Even though there was no official healer at the pack, Sansa was beginning to get the impression of just how large Esmond's pack was.

She usually visited small to medium packs and avoided large packs because of their ability to acquire medical help when needed.

However, when Alphas began to come there, instead of the other way around...Sansa couldn't understand the full size of the pack. The pack house did seem slightly larger than what she was used to, but again, Sansa did not have much to compare it by.

She avoided the majority of the Alpha's who came. She felt guilty at her slight unease at wanting to avoid the other pack members and Esmond also. Sansa couldn't fully process the events that had taken place during the previous week. It had been her first pack take down- the first she had ever witnessed.

She had seen challenges and she had seen death before...But Sansa sat within her cabin, thinking through her medical journey with Doctor Nox, and her traveling experiences. She tried to come up with a rational reason for why power should be handed in such a cruel way. Why son must fight father. Why father must hate their own child for the eventual destruction they would bring.

Why children would turn against each other, sibling hating one another for a power that came with a single word that they all wanted – Alpha.

Sansa wanted to leave. She had stayed here the longest besides Nova's and she wanted to suddenly leave the suffocating atmosphere of power and politics and dynamics. Of whom to talk to and what to say. She had healed Esmond and his men, but she had also healed some of the males who had gone against Esmond. Those who had fought for his father.

The brief encounter she had had with the male still haunted her that that was her first and only time speaking with him.

Death.

Death and life.

Both so fragile.

As a healer, she always had to come to grips with the reality of mortality. With the thinness of what it meant to breathe air and see the living and have senses and feel.

Sansa was still a healer. She had thought her and Esmond were the same, but her thinking was starting to sway. They were not. They could have been- but experiences and choices in life made them different.

"You are mad at me."

Esmond and she sat outside the small cabin, looking into the woods. Sansa was about to broach the topic of her eventual departure from this pack, but Esmond's sudden words had her turning to look at him.

"I'm not."

His eyes held sorrow as he looked ahead. "You are. You've been avoiding me."

"I..."

Sansa sighed and looked up, taking in the fading sun.

"I don't know."

Esmond leaned down and put his head within his hands, furiously running his fingers through to make the hair stand up.

Sansa couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm sorry." She fixed the haphazard stands, shaking her head at him. The thought hit her again at how young he was.

He watched her closely, his eyes meeting hers as they made contact.

"He wasn't my father. Not anymore."

"You don't have to explain."

Esmond hesitated before shaking his head, "I don't want you to hate me. And I...I don't like this feeling...of maybe...maybe I shouldn't have..."

Sansa felt a sudden weight of guilt hit her. Her actions had been affecting him. She had been looking at him with horrified wonder at how anyone could handle such cruelty- but Sansa had been too narrow minded.

Of course. It was hitting her now. She had even thought it herself. He was young. He was so young. He had never even been outside of this pack before, and suddenly he was the leader of it.

He had to do reasoning. He had gone through things Sansa could not even imagine, just as how he could not guess her whole story, and the truth in her actions for why she traveled.

"I'm sorry..." Sansa looked down at her hands, avoiding his gaze, "You shouldn't be thinking that way. And I'm sorry if I made you feel that." She looked up.

She saw it now. The vulnerability that had been there all along. That he had hidden so well.

"He was your father. That still means something. I'm sorry I didn't realize that sooner."
Esmond let out a shaky breath. To Sansa's shock, his head lowered, forehead falling to rest on her shoulder. "Thank you," he breathed.

Sansa smiled sadly and like a mother to her child, slowly raised her hand, and began to comfortingly stroke his head.

*   *   *

The Alpha's that were visiting slowly trickled in. Sansa did not know the majority of them. Some to Esmond's surprise, stopped to pay their respects to her. She had been a healer at their pack- had stopped to save one of their members.

One even took her hand, bowing until his forehead hit it in an old sign of ultimate respect.

"How many packs have you been to?" Esmond wondered out loud, staring at the retreating Alpha in awe.

"His mate was sick. I helped her."

"Are you blessed?"

"No...I...I just know medicine..." Esmond's words reminded her of Nova and Moon River. She wondered about the child and how she was doing. How they both were doing.

But before she could think further about them, a sudden figure come into her field of vision.

Esmond approached the Alpha, passing the proper greetings back and forth.

The male's gaze flickered to Sansa and she felt her whole body freeze upon instinct. His own head seemed to stop at the sudden sight of her. She saw the tension that came over him as recognition and surprise flashed in his eyes.

Esmond turned around, looking to where he stared.

"Oh...Do you know Healer Sansa? She's been to your pack before Alpha Lucas?"

The male suddenly looked away, breaking the eye contact with Sansa- releasing her from his grip.

"No. I don't know her. She just reminded me of someone."

He left quickly after that. Sansa couldn't help but follow him with her eyes. She had not seen him since she was nine years old. Since the day he left her with Warren. He had not even said goodbye. That had been the day she had met Night. Her first encounter.

Warren would be angry if he found out that even after all his effort to let her know what pack to avoid, she still had met him.

She made some excuse to Esmond, feeling her head spinning from the sudden encounter.

She just wanted silence. Silence she would get at her cabin.

Her journey into the woods was stopped short as a male suddenly stepped onto the path.

Fear spiked into Sansa when recognition came over her.

Without thinking, she bowed low, showing respect and exposing her neck. It was the form of what the lowest did to the highest. The weakest to the strongest.

"Sansa."

Still, she did not rise.

She had no idea how to talk to this male and her name upon his lips sounded foreign and unsure.

Warren's voice was more of a reassurance and father figure than this male that was before her.

She felt her eyes rise slowly to peek out to him. He was waiting silently. She slowly rose, taking a small step back and looking down to his feet.

He cleared his throat, causing her to glance up before looking back away.

"You..." his word was followed by an uncomfortable silence before he hesitantly asked, "Are you doing well?"

Sansa felt her head slowly rise to look at him. He was scowling down at her, his discomfort obvious to see as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat and waited for her answer.

"Yes."

He seemed to be waiting for more from her, but Sansa had no idea what to say. She looked awkwardly away, unsure of what next to do.

"Warren told me you were traveling. To find your mate."

"I am."

"You don't seem to be traveling."

"I'm leaving soon."

The conversation had seemed as if Sansa were on trial. She took a deep breath, wondering how he was able to affect her this much. To cause this much fear inside her to make her unable to look at him for more than a few seconds.

"Good."

There was another pause.

"Well..." he turned to walk away.

Sansa felt a painful clench in her chest at the sight. She wanted to take a step towards him suddenly and ask him all the questions that had built up in her mind. Why leave me? Why did you not want me? What happened to mother? How did she die? Why Warren of all people?

But she didn't. Almost ten years. Ten years and she had never envisioned what this encounter would be like because she had never predicted it happening. Warren had been clear of that. This male before her had made that very clear. 

"Wait."

The word was out of her mouth before she could stop it.

He turned back to look at her, pain flashing in his eyes as they stared at each other.

"I...I don't know if you...Your pack...Warren told me not to..."

"I'm not petty enough to turn away a healer."

Sansa felt mixed emotions. Pain and small hope blossomed in her chest.

With those fragile feelings and final words, they both turned away and walked to their destinations. 

Thank you for reading ♥