Page 49 of Pack Captive

"Stop judging me,” I told Tiny, who was staring in a completely different direction. “If you ever meet a lady wolf made out of moonbeams and bullshit, I guarantee you'll be embarrassing yourself, too."

Then a spear of pain went through my skull, and a string of disembodied words came with it.

Hunt him down.

I braced my hands against my head and looked up at the runes on the ceiling. After a few moments, I had to cover my eyes, rubbing them hard.

Too bright now. Everything she had given me was fading.

The burn seared my skin, charred through me with relentless flames.

Tear him apart.

I rolled over, keeping my eyes slit against the brightness. The Azurans couldn't have thought of any worse torture than this. I'd take a dark, moldy cell any day over this endless light.

"It hurts," I allowed myself to whisper.

One acknowledgement. Any more than that, and you were a whiner. Any less, and the pain would consume you.

Acknowledge it, come to terms with it, live with it.

Fenris had taught me that himself.

"I want to see her again. I want to feel nothing. Will you bring her back for me? I've been on my best behavior."

Tiny said nothing.

The voices from the past grew stronger with the pain.

Eat him. Rip his guts out. Leave nothing but bones behind.

I released a harsh breath, keeping my eyes shut tight. Little by little, the pain became easier to bear. The throbbing flames in my skull became background noise, and that I could deal with.

I needed the Caller. I needed her numbing touch.

Not Tyra. She had driven the pickaxe deeper, her fingertips had never graced me with a moment of pure peace, where I could just be Merikh again.

He's killed a thousand men and eaten their flesh.

I'd never eaten human flesh. That was from years ago, nothing but rumors and lies.

Merikh the Bloodfang. You know what to do.

Fenris's voice was irresistible, pressing the commands into my brain and branding them there.

I did know what to do.

I was to take the Caller...and bring her back.

Bring her to the place where the dark swallowed the light entirely.

I cracked my eyes open and peered at Tiny. He stared back, unblinking, but he wasn't growling and pacing.

Not the way he usually did when the pain brought out the dark side.

A slow smile spread across my face. The light of the lunar runes above burned my lips, made them feel like I was nothing but dried-out flesh stretched over a skeleton.

"You don'tseeme," I said, sitting up with an effort.

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