By morning, Drail’s cell was empty.
No broken stone.
No blood.
No scent.
The iron restraints lay undisturbed on the floor as if carefully removed. The door remained locked from the outside. The guards stationed beyond it were alive, confused, shaken, but unharmed.
“I checked the hinges myself,” Marcello said, voice tight. “There is no sign of tampering.”
Derek stood in the center of the confinement chamber, shoulders rigid. Jax moved along the walls slowly, inhaling deeply, searching for anything.
There was nothing.
No trace of wolf.
No trace of man.
Raya stepped into the threshold last.
The space felt wrong.
Not violent.
Vacant.
As if something hollow had simply stepped sideways and vanished.
“He couldn’t shift,” Jax said quietly. “We stripped him.”
“Yes,” Derek agreed.
S
