Phoenix Maplewood Last Man Standing

So being an alpha wasn't in the cards for Esaro, or so it seemed. Saena cocked an ear to the side, attempting to absorb and understand his logic, although admittedly she struggled with it. Her own aspiration had been to become an alpha from the moment Peregrine walked out of her life. While she'd envisioned it differently back then, the end result was the same and she seized her goals. Esaro's motives sounded different, and while internally she was smiling fondly at his naivety (so like Valtyr, she mused), outwardly her brow was creased in thought.

"Sometimes it's not possible for everyone to be happy," Saena said, "and sometimes as an alpha you have to make the hard calls for the good of the pack, even if it hurts others." Telling Reek to leave was a hard call. Chasing Tavi away was a similarly hard one, and she was likely to face more in her reign. At the time, Saena didn't think twice about hard decisions, but they ate away at her later, and she was never fully confident of her choices. Even a lifetime of hard decisions wasn't likely to cure her of that.

"Being an alpha doesn't sound like what you want," she agreed quietly, "but have you considered counseling?" It seemed to fit the bill for what Esaro was looking for. While she wasn't well-versed in what a counselor did, Saena understood it as a position with a fair amount of influence, without the burden of leadership.