Heidi reaches the Alpha's mansion running on nothing but sheer rage. The gate guards are already on high alert, their ears pricked at the sound of the skirmish at the border. But when the silver-white giant skids into the courtyard, Grayson's limp form draped across her back like a broken doll, the air leaves the clearing.
"Is that… is that Alpha Grayson?" one of the guards gasps, his spear dipping.
Heidi ignores him. Her chest is heaving, the steam from her breath rising like smoke. She stops in the center of the lawn, the grass staining red beneath her.
The doors of the estate fly open.
Rayne—Grayson's mother—is the first to emerge. She is dressed in a silken robe, her hair loose, her face already pale with a mother's intuition. She takes one look at the massive wolf, then at the body on its back, and lets out a wail so piercing it seems to shatter the windows of the upper floors.
"GRAYSON! MY BABY!"
