Pack Captive (Moon Called Book 1), page 11
I woke up feeling...rested.
I blinked as the first bright rays of dawn streamed in through my window, covering the bed in bars of light.
I was still snuggled under the warm, thick fur I'd grabbed last night, but I had the distinct impression that I hadn't been alone. Calian had given in and laid in the bed, but it wasn’t the same as having the pack’s warmth cuddled around you.
It was terrible to be alone as a wolf. You got so used to being surrounded by your pack that the concept of sleeping in an empty room felt like something close to torture.
But there was no one else in here now. Calian probably left right after I went to sleep, and I must’ve dreamed my pack’s warm arms around me.
It had felt so real. So comforting.
I sat up, rubbing sleep from my eyes, but I was definitely alone.
There was a slight indentation on the bed behind me, and I placed my hand on it palm down. It was cool.
Maybe I'd just dreamed of those arms. I was bound to lose my mind eventually if Ryden and Calian kept me away from all other wolves.
It didn't help that I'd come across the monstrous wolf in the cell—Merikh. I was surprised his bloodied runes hadn't haunted my dreams. Maybe I'd just been stressed after coming across a Fenris wolf in Lykos.
I brushed the thought aside and the minute my feet hit the floor, there was a soft knock on the door and the maid they'd assigned me entered.
She carried a simple white dress draped over one of her arms, and a small tray of food. "Caller, you overslept. You'll miss your training with the Elder Caller if you don't hurry."
I scrambled out of bed and hurriedly brushed my teeth as she laid the tray on a side table and shook out the dress I was to wear today. As soon as I was done, I grabbed a flaky roll full of ham and cheese and stuffed it in my mouth as I stripped off my nightgown.
The new dress felt a little more revealing than I liked, but as I chewed a second roll, the maid stood behind me, lacing up the straps in the back and tying them off.
I had enough time to eat two more rolls and gulp down a cup of tea as she braided my hair and pinned it up, then draped simple gold jewelry on me.
At least eating took my mind off the fact that it felt weird and wrong for someone else to be brushing my hair for me—never mind the fact that to the Azurans, I probably looked like I wasn't capable of any sort of grooming when they first found me.
After all, wearing white dresses in the valley would've been stupid. One day out there would've ruined the expensive fabric.
And making my hair look nice was extremely low on my list of priorities when I was usually digging spare graves, cleaning out the temple, and keeping both ears sharp for approaching enemies.
"I’m done, Caller. I'm to escort you to the temple when you're finished eating."
I didn't think I was imagining the faintly accusing look she was giving me, like I was taking far too long to enjoy breakfast when important things like training awaited.
I practically chugged another cup of tea, burning my tongue, and grabbed a slice of toast with jam to go. "I'm ready."
It was hard to look demure and polite while I was cramming said toast in my mouth at top speed.
If they wanted to feed me things that were nicer than anything we'd eaten in the valley—on a usual morning, I would've been lucky for a bite of cold rabbit from the day before—I would oblige by eating them out of house and home and making up for the months of starvation.
I was about to follow the maid out of the room when I remembered the folded pile of blood-soaked clothes left in the dresser drawer. "Wait!"
It came out nearly incomprehensible around the mass of toast in my mouth, but the maid gave me an unimpressed look. "The Elder Caller has been known to refuse students who don't show up on time."
Well...if I was training today, it was unlikely I would have time to dig them a vault in the temple and bury them properly, and my fallen Warriors deserved better than a rushed funeral.
I ducked my head and followed her.
We went upwards, taking the spiral stairs up several more floors before entering a long hall. She pushed open a door and revealed a bridge.
A bridge spanning the sky, leading to one of the upper-level tiered plateaus, with a river that spilled in a waterfall to the city and the larger lake beneath us.
My stomach flipped, and I suddenly regretted the amount of food I'd eaten, because I was about to lose it all.
"It helps if you don't look down," the maid said, turning her head. I thought she might be hiding a smirk, because she was already halfway across the bridge.
It looked so flimsy, nothing but a span of arched marble like the ones below. An enormous mural of the moon phases was set in the marble in polished silver.
I took several steps onto the bridge, and the wind pushed my dress against me, pasting it to my body.
I looked down.
