When the chopper dropped Humphrey and Kylie at the Centenary pack, disappointment hit them the second their feet touched the ground hard enough to knock the air out of their lungs.
The pack was in complete shambles. The grounds that used to buzz with life sat nearly deserted, and the silence hanging over everything felt wrong down to the bone.
No excited voices carried through the air, no warriors moved around with any real purpose, no sense of the strength and order that should have wrapped around an Alpha's territory like a second skin.
It was like the entire pack had fallen asleep while disaster tore straight through the middle of it and left nothing but wreckage behind. The atmosphere reeked of pure despair, thick enough to taste.
