"Holy shit," swore Briar, his grip tightening on my right hand. "It really is like a reenactment."

I looked up to see the same trio again from earlier. They were walking to a park with small cups from the gelato parlor where Briar and I were in line. Briar hugged my shoulders for a moment, then returned his attention to the cashier as his name was called.

While Briar ordered, I focused my attention onto Briar's father. I zoomed my eyesight in on him and focused my hearing with a little magic. Now up close, I could see a "one-month anniversary" sobriety pin on the lapel of the woman's blouse. The little kid had greenish gray eyes and black hair. His skin tone was darker than my Briar's lightly tanned self, but it was obvious that something was off with him and the woman.

Neither of them looked alike.

And while that is not exactly an odd thing in and of itself since the child could be adopted, the woman and the child looked strangely uncomfortable. Their smiles appeared to be forced to a degree. On the other hand, Briar's father was genuinely happy and smiling away. But when the woman tripped, he snagged her wrist and I watched his expression grow angry.

"Can't you play your damn role right, you bitch? I rescued you off the streets, you whore. You better be fucking grateful. The only reason you're still alive for now is 'cause you look similar to that wench I offed."

The woman was clearly frightened as Briar's father threw down her arm. I eyed the bruises, track marks, and scars on her skin, then peered at the frightened little boy. He didn't look like he could even utter one simple word because he was so afraid.

"You, keep smiling." ordered Briar's father, squeezing the boy's shoulder.

The boy quickly nodded and forced a smile, so Briar's father fell back into his reenactment. It was quite disturbing to watch. But I was brought back to the parlor by Briar squeezing my hands and kissing my face.

"Ann, are you okay?"

I nodded and hugged his neck, so he picked me up. "Did you order?"

"Yes, everything is ready. Here's your cup."

"Thank you, Bri." I replied, kissing his cheek as he gave me my share.

Briar's tail tip flicked and his purrs kicked into gear. "You're very welcome, Ann. What were you thinking about so hard?" he asked, taking his short cup from the counter and walking towards exit.

"While I was thinking, I actually used a tiny bit of magic to watch your father and his actors. It was as we suspected, but I believe there's something really wrong going on as well."

Briar paused as he went to open the door. "What?"

"Your father found a drug addict on the street and 'saved' her. I don't know if he sent her to meetings or he just gave her your mother's one-month sobriety pin. The latter seems more likely. And the boy isn't the woman's son, so he was probably kidnapped, too."

Briar inhaled deeply and straightened on his exhale, then opened the door and marched out of the business. I had a feeling gelato was the last thing on Briar's mind, so I put our cups away in my storage dimension to stay cold. My black jaguar Emerged quietly thanked me as he readjusted my form in his arms. He walked quickly across the street to the park, knowing exactly where he needed to go.

"Bri, what are you planning?"

"Two lives might be at stake right now. Even though I am scared of my father, I have you with me, so I know what I need to do. It's time to face the beast head-on and deal with the consequences later."

"All right, Bri. I'm with you every step of the way, even if and after you do set me down at your side."

Briar's serious expression cracked slightly as he muffled a laugh, but then he returned to a stoic expression as he thanked me. I patted his head between his ears and kissed his temple. Briar nuzzled my cheek, then hugged my body a bit tighter as he rounded the corner of the path. We saw the trio sitting on the bench and eating in silence with the pond in front of them (and to Briar's and my right). None of the three looked Briar's way.

He took a deep breath and shakily asked, "D-Dad?"

Briar's father startled. He nearly dropped his cup of the gelato. He set that aside and slowly looked up. I was on Briar's right side, so I wasn't blocking his face.

"B-Briar?"

"Yeah," murmured Briar. "I came back, Dad, to face you—the source of a lot of my fear and trauma."

"B-but I thought you—?"

"You thought I died?"

Briar's question alarmed me. What hadn't he told me about his past? Well, he didn't have any obligation to tell me everything anyway, so I'm not mad. But this is concerning.

