Page 21 of Pack Captive

I couldn't believe that only a few short minutes ago, I’d actually been in a decent mood. I’d even considered forgiving Calian for his behavior.

Clearly, I'd been wrong. Soap and food were not good excuses for magnanimity.

“Don't talk to me like I'm a dog.” I met his gaze. It was getting easier and easier to stare these presumptuous males down. “You will not train me into doing anything you like.”

I sucked in a breath when Calian put his fingers under my chin and tipped my face up towards his.

He’d only touched me before to tie my wrists and feed me. This pose was too intimate for my liking.

“I'm not trying to train you. I'm trying to show you that we're not your enemy, and the sooner you get that in your head, the better off you'll be. Yours isn’t the only pack we’ve ever brought back from a raid. The rest of them were fucking overjoyed to stand a chance against Fenris.”

I was past the point of making arguments. If they couldn't understand that tying someone's hands was not a way to make them your ally, then they would never get it.

But right now, it was hard to look beyond the fact that Calian was only inches away. I'd never seen eyes so dark; they were like the sky on a moonless night.

He made me furious, but he still had a face to make any wolf envious. He even smelled delicious, like he was designed to rattle my senses.

The memory of him feeding me popped back into my head unbidden, the gentleness of his fingers against my lips.

I tried to push it away, but it seemed firmly lodged there. Of course I would now be having vivid images of what his actual lips would taste like against mine.

And it was all because of the damn Alpha kissing me.

Calian seemed to know what I was thinking.

“Good night,” he whispered with a slight smirk. He released my chin, grabbed my hand, and brought it up to his mouth, pressing a kiss against my knuckles.

Then he left the tent. I sat in silence for a moment, completely bewildered by what had just happened, and then the first of the pups came crashing in.

Within moments I was covered with flailing arms and legs, and trying to get them to settle down on the furs. The elders joined us shortly after.

That night, I hardly slept. I couldn't say if I thought of the Azurans and their Alpha, or of my future in Lykos more.

We reachedLykos early the next evening.

My mouth dropped open when the city walls came into view. The wastelands had vanished this morning, left behind when we loped into green fields and dense forests.

The Azurans seemed to know their way through by heart, following a hidden path through the forest.

Then came the rivers, and the crashing waterfalls. I quickly realized that what we had in the valley had been a tiny, insignificant stream next to the city’s resources.

It made me wonder why we had never left for something better.

Lykos itself was built on an island in a broad lake, an enormous, walled city of white stone that had waterfalls spilling from its edges. Around it, steep green hills rose into mountains, and another river cut through them, crashing down into rapids.

Ryden shifted into his human form as we drew closer to the city, holding me near him.

“The Fenris wolves don't like water.” He nodded towards a bubbling pond as we passed it. “It won't hold them back entirely, but they take much longer to cross it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had deliberately blocked your little creek from outside the valley to make their path easier.”

I held back a scowl at the sight of lush pink lilies floating on the pond, their petals edged in deep orange.

If we'd known that, we could have moved our pack out of the valley and into a more defensible area. Half the year, the stream dried to a slow trickle, and the other half of the year it was barely waist deep.

To think those creatures had beenplottingto dry it up...it scorched my insides with rage

“The Elder Caller will probably bring you out here for your training,” he continued. “Water helps conduct the power of the Moon.”

Shock jolted through me. I'd never heard that before.

---