Page 88 of Pack Captive

A moment later, the ghostly mist shivered, and vanished.

I took several quick breaths, afraid that maybe Yasemin was right.

Maybe I had a power I'd never considered before...but if I did, why had my ancestors never come back until now?

Yasemin and Kadin removed their hands, and the blue flames quickly ate Darius down to bones and ash. There was no heat to the flames, and as soon as they died out, we carefully swept his remains into the urn Ryden held.

The Alpha sealed it with a silver lid and placed it carefully on an empty spot on one of the shelves. They were already lined with hundreds of urns.

"Be at peace, brother," he whispered, letting his hand linger there for a moment.

Nobody spoke again until we were walking out of the necropolis.

It was Yasemin who broke the silence, which was simmering with both the weight of sadness and the tension between Ryden and Calian.

"The old tales are true," she said. "We stand a greater chance against Fenris now than we ever did before."

"What do you mean?" Ryden asked. Once again, I felt his eyes on my back, lingering like a caress, but an accusing one.

"Didn't you see what Ayla called forth?" she asked. "I raised you to be more observant than that."

Now his eyes were burning a hole in the back of my head. "I saw something that shouldn't exist. Care to explain?"

"Oh, it exists, even if we haven’t seen it for hundreds of years." Yasemin let out a chuckle. "Fenris may have his dark little pets, butwehave a Spirit Caller."

Ryden stopped in his tracks. “Those are fairy tales, Mother.”

“Fairy tales with more than a grain of truth.” She looked back at me. “Just look in the records. This is our true weapon against Fenris. Now make up with her, son, before you drive her away.”

With that, she held out her arm to Calian. “Help an old woman up the stairs, love.”

Lovely. So she’d noticed the incredibly obvious tension between the three of us.

Calian looked like he was gritting his teeth at leaving me alone with Ryden, but he offered his arm, and the three of them, Kadin included, vanished from sight.

I silently cursed the old woman for putting me in this position, alone with the Alpha when he was already angry.

“Ryden—” I started to say, but he held up a hand.

“Spirit Caller or not…” He leaned in, making me shiver as I remembered what his hands felt like on my body. “Don’t think I’m backing down because of Calian.”

His words sent a frisson of heat through me. “I didn’t expect you to. Your ego wouldn’t allow it. And don’t worry—you couldn’t drive me away if you tried. Wherever Calian stays, I’m staying, too.”

To my surprise he laughed, the sound echoing through the halls of the necropolis.

Then he leaned in, and the goosebumps I’d had earlier returned in full force as his teeth grazed my earlobe.

“I don’t intend to drive you away at all,” he murmured. “I intend to make you mine.”

27

Ayla

I threwmyself into both studying and training after the ritual, in which I'd almost pulled Darius's spirit back from the grave.

Most of it was because Yasemin had left no doubt in my mind that I was in fact a Spirit Caller—my power didn't just correspond to the moon, but to death itself.

Everyone had seen it. Even Calian had admitted to seeing something that looked a hell of a lot like a ghostly wolf before I'd cut the connection.

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