asked Jamie knowing they must have been in on it if they didn't come to Tristan's rescue. 

"Since he was drugged I think their connection was severed and his alpha powers were taken from him," Jamie quickly alleviated my fears as he slowly gets in front of Tris.

"Hey buddy, I'm so sorry this happened to you...I'm so sorry. But we're going to make this right, okay?" Jamie whispers gently as he crouched in front of our adopted son. 

"Why...why did they do this to me dad?" Tristan suddenly bursts out crying in Jamie's arms and my husband carefully pulls him close. 

"I don't know buddy, but let's get you out of here okay?" Jamie kisses the top of Tristan's head and tries to help him up but Tris' legs collapse beneath him. 

"Hey, hey, hey okay, it's okay," Jamie coos to calm Tristan's trail of whimpers as he swiftly scoops him up into his arms like he's a baby again. 

"I got you Tris, I got you," Jamie adds as he walks our boy back out to the car. 

Both of us in so much shock that we couldn't even begin to process the situation that unfolded.

The animosity that was taken out on our son because of a gift he was born with. 

Reminds me of the hatred I had towards him because of the name and face he carried. 

*******************

I know some people who haven't read around to other books might be confused, and if you're confused I say, don't worry about it, don't think into it too much, it won't really be mentioned again. 

But if you're not confused how did you like that shocking plot twist? Lmao