Page 110 of Pack Captive

Why did you do this, Merikh?

He didn’t answer. Ryden and I ran hard, catching up to Calian.

A new smell was beginning to overtake the scent of cinnamon. Unlike the ashen scent of the shadow wolves, this one was almost...pretty.

Wildflowers, rain, but the scent of blood and something darker underlaid it.

It grew stronger, and my senses tingled when I realized neither of my men had been speaking for a while.

Who is it?I asked, nearly demanding an answer.You know this wolf.

It was Ryden who finally spoke.Yes.

The steel in his voice gave me chills.

The scent of wildflowers had completely covered up the warmth of spice by the time we veered north, finding ourselves in another clearing.

But we weren’t alone. Two enormous black wolves were waiting for us, their corrupted scarlet runes gleaming.

Between them, with her hands resting on top of their heads, stood the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

Long dark hair spilled to her waist, yellow eyes shining from a mask of black painted in a band across her eyes. There were Caller runes running down her arm, as red as blood.

She wore a Caller’s clothes, displaying most of her skin, but the cloth was a rich crimson instead of gold.

Then I saw what was draped around her shoulders...the dark furs still dripping blood, streaking over her arms.

My stomach lurched. She was wearing the pelts of the dead.

And there was a sickening feeling here, almost a physical touch that brushed against my power—another Caller.

But there was something wrong with her.

“Ryden,” she purred. “You finally got my message.”

Calian and Ryden surrounded me as we stalked forward. I sensed their extreme protectiveness of me at war with the desire to kill this woman.

Tyra,the Alpha snarled.

34

Ayla

We shifted in unison,rising up to face her.

So this was Tyra...the shadow over my life, the Caller whom I’d believed to be dead.

Now, with what Merikh had told me, I understood what that really meant to my pack. They’d all called her ‘fallen’.

Tyra was the thing Ryden had feared us coming across.

She was a Void Caller, the corruption inside her destroying the moon’s light. Her runes pulsed steadily, gleaming a raw, painful-looking crimson.

They made me sick to look at, making my stomach lurch and my power buzz with aggravation. This was what Kadin had meant—the power of a corrupted Caller’s runes was unmistakable.

But Tyra smiled at Ryden, a heart-wrenching expression. Whatever Fenris had done to her, he’d preserved her extraordinary beauty. “You don’t seem pleased to see me.”

Ryden stared at her, his blue eyes veiled. I’d never seen him look so deadly. “I’d rather have come across you in a shallow grave.”

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