Page 39 of Pack Captive

"The last Alpha told me that everything happens for a reason," he said. "We were meant to find you. We only took that route on a whim, but it led us right to you."

I nodded, a pleasant buzz running through my veins that had nothing to do with being drunk. Unless being this close to Ryden and remembering how his hard kiss in the tent had tasted was like a form of drunkenness.

"So, you'll let me go on raids with you?" I asked. "You've seen how my power reacts to you. It's like you were made to be the perfect vessel for it."

Fuck, I was drunk. 'Perfect vessel'?

A hint of a smile touched Ryden's lips. "You'll go everywhere I go. If we were meant to find you, then you were meant to be at my side with Calian. We're stronger together than apart."

It was pleasing how guileless he was. So open and optimistic. Like a ray of sunshine I hadn't known I'd been missing.

He could be that second chance for me.

"Ryden."

"What do you need?" He was so close. Everything else around us had vanished, and he was all I could see.

My head was spinning. "I'm going to kiss you now."

He didn't even let me finish.

Ryden buried his hands in my hair, pulling me forward into the kiss I'd been craving since I'd looked at him.

I gripped the front of his shirt, holding onto him as I sank into the feeling of his warm lips on mine, the smell of him filling my nose.

My inner wolf growled in satisfaction. He was the kind of male I'd always craved, but no one had ever fit the way he did.

Ryden's tongue traced my lower lip before slipping into my mouth, and heat pooled low in my stomach. I wanted all of him—and before I knew what I was doing, my hands were in his shirt, tracing the hard muscles of his chest.

Brilliant light burned through my closed eyelids, and I jerked back in surprise, gasping for breath.

I'd forgotten we were surrounded by wolves.

I'd forgotten that when he touched me, my power flooded into him.

His lunar runes were searing with brightness. Ryden gave me a wry smile. "If this keeps happening, I'm going to light up the whole city every damn time I kiss you."

A few minutes ago, I might've laughed.

Now I was just horrified that everyone had seen me clinging to him.

They were going to think I'd come for no other reason than to take the spot as the Alpha's mate, not because I'd been forced to, or because my pack was here.

The taste of wine and kisses was suddenly bitter in my mouth. "I should go."

Ryden gripped my arm, his smile fading. "Ayla, what's wrong?"

I shook my head, unable to articulate the sudden rush of fear. I didn't want to be seen as a social climber.

I'd heard the way they talked about their previous mating-age Caller, Tyra, and none of it was pretty.

"I'm going back to the Dawn Palace." I couldn't bring myself to meet his eyes. "Good night, Ryden."

He stroked the inside of my arm with his thumb, his smile now completely turned to a frown. "Stay." His voice came out in a husky growl.

I wasn't going to be the next Tyra, no matter how much I wanted to obey that command.

"I can't."

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