Blacktail Deer Plateau Colorado calls to me

It does seem odd.  She wouldn't profess to know how other packs worked; hers had always been captain and crew, no question of who had final say in all decisions and who made them too.  The seconds knew where they stood.  

She did not have much to say on that, but she had more to say about the latter.  Packs I've lived with, or only met? she asked, a little teasingly.  I don't suppose I've met many in particular, but of all the ones I've lived in, Ironsea was best.  Saltwinter had held Vlad, but he'd been the only one.  We lived just south of the sound, on the coast.  Smokestep was the captain when we founded, but after he left, I led.  Your maman was Quartermaster, which meant she was in charge of the pack under me.  She hadn't realized how fierce her wife was, or how apt the role had been.  Even now she sometimes was surprised by it.  It was a family, for a while.  Like Rusalka to her, she imagined.  It was easy to look back and see the good after the fact.