🔹️THORNE
I was off my bed, on my feet before the door was slammed open.
A gamma stepped in, sweat on his brow, his terror filling the air. "Alpha—"
Another gamma burst in behind him, his skin ghostly white, his body trembling. "There is—there is—"
It was chaos before I could demand one of them to spit out what could be so urgent and terrifying that they had no words for it. A third gamma joined the fray, breathless. "Something was dropped at the Mist's edge. Alpha—you have to come now."
---
The zetas were gathered by the time I stepped outside, along with some of the deltas. One gamma walked out into the clearing toward us, his face ashen.
In his hand was a box, one corner damp—with blood, dripping crimson onto the frost-covered ground.
No one said a single word as he walked forward, step by agonizing step, his arms shaking like what he carried weighed a ton. No one closed the distance between us as I took the first step in his direction.
A tear fell from his eye.
