The Lost Heir
He put his hand on Ivy's back and felt the residual heat still coming off her, the deep tremor that hadn't fully settled.
"Hey, bug," he said.
Ivy turned her head without lifting it from Maya's shoulder. "Hi, Dad."
He looked at her for a moment. Her ordinary hands. Her ordinary face. The child who had just done something no child her age had done in the history of his pack. "You did good," he said quietly.
Ivy considered this with the gravity she brought to most things. "I got scary," she said.
"You protected your mom."
She looked at Maya's bruised cheek and something moved through her expression that was complicated for a seven year old. Then she tucked her face back into Maya's shoulder an