The city looked like a toy set from this high up. Without thinking, I crouched down, as though the wind would sweep me right off this bridge and send me plummeting into the lake below.
"You have very little time left, Caller." The maid's voice sounded far away and tinny.
I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. Who would've known that heights would be my worst fear?
But this training was more important than my sudden terror.
My pack needed this.
I opened my eyes and focused on the shining moons underfoot as I crossed the bridge, taking care to ensure I planted each step as firmly as possible.
Thankfully, the wind didn't grow any stronger. The bridge ended on solid ground. The roar of the waterfall next to it nearly drowned out the maid's next words.
"The Lykos Temple of the Moon," she said, gesturing past the waterfall and river. "Good luck."
With that, she turned and left me. I stared at my new training grounds.
The plateau was as lush as the gardens below around the Dawn Palace, with weeping willows obscuring thickets of purple and white flowers. Several of the trees were leaning towards the edge of the drop-off, their leaves swaying in the wind.
A white gravel path cut through the vegetation, with several smaller bridges spanning the river. But the temple itself was nestled towards the back, butting up against the wall surrounding Lykos.
It was beautiful, made of the same marble as the palace and topped with a white dome. I hurried down the path and over the river, and found myself in a large stone courtyard surrounded by carved columns.
More moons had been inscribed on the stone here, glittering with gold this time.
"This is where we hold the lunar rites," a voice said. A harsh but feminine voice.
I whirled around and found the Elder Caller standing by one of the columns, leaning on a polished walking stick as she surveyed me.
She wore the golden robes that declared her status, but she was so quiet and still I hadn't even noticed her.
She looked every bit as disapproving as she had the night before. I found myself self-consciously smoothing out my dress.
"It's very beautiful," I said, groping for a compliment that would maybe thaw her out a little.
Beautiful was actually an understatement. My temple back home had been so small and cramped, and I'd conducted the lunar rites outside, in a circle I'd swept free of pine needles and debris.
I almost couldn't imagine walking on the golden moons here with my bare feet.
The Elder Caller said nothing, increasing the feeling that I'd said something wrong. She just looked me up and down, her bright blue eyes narrowed. They were practically slits by the time they landed on the bracelet shackled around my ankle.
There was something familiar about those eyes, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"So, this is the raw material they give to me to work with." She descended one of the steps, those searing eyes coming back up to fix on my face. "A selfish, spoiled ingrate."
I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. Each one of her words was a barb that struck precisely where it was meant to hurt. "What—"
"A Caller so insulated from her own kind she doesn't even know her own tenets." The Elder's lips were twisted down in a frown. "What did they teach you in that valley of yours? The pack Alpha tells me you were shackled and tied to keep you from running away. Who were you going to run to? Fenris?"
Red spots burned on my cheekbones as I remembered my idiotic plan out in the wastelands.
If I'd gotten the ropes loose, if the shadow wolf hadn't sneaked up on me, would I really have run?
Would I have left my pack behind?
I knew that I might've tried.
"The fact that they didn't even give me a choice to—" I started to say, but the Elder waved her hand dismissively.
"There are no choices left, selfish child. You might not like our ways, but they are the ways that keep us all alive."
She circled me again, her walking stick clacking on the ground like an accusatory punctuation to her words.
"You would've been torn apart within hours. Fenris is not the only enemy out there." She circled to my front, leering up at me. "Pack Atrox is in league with Fenris. They roam the wastelands looking for stray wolves to eat. I suppose if not for my son, you and your pups would've ended up in a stew pot."
I swallowed hard, feeling sick.
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 with all the 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.
I gaped up at the moons cut out of the stone in the roof. The sun hit them and cast enormous shapes on the floor, which was a dark blue stone that glittered like it was full of stars.
The young, dark-haired Caller I'd seen at the celebration feast was there, sweeping the floor carefully. She looked up, showing brilliant amber eyes.
"Caller Yasemin, my cleaning duties are nearly done," she announced, then she fell silent, taking me in suspiciously.
I was walking on the Elder Caller's heels, still gawking at the glorious temple, and wondered if I'd made a bad impression yet again.
She held the broom in front of her like a shield, her lips pressed flat. If she were in wolf form, her ears would've been pasted flat against her skull.
