#Anyway my dad was one of the few people in the family that didn't ostracize her when she came out & he was cool when I came out too

[solradguy]

your dad sounds like a real one

He's pretty good, I got incredibly lucky

[sexyrasputin]

Drama Drama Island

Ezra Carvell, Sophie's father, was going to make the wolf his daughter had run off with pay. If she hadn't turned 18 a few days before she left then he would have charged the scoundrel with kidnapping his daughter, but Sophronia left willingly. Ezra didn't know why, but she had.

And now she had landed herself in the emergency room.

He only knew about this from the insurance company. Mitchell and his daughter hadn't even had the guts to tell him, but apparently they had the guts to use his insurance. Ezra had been in the process of removing Sophie from his insurance when it happened, too. He thought he wouldn't care if she got hurt. He didn't want to care. But the emergency room was different than just getting hurt. This was the emergency room. And if Mitchell was careless enough to let his daughter get hurt, then he was going to pay.

Ezra wasn't about to let Sophie come home, no. But his daughter's idiot boyfriend was about to get a talking to anyways. Sophie needed to be taken care of, and if Mitchell couldn't do that, then his daughter would have to find another guy to run off with.

Finding the wolf's house and following after him in his car wasn't hard. Ezra wasn't trying to stay hidden, so when Mitchell pulled over and climbed out of his car, fists clenched, he wasn't surprised. Mitchell, however, seemed surprised to see him.

"What do you want? Was ostracizing your daughter not enough for you?" Arden spat out, taking a step towards that cocky Ezra Carvell. He laughed, and stepped forward as well.

"She ostracized herself, Mitchell. She knew what would happen when she left, and she made the choice. But she didn't make the choice to end up in the ER because of you!" Ezra spat out. Arden scoffed, resisting the urge to punch the smirk off of the human's face. The last thing he needed to do was get into another fight. Especially with Sophie's dad. Arden knew she wouldn't be able to forgive him for that one.

"No, she didn't. She chose to go with her mate. You know why your wife left, and it must hurt to have your daughter leave, too, but don't blame me or her for doing what she thought would make her happy," he hissed. Arden knew about Sophie's mom, why she had really left her family. She'd found her mate in a nearby pack.

"No, I'm going to blame both of you! You seduced her, knowing full well who she is! You drew her away from her family, the only people that really matter, and you ruined her life! Now you've gone and let her get hurt, too! Stay out of her life, Mitchell!" Ezra shouted, his tone full of vitriol and fury. Heat flushed his now red face, too.

Arden stood taller, towering over the other man.

"You don't get to control her life anymore, Ezra. You're the one who won't let her see her siblings or talk to her family. You're the one who won't support her in making her own choices, even if you think they're idiotic. You're the one who keeps trying to control her even when you supposedly want nothing to do with her. It's one or the other, Ezra. Either you have nothing to do with Sophie and you stay out of her life and choices, or you realize she's your daughter and she's an adult and allowed to make her own choices. Either way, you can't control her." Arden's icy eyes pored straight into Ezra's soul, only making him angrier.

"You don't get to tell me how to parent my own daughter, Mitchell!" Ezra screamed. Arden took another step closer.

"I can see why your life left you, Ezra. You're a horrible, abusive man. I wouldn't be surprised if your other children leave one day, too." A slow smirk filled Arden's golden face. His icy anger was calm, collected, and terrifying. Anybody could tell from a mile away that Arden was not somebody to be messed with.

Apparently Ezra was not one of those people. After the remark about his ex wife and children, he lost it. In the force of full stupidity, he swung his fist up into Arden's face, hitting him squarely in the cheekbone. The wolf hadn't tried to stop the punch. It'd be healed by the time he got back to the house. Anyways, he'd already decided not to fight Sophie's dad. Not when she was already so upset with him.

Arden stared down at Ezra, his cold anger quickly transforming into fiery fury. And yet he did nothing. He couldn't hurt Ezra, as pleasant as that sounded. That was something Marcus would do, and Arden was not about to follow in his father's footsteps once more. For a few more moments, Arden stood there. Then, in a split second decision, he spoke.

"Let your children have their sister back, Ezra. You'll lose them, too, if you don't." With that hissed message, Arden spun around and stormed back to his car. He needed to punch something other than Ezra, and that meant going home.

---

Sophie glanced up as Arden stormed inside. She didn't plan on talking to him, but the bruise forming on his face piqued her interest.

"Who'd you fight this time?" she groaned, not sure if she even wanted to know. She didn't exactly want to kiss him again.

"I didn't fight anyone," Arden growled. However, his face relaxed a little as he realized Sophie was actually talking to him. This was improvement. Right?

"The bruise on your face begs to differ," Sophie countered, looking over to him flatly. Just seeing him standing there made her heart race, and she was eighty nine percent sure Arden could hear it.

He rolled his eyes. So werewolf healing wasn't working the one time he needed it to. Great.

"I was punched, but I didn't respond." Sophie scoffed, which only made Arden wince. He hated that she didn't trust him, that she thought of him as angry and violent. He wasn't. Or at least, he was trying not to be.

"Sophie, I didn't hit him back, okay? Check my hand," he insisted, holding out his right hand. No bruised knuckles and no blood meant no fighting. Even Sophie knew that. She sighed reluctantly.

"Fine, then who hit you?" Arden froze. How did he tell her this? How did he tell her anything? He wanted to tell her everything, but he wasn't sure he knew how.

"Arden, who hit you?" Her voice was more inquisitive this time, as if she actually cared a little bit more than she had moments earlier.

"Your dad, Sophie. He found out through insurance about your ankle and he confronted me. I told him it was an accident, and he got angrier. Then he punched me." That wasn't the whole truth. Arden didn't mention that he yelled back about Ezra being a horrible, manipulative father who wouldn't let his own daughter make her own choices. That was actually why Ezra had punched him. But Sophie didn't need to know that yet.

Sophie watched in abject horror, not sure how to process the fact that her dad had punched Arden. What was even happening to her life? How did it get more and more confusing with each passing day? Arden began to walk away with a dejected sigh, and she stared after him.

"By the way, call your brother and sister. I think your dad may have changed his mind." And with that bombshell, Arden stormed away towards the gym.

What. The. Heck. Was. Happening.