The Floodlands a seal didn't bite your linus off, did it?

Colt didn't sugarcoat it for her, not that she'd expected him to. If he was willing to give up so much, then it stood to reason that he felt very strongly about this topic. His words were full of frustration and while a day ago, she would have raged at him for being such a piece of shit, she simply looked at him with a worn out expression on her face. She was weary of having to defend Towhee all the time lately, though at least this time it wasn't against herself.

"She would give her life for the pack," Fin answered easily. It was not something that she was willing to do, and she knew that while her mate would have given his life to protect her or the kids, he would not have done so for the pack. They both had their kids to stick around for. The pack simply couldn't be their entire world. But it had always been everything to Towhee. Why else would she defend it so fiercely against every outsider to knock at their door?

"Colt, Elwood and I are old. I have maybe... a year left in me where I can be of any use to this place. My fighting days are over. Hell, I'm pretty sure that my hunting days are over now too..." she admitted, the truth of it sinking into her gut as though she'd swallowed a block of ice, "Elwood has enough of a job now protecting and hunting for the both of us. We just can't take on the responsibility of an entire pack anymore. Not as alphas. Not like we used to."

Fuck that was a sobering thought... but not the first time she'd thought it, though likely the first time she'd said it aloud. "And think what you will of Towhee, but that girl was born with a disability that would've been a death sentence to anyone else, and she survived. Hell, the kid made her own damn language and had us all speaking it by the time she was three months old. No one ever taught her how to survive as a deaf wolf, but she figured it out. I love how highly you apparently think of El and I, but we have no idea how to teach her to be a deaf alpha either. But she's gonna figure the fuck out of it because that kid is devoted to the Redhawks. She is smart, and she is strong, and she has one hell of a heart. Give me one good reason she shouldn't lead that's not because she's deaf."

She fixed her brother with a stubborn stare now, waiting for whatever snark he had in store for her in response.