**JAX POV**
By the time we reached Crescent Vale, it didn’t look the same.
The smoke rose high enough to stain the sky, and the air was thick with the smell of ash and burnt stone. The wind carried the scent of magic…sharp, electric, unnatural. The kind that didn’t belong to this world.
I’d never felt silence like this. Even after battles, there was always noise…wolves tending to wounds, the soft cries of the injured. But this? This was the sound of fear. The kind that seeps into your bones.
My warriors followed close behind, their eyes darting across the ruins. Every few steps, one of them shifted from wolf to human, scanning the rubble for survivors.
“Alpha.” One of them called softly, pointing ahead. “The vault’s gone.”
I already knew. I could feel it.
Or maybe it was her.
The b
