Broken and Bonded Ch. 09-10

"No, you can't see it like that! Your boys are not beyond saving -- unlike so many others that we have heard about. It was a losing battle that you fought, but you kept on fighting."

*

When they returned to the house it was a subdued but cleaner looking group of men that greeted them.

"Not perfect," Jonathon murmured critically. "But most definitely an improvement."

"Now then," he said firmly. "If you will all sit down, I will tell you what our plan is."

They sat down and Mark and Ben tried to catch their father's eye, but Bill had been advised not to engage with any of them, and so kept his eyes averted and his chin down.

"This is what is going to happen now," Jonathon began. "You will all leave this place, and it is to be demolished in its entirety and we shall start again from the foundations." he did not give them a chance to digest this information nor argue it but carried on determinedly. "You five will leave this place and will go to stay with a friend of mine. This friend will begin to train you in how to maintain and take care of a property and then you will be taught good manners and social skills so that you can re-join the human race and perhaps begin to prosper."

"But..." Ben began, but Jonathon cut him off before he could work himself up to an argument.

"There will be no buts," he said ruthlessly. "Do not mistake this for a discussion because it is not. This is a schedule for you all, and you WILL follow it to the end."

"But what about our father?" Ben finally mumbled determinedly.

"He has done his best for you, but you would not hear his pleas. Now it is time for him to take a well-deserved holiday, and you are now someone else's problem -- mainly mine."

There were several shuffles of discomfort but no one else looked to speak.

"Now, as I was saying... I want you all to pack up your belongings, for the next two weeks you will go through this place and gather everything that you wish to keep. Anything left once you have all moved out will be destroyed and disposed of along with the house. I give you until the first new moon. You have until the final full moon of this phase. I want you all to chase the full moon to your limits and then on the day of the first new moon you will be waiting outside this house, to be taken to your next destination. I will have three lockable storage containers placed over near the orchard in the southern field where you can store your belongings."

He looked at the demoralized young men and smiled sympathetically.

"You feel like you are being ripped away from your lives, without so much as being asked if it's what you want. But I promise you by the end of it all you will be glad this happened, you will find happiness and fulfilment -- if you commit to this."

"So, you are just going to leave us to get on with it -- assume that we will just do as we are told?" Ben snapped resentfully.

Jonathon looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. That had been his plan, but now he realised that that would probably be a mistake.

He drew in his energies and stood up to tower over them.

"You will do as you are told," he growled and watched with satisfaction as they all shrunk away from him. "You will do exactly as I have told you to do, no more and no less."

He opened up his shoulders and stood even taller.

"On your knees -- all of you!" he snapped. "And pledge your obedience to what I tell you!"

One by one the young men fell to their knees before him and nodded their acquiescence, and as Jonathon stood over them, he felt such a rush of raw power, he felt in that moment that he could best anyone -- he could rule them all!