The first light of dawn had scarcely begun to soften the eastern sky when the gates of Regina Royal Estate opened for Alessandro De Luca, and the Alpha entered the grounds with the weariness of a man who had spent the night standing upon the edge of an abyss without allowing himself to fall. His coat was torn near the shoulder, a thin line of dried blood remained across his knuckles, and traces of Blackpine's cold earth clung to his boots despite the efforts of the palace attendants who had rushed forward to receive him. Alessandro barely noticed them, for his attention had already found the woman waiting beneath the marble archway, and the sight of Elara standing there with her hands folded before her chest struck him with a strange mixture of relief and unease that he could not entirely conceal.
Elara had not slept.
