Page 95 of Pack Captive

He came to a halt when the bells rang, and I looked up from where I sat on the edge of the track, catching my breath.

This time they rang a slightly different tone that I was used to.

Calian’s face was grim. “That’s the warning signal for a settlement. One of the lone packs has been attacked.”

Despite the sweat on my face, I suddenly felt cold inside.

It was like my village all over again. Would we find nothing but a razed mess?

Eryn waved a hand at me, his face just as hard as Calian’s. “Dismissed.”

I gritted my teeth, but Eryn was already bolting towards the entrance of the amphitheater—where Ryden was striding in, wearing the runed armor I’d seen him in for the first time.

“Pack Terra’s sent out a call for help,” he said.

The Claws and Warriors had all immediately dropped what they were doing and gathered around him, listening intently to his orders.

I was jostled to the back of the crowd, and I was also sure the elbow that caught me in the ribs was deliberate.

But Ryden’s gaze scanned the crowd until he caught sight of me.

“Moon Caller. Get armored up; you’re with me and the Second.”

The sudden silence was deafening. I could’ve melted under the heat of the glares directed my way.

“Let’s go,” Calian said quietly. “We don’t have much time.”

He put himself protectively between myself and the Claws, who were giving me looks of pure distrust.

We hurried back to the Dawn Palace, taking the stairs two at a time. I burst into my room and yanked off the training clothes, and the maid came bursting in after me.

“Your armor is here, Caller,” she said, looking frazzled and forgetting to ignore my title the way she’d done all week.

She yanked open a wardrobe I’d never bothered to explore before.

The armor wasn’t much like Ryden’s; it was similar to the ritual dresses, looking too pretty for battle with all the embroidery, but every inch of the cloth and golden metal was engraved in lunar runes.

Unlike the Warriors, who were expected to get up close and personal with teeth and claws, I would be expected to stay on the back lines.

I pulled it on quickly, scraping my hair back into a quick braid, and shifted, flowing around the maid’s legs and vanishing into the hall.

Calian was already striding towards my door, wearing the black-lacquered armor with his own protective runes.

I let a tiny amount of my power flow through me and they lit up, linking over his armor like an iridescent shell.

Calian shifted and nuzzled my neck.We meet Ryden at the city gates. He won’t go without you at his side now that he’s given out the order.

We galloped all the way there, finding Ryden already shifted and pacing back and forth, conferring with the leader of the Claws and arranging the Warriors in their ranks

Caller at my side, he demanded, and I didn’t allow myself to feel intimidated by the obvious disdain radiating from the wolves as I loped towards him.

This was, after all, what I had asked him to do for me. To let me run with the pack, be responsible for them and their lives, and finally prove that I wasn’t a Fenris colluder.

I’d never been the best example of a Moon Caller, but my Vesperan Warriors had known to expect me to stay with them.

Ryden needed to have that same trust in me if I was going to live up to my full potential, for all our sakes.

We go east, Ryden told me, his gaze shifting to Calian as well.A small settlement was attacked by a large contingent of shadow wolves. One scout made it here with the report, but there may be…something more than just the shadow wolves there.

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