Her father had told her some time ago that Ignis, Tsunami, and Tyto weren't the only cousins she had in the pack. There was another he said was named Casso. Honestly, Winter was horrible with putting names and faces together, and she supposed she'd been busy doing her own thing that she hadn't realized this guy was here. Or...at least, she had smelled him among the pack lands, but hadn't actually met him yet. Feeling absurdly sheepish and like she had to make up for lost time, she sought him out. After all, not only were they pack mates, but they were family. She had to do her parts as both an alpha to know all her packmates, and as part of the family and...well...actually get to know her relatives. Not that she had a problem with that or anything, she just felt like she was stupidly late in doing these things. She didn't know where he'd be though...or what he liked to do. Hell, she didn't know much of anything about him or anyone else other than her siblings (sort of) and her father. Before she stepped into the role of alphess, she had been minding her own business and doing her own stuff. But now? Now she knew she had to at least make the effort to see how her packmates (and family for that matter) were doing.

It had been difficult to pull himself out of the darkness that had lingered on his mind after finding Nolan. He couldn't stop thinking about the heart wrenching response he had gotten from his aunt when he delivered the news and it continued to haunt him even all these weeks later. He had done his best to push those thoughts aside, mostly for Yurei's benefit, but in the moments like this where he was on his own taking care of his usually daily tasks or hunting it was even more difficult to keep his mind from wandering to the images of his cousin's broken body and his aunt's heart broken response. He was making his way back from the edge of the Sparse Pines with a pair of arctic hares dangling from his jaws. He knew he needed to be hunting larger game for the pack as they got closer to winter in order to keep their store of food well supplied, but today the most he could muster from himself was a couple of hares for himself and Yurei. His mismatched eyes drifted across the wide spaced trees as he walked through he forest on his way back to the ship that he and his mate called home, eventually spotting Winter who seemed to be moving toward him. It was enough to make him pause and lift his head a bit to look toward his cousin. She wasn't someone he had actually spoken to as of yet and truly he had been a bit surprised by the announcement his uncle had made at the last pack meeting about her training to take his place. She seemed so young still, but it certainly wasn't his place to make that choice and it wasn't like Acere was completely out of the picture as of yet. He placed the hares on the ground so that he could properly greet the Alphess, giving her a polite dip of his head. His expression was calm and smooth with just a hint of a smile on his lips. "Hello, Winter. To what do I owe the pleasure?" "Talk" Think