"You let them take her," I hissed, my voice cracking with disbelief. "How dare you do that to your own flesh and blood?"
He barely reacted. A slow breath left his lungs as he rubbed the stinging side of his face.
"Lyra, please. Just hear me out—"
"'Hear you out?'" I interrupted, my tone rising with anguish. "You traded our child away in silence, and now you want me to listen?"
His eyes lowered. "I did it for the good of the pack. We’re at risk."
My hands clenched. "So that makes it right? What about the offer they made for Celeste's kid?"
His expression hardened. "You’re suggesting I should have handed him over instead? He’s only a child too, Lyra."
I let out a cold, disbelieving laugh that cracked in my throat. "But so is Caia. She's barely out of infancy. Or is it just easier to let go of my child because the other one belongs to her?"
He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
Celeste.
She had always been the shadow between us. Kael’s childhood companion, his supposed mate-to-be—until she vanished from all our lives for five years and returned with a child no one could claim.
I was the one who picked up Kael’s broken pieces when she left. I believed he’d put her behind him.