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."

Didn't Cyril no that?

She maybe was his daughter but that was something that she would never choose to be when the other choice was her mate.

Not that he could fault her. Lucas Schuyler was obviously adoring her, Cyril could admit that. Daphne had chosen his pack and his family and as much as he disliked it...

"And telling her she will be nothing but his broodmare was exactly the wrong thing to tell her," Caroline said sharply. His word choice had been poor but it was what he was worried about. He had seen it often enough, had seen how the woman in a pack could be subjected and be nothing more than a womb to fill with another cub.

Alone the idea of that was pissing him off so badly that he shivered with just so suppressed rage. He had seen the way Lucas Schuyler looked at her. There was to hope that the boy would at least put a ring on her finger before he knocked her up but to be honest, Cyril wasn't sure if that would make it better or worse.

He wanted more for Daphne. He wanted her to have a full and big life.

"Have you ever thought about the idea that maybe she wants this rural and pastolic life?" Stephen asked him gently and he closed his eyes. "She wants a house with a white picket fence and 2.5 kids. You maybe want something more for her but Daphne doesn't. She wants her small, idyllic life where the only thing she needs to worry is my son."

He could see how for her that maybe had appeal. Could see how she would choose the security of the Schuyler pack over anything else because it was the first and only security his daughter had ever felt in her life.

"Just leave her in peace for a bit, alright?" Caroline said softly. "She doesn't hold grudges, she just needs some time."

"I...She's my daughter," he whispered helplessly. His daughter. His little girl.

"We know that. We would never keep her away from you. But it needs to happen on her terms," Matthew said calmly. Far more politely than Cyril probably had the right to expect at the moment. "Leave your contact details here. We'll make sure she will get them. She will come to you when she is ready to listen to your apologies."

He turned for his sister, surprised to find her heading out in the direction Luke and Daphne had left and chose to wait in the car.

He wasn't welcome here and he couldn't fault them for it.

Leda showed up a few minutes later and he knew that he was in for a lecture when she climbed in the passenger seat.

"Congratulations, Cyril," his sister snorted. "You managed to push her straight into the arms of her mate."

He had, hadn't he?

"Are you actually surprised?" Leda asked him with a raised eyebrow. "She's besotted with Lucas Schuyler. He's the one thing in her life that she trusts unconditionally. More even than Caroline and Matthew. She adores him, Cyril. She submits to him without questions and he keeps her safe and frankly, coddles her to an untold degree."

Cyril didn't even want to know what coddling even meant for his daughter. He was pissed off as hell about the whole situation and that Daphne had made that decision with what seemed not even a second thought.

"You can't fault him for taking what's rightfully his. She's his." His sister continued. "He has more of a right to her than you. How did you think she would react to your appearance?" Leda asked with a snort. "Throw away the family she has just acquired to come with the father she never met? Throw away a relationship with Lucas Schuyler who obviously adores her and spoils her rotten? She did what she had to stay where she wants to stay. You can't separate mated werewolves. It's not done."

It wasn't. Cyril took a deep breath as his sister pummelled into him with stone-cold logic and facts. She had always been good at that.

"You pushed Daphne straight into making that decision," his sister accused and as he opened his mouth to protest she just snorted. "He's her mate . Of course , she would choose him. She chose her mate, she chose his family, his pack."

And that knowledge...that hurt more than Daphne being upset with him. Knowing that he had never even stood a chance.

"Leave her alone, Cyril," Leda finally said with a sigh. "She's hurt and angry at you and you can just hope that Lucas Schuyler is not going to make you pay for this. She has made a decision that does not suit you but that makes her happy," his sister snapped. "Have you ever thought about the option that maybe, maybe , Daphne wants nothing more but to be his mate? To give him cubs? To be nothing more than a stay at home mum, dabbling in art? To be nothing but his broodmare ?"

"You want her to be a strong independent woman? Then you need to respect her choices," his sister snapped. "She has them. I am not going to let you take them away from her. Nor her mate. She can do whatever she wants, and I'll make it clear to her that she will have my full support."

"If you prefer to be an asshole about this than that is your decision," Leda ended her tirade. "Leave her alone. Don't meddle in her life."

"I will," he agreed, clearly shocking his sister.

"You will?" She asked him surprised.

"She has made her decision," Cyril agreed as he started the car. He didn't like it one bit but there were some things that he knew were going to destroy their relationship irreparably. Not accepting her mate was one of them.

"I thought that taking control of that situation was going to make it all better," he admitted. "I was wrong."

"You were," Leda agreed. "You know nothing about her," Leda told him with a sigh. "Absolutely nothing. You would have ripped her out of the only home she ever knew, taken her back here where the only things she has are terrible memories and thrown painting supplies at her, because you hoped that you could somehow buy her affection," his sister said softly. "You would have done that...you know what she would have done? She would have finished High School in the next year and the day she turned 18 she would have walked out of your house and never returned. She would have gone straight to Luke Schuyler's side and he would have ripped apart any bonds our packs had. You would have made her sick with worry and fear, all because you think you have a right to her."

Yes. That was exactly what he would have done.

He liked to think that Daphne would have gotten used to it, that it wouldn't have ended like that. He would have liked to think that maybe a bit of stance was all that they would have needed. Mating was fragile, especially in the early stages. It could have been broken with distance and maybe Lucas Schuyler would have found another girl that was a fit for him, a girl that didn't happen to be Cyril's daughter.

"You don't have a right to her, Cyril. She made the decision that was best for her and her mate. I think after the life she had, she has earned that right."

She did.

Daphne had earned that right.