"Of course you did," continued Briar. "You strangled me and left me for dead, just like my mother."

The kid acting as Briar suddenly turned very pale. I felt like my face had done a similar thing. I hugged Briar's neck a bit tighter. He was too calm.

Briar's father looked stricken and he stood up. "You're wrong!" he shouted, which made Briar freeze.

"How the hell am I wrong! Have you gone senile already, old man? Is this why you're grabbing people and forcing them to play the day of my eighth birthday a decade ago?"

Briar's father looked like he was about to cry. "No, I-I didn't do that... I-I'd never hurt you or your mother, Briar."

"What the fuck!" yelled Briar. "You did hurt me! You fucking beat me to unconsciousness too many times to count and you want to deny that ever happened? You should be in jail right now, but you need to be in a mental hospital!"

"I-I...." trailed off the older man. His head suddenly dropped forward and I sensed something change, similar to Dian when Ian was still trapped inside him. "Yeah..." growled the older man.

Briar held his ground as his father straightened and began walking towards him. "Yeah, what?"

The older man stopped in front of Briar as if he knew he couldn't touch him. "I should have made sure you were dead before I buried you in that shallow grave."

I reacted and smacked my palm across the man's cheek, using a teeny tiny bit of dragon strength to send him sprawling. Briar was alarmed, but he knew why I did it, so he didn't tell me off. He kissed my head and set me down, since my tail and my facial expression was showing just how pissed off I was at his father. Briar ruffled my hair between my wolf ears and then leaned on the railing around the pond to watch what would happen.

The older man held his jaw and spat out blood, glaring at me as I walked over to him. "What the fuck are you?"

"Not human, so answer my damn questions if you want to live." I snapped, but I wouldn't actually kill him. That's not my choice to make.

His eyes widened and he smartly did not say anything more. I scrubbed my fingers through my hair and exhaled harshly.

"You're the other personality." I stated, and the older man jolted.

"What?"

"No, maybe you're the core personality." I murmured, placing one fingertip on his forehead.

He squeezed his eyes shut and waited, but I was just flipping through his memories. I was angry at what I saw, of course, but there was a partition in the man's mind where the other personality slept. That personality had all the good memories stored safely on its side.

"No wonder you were calm one moment and absolutely blazing with rage the next." I said, lowering my hand. "You experienced the same thing as Briar, Kiel."

The older man violently flinched. "Th-that's not my name."

"You may have changed it to Kevin to run away from your father, but your given name is Kiel."

Briar moved closer. "What exactly do you mean?"

"This cycle needs to end with you, Bri. Your father couldn't stop it as he was so affected by his own past that he was drowning every day, even though he struggled to stay afloat." I explained somewhat cryptically. "What happened to you was identical to what happened to him. Every single part was identical."

Briar clenched his fists. "Even the r-rape?"

Kiel tensed. "You were raped? By whom?"

"Mom's guy on the side. She traded me for her and he took his chance before he took me home."

Kiel's jaw clenched. "Bastard!"

"What do you care?" snapped Briar, tears rising to his eyes. "You punched me and forced me to help you bury my own mother in the backyard. You never asked why I came back late with tear-stained cheeks and streaks of blood on my inner thighs. You don't deserve to act like a father after all this time!"

Kiel was quiet for a minute while Briar let tears run down his cheeks, then he uttered in a low voice, "You're right. I wanted to bury the memories of you and her, not just physically. I'm a murderer and I thought I'd killed you, too. To be honest, I really did not mean to strangle you. I was just seeing things that were not there—times that had been long gone."

"That's no excuse for what you did to me!"

"I know." whispered Kiel, then looked at me. "Why did you come here?"

"Briar is part of my family and I am one of his beloveds." I explained quietly, moving closer to Briar. After he crouched down, I pushed my fingers into his thick, black waves. "I am came here to be his support and his protector if he needed that from me."

