I've been rereading this book. The swift change in Pippi when he realizes that that Nalene doesn't love him and wants to take both kids is pretty good writing. The mask comes off the wolf.

And Pippi's implicit and explicit threats to kill her sort of echo Michael's line in GF2 "Don't you know that that is an impossibility. That I'd use all my power to prevent that from happening?"

"Strangers decide their lives. Other people veto their existence. I don't let anyone do that."

"Isn't it enough for you to know that they both love you better than me? That they would miss you more than they would me?"

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.