Jasmin's POV
The inferno had stolen my view of the mysterious figure, but the questions he left behind seared deeper than any flame. His identity haunted me as we emerged from the underground passage.
Dawn greeted us with merciless clarity, smoke wrapping around our bodies like ghostly fingers. My chest burned with each ragged breath, lungs desperate for clean air. The morning cold bit through my sweat-soaked clothing, making me shiver against the harsh reality of what we'd just escaped.
Around me, the she-wolves scattered like startled birds, fleeing toward uncertain welcomes at homes that might no longer accept them. Their desperate retreat left an eerie silence in their wake.
Yet the Academy Alphas lingered, their faces marked with exhaustion and bruises, smoke still rising behind them like a funeral pyre.
That realization hit me like ice water.
Why hadn't they left yet?
"Something's bothering you," Max observed, his voice cutting through my spiraling thoughts.