Kiel breathed deeply. "You're not what you seem to be."

"No," I murmured. "I'm not."

"I won't ask."

"Fair enough."

Kiel pushed himself to sit upright and sighed aloud, scrubbing his fingers through his black hair. "Is it time to face the music?"

"Not until you talk more with Briar." I replied, then gestured towards his actor and actress frozen in fear. "I am going to visit with the people you kidnapped off the street."

Kiel snorted. "Be my guest. I don't fucking care anymore."

As I went to step away, Briar grasped my skirt in his crouched state. I turned around and knelt, giving him a tight hug and a firm smooch on the lips. Kiel coughed when Briar deepened the kiss, but we ignored him.

"Bri," I breathed, "I will be less than five feet away. You've got all the protection you need and you know I would literally be at your side in an instant if you called for me."

Briar shakily but deeply breathed in and out. "A-all right, Ann. I know this is important."

"Very much so." I whispered, pecking his face with featherlight kisses. "I love you."

"I love you, too." he replied ever so quietly, uncurling his arms from around my form.

I pressed my lips to his forehead, then stepped back and went to the bench. I looked back at Briar to see him sitting crosslegged in front of the father he'd always been terrified of and traumatized by in his younger years, even leading up to now. He's made so much progress thanks to his own volition. I'm so proud of Briar.

I plopped down on the bench between the woman and the kid, who was actually around my height, and that was based on the length of his torso and legs. The lengths were nearly identical to mine. The woman was very tense to my left. She had dark brown hair and blue eyes, but I don't know if those are her natural colors. Her hair could be dyed and she might have contacts in.

"How did he take you?" I asked, turning towards the kid.

The kid flinched. "I-I..." he hesitated and looked over at Kiel, but the man never returned his gaze. "I might get punished."

"I won't let him. You saw me send him flying, didn't you?"

He slowly nodded. "Yeah, you're really strong."

I grinned, my tail wiggling underneath me, since I sat on it to not scare the duo even more. "Yup, I'm super duper strong, so you can trust me."

The fearful expression in the kid's greenish gray eyes faded slightly and he leaned over to whisper, "I don't have parents. I was about to be transported to my foster home when that man kidnapped me. I think that was a couple months ago."

"Oh," I murmured, then lightly squeezed his hand. I used my magic to scan for injuries and clenched my jaw when I saw his muscles and tissues littered with old injuries and scars. "Did that man hurt you a lot?"

"Sometimes when that lady did something wrong, but my old parents did a lot more to me than him."

I growled. "Well, that won't happen anymore."

The kid's eyes sparkled. "Really?"

"Yep, I'll make sure of that." I replied with a grin, reaching with my left hand to tousle his hair. "Because I know what that's like thanks to my mother."

"What's your name?"

"Anwyll DeLuca-Arcane." I replied with a beaming smile. "What's yours?"

"Douglas, but all my friends call me Dougie." he stated with a smile. "You're really pretty, Anwyll."

"Well, thank you. You're not so bad yourself."

Douglas laughed, then turned and gave me a hug. I returned his hug and eased him to sleep as I turned and looked up at the woman. "What's your story? I heard him say that he 'saved' you from the streets."

She looked between Kiel and me, then leaned down to whisper, "I had a meth addiction. While he did help me get off it and the streets, I'm not sure him beating me when I made mistakes in my 'role' was the better alternative."

"I agree."

The woman chuckled. "You're cute."

I tilted my head. "Yeah, I know. But I'm dangerous, too."

Her eyebrows lifted, then she snorted with a small smile. "I don't doubt that after witnessing the colossal slap to that bastard's face."

My giggles made Briar look up. After I blew him a kiss, he began to relax and his angrily swishing tail slowly calmed down. His tail tip flicked back and forth, his ears focused on me. His pupils began to enlarge and his fangs lengthened. My cheeks warmed as my tail wriggled underneath my my rump and thighs. I like seeing him get aroused, but maybe now is not the right time.