Heron Lake Plateau Like a bad penny

Raven would have refused the title as well. In fact, she had -- multiple times -- but Towhee wasn't exactly known for her listening skills (hurrhurr, see what I did thar). She'd allowed herself to be bullied into accepting it, but upon later reflection, she'd decided it was best that she did it because there legitimately weren't any better-qualified folks in the pack who were cut out for the job. At the time they broke the news to the then-betas, Raven had had every intention of asking her aunt and uncle to take back the helm until Finley had flipped metaphorical double birds at her and stormed off.

Speaking of Finley, Colt apologized for her and Raven just shrugged. "Not your fault," she said after a brief bit of thought. Her eyes wandered a bit as a somewhat sour expression darkened her face. "I don't know what I did to deserve her anger, but there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it. She clearly wasn't interested in anything I had to say at the time." She knew she'd goofed up bigtime by coupling with Quixote before obtaining their blessing, but in the grand scheme of things, was her one litter really a big deal compared to their...how many litters now? Forty? Aware that she was grumbling to Colt about his sister, she shook her head as if to rid herself of her negativity and grinned apologetically at him. Her feelings were still hurt, for sure, but she didn't want to be the one to sully the otherwise happy occasion of his homecoming.