“I thought this night wouldn’t get any better.” Aidan said sarcastically, his eyes glowing with barely concealed anger. His father, once he saw who they were, began to Change from his wolf from to his human self. He walked forward, keeping a safe three meters between himself and his son.
“You have guts, son. Coming back here.” Jacob said. His voice was cutting, but his eyes were calm with a hint of sadness. Lauren could tell that he was trying not to let the emotions get to him.
“After all that you’ve done, you shouldn’t even think of coming back.” He continued. “Release the women to me and go, and never come back again.”
Aidan on the other hand wasn’t as calm as his father. He gripped Katherine convulsively and glowered. Lauren could feel the anger rolling off him in waves. “You’re a fine one to talk.” He growled.
“I never wanted to be like this.” He continued, his voice quivering “I wanted to have a normal life, finish high school, go to college. And you ruined my life. I could have survived the way you all but ignored me after Mom died. I could have lived with that. But this? Being a monster for the rest of my life, is something I would never be able to live with.”
“Aidan…”
“I also made mistakes.” Aidan continued “Betraying Lauren was something I should never have done. I realise that now. But at least I try to do what’s right. Unlike you, I realize my mistakes and try to make amends. And I’m sure as hell better than you would ever be in that aspect. We might be related by blood, but you are not my father.”
Each word that Aidan hurled at his father slapped hard. Even Katherine flinched as he said them, and separated herself from Aidan, giving him a baleful look. Lauren could tell that she was wondering how a son could talk to his father like that.
“Dr Makovsky would be here soon. We need to get out of here.” Katherine spoke up, still staring at Aidan and trying to stand on her feet. The two men ignored her and Lauren rushed to her mother’s side, watching the father and son involved in a silent standoff.
The words Aidan had said clearly hurt Jacob. He took a step backwards, his shoulders hunched and defeated, and Lauren could tell that he was hurt beyond measure. She glared at Aidan with all the venom she could muster.
“How can you speak to your father like that, to hell with whatever he did to you?” Lauren yelled. “He came here to save me. His pack members are out there dying because of me! If that isn’t enough, I don’t know what is.”
“Stay out of this, Lauren.” Aidan snapped, his eyes gleaming with tears. “This is none of your business-”
“You’re right.” Jacob cut in, his eyes darting between them sadly “I was a terrible father. I am a terrible father. I grew distant and cruel after your mom died. I inflicted an incurable disease on you, and I left you for dead. Our shared pain could have brought us together, made us a stronger family, but I botched that. And all the apologies in the world can never repair that. No amount of remorse, or begging, or trying to make amends can change that.”
“Your father was hurt too.” Lauren said to Aidan again, this time with a calmer voice. “He was a new Changeling that night he bit you. He couldn’t control his actions.”
The two men continued to ignore her. Their attention was focused on each other.
In the midst of their fight, a shadow had darkened the door at the end of the hallway. Lauren’s breath caught in her throat as she realised who the figure was. Her father.
“Well, well.” Dr Makovsky said coldly. “I do love a bit of family reunion, don’t I.”
☆
Lauren felt her mother slip to the ground in defeat as the doctor stepped forward. Her heart constricted with fear and hatred as her eyes took in her father. Alpha Jacob had turned to the doctor, bent in a wolf-like crouch and snarling. Without sparing the Alpha more than a glance, the doctor walked forward to where Aidan stood, his body shielding Lauren and her mother.
“Like your father said, you’ve got a lot of guts, boy. Did you really think it would be that easy to escape from here?” Dr Makovsky asked, then turned to Katherine.
“And you,” he said to her “I thought we were having a good time here, finally learning how to be a family again.”
“Frank…” Her mother pleaded “Please.”
The doctor turned away from Katherine just a swiftly as he’d turned to her. He looked at Aidan with venomous eyes.
“I know what you’re about to say.” Aidan said to the doctor. His voice was eerily calm, and Lauren felt shivers of apprehension run up her arms. “And I don’t regret it.”
“You shouldn’t have betrayed me, boy. You shouldn’t have gone back on your word. You will never be free from me, Aidan.” Dr Makovsky murmured. Only then did Lauren notice the gleam of the silvery gun that the doctor pulled from his pants pocket.
Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion. The doctor raised the gun and cocked it. Lauren heard her mother shout “Frank!” beside her, Aidan could barely let out a breath of surprise as something silver and gleaming left the gun with a loud crack and flew towards him.
Lauren couldn’t close her eyes. She stared in shock as a heavy something soared past Dr Makovsky and planted itself between the silver bullet and Aidan. It was Alpha Jacob, in wolf form now. He let out a yelp of pain as the bullet hit his chest and he collapsed into Aidan’s arms. Blood splattered from the wound and landed on the white walls, on Lauren’s face, on Aidan’s body, everywhere.
She could barely move as she saw Alpha Jacob change slowly back to human. His being was stuck between wolf and human: his fangs were still out, and his eyes still glowed green. Like Aidan’s.
Lauren watched as Jacob gasped for breath and Aidan held on to his father. Tears dropped from his eyes as he slowly slid to the ground with his father in his arms. The Alpha looked up at his son with eternal sadness and smiled a bloody smile.
“Aidan…” He tried to speak but coughed out blood.
“Dad…”
I’m-sorry…” He said and raised a feeble hand to his son’s cheek.
Aidan watched as the expression of sadness slipped from his father’s face and gripped him tighter, as though trying to prevent life from slipping away from his body. In a matter of seconds the Alpha’s body went limp and his eyes stared without seeing, and Lauren heard her fellow pack members howl outside as the loss of their leader reached them. Lauren too found herself slipping to the ground, agony piercing her chest, and only then did she realise that the hallway was empty. Dr Makovsky, the one who had caused this pain, had disappeared just as fast as he’d come.