Dyson came bursting through the doors. Being close by, when he got the call from Lauren, he practically ran over the other cars in his lane just to be there to be there for his daughter. When he heard Bo's voice in the background, telling Lauren to tell him to get there as fast as possible, he knew something was wrong, that he had to be there; now.
"What's wrong?" he said, running over to her door. He hated seeing her behind the glass, someone he barely knew, but knew better than anyone else in the room at the same time. She was a part of him, and he was a part of her.
"Something is happening to her, Dyson," Lauren said, fear consuming her voice.
"Do you know what to do?" Bo asked, looking to him for the answer she never would be able to find.
"Oh, no," he said looking in at her. "She shifting, for the first time. Everyone has to get out of here now. Wolves, they're uncontrollable when they first start shifting. She has no practice, no conscience, no reason to stop once she starts. The first dozen or so shifts are the most dangerous."
"She doesn't look so dangerous to me," Tamsin said, coming over to examine what everyone was freaking out about. She wasn't scared, and couldn't see why any of them were, well besides Lauren of course, as she was the only one in the group that couldn't defend herself.
"Tamsin! This isn't the time," Dyson raised his voice. His kin retching in pain behind the sound of his voice.
The girl from behind the glass looked up at them, her eyes black, with a strong yellow in the center, exactly the way Dyson's look when he starts his transformation, or needs to use his wolf instincts to sniff and smell out whatever he has to.
"Lauren, do you have any kind of tranquilizer lying around?" Dyson asked, never taking his eyes off of his daughter. "We need to hurry, it won't be much longer now."
"Yeah," she said, shocked, but scrambled around to look for what he had requested.
She found a small vial with a needle on the end of it, with what looked like green liquid inside. It looked like it was meant to be shot from a gun, but there was no choice now. Someone had to get close enough to deliver the serum directly to her skin.
He walked over to the glass door, staring inside as if empty.
"Dyson," Bo spoke from beside him. "Let me do it."
He spoke no answer, instead just froze. With Tamsin and Lauren looking on behind them, fearing for their safety, Bo took the needle out of Dyson's frozen hand. She pressed the button next to the glass door. It slid open slowly.
The girl broke free of her restraints as Bo did this, she attempted to lunge at Bo, her eyes fixed, her soul set on killing, her taste for blood strong. Bo wasted no time in moving to plunge the needle directly into her neck.
She faltered some, shocked that she had been defeated so quickly. The medicine started to take effect almost immediately. Her eyes returned to their normal brown color, her muscles started to relax, she stepped backwards until the back of her knees hit the bed, where she collapsed against the wall, her body on the bed.
"She's okay, I didn't hurt her, Dyson," was the first thing Bo said as she exited the glass prison, resting her hand on his shoulder.
"I know," he choked out.
"So what do we do?" Tamsin asked. She would rather hurry everything along, rather than standing around all day with everyone's mouths gaped open.
"First off, no more restraints, Lauren," Dyson said, turning to look her in the eye.
"They were for her own safety Dyson, and ours, they did not hurt her. We needed her calm before we did anything. So we start over when she wakes up again. I will not put the restraints back on her as long as she remains calm and tries to talk with us."
"She's terrified, Lauren, what do you expect?" Dyson said, the beginnings of agitation starting to show in his voice, and with good cause. "What did she say before she started to shift?"
"She said that she was being chased by someone, followed everywhere she went. That whoever was chasing her had killed her mother as well."
"Ella is dead?" Dyson said out loud to himself. In that moment, reality hit him. He realized his daughter had no mother, that she, like him, would have to live her thousands of years on this earth without her. That all she had was this sorry excuse for a man, sorry excuse for a father, sorry excuse for a wolf. He had never even held a baby, much less, raise a teenager, a girl at that. She would hate him for his lack of understanding. She would resent him for not being there throughout her life, she would hate him for letting her mother die, with him nowhere to be found. Had he had known of her existence, he would've been there for her, most likely would've stayed with her mother, tried to work things out, tried to make them a family for her sake. It was the least he could have done, and not because he had to, but because he would have wanted to.
