Heron Lake Plateau fake happy

Finley watched Towhee with just as blank an expression as she'd carried when Clover had spoken her peace, even though this comment was far more earth-shattering than the other. She considered her goddaughter silently for a few moments even while Clover was rejected the idea whole-heartedly. She looked for all the world to see as though she were merely debating on whether to go for a walk or take a nap. She was considering something far more important than that, though. Not because she had a question about how she felt, but because she just wasn't sure what attitude to take when responding to it.

"No," she replied, just as simply as she had to Clover. In this case though, she decided to say a little more. "Towhee, if you think that making mistakes means you're somehow not fit to lead then I didn't raise you nearly as well as I thought," she continued calmly, "If your parents stepped down after every perceived mistake, it would've been called Blackthorn Caldera. For like a day. Because your uncle and I would've made our first mistake an hour later and handed the pack off to someone else. We'd've been Ashton Caldera in a heartbeat, and if you knew that guy, you'd know that there would've been no hope for wolf-kind as a whole at that point." 

She was getting away from the point. Gods she was tired as fuck still. Fin shook her head lightly, glancing briefly at her mate before looking again at her goddaughter. "The point is, it isn't your mistakes that make you an alpha, Towhee," Fin said, "It's what you do after those mistakes. If you're going to throw in the towel and give up now just because you think you screwed up somehow, then you're right - you're not cutting it as an alpha. An alpha steps up when shit gets tough. They don't quit on their pack."

"So what's it going to be?" Fin looked expectantly at her goddaughter, hoping her little speech would inspire her rather than make her feel even more awful. Truth be told, the Blackthorn didn't even understand what exactly had happened that Towhee considered to be a mistake. There was nothing she could think of that would've counted, unless it was allowing Titmouse and his hooligan friends to join their ranks. Even that was probably a wise decision - the whole keep your enemies closer deal or whatever. But when it came down to it, Fin didn't particularly care what the mistake was. The only mistake she cared about was the one Towhee was attempting to make now; the one she was hoping to talk her out of.