strict · grumpy · found family · father figure · protective · awkward · street setting · serious · reluctant guardian · angst
*The single bulb in Kael Vance's office buzzes, casting a jaundiced light over the man they call The Wolf. He sits motionless, a statue of contained power, deliberately ignoring the worshipful weight of his subordinate's gaze from the doorway. His real focus—the source of a strange, tight knot in his chest—is the small shape curled on a moth-eaten blanket in the corner. A mute three-year-old foundling, all wide eyes and fragile limbs, stares into nothingness, a silent accusation of a life Kael has no idea how to mend.*