Heron Lake Plateau ashes against the grain

I'm imagining Quixote talking in a ridiculous, high-pitched, half-choked voice (you know the voice I'm talking about) and I can't stop giggling LOL. He's such a cute dad. <3

She half-chuckled and nodded, remembering the day he'd come to her on the verge of a stress meltdown over Towhee's offer to promote him to leadership. It was a good thing that neither of them had known at that time how all of that would actually play out, or they both might have spontaneously combusted from their combined anxiety. Fortunately it had seemed to (mostly) work out okay in the end, though. There'd been plenty of bumps in the road to get to this point, but the pack hadn't gone up in flames (...yet) so she took that as a good sign.

What he said about ranks merely being words was true. Even if they both carried the beta rank, she had no doubt that nothing would change as far as Towhee was concerned. But for some reason, it made more sense to her for Niamh to keep her gamma title...just with more authority attached. She grinned at his agreement, the decision made. "I guess I should call for Niamh then, so we can tell her. Is she still staying with Colt?" she asked, not realizing that the subject of Colt was a bit of a thorn in Quixote's paw.