I raised a hand in a tentative greeting.
She was no more than a child, but with Caller Yasemin—it was odd putting a name to the terrifying old woman—she would've had a far more extensive education than me.
For some reason, her tight expression relaxed as soon as I made the gesture.
"I was worried we had another Tyra on our hands," the little girl said bluntly.
Caller Yasemin shushed her. "We don't speak ill of the fallen here. Since you’re done with cleaning, you can fetch the torches for tonight's ceremony, then practice your meditation." She cast me a quick look. "If this one isn't entirely hopeless, tonight's ritual will require all three of us."
"How exciting," the girl said. She was staring at me frankly now. "I'm Caller Kadin. You're probably going to have to practice meditation with me if you don't already know how to do it."
"I'm Caller Ayla," I said, offering her a smile now. Moon forbid I was anything like Tyra for her; I hated everything I'd heard about the previous Caller.
"Kadin, go," Yasemin snapped, but she somehow managed to make it sound both tolerant and kindly. She flapped a hand at the girl, who took off, skipping with her broom.
As soon as she was out of sight and earshot, Yasemin fixed me with another look that pinned me in place.
"Tyra taught us a hard lesson. You'll have to forgive me for my harsh ways, but I won't risk bringing another of her kind into this temple. If you’d treated Kadin poorly, I would have Ryden drag you out to the wastelands right now."
What had Tyra done to these wolves? She seemed to have left nothing but a wake of enmity everywhere she'd gone.
And so much for not speaking ill of the dead here. Kadin had looked so suspicious when I first arrived, like I would reach out and slap her for no reason.
I wondered if Tyra had done something like that.
Yasemin looked up at the illuminated moons on the ceiling. "Because we're so short on time, we're going to skip the basics. I need to know what you're capable of, and we'll have to learn to work together, all three of us."
I knew from when my mother was alive that Callers who worked together could produce far more power. "There won't be much to show at this particular phase, but I can try."
I would be lucky if I managed to produce so much as a flicker of light. Touching Merikh had sucked the last of it out of me.
As soon as I thought of him, I had the disquieting sensation of eyes on my back. I glanced over my shoulder, my skin crawling, but Yasemin was already striding off, and there was no one behind me anyways.
I hurried to catch up, following her to the back of the temple.
"I'd like to see what your mother taught you," Yasemin said, leading me to another, smaller courtyard. This one was cozy, without the expensive decorations and columns. "While you seem to be lacking in education on our basic tenets, you know some rituals. You must, otherwise you wouldn't have survived this long. However, these rituals can vary according to pack, so we must learn yours and find a way to integrate them with ours."
"By tonight," I said, feeling like I was out of my depth but determined to tread water anyways.
"By tonight," she agreed. "Because the dark moon is tomorrow, and the Alpha will be patrolling outside Lykos. I'm too old to run with them, and Kadin is too young, so it'll fall to you."
I took a deep breath. So, not much pressure, then.
"You'll be sent to physical training after this," she added. "It's a lot to take in, but we don't have the luxury of time."
"I'm ready." I went to the circle carved in the middle of the courtyard, which she was indicating with her walking stick.
"Don't draw on the power," Yasemin advised. "Save that for tonight. I would like to run you through the steps first."
She stepped back and leaned on the stick, nodding for me to begin.
I did a quick stretch first, rolling my neck and shoulders.
It had been a while since I'd had the time and safety to practice the ritual dances; as of late, I'd only performed them quickly and silently, gathering what power I could while the moon was high.
I angled my feet and began dancing, following the steps my mother had taught me years ago for the dark moon ritual.
Unlike the full moon dances, these movements were more deliberate and controlled; the power needed to be coaxed out while the moon hid its face, and held onto tightly.
I spun all the way around the circle, ending on the opposite side as Yasemin.
The Elder Caller nodded, frowning consideringly. "There are enough similarities that I believe we can work with this. I see there's a touch of the southern packs' influence in those steps. Again."
I danced again, trying my hardest to keep my mind blank. My efforts didn't matter.
I thought of Ryden and Calian, and how odd it was that a man like Ryden came from such a stringent mother.
That I was sure I hadn't slept alone, even though Calian made no secret that he disliked me.
