Blacktail Deer Plateau The hardest was losing you

It was at once empowering and depressing to hear Junior refer to their father by name. The two had been so close once that it was almost impossible to imagine Peregrine would neglect her so... but Saena had seen enough proof of it not to question it. What was interesting was that Peregrine took the time to visit with Lasher. It was so interesting that she felt a wave of hot, bitter jealousy crash through her stomach. "Prick," she quietly spat, more to herself than anyone.

She might have openly denounced Peregrine, but there were days she imagined he'd come back and apologize for what he'd done to them and acknowledge that he could never do right by them for it, and she knew she'd forgive him if he did that. A small, oppressed part of her desperately wanted to believe what Osprey'd said about Peregrine not giving up on his family, but Saena knew now that it simply wasn't true.

She thought only briefly of their other siblings. It seemed far-fetched that Pura would ever rejoin the pack, and Saena was doing all in her power to quell her guilt over Tytonidae's disappearance. She blamed herself for it, but was unwilling to say it aloud. "Yeah," she said a little weakly, but she mustered a convincingly hopeful smile.

"Right," said Saena when Junior'd finished, "you're brilliant, Ju. I think it's perfect." She settled on her haunches as best she could, stooping so she didn't hit the top of the den with her head, and then she asked, "d'you think you'll ever be Alpha? It is your birthright, I mean... what if Dante offered it to you?" She had a brief moment where she wished she'd also been born to lead a pack, but her aspirations weren't lofty enough for that feeling to last long. She was never really meant to be an Alpha, herself, and knew she was much too loyal to everyone here, particularly Junior, to ever really branch off on her own.