Blacktail Deer Plateau The sound of my heart

Had someone warned her that asking what a “Pie” was would result in the flipping of her whole world, Saēna wisely would have kept her mouth shut. Unfortunately, no such divine warning was given, so she was met with an onslaught of information that the pup, though intelligent, took some time to comprehend.

The big pieces of information that stuck out were the obvious: that Hawkeye and Peregrine were not her true parents. That Junior and Tytonidae were slightly older than she and Pura. That Kisu was apparently her real father. The girl scrunched up her face against these truths, despite the fact that they made sense (and shed light on a number of other things, as well, like why she didn't resemble any of her family members, and why the others used to pick on her so much).

Still, she tried to deny it with a repeated, “no,” though her tone was much shakier and unsure now. If she'd really had a mother who wasn't Hawkeye, then why had nobody told her? Why had Pied gone and died and left her daughter to be bullied by the Alpha pair's daughters? More importantly, why had Kisu withdrawn enough to allow Saēna to believe wholeheartedly that she was the daughter of Peregrine and Hawkeye?

“No,” she said again, but this time her lower lip wobbled.