Chapter 139
0139 (James POV) “What did my parents tell you?” “A version of the same thing they told me when I went to them about the others. That I needed to respect the chain of command, and that meant that any and all complaints needed to go through Beta Robert and Margie. And that the chain of command was especially important when the issue had to do with one of their daughters. So I went to Margie. However, Margie dismissed my concerns. She denied that anyone was bullying Lily, and she said that Lily was probably just exaggerating. She told me that Lily had been complaining about having to help Stephanie with Stephanie’s luna training. She assumed that Lily probably made everything up to get out of having to help any more. Margie refused to hear any details of the injuries from me; instead she told me to get out of her office and to not bother Beta Robert with the issue because Beta Robert had better things to do with his time. At the time, I did not know what else to do. So I dropped it. However, the second time I treated Lily, I tried again. I went back to your parents. They asked if I had already talked to Margie, and I confirmed that I had. I also told them what Margie said. Your parents told me that if Margie believed Lily was exaggerating, Lily probably was. I argued with them, saying that Lily could die if the abuse continued to escalate. They dismissed my concerns, saying that they trusted Margie’s judgment.” Dr. Miller paused and rubbed his face with his hands. “The third time Lily came to me for treatment, I went to Margie first. Of course, I got the same reaction. from her, so I tried to personally locate Beta Robert. Unfortunately, he was gone on some sort of business trip. So I did the only thing I thought I could: I went back to your father and threatened to go to the werewolf council if he did not do something. Your father understandably got angry about being threatened. He told me that Lily was fine, and then alpha-ordered me not to talk to anyone about what I thought had happened to Lily up until that point. As a result, to this day, I still cannot tell you what happened the first three times I treated her. After that, I continued to treat Lily when she needed it, but I never tried to talk to the alpha or beta couples about my concerns again.” I felt Luke getting angry at Dr. Miller again, and I was right there with him. “Alpha orders do not prevent communication with the werewolf council,” I pointed out. Dr. Miller looked down, regret and shame clearly showing in his face. “I know. And in retrospect, I should have followed through on my threat and gone to the council. But going to the council over the objection of your alpha is not something most alphas look kindly at. Had I done it, even though we were friends, your father most likely would have banished me from the pa pack. I was upset enough about what was happening to Lily that I might have been willing to accept. banishment, but around the same time Lily was getting hurt, I was also dealing with an increasing number of patients who were struggling with betrayal pains despite having faithful partners. I was really busy trying to help those patients out too. I was reading through medical books every day, talking to other doctors, trying to figure out what was going on and how to help. I created the support group. My working hypothesis was that there was some sort of virus or medical condition that was presenting as betrayal pains when it really wasn’t.” “So what you are saying is that you got busy and you had higher priorities than Lily?” I asked with heavy bitterness in my tone. Dr. Miller took a deep breath. “Yes. I admit it. I dropped the ball and I was wrong. But I also really believed that Molly and Laney were just two high school bullies who would eventually get bored and move on after a while. I had no idea who they really were or how twisted the behavior really was. Lily did not tell me everything. Nor did I realize how connected everything was. If I had known I would have done everything differently. Unfortunately, by the time I found out, it was much too late.”
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