Page 79 of Pack Captive

Ryden was going to be furious. I'd be the one to deal with it instead of her.

Of course not.She took a drink of water, avoiding my gaze as she shook her fur out, then eyed the bracelet.I need to help Yasemin with the burial rites.

For a moment, I thought about telling her what she should know.

That Fenris didn't want her dead—he wanted her because she was valuable, to become one of his dark daughters.

That every moment she spent outside the city walls was dangerous not just for her body, but her mind and soul as well.

I'll come with you, was what I told her instead.

24

Ayla

It wasclear to me that Calian was still lying through his teeth, even though he obviously wanted to tell me whatever it was.

But I never got the chance to ask again and press him while he was open to me.

I spent the rest of the evening in the temple with Yasemin and Kadin, the three of us preparing Darius's body for burial while Calian watched, a silent shadow stalking the corners.

At times he would vanish, prowling the lush plateau outside while we worked. Yasemin wouldn't allow him to help with this part.

I knew he was out there looking for Merikh...and I also believed, for some reason I couldn't identify, that Merikh had nothing to do with this.

"I hope they catch him," Kadin whispered. She shook out a length of burial shroud that Yasemin and I would roll the body into. "And kill him this time."

I looked up at her and saw dried tear tracks on her cheeks. "Was he...family?"

Kadin shook her head. "No. Kind of. He was my older brother's best friend. He used to call me Bean because I was the littlest one in the pack."

It wasn't the best time to air my unprovable suspicion that Merikh hadn't killed him. I kept my mouth shut and reached out to squeeze her shoulder.

Now the body on the slab was more than just a nameless, faceless wolf to me.

He was someone to her the way Trion, Ersen, and Nicu had been to me. I was starting to understand what Yasemin had meant, that we were supposed to protect all wolves, not just our own.

A moment later Calian stalked back in.

It was hard to concentrate on my work while he was there, drifting close enough that he could've reached out and touched me. The smell of him wrapped around me like a warm blanket.

I pushed all thoughts of Calian to the back of my mind, determined to give Darius the rites he deserved, especially while Kadin cried over him.

It was after midnight when we finished wrapping the shroud. Yasemin stretched, making a face as her back popped.

"We'll hold the rite tomorrow when the moon rises." She rested a hand on Darius's chest for a moment. "Now it's time to take care of us."

Kadin and I also stretched. My shoulders were aching and tense from spending hours bent over, piecing him together, washing and wrapping him.

The youngest Caller scrubbed her cheeks, but she still looked sullen. "It feels wrong to be hungry when he's dead. He'll never be hungry again."

I held out my arms, and she snuggled against me. I felt her back hitching under my palms, trying to hold back more tears. "All we can do is send him to the ancestors, and he'll be watching over you, Kadin."

"And we work harder and make sure this doesn't happen again," she whispered.

I nodded, although I had no idea of how the three of us could hold off Fenris at all. It seemed like an impossible task.

"There is always more work to do," Yasemin agreed. "To the bath house, now. We'll wash off, eat, rest, and be ready to give him a proper rite tomorrow."

---