Pack Captive (Moon Called Book 1), page 19
I took advantage of it, slipping between some densely planted trees and under another hedge, and found myself at the fountain where I'd spoken to Calian.
There were no sounds behind me, so I took the time to run around the fountain in a circle, leaving a trail that would hopefully confuse him.
When I vanished into another clump of undergrowth, I finally heard the tell-tale sound of paws on gravel. He was nearby.
Moving as quietly as possible, I headed towards the back of the garden, creeping into a small glade with a broken, moss-covered wolf statue standing guard over it.
The black wolf tore out of the brush like a silent bolt, heading right for me. I had just enough time to realize it wasn't Eryn before he ran into me, knocking me into the grass and sending us both rolling.
We shifted at the same time, ending up in a tangled pile of limbs with Ryden on top of me.
He laid between my legs, holding one of my hands pinned above my head and the other around my waist. The blow had been softened by the cushion of grass and the way he'd wrapped himself around me.
"Hello, beautiful," he breathed, his blue eyes smoldering.
I stared up at him, still gasping for breath and covered in sweat, my entire body longing to wrap itself around him.
I was ridiculous. I already had Calian, but Ryden drew me to him like a moth to a flame. "You planned this whole thing."
Ryden laughed softly. "I did warn you I wasn't going to give up just because of Calian."
He leaned down, his tongue flicking against my earlobe. Then he drew a smooth trail down my neck, making my body arch up against him.
He kissed the hollow of my throat, letting out a low rumble. "And I know you still want me as much as I want you."
My breath was now coming faster from desire, not exertion. Every inch of skin he touched was tingling. "You could've had me much sooner."
Ryden raised his head, searching my eyes. "Is that what it was? All I had to do was remove your shackle, and you would've been mine?"
"Well, no." I smirked at him. "You would've had to work for it first."
He shifted against me, the full length of his body molded against mine, and I felt his hard cock straining against my lower belly.
A small sound escaped me before I could stop it.
"Why Calian?" he asked, watching my face as his hips ground down, the pressure of his cock making my pussy ache. "I tried to give you everything you could've wanted."
"Because he trusted me," I whispered, biting my lip when he ground harder. He was at the perfect angle to rub against my clit, and I was already thinking about rolling over and letting him fuck me from behind. "He protected me. He opened up to me and took off the shackle. He tried to make me feel wanted here."
Ryden groaned when I arched against him, desperate to feel more of that pressure rubbing against me.
"When did I make you feel unwanted?" He licked his lips, watching my mouth. "There are so many things I'd do for you."
"Then make me feel like part of the pack. Make me a part of things, Ryden. I don't want to be kept in an ivory tower when the world is falling apart around us. Being ‘beautiful and shiny’ isn’t the real battle. Their morale will improve when they see I can actually do something for them." Goddess, I wanted him to kiss me, but I had to keep a clear head. "I already offered to help, and you threw it in my face. Calian was the one who helped me—everyone else thinks you were trying to keep me from escaping to Fenris."
"It was to keep you safe!" he snarled, and pushed down hard. I gasped, sucking in a breath as the fire in my abdomen burst to life. "I don't want the Bloodfang to take you and have no way to track you down.”
I knew why he'd done it, but he didn't see that I needed to be useful. I had to be more than a figure kept on a pedestal, to look pretty and make everyone happy.
"I'll never fit in here if you don't make me a part of it," I snapped, angry at myself with how badly I wanted him. "The city already thinks I'm a witch. I've been here for days and they're already trying to hurt me."
I turned my head, showing the pink line that would've still been an open wound if not for Yasemin.
Ryden winced, tracing the line gently.
"One of the females did this to me. They think I'm a threat, and they'll run me out of Lykos if you don't let me do something to change that."
"Which one?" he asked. His tone was flat and deadly. "Tell me her name, and she'll be in the wastelands by sunset."
I turned my head back up to look at him full on. I still remembered how he had first looked to me: like an avenging angel, there to save my pack.
The kind of male I'd always dreamed about finding.
Hell, he still looked like that to me. Like the Alpha of my dreams.
