The Sunspire i can see what the rest of my life looks like.

The pale devil was actually taken aback by Liffey's response in particular, her head pulling back as if suddenly both leaders suddenly split their hides and turned into actual demons.  Her ears slicked back on her skull, and she replied with a submissive whine, to hopefully placate whatever monsters had replaced the bleeding-heart alpha female and almost-acceptably-stern male -- not that she particularly minded if this was how they'd now be.  Her stance changed similarly, and after a final sniff or two she moved again, her path now arcing away from them and uphill.  She had things to think about what had even just happened.

But why was Liffey so protective of Rannoch?  Treason didn't want him.  Why would she?  He wasn't the interesting one there, anyway.  And Treason wasn't some other girl looking to party -- she was the cop going along knocking a Maglite on darkened car windows to make sure nobody was actually stranded where they didn't want to be.  But apparently they either hadn't noticed the connection to Redshank or simply didn't care.  Whatever.  Their funeral if he crawled out of the ground like a damn zombie.  The fact that Liffey's hormones (and Seabreeze's earlier) could be behind it all didn't even seem like an option -- it was barely a curiosity to her, so why would it affect them any more than that?

She was left with way too many questions and none of the Occam's Razor answers made any sense.  Number one of these was if they were like this with their packmates when they were on their own, why the hell hadn't they killed Redshank?  Was the amiable facade simply that -- a mask to lull their lessers into civility?  Did they work out that she was used to rough and tumble backgrounds and so now didn't feel like hiding their true natures?  Was it because nobody would believe her?  The fact that Liffey smelled weird was the least of them, but apparently she'd have to investigate at a later date.