Heron Lake Plateau i'm headed DOWNTOWN

Ah, wrong tactic. Fin frowned at her son's grumpy retort, though she raised a single eyebrow to show her skepticism. She wondered why they were so uncool with being sad, never once pausing to realize how she had rejected that particular emotion almost her entire life. When he looked at her, she could see the frustration in his expression and gave a soft sigh of defeat. She was not going to ease him out of this funk with jests and prods. They were gonna have to real talk.

"Let's get one thing straight first off, buddy," Fin said more sternly, "Towhee is your sister, and your alpha. You and your siblings need to learn that an alpha is to be respected, not called a bitch and not disobeyed. You've been lucky enough to grow up in a pack where your family has run the show all your life. You talk about your alpha like that in another pack and it could mean your life."

She paused to give him a significant look, hoping he understood. She had been in packs like that before - plenty of them. It was not lost on Finley that the Redhawk Blackthorn conglomerate was a rare breed of wolf in that they didn't command respect as intensely or unforgivingly as others of their kind. Though she desperately hoped that none of her kids would ever leave her, she knew the chances of them one day ending up in a pack like that were pretty good. She would not let them be unprepared for the reality of their species.

"And you need to cut Towhee a little slack here," she said, a little gentler this time, "She's new to this alpha gig, and taking on the relocation of an entire pack is not an easy feat, even for us seniors. It's a lot of work, a lot of stress and a lot of uncertainty. All three of us have an entire pack full of wolves to consider, and two of them barely a month old. We have to keep everyone safe, and sometimes that means driving out those we don't know and don't have the time or the luxury to spend learning to trust outsiders, especially coming off of a war and into a forced relocation."

She frowned softly, hoping that he might understand a little better based on her words. She was well aware there was a 50/50 chance of that or him rebelling angrily against anything she had to say. But Fin was no stranger to poor odds. She actually was used to operating under far, far worse odds than that.