Phoenix Maplewood Pillars of colonial homes

The Alpha female's brows shoot up when Desna reveals Mason's true age. The boy is only a yearling and already Beta of a pack. Ignoring the similarities in her own story, if only because Saena has changed her tune as she's grown (for no reason but the age-old "kids these days" feeling of growing older), she says, "he must be important," and probably very busy, she thinks, but lets the thought drift away when she realizes it's coated in a thin layer of jealousy.

After all, if Desna likes this boy, it's only a matter of time before she leaves the Phoenix pack, and that would be three out of three of Scarlett's children ditching out of the life they've been dealt, for better or worse. She pushes the thought away, and focuses instead on Desna's burgeoning uncertainty about men. Momentarily she considers feeding Desna's uncertainty, but in the end, she sighs and shifts her shoulders and turns her head to peer into the maple wood.

"Your father was not a good husband," she says, still staring off into the distance, as if unwilling to meet Desna's gaze and reveal how deeply Reek's decision has affected her. "And Reek is just a shitbag. He wanted someone else more than the family he already had. That's how we began, you know, but I didn't think he'd do it again, least of to with me. Some wolves are just born vile, and I guess he's one of them." Among those she counted her father (both biological and adoptive, actually) and Fox. "Not everyone's like them, though," she says, "but it's something you can only learn for yourself, like your mother did and like I am."