26 Chapter 26 FAILURE OF A FATHER
“How’d it go?” She perched on my desk, all sympathy.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Bud, I’m so sorry. You have no idea how much-”
When she snatched my phone and tucked it into her purse-“No distractions, Kieran. Just
us.”-I didn’t challenge her.
I’d been out with Celeste. Forgetting the responsibilities in my life, like a teen lacking a fully developed frontal lobe.
The truth?
Did I want? The truth was a living thing, clawing behind my ribs. I though constantly-the scent of her skin, the way she’d gasped when I kissed her.
but her
My mother had spent a decade sharpening her contempt for Sera. When even Sera’s greatest enemy took her side, I hadn’t just failed as a father.
“I don’t like her, Dad.” His gaze locked onto mine, eyes burning with conviction.
“Mom didn’t say anything.” His glare finally snapped to mine. “She never does. But I saw it myself. Yesterday. On the video call. That woman was sitting in our kitchen like she owned it. You were with her, right? That’s why you didn’t go to my school.”
When my phone finally rang, Mother’s voice held none of her usual warmth. “Your son cried himself to sleep, clutching that robot model he wanted to show you.”
He wouldn’t look at me. His gaze fixed somewhere over my shoulder, on the painting behind me the one of the mountain range he’d always loved.
“She’s family,” I rasped.
I’d been so desperate to mend what I’d broken between us, to prove I could still be the man she once wanted. So when she begged me to take her to Six Flags Magic Mountain, I went like an obedient mutt instead of the Alpha I was supposed to be.
Her certainty should’ve comforted me. Instead, my gut twisted.
16:33
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26 Chapter 26 FAILURE OF A FATHER
“Danny, whatever your mom told you-”
“Hi.” Flat. Empty.
I’d upgraded from shitty ex-husband to shitty father.
Celeste slipped in before I could answer, her jasmine scent flooding the room. My muscles
locked.
His breath hitched. Guilt ripped through me-this wasn’t how he should’ve found out. I’d wanted to ease him into it, let him adjust.
I didn’t expect Daniel to shut me out so completely.
Silence. Then, so quiet it shattered me: “What about Mom?”
But I couldn’t say that. So I nodded.
I flinched. “You sound just like Sera.”
But I was still his father. He needed to understand.
“Mom always put us first. Even you.”
“Good,” she hissed. “That girl should’ve chewed your ear off for what you did.”
I stared at him, struck dumb. Since when did my nine-year-old understand this better
than I did?
Silence.
I had become the very weakness I’d spent a lifetime despising-A coward behind his
excuse.
“Is Daniel why we haven’t…?” Her breath was warm against my jaw.
Instead, I’d gutted him.
The question knocked the air from my lungs. I could still taste Sera on my lips. I’d kissed her. Held her like she was still mine. But that… was just another mistake.
My chest caved in. He used to light up when he saw me. Now I’d drained that light dry.
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26 Chapter 26 FAILURE OF A FATHER
After an eternity of my mother’s scolding-“You’re lucky he’s even willing to speak to you”-she finally relented. Played mediator. Convinced Daniel to give me one last chance.
That stubborn set to his jaw? That was me. The same unyielding pride that had once made me challenge my father’s orders. Except Daniel wasn’t just stubborn-he was right.
I sat there, hollowed out, Daniel’s accusations echoing in my skull. He was right. I’d treated Sera like a discarded toy-something to be consumed and forgotten the moment Celeste, my shiny new obsession, came back into my life.
“Daniel.” I dragged a hand down my face. “If you’d just give her a chance-”
If I needed more proof that I had epically fucked up, that was it.
My jaw worked soundlessly-a damned Alpha rendered speechless by his own pup. There was no defense, no excuse that could dull the betrayal in his voice.
“Not like how you do to Celeste.” The way he said her name was a curse.
“Was it because of Celeste?” His voice was sharp. Too sharp for a nine-year-old.
“Listen to me, son.” I forced steel into my voice. “Celeste and I are together. It’s serious.” A pause, then the blow I’d hoped to deliver gently: “One day, I’m going to marry her. She’ll be your stepmother.”
“He’ll never trust you again.”
I’d forgotten the one thing that should have been carved into my bones-my son. My brilliant, kind-hearted boy who still looked at me like I hung the moon, even when I didn’t deserve an ounce of his faith. And I’d shattered him. Made him cry.
She slid into my lap, fingers tracing my neck where the mating mark should be. I let my hands settle on her hips out of habit, but my skin prickled-wrong, wrong, this was all
wrong.
And I was the one who’d lost his way.
“But why?” His small hands balled into fists. “Mom’s awesome. Why don’t you love her?”
And when I finally realized how late it was, when she pouted and asked me to drive her home first instead of rushing to Daniel’s school, I fucking agreed.
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26 Chapter 26 FAILURE OF A FATHER
“Your mom and I are divorced, bud.”
Ice flooded my veins. Had Sera twisted his mind against me? Against Celeste?
“No.” He shook his head firmly. “I don’t want her around us. Around me.”
A knock.
The kind that comes after a gunshot.
I never even considered the damage it would cause, the people I would hurt.
“You could fix it.” His voice cracked. “You could go back.”
My excuse for letting my son down was flimsy at best, absolutely ridiculous at worst.
The screen went black before I could respond.
“Danny,” I exhaled, running a hand over my face.
“He hates me.” The admission tasted like blood.
“Nobody can take her place!” His voice cracked with a rawness. “She will never be my
mom!”
“I do”
Sera was right. I’d chosen Celeste over Daniel.
Each syllable was a condemnation, peeling back the lies I’d told myself. Sera had
sacrificed everything-her pride, her happiness, her very breath-for this family. While I’d been blind to it. Worse, I’d expected it. Took it for granted.
I clung to that opportunity like a drowning man clings to driftwood.
Three calls ignored. Twelve texts left on read. Each unanswered attempt carved deeper
into my chest. I felt the distance like a physical ache-it was cold, sharp, brutal.
Her pout was practiced. “Oh, Kieran, he’s just a child-”
Maybe his fury was from something deeper.
I stiffened.
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26 Chapter 26 FAILURE OF A FATHER
Sera’s words haunted me, razor-sharp and unforgiving. Worse because they were true. I’d crushed a child’s fragile faith beneath my boot like discarded trash.
“No.” I clenched my fists. “We won’t.”
“No.” His voice dropped low, eerily mature. For a heartbeat, it felt like he was the Alpha, and I was the pup being put in my place.
Because Daniel’s hatred wasn’t just childish resentment. My son was extremely intuitive -the kind that sensed rot beneath pretty surfaces. 1
KIERAN’S POV
Celeste’s lips brushed my cheek-a claim. “I’ll make him love me. We’ll be perfect.”
No. The reason lived in the way my pulse didn’t stutter when she touched me in how my wolf stayed dormant in her presence. In the dreams where another woman’s eyes
haunted me.
“He looked at me like I was a stranger.” Like I’d become one.
I’d always believed myself a good father-present, devoted, enough. But now, I wasn’t so
sure.
Then the screen flickered to life, and the moment I saw his face, it felt like I’d taken a soccer ball to the chest.
The self-loathing clung to me like the stench of blood after a hunt.
