Page 42 of Pack Captive

"She tried to convert me," he said conversationally, as though he had strange Callers walking into his cell all the time. For all I knew, he did. "She'd spend hours a day in here. It always started with the moon's purity, the call of the stars, blah blah blah. Then she'd spend the next six hours waxing eloquent about her precious Alpha and how she was going to become the next queen of Lykos."

He flapped one hand in a mimicry of talking.

"Boring." The red runed wolf heaved a sigh. "I'd rather sit in here alone and go insane than listen to that."

The Alpha...I'd inferred this Tyra had had designs on Ryden, but it still made me a little sick to think about.

Maybe he'd slept with her. Maybe he fucked all the new Callers he caught and brought back.

"You seem to talk a lot yourself," I told him evenly. "And you never told me who you are."

"Just another one of Ryden's little captives." His eyes dropped to my ankle and the shackle around it. "Like you."

My lip drew back in a sneer, but I couldn't refute it.

Besides, I felt...a little bad for him. He was in a cell, probably spilling his thoughts to me because he was kept in total isolation.

"You can call me Merikh. That was my name before he found me."

"Before Fenris found you?" I felt my hand slip away from the door handle. I wanted to know what the Alpha of Fenris was like, from someone who had known him in the flesh.

"Who else?" Merikh snorted. "To answer your previous question, he is thehowbehind this."

He tapped a finger against the scarlet marks on his cheekbone, making them flare with bloody light.

"What is he like?" I took a step closer, taking care to remain well out of Merikh's reach. "Are you still with him, or did he force you into this?"

He searched my eyes for a long moment, then that cruel smile cut across his face again. He could give Calian a run for his money in looking like a complete asshole without even trying.

"I was willing," he said quietly. "When you have nothing, and you're offered everything...well, let's just say that's a very difficult proposal to turn down."

"Was it worth it?" I crossed my arms, looking him in the eye.

A look of surprise crossed his face. "Nobody's ever asked me that. The why, the how, the who did I kill...but never if it wasworthit."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

Sympathy had welled up in me at the bitterness in his voice when he indicated his runes, but I needed to remember what he was.

A prisoner for a good reason. One of Fenris's allies.

He might've once led the shadow wolves against my own pack. My Warriors' blood might be on his hands.

Merikh rested his forehead against the bars. He blinked, the dark fringe of his lashes nearly touching the scarlet runes. "I don't know."

He sounded almost plaintive. Lost.

I steeled myself. "It got you locked in a cell, so to be honest, I don't see much worth in it at all. Nor do I care to convert you. It's pretty clear to me whose side you're on."

He looked up at me through those lashes. "Oh, I'd be willing to give it a chance for you, just for asking me an honest question. Why don't you try? You could claim what Tyra could never do."

Merikh stretched out his arm, as far as he could possibly go, offering one fingertip.

"I swear by the Void I won't harm you," he told me, giving me a sultry smile. "This is your one free pass."

By the Void? I'd never heard that before.

And there was a small, selfish part of me that wanted to prove I was better than the infamous Tyra, that I could do what she couldn't.

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