Heron Lake Plateau take me above your light.

Perhaps if she stopped to think about it, Raven might have been glad that Finley didn't bow and grovel before her status as alpha. That was something that would have been too weird for her. Though their roles had been reversed in an official sense, in Raven's mind and heart, Finley would always command her respect. Unlike Towhee, she didn't view Finley as a mother figure, nor did she consider the Blackthorn kids her siblings. She had long since been old enough by the time her own parents passed away to have a firm understanding of her family structure. That said, though, she would always regard the elder Blackthorn as a matronly aunt and more of an alpha than she herself would ever be. Titles and rank meant little in this context.

Finley asked Which one? and Raven felt a weak half-grin flit across her face. It did seem that wanderlust ran strong in Blackthorn blood, and their parents had had to endure quite a few kids leaving. She sank into a sphinx-like position, answering as she did, "Fiadh, but...all of them, really." She'd felt a special affinity for Fiadh since the girl had approached her with an interest in medicine. Since getting to know the girl better, Raven had found her sweet, smart, and hard-working. She'd grown to like her in addition to the love she'd already felt. She started to say, I hope they're doing okay, or I wonder where they are right now, or I wonder if they're happier out there. But she felt those would be wasted words, for there was little doubt that those very sentiments play over and over in Finley's own mind.