ꜱᴀᴠɪᴏʀ//ᴛᴠᴅᴜ

I.IX

Ansel Aumont was stunned, confused, and worried.

One minute he was watching his pack from the Other Side, and the next he was in a room with a man he quickly recognized as his son, and a young girl. Looking closely at the two, and the similarities that they shared, he knew that he was looking at his granddaughter.

He watched the two of them cry as they held each other tightly, which made him wonder what happened that caused the tears and suffocating sorrow that inhabited the room.

Ansel watched his kin closely with tears in his own eyes. He listened to his little granddaughter, his twelve year old granddaughter, tell her father that she triggered her curse and had to transform that night. His heart ached hearing her hyperventilating and berating herself for killing two people.

He listened to his son assure his daughter that it was out of self defense and that the world was safer without those two wankers in it. Niklaus had put it in much more...vulgar words that Ansel didn't dare repeat.

As he watched both of them begin to hyperventilate, he saw a man speed into the room and look directly at him. Something that made his brows furrow and caused a frown to make its way onto his face. No one should be able to see him. He wasn't a ghost, and there were no other people that he could interact with on the other side.

As Ansel was trying to understand what was happening, the man sped right toward him. Ansel's eyes widened and he choked down a laugh as the man passed right through him and hit the bookshelf he was in front of. A small smirk made its way onto his face as books proceeded to fall on top of the man.

Looking away from the man that ran right through him, he directed his attention back to his grandbaby.

Who was looking right at him, mouth wide open in shock.

He watched as everyone in the room, including two other men, who he noticed as his son's brothers, froze when the little girl got up and made her way toward him. When she reached him, they simply stared at each other. He took in all the details of her face, committing them to memory. He noticed how blue her eyes were, and took into account that her eyes were exactly like her fathers, who were exactly like his own.

His staring was interrupted by the little girl launching herself into his arms, wrapping him in a bone crushing hug. Despite the pain, he reciprocated the hug, being much more mindful of how hard he was hugging her, but still having her in a tight embrace.

He just barely registered the words that came out of her mouth next.

"I knew if I wished for you to be back it would happen, grandpa."

Her words came out breathy and were mixed with slight sobs. He didn't say anything, just held her tighter against his chest and peppered kisses on her head while combing his fingers through her hair.

Niklaus' voice broke the silence and caught everyone's attention.

"Ryden, who is this?" The shake in Niklaus' voice was very noticeable, and when Ansel looked at his son, it didn't take long to see how uncomfortable he was with Ansel holding his daughter. Before he could let go and answer his son, Ryden hugged him tighter, turned slightly to face her father, and began to speak.

"Daddy, this is your birth father. Mikael killed him when you were turned and before you could meet him. He watched you grow up, and watched you from the Other Side. He hasn't been around since right before you met mère because he was looking over his pack and-"

Ryden stopped talking abruptly when she noticed the look on the faces of her uncles and her père. Poorly masked looks of uneasiness, anger, and protectiveness were adorned on all three faces. Looking at her father next almost made her begin crying for the umpteenth time that day.