Heart

In "Heart" we get to see more of Lissa, who at the start of "Alpha" was expecting to futilely fight to the death, using a big stick because her wolf-self refused to even consider the possibility of fighting the overwhelming Alpha, who intended to kill her young son. (The Alpha never liked him because he has Down Syndrome, but didn't cross the line to murderous until the boy shifted for the first time at ~4 years old.)

At the start of Heart she's safe in her slowly healing pack, and she's officially become the pack's bookkeeper.

This quote sums up the situation pretty well:

"Knowing Shelley, there are cookies [in the bag]. And hopefully the eggs I dutifully hardboiled this morning in an attempt to balance out the impending sugar intake.

That’s me, pack bookkeeper and purveyor of boring snacks.

Not that any of the pups complain. Even eggs are a treat when you've eaten as much rice and beans in your life as they have. Grocery delivery is a highlight of every week, even with Shelley in charge now instead of Rio. I start picking berries again, with more focus this time. The more foraged food we can add to our winter supplies, the less my heart will thump when I add up the grocery bills.

I know we can afford it—the math says so. My heart is still trying to catch up."

Then a visitor reminds her of how pack life used to be, and how it could be again if some of the old, still-hidden wounds were addressed. She hatches a plan to at least start at addressing them, calling it "dropping pebbles in the pond." The plans seem bigger and more terrifying when it comes time to actually execute them, but the results are bigger and better as well.

Content warnings (mostly reassurances):

• Violence: There is an attempt at physical intimidation, a very small amount of serious-but-not-bloody fighting, and lots of sparring and no-claws wrasslin'.

• Sexuality: There is a lot of matter-of-fact nudity, since clothes don't mystically reappear immediately after a shift. However, anatomical details are not provided. There is a lot of non-sexual cuddling, with adults and children all piled together. There is also something ambiguous that happens off-screen between two consenting adults.

• Death: No characters die in the book, but there is discussion of the death of Hayden's father back when he was 10, and the impact it had.