Page 10 of Pack Captive

She definitely had the marks of a hard life on her. That was the only thing that kept me from snapping at her when she turned away food the first time I offered it to her.

“Calian,” one of the males said respectfully when I strode up to the campfire.

Several of the other Azuran Guardians—who carried the supplies and any injured survivors we found while raiding—were setting up the Alpha’s tent, but the rest of them were content to keep watch and sleep under the stars.

And feed the kids. Damn, their arms and legs were like little twigs.

I nodded to him and pulled a knife out of my belt, leaning forward to slice a chunk of meat off the roasted deer.

The Caller needed to eat, one way or another. Alpha’s orders.

She was sitting at the very edge of the camp, her arms bound behind her back, black hair spilling down her back in a waterfall of tangles.

In fact, it was the first time I’ve ever seen a Caller look like anything less than perfection.

This didn’t sit well with Ryden. Our own Callers back in Lykos were some of the most revered wolves in the pack.

They were given their own quarters in the Dawn Palace, and Ryden had given the orders to have their new Moon Temple built three years ago.

Soon, this Caller, Ayla, would be established with them. Living a life of luxury at the top of the pack’s food chain.

“What have they beendoingwith her?” he’d growled at me when she’d shifted back to her human form during a rest break, revealing her too-thin form and unbrushed hair.

I’d just shrugged at him.

From the looks of it, their little village had been harried on a near-constant basis by Fenris’s shadow wolves. Getting dressed up was likely the least of this woman’s worries.

That was when he’d ordered the tent set up so she could bathe privately, and then the tent would be given to the elders. And then he’d ordered that I make sure she eat something.

It disturbed me how much he treated her like more than just a Caller.

It was like he was trying to court a mate.

I brought the Caller her roasted deer, holding it out without ceremony. The golden bracelet chained around her ankle was the only clean and shiny thing about her right now.

She looked up at me, her dark blue eyes full of a banked but still simmering rage.

For a single second I knew exactly how that felt. I’d once gone through the same thing myself.

It hurt to lose your only home. But now she had no choice.

Not with those starving pups in tow.

She looked down at the meat I held out to her, and I could tell from the way her lips tightened that she was hungry.

Or maybe it was just the enormous growl her stomach let out.

“Dinner,” I said, refusing to serve her deferentially the way our last young Caller, Tyra, had demanded. “Open up. The Alpha orders you to eat.”

Earlier in the day, after one too many attempts from her to veer away from the pack and take the shackle off, Ryden had ordered her arms bound behind her back. A Guardian had carried her on his back, much to her rage.

She sneered at me and turned away.

“If you untie me, I’ll hunt for my own food,” she said stiffly.

Even though I was full of anger that she’d reject it after the pack had made the effort to hunt it down, I shrugged nonchalantly.

“More for me, then,” I said, taking a bite.

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