Never Too Late

Black Out

The wolf that came to the door after the first was, irrefutably, the mother of Briggan Harou. Even though her coat was a heavenly shade of snow-white, she had the same intense sapphire-hued eyes.

"Good morning gentlemen," she greeted. Her voice sounded quite like a customer service representative, and it was safe to say that this was likely to be her profession.

Mastace was the first one to reply. "Good morning to you as well. We're here for the Harou family reunion."

"Oh?" Rose inquired. This has certainly piqued her interest. "Which member of the family are you two associated with?"

"I," Briggan said, "am Briggan Alexander Harou and you are my mother, Primrose."

Rose stood there, as if frozen completely solid in ice. So, this was what her intuition had been warning her about. The return of the prodigal son. Had he caught wind of her phone call with Khrysta just days before? No. That was impossible. They hadn't seen each other in years.

Is it possible for her to have lied? Or perhaps they recently crossed paths by chance and she gave him the information?

Her mind reeled work all the possibilities. It didn't really matter at this point. What did matter was that he was here. Her son had come home.

"Briggan, my dear. How won-"

"Stop!" Briggan hissed sharply. "Just... stop."

Rose jumped at the venom that now slithered drop into his voice, ready to strike at anyone who dared cross the adolescent. The lion that accompanied him winded as well, so she knew this wasn't very common with her son.

"What's wr-"

"I said stop." Briggan's body language now changed from a tad shy to very angry and his head hairs rise on end. His tail was straight up and his fangs were bared.

What frightened Rose the most was how he stared her right in the eyes. There was no familial glee in his soul. Not at the present moment. What she saw was far more primal than that. Her most basic of instincts told her to back up and look as passive as possible, searching for any way to avoid conflict. She took one step back, her ears flat against her skull and tail between her legs. She avoided any and all eye contact as her son advanced forward with every new step back that she took.

The lion called for Briggan to come back out of the house, but he was paid no heed as all he was fixated on was her. A growl, deep and merciless seeped from his muzzle as his eyes shone with malevolent intent. Then, everything happened in an instant.

Before Rose could conceptualize a fragment of a thought, a flash of gold and silver lunged her direction and she felt a light sting on her left cheek, then something warm and wet that she instantly knew to be blood. Snarling, snapping, howling and hollering was all that filled the house for a moment, then all was still.

The lion had pinned and held Briggan down just in time for her to survive, but Briggan had landed a light blow and scratched her deep. The force of his claws caused her to stumble back and fall to the ground, stunned by the sudden onslaught of raw emotion. Her other son came to her aid and watched the situation unfold.

"YOU TRAITOR! YOU BETRAYED YOUR OWN FAMILY, YOU BETRAYED ME, AND YOU TURNED YOUR BACK ON HER, YOU FILTHY POND SCUM!"

Briggan shook his head, then did his best to look around. His head hurt, and he knew there was a gap in his memory. Great, he thought, another seizure. He tried getting back up, but felt a heavy weight on his back, preventing him from doing so.

"Wait... What's going on?"

"Are you done now, Briggan? Is there something that you haven't told me?" Mastace sounded angry. No, he was scared. He knew the difference in his boyfriend's tone when he heard it. This was his fear showing.

"What do you mean, am I done? What the fuck happened?"

"You attacked me, Briggan." his mother's voice called from just outside his field of vision. "And damned near took off my head, too."

Then, everything came back to him. The rage, the attack, the screaming. It all came toppling down on top of him as the reality of what this could mean came down with it.

"Oh no... I didn't mean... I'm so sorry... I have no excuse... I..." There was nothing he could say that could make up for what he did. He knew it immediately. This was a bridge that he had just burned... with a wicked grin on his face. He could never take this back.

"It's okay, Briggan. I understand. The same thing happened to me when I was in high school. I blacked out my freshman year and committed acts that I can never take back or apologise for."

Briggan looked up at his mother. He felt the weight of Mastace's hold begin to relent and he slowly stood, making sure to refrain from looking flighty or otherwise suspicious. "No, Rose. This is different. This is serious. Out of nowhere, I became totally dangerous and I attacked you. Had no one been there to come between you and I..." He dared not finish the sentence.

He didn't need to. Everyone in the room perfectly understood.

"I wanted to be able to stay for the reunion, but I think it best that we leave. For your sake."

"Briggan, you don't have to-"

"I do. I'm not endangering anyone else just so that I can reach for a childish fantasy that was never really going to happen in the first place. I'm sorry for disturbing you and your new family." He turned to Mastace, "Let's go, darling. I don't think this will be good for anyone."

Mastace did not object, following Briggan closely out the door and down the road to go back home.