Small Town Love

Interlude: Regret

Thinking before acting is wisdom, but acting before thinking is regret.

Anonymous

He watched his daughter leave the room in an obvious snit, the fury obvious in every single cell of her being. He couldn't help but be startled as she shifted so suddenly that her clothing ripped apart at the seams and then took straight off into the forest. A startling white wolf, looking very much like him.

It only took a second for Lucas Schuyler to move into her direction, following his daughter outside. His shifting was far more fluid than Daphne's had been.

"Maybe you should teach her some manners. She seems terrible uncivilised," he said tightly, to nobody in particular, but it was Matthew Hyde, that finally lost his cool.

He was the last one Cyril had expected to do that, Caroline's husband was notoriously even-tempered.

His coffee cup hit the table he had been standing at and he growled, a partial shift rippling over his body.

"Oh, if you compared me to the woman who made my life a living hell for 16 years and nearly beat me to death half a dozen time then my response would be even less civilised than she has been," he snapped out sharply.

Cyril could just stare at him. That was the last thing he had expected. He had read Daphne's medial file but that had been thin and...Michelle would never...she wouldn't. Right?

"What do you...mean with that?" He brought out, his voice close to the breaking point. He could feel his wolf twist in his chest with helpless fury, the idea of his daughter being hurt by her own mother like that too much for him to even taken.

"When she first came to us, she flinched at every quick movement. She stiffened if you did as much as hug her...and her back was a bloody mess of belt marks," Matthew Hyde told him matter of factly. Cyril could smell the fury on the other man, could smell how much even the memories of that affected him. "She has cigarette marks all down her thighs. She has scars all over her back. She probably had more broken bones than you could count on both hands. She has every hallmark from an abused child."

He wanted to throw up. That's what he wanted to do. Matthew Hyde's voice pushed into every cell of his body and made him want to kill Michelle.

How could she do that? How could she have hurt their daughter like that?

"I didn't...I didn't...know." He struggled to bring out the words, struggled to find the right ones.

If he had known, he wouldn't have let Daphne in that situation for a single second longer. He would have made sure that nobody would hurt her again.

And suddenly...suddenly he realised that that was all he had done since he had come here.

Leda had warned him and he had ignored it, ignored it all.

Daphne had found herself a place here in Fairbury, somewhere where she was happy. She had made her decisions, ignoring his wishes and he would need to respect that if he wanted to have at least some kind of relationship with her. And he did want that. He wanted nothing more to be honest.

"No, that much was certain. You are an asshole but you aren't that much of an asshole. Even when your appearance here could have made me think otherwise," Stephen said calmly. "You know, we didn't know about the belt marks. Only after another human hurt her here, we found them. They were infected by then. She spent the better part of a month in absolute agony because she didn't tell any of us."

"Daphne threw herself in her relationship with my son without so much of a second thought. She was desperate for the security that the idea of a mate gave her. She was greedy for every bit of attention he gave her," Stephen continued. "She adores him. Completely and unapologetically. You never had a chance against Luke."