When I didn't move, he flicked a commanding glance at Rowan. The pack escort stepped forward immediately, reaching for my arm with reluctant hands. "Come along, my lady. Let's go—you're shaming yourself before the pack."
What?
The gathered wolves heard it. Heard my lady spoken to me as though I were a stranger. And suddenly their judgment swung toward my daughter like a pack turning on the weak.
"Moon's mercy—her own father is standing right there and she's calling some stranger 'Daddy'? The pup's already learned to chase status."
"Mother's lost her mind, daughter's a rank-climber. What a pair of rogues."
"She's got her little pup chasing dominant wolves already? What kind of she-wolf raises a pup like that?"
Seren was only five winters old, but she understood enough.
She looked up at Kael through her tears, her small hands trembling. "Daddy… are you leaving me and Mommy?"
He didn't answer. His wolf's eyes remained cold and distant, as though she were a stranger's pup.
She stared at him, biting down hard on her lip, her small face crumpling with bewildered hurt that no child should ever know.