Page 9 of Pack Captive

Ryden stepped closer as my pack shifted, their fur a lighter gray than the Azurans’ crow-black fur.

He touched my cheek, outlining a slim cut the Fenris wolf had left behind. A line appeared between his brows as he examined it, and the warmth of his hand on my face was more pleasant than I wanted to admit.

But the damn bracelet gleamed on his wrist.

Ryden’s full lips turned up into the faintest smile.

“No, you don’t.” His fingers lingered on the blue dots tattooed on my cheekbones. “But if you want to say goodbye, I’ll give you time.”

“What if I want to stay?” He could take my pack in, make them his own. I could lose the shackle and guard the temple until Fenris marched in to burn the valley down.

Ryden shook his head, spilling dark blond hair down his back. “I’ve claimed you for myself. The only place you’re going is wherever I am.”

I glared at him, and his expression hardened as he sensed my resolve to stay. “Shift. We’re leaving now, before more of Fenris’s wolves come.”

That was common sense I couldn’t argue with. I shifted, falling onto four legs and landing on the riverbed I’d never see again.

All around me, the Azurans began to run into the forest, keeping pace with my slower pack. They guided them towards the valley gate that we’d been ready to destroy only an hour ago.

I dug my paws in the dirt as Ryden joined them, determined to outlast this shackle.

It gave me just enough time to look over my shoulder at the forest, where our temple and village were cradled in the depths of the trees.

The boundary came first as a tingling buzz in my leg, then a sharp pain that lanced all the way into my chest.

I bit back a yelp and raced after the pack, crossing under the trees towards the gap in the mountains where the Azurans were still herding the Vesperans through.

Two crumbling white columns marked the passage. I’d only crossed this boundary once before in my life.

Ryden waited for me at the gate, his ears perked forward.

He’d wanted to see if I’d resist.

Maybe it was the pain of the shackle, or the fact that my pack was now with them, but I lifted my head and went through.

As the columns vanished, the shackle seemed heavier than ever. Ryden loped at my side, his Second falling in on my left.

Reminding me that I would never escape them.

3

Calian

We’d runall day through the wastelands, and had finally set up camp for the night.

No matter what Ryden did, the Caller was not responding to his advances.

I’d run with the pack as soon as we found a good place to camp, with shelter and running water, and we’d brought down several unsuspecting deer for dinner.

I hated to admit it, but it hurt my heart to see the way the little pups gathered around the fire as the Warriors slaughtered the deer and began to cook them, their enormous eyes glazed with hunger.

They were some of the skinniest kids I’ve ever seen. Made me realize how good we had it back in Lykos, where we kept stockyards and farms inside the city walls.

But these pups...their eyes were huge when they realized they were getting an entire deer to themselves.

Which was why it pissed me off even more that our unanticipated little windfall—the Moon Caller— kept shooting dirty looks at our Alpha, even though he had gone out of his way to check out their backwoods little valley.

If not for him, those pups wouldn’t have been eating at all tonight. If anything, they would’ve been captured by one of the roaming packs of the wastelands and become dinner themselves.

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