Page 53 of Pack Captive

If Azura hadn't shown up when they did, the Vesperan elders and pups would've been wandering through the wasteland right now, with both me and Fenn dead and gone.

My plan would've just sent them to an even worse death.

Then what she said hit me.

"Your son?" I asked, needing to talk about anything else to keep my mind off the fact that I could've sentenced the pups to a horrible end.

The Elder raised an eyebrow. "Nobody told you? The Alpha is my son."

Fuck.

Just when I'd started to develop a seed of interest in Ryden...it turned out his mother hated me.

"But that's neither here nor there at the moment." She pointed at me with the stick. "What matters is that you know nothing. Where does your loyalty lie?"

"With my pack," I said numbly. All wolves' loyalties lay with their pack.

"Wrong!" The Elder rested her hands on the top of the stick, staring at me hard. "Where does your loyalty lie?"

I thought desperately, my palms sweating. She was insane. That was the only explanation for this treatment.

"Pack Azura?" I ventured, and she sighed.

"You know less than nothing," the Elder said, shaking her head. "Everything you were taught is wrong."

"My mother was a Caller, and she taught me herself," I said indignantly, but Fenn's words immediately popped into my head.

She was a vain, selfish woman...she never wanted to be outshone by her own daughter.

I realized the Elder Caller was watching me think, and that my thoughts were utterly transparent and written on my face.

She nodded, her long silver braid falling over her shoulder.

"That may be, but she did not teach you everything you need to know." It was the gentlest she sounded since I'd met her. "You are a Moon Caller, born blessed. No other wolves possess what we have, but they need us to survive. Your loyalty does not lie with your pack alone. It lies withallthe children of the moon. Every wolf who flees Fenris, who escapes Atrox—they are your pack. You cannot become a spiritual leader of the people if you do not embrace them all as your own with open arms."

My mother had never told me that, only that I would live and die for Vesper, like she had.

"Our vocation is to defend all wolves, not just our own. You do not belong to your pack; you belong to us all. Do you understand?"

I nodded, not trusting myself enough to speak.

She was right, and Fenn was right; I'd been taught something entirely different.

I'd been in the wrong.

I was beginning to see why Calian had been so angry with me, and what he'd meant by gratitude. To a Caller with the right training, they would've seen it as an opportunity to help every wolf.

I'd only seen it as enslavement.

"Come along, then." The Elder held her arm out towards the temple. "We begin your training now."

16

Ayla

"You came at an interesting time,"the Elder Caller told me, leading me through the courtyard. "The dark moon is nearly here, and Fenris tends to test our boundaries when we're at our lowest power."

She ascended the shallow pit of the courtyard and pushed open one of the pale wood temple doors.

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