Blacktail Deer Plateau The hardest was losing you

Junior shook her head silently and, to her relief, the subject was dropped, at least for now. She shifted her weight onto her left hip—the right smarted a bit from falling onto it, not that she could remember—and cocked her ears toward her pale sister as she shared her opinion on the matter of names. Never before had Junior considered that her father had left the plateau to them, mostly because not a single soul had ever mentioned the possibility. Therefore, she dismissed it as more coddling and lies.

"I know. I saw him going to Blue Willow's den and I meant to tell you but I couldn't find you. Then I saw him and Lasher as he was leaving. They were holding hands." Junior's mouth puckered and she fought the urge to begin crying when she recollected what she'd done to herself in the wake of that sight. "You're right, he could have tried but he didn't. He probably knows we're not happy with him but that's not an excuse just to avoid us entirely. He obviously didn't do that to Lasher!"

Her lips twitched faintly at Saēna's swearing. She was heartbroken by these turn of events, yet her sister's solidarity was heartening. "We can share it with Ty and Pura too, if they come home." Junior sighed softly. Pura's absence was really not that surprising—he had always been a loner at heart—but she still missed Tytonidae and felt responsible for her disappearance. She just hoped that her sister would one day make her way back to the plateau, whereupon Junior would apologize and they could reconcile. The new surname could be like redemption.

"I don't believe for a second that dad—that Peregrine—meant to leave this plateau to us. But he isn't wrong. It is sort of like our birthright. Not that I want to usurp Dante or Blue Willow," Junior said hastily, "but... what if we took its name as our last name? Blacktail? We would be the pack's children, rather than Peregrine's and Hawkeye's. I mean, that's what we are already, right?"