Page 113 of Pack Captive

Tyra was hunched over, her hands clasped over her eyes. She gasped for breath, her shoulders shuddering.

When she looked up and took her shaking hands away from her face, her eyes were bloodshot, tears running through the black paint and leaving streaks down her face.

I summoned more of the moon’s light, charging at her and landing a punch right in her gut.

Tyra bent over double, but her claws sank into me, tightening as the light burned into her skin.

“You utter bitch,” she growled, raking her claws down my sides.

Warmth soaked into my clothes, then she shoved me away. I landed heavily in the leaves at her feet, and looked up at the claws dripping blood.

Myblood.

Tyra pressed her hands together, then drew them apart.

“Get away from her, Ayla!” Ryden roared. He gripped one of the wolves by its throat, wringing its neck with his bare hands.

I forced myself up, even though my sides were screaming in pain, and black splotches were blooming at the edges of my vision.

My blood was sizzling on Tyra’s fingers, as though her hands were white-hot. It was congealing, forming a dark mass between her palms that was quivering like a heartbeat.

I raised my own hands, intending to form a shield, but I’d sent almost all of my remaining power into that burst of light and empowering my men.

The cold fire barely flickered around my fingers, trying and failing to shield me.

Tyra hissed as red cracks began to gleam on the dark mass between her hands. Within seconds, the cracks had split it apart, and it burst into blackened flames.

“You can become one of the shadows,” she said, grinning at me cruelly. With her reddened eyes, she looked like a devil. “After this poisons you from the inside out, you’ll be laughing when I break Ryden to pieces in front of you.”

She drew back her arm and threw it at me.

I tensed, ready to fling myself aside, but an enormous shape hurtled between me and the blood-curse. It knocked me aside, catching the flaming orb in its mouth.

Merikh.

The breath was knocked out of my lungs when I crashed into a tree, but I saw the Bloodfang bite down hard, shattering the orb and swallowing the dark fire, breathing smoke as he rounded on Tyra.

For the first time since I’d met her...she looked fearful.

She raised her hands, almost in supplication. “Bloodfang. I expected you to be running home to our master by now.”

Merikh snarled, keeping himself between us. More dark smoke curled from his nostrils when he growled.

He was protecting me...at the cost of his own life.

Tyra swallowed hard. I saw her throat move, the anxiety shining in her eyes.

Then her gaze flicked to me, and the men rushing towards me. Vali and Sever were dead, their corpses strewn behind us.

The Alpha and his Second shifted, charging at Tyra, glowing like the moon and their eyes bright with bloodlust.

She turned, shifting into a smoky wolf as she ran, going straight through the trees like a ghost. There was no scent left behind; it was as if she’d never existed at all.

Merikh turned and looked at me, and I saw that his runes were searing, blood soaking into his fur.

But he’d taken the hit for me. I would’ve been a cursed creature, one of the shadow wolves, if Tyra had gotten her way.

“Merikh,” I whispered, opening my arms as I stumbled towards him.

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