The air in the room was thick, heavy with unspoken words and old hurts. My father stood across from me, his eyes narrowed, burning into mine. He looked at me like I was the biggest mistake he’d ever made, a stain on his perfect family name. And honestly, for a long time, that look used to cut deep. It used to make me want to earn back his approval, to prove I was worth something.
But not anymore.
There was a time, a long, long time ago, when I actually looked up to him. I respected him as an Alpha, a leader of our pack, strong and wise. I respected him as a father, someone who seemed to know everything. But that time was a ghost, a faded memory. Now? Now I respected him as neither. He was just a man. A man who had failed me in every way that mattered.
The truth was that I often wished I
