Page 2 of Pack Captive

“Told you,” Fenn whispered, his voice barely audible.

I gritted my teeth and kept watching.

“We have a chance, Fenn. We could do it now. Give the rest of the pack the best chance they’ll ever get.”

He shot me the briefest of glances, full of reproach. I myself wasn’t willing to look away from the shadow wolves for too long, and ignored him.

“You’re not going to do that, Ayla.”

“Icoulddo that. That was the sole reason we sent them out of the valley.”

My chest tightened as I said it. This valley had belonged to Pack Vesper for generations...and now it was dying, alongside the pack. The creek had dried up, and the game had fled when the shadow wolves had started stalking us.

I was now the Moon Caller for it, just as my mother had been before me, and my grandmother before her.

We’d lived and died here for as long as we could remember. I wasn’t going to give it up now just because Pack Fenris was always ravenous for more.

As soon as we’d realized we were being hunted again, with the dark moon on the way, we’d sent the remainder of our pack through a hidden gate in the mountains, a narrow, treacherous path carved into solid rock that led out to the freedom of the wastelands.

The elders had taken the pups, leaving as quickly as they could, and Fenn and I had stayed behind.

We would do what needed to be done, no matter what the outcome for us.

“You should turn around and go now. Guide them through the wastelands. I have enough power left from the last full moon—I can do this myself.”

I wasn’t entirely sure that I could do this myself, but it felt wrong to sacrifice Fenn for nothing.

This wasmyvocation. To ensure all of Pack Vesper made it out safely.

Even if that meant I wouldn’t be meeting with them later.

Every Caller, the heartbeat of her pack, knew that this was an eventuality.

“No,” Fenn whispered, this time so quiet I could barely hear him at all. “You are Rasvati’s daughter—you should live on. I’m an old man now. An old wolf. I only have so much left in me.”

“What are you saying, then? You’re not making a noble last stand without me.”

He cast me another brief look, but this time his gray eyes were sad. “This is just land, Ayla. Our people matter more. You should survive, carry on, and find a new home for a pack. They’ll need a Caller, or they’re doomed regardless. I can take care of these ones.”

“This is our home.” Our conversation got even quieter. “It’s not just land, it’s where we’ve lived forever, and I willnotleave you alone here to die.”

I couldn’t help the torrent of guilt that went through me. If this reallywasjust land, then all of my Warriors had been wasted for nothing.

We could have kept arguing about who was going to stay and die, but the shadow wolves decided to end it for us.

Two more crept out from the trees, followed by four that came spilling from the dry riverbed to the east.

Nine of them. My heart beat even faster, pulsing so hard I tasted the bitter tang of blood in the back of my mouth.

Even Fenn stopped arguing with me, staring out at the nine Fenris wolves creeping up the creek bed.

“By the fuckin’ moon,” he whispered. “This really is the end.”

Before our pack was decimated, we'd gotten word from infrequent travelers that Fenris has been growing rapidly, bolstering their ranks. It was more common now to see the shadow wolves than not.

But never nine of them at once. That was unprecedented.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what needed to be done.

---