Swiftcurrent Creek May all that has been reduced to noise in you, become music again.

By the time Constantine returned to the den that evening, the cubs had eaten their fill and were content to laze around together in the Summer heat. Durnehviir, taking full advantage of the collective calm surrounding her normally rambunctious litter, had set about grooming herself by plucking unkempt tufts of undercoat and cleaning her bloodied paws. She blinked up from licking between toes at her mate's arrival and at once, greeted him with a lazy flop of her feathered tail.

There was something odd in his gait, she noted. A certain sheepishness, perhaps, even as he moved in to accept their children's approach to welcome him home. Constantine turned to her then, announcing that he had news, which caused the dragoness' ginger ears to perk atop her lovely crown. They were quick to tilt backward, however, as the dark Alpha shared that she-who-shall-not-be-named had returned and was "well".

She pulled herself onto nimble paws with a feigned smile then, shaking out her pelt to signify that she didn't particularly care, even though she was screaming behind the false warmth in her expression. While there had been a brief interval that Durnehviir felt sorry for Aria throughout their claim of Ravensblood Forest, she trusted her gut more so than her heart - and something feral deep inside of her did not want this female anywhere near her mate, no matter his assurance.

"I'm ready to be Alphess again," she told Constantine coolly, matter-of-factly, and rose her proud crown to seek his warm gaze. She spoke nothing of his pallid dove, intent instead to reset his focus on herself. She was the one who'd stood by him through the struggles. She was the one who bore his children. She mattered.

Aria, as far as Durnehviir was concerned, would be taking Chusi's place in the Omega rank.