Derevko had survived the plague without so much as an ounce of illness, free to check on her family. She had been around her sick cousins and mother a lot, yet never fell ill. She supposed it was a blessing. Derevko’s cousin Aegaeon had died, taken away by the plague that had also claimed so many other lives as well. She knew Aurora and Misty to be two of them.
She listened attentively and quietly as Aeolus ran the pack meeting. She was to be a delta alongside Hermes, his brother; Daneliya was a zeta as she had once been in Hawthorne . . . Uncle Remus stayed the beta, and his children, Derevko’s cousins, were sigmas now. With the exception of Selene, of course, who was to be Achelois’ heirtheta.
And a marriage pact was in effect for the royal children. Derevko looked at Peitho. One of Aeolus’ nieces, a child of Hermes and Aurora . . . she looked excited about this development, something that baffled Derevko. Wouldn’t Peitho much prefer to choose her own mate, rather than be married off?
And of course, she had no idea how things were going to shake out between Aeolus and herself. She really had been a bitch. Yet, she knew not how to express or even come to terms with her feelings; she had no idea how to even begin to take her walls down.

“Check my vital signs to know I’m still alive & I walk alone!”