He had loved that woman, not enough to give her all of his love, like with Bo, but he had cared deeply for her. And she had loved him as well, enough to hide her pregnancy and break it off with Dyson, as not to ruin his aspirations, his duties. But how he wish he had known. If only he had known.
"It's not your fault, Dyson," Bo said, trying to give him some reassurance.
"This," he said looking at his daughter passed out. "This is my doing."
He walked out of the lab, leaving the three women to look after her. He had to get away, not just for his sake, but for her's. She deserved better than a father like him, she deserved Bo, Tamsin, and Lauren to look after her, to mold her, give her the traits that all three of them combined possess. Lauren's superior intelligence, her ability to solve any problems, get herself out of trouble, learn what was full of poison and how to avoid it, how to make her own remedies. She deserved Tamsin's strength, her power, her ability to remove herself emotionally from situations that called for it, to be independent, never relying on someone else to do things for you. And most of all, she deserved Bo's heart. Her compassion and caring for others. Her ability to lead, yet follow, and always do what was called for, letting her heart and head lead her decisions. All she would get from Dyson was loneliness, anger and angst, how to be a douche bag. He didn't want that for her.
Lauren closed the doors and stood along with Tamsin and Bo, watching the helpless girl.
"What are we gonna do?" Lauren asked.
"We keep her safe."
"Will that ever really be enough?" Tamsin asked. "This girl is gonna need some kind of therapy, losing her mother, being hunted down by some psycho. And when she finds out Dyson is her father, she's going to want to be handed over to whoever is after her."
"Do you ever stop being a bitch?" Lauren asked, speaking up finally. Her last comment was way out of line. She stepped closer to Tamsin, standing eye to eye with her.
"Only when I have a reason to," she said, challenging her back.
"Why don't you shut your mouth for once," Lauren said, not backing down. She truly didn't fear Tamsin, and maybe that had something to do with the fact that Bo was there with them, and hurting Lauren would be unforgivable to any of the gang, and punishable by death.
"Why don't you make me," Tamsin said, moving so close to Lauren's face that they almost kissed, their lips hovering barely a half inch away from the other.
"Alright, come on," Bo said, pulling Tamsin back by her arm. As much as she'd like to see that fight, she wouldn't in reality ever let anyone hurt Lauren, much less Tamsin. "Why don't you go look for Dyson, maybe talk to him, you guys are good friends, convince him he's a good person, and the only one that can teach her the ways of a shifter."
"Yeah, cause feeding wolf man's ego is what I live for," she said sarcastically, walking out of the room in an aggravated strut.
"Dyson's a good man," Lauren said once Tamsin had made her exit. "It's lucky he has someone with his blood inside them."
"Yeah, he deserves it, she doesn't know how lucky she is," Bo said, looking at her once again.
"Do you ever regret it?" Lauren asked.
"Regret what?" Bo asked back, puzzled as to what she was referring to.
"Not having kids with him when you had the chance, making a life with him, starting a family, maybe, I don't know, getting married."
"Lauren," Bo started sighing, not sure how to explain herself in this situation. "I thought I would regret it, and maybe somewhere in my heart I do. But everything happens for a reason. He gave his love away, whether he knew he was doing it or not, he made that sacrifice for me, so I know he loved me. If I hadn't made the decision to go after Aife, he never would've thought that he had to sacrifice anything for me. This was how it was meant to be. I know he has his love back, and i'm glad he does so he can be himself again, but my place now is here with you. I'm here because I want to be, not because I have to be. I will always love Dyson, he will always have a special place in my heart, but you are the one that has all of my heart, okay?"
"Okay," Lauren said, smiling inside and out. Her explanation was one that Lauren didn't really want to hear, but prepared herself for. But knowing that she was the one that truly had kept Bo's heart, made everything worth it.
