The drive to the Pack Court is too quiet and it's not the peace one would expect from silence but the suffocating kind. The kind where the air feels thick, like it's pressing against Heidi's chest, daring her lungs to fight it. The vehicle paddles over the stone road with the pack blurring after it.
Darien sits beside her, broad shoulder nearly brushing hers. Morgan sprawls in the seat across from them, one ankle resting casually over his knee, posture loose like he's headed to a private execution he already knows the ending to. Grayson is forward, elbow braced against the door, eyes scanning the road ahead with sharp focus. Every so often, his jaw tightens in anticipation.
Heidi keeps her hands folded in her lap. She tells herself not to fidget. Grayson's voice echoes in her head: Maintain your stable expression.
Stable. Calm. Untouchable.
She breathes in slowly through her nose and lets it out just as carefully. Her wolf paces beneath her skin, alert but not panicked. Ready.