"I'm not vindictive by nature." Another sharp breath escaped me as he lowered his face to mine. "She'll just have to see that I'm not what she thinks...when you really make me part of the pack and stop treating me like a trophy you won."
Ryden stopped my words with a rough kiss.
My lips parted for him, and I moaned breathlessly as his tongue tangled with mine, his teeth gently nipping at my lower lip.
Every inch of me was aching for him, but he needed to show me he was good for his word.
Ryden kissed me again, stealing my breath away, then trailed more kisses down my neck, his cock throbbing against me insistently.
"I'll do what you ask," he said, squeezing my hand tightly. His eyes blazed like fire as he looked into mine. "You want to get rough? You'll get rough, and dirty, and see things you'll wish you'd never seen. No more shackles, then. No more holding you back."
I raised my head for another kiss, but Ryden got up, leaving me feeling cold. He picked me up off the ground gently, setting me on my feet.
Then he did kiss me again, his hands tangled in my hair, holding me like a drowning man.
I was breathless when he released me, holding my chin up to face him.
"Then you'll be ours," he told me.
From the look in his eyes, that was a promise.
28
Ayla
Calian wrapped his arms around me, keeping me warm against the chill of the necropolis.
"Just relax," he murmured in my ear. "Let it come to you. You don't have to force it."
We were in the Pack Vesper vault, the moon lantern hanging in front of us like a lonely beacon. I was shivering despite Calian's arms encircling me.
Ever since Ryden had cornered me during yesterday's physical training, I felt a need to do something.
Calian had agreed immediately when I asked him to come to the necropolis with me to see if I could deliberately raise a spirit wolf.
I looked up at the jar on the shelf that contained the essence of my Warriors' souls.
I'd known all three of them well, but Trion had been the friendliest with me, the one most likely to make jokes instead of treating me like I was of a different breed.
So I would summon his spirit. It felt like he was the most likely to respond to me.
I took a breath and closed my eyes, feeling my surroundings with every sense but sight. It smelled of stone and ashes, and the marble altar was cold under my palms.
None of the accounts I'd read had actually explained how to call on the ancestors. They were mostly just tales recounting what the past Spirit Callers had done, rather than the exact steps.
I was going off nothing but legends and instinct now.
The moon's power flooded through me, and through my eyelids I saw a flare of light as Calian's runes lit up.
Trion. Are you there?
It felt a little silly to be talking in my head to nothing but thin air, but I had no idea how else to do.
Nothing replied, exactly as I had expected.
I frowned, and Calian squeezed me a little, silently telling me to relax and go with the flow.
I summon your spirit from death. Come back, Trion.
Several long minutes passed. Nothing happened.
"This was just a fluke," I mumbled, opening my eyes. "There's nothing but myths about it at this point. Not even a set of instructions!"
How could all the Callers of ages past have written a million volumes on how to meditate, but no one had thought to write down the general steps of summoning the dead?
"That's because you're forcing it." Calian's deep voice echoed in the vault.
I shifted in place, the cold seeping into my bones. "I feel ridiculous. Am I supposed to intone something? Demand it? I have no idea."
I'd felt ridiculous just saying the words in my head. I didn’t think performing a full-on ritual would work much better.
"What were you doing when you called their spirits the first time?" he asked.
He was running his fingers over my arms, stroking me from shoulder to elbow, which was very distracting in a pleasant way.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. I was just..." I paused, thinking back to it. Both times had been when I was conducting a rite...and I'd called on the cold blue fire that would consume their last living remains. "Wait."
I closed my eyes again, settling my hands into place on the smooth surface of the altar.
This time, I didn't use words. I just thought of Trion and the pack, and what he had meant to them, and pushed the power into my hands.
The flames licked my fingers, painting the vault in dancing blue shadows. The jolt that was becoming more familiar echoed through me, making me feel like I'd been hollowed out.
My teeth started chattering as the temperature dropped, and when I opened my eyes...
Our breath came out in billows of steam, and the flames had died.
But the shadows still shifted around us as an enormous, ghostly wolf stalked around the altar, its gleaming eyes fixed on me.
"Fuck, Ayla. You did it." Calian's whisper seemed as loud as a shout in the crypt.
My hands were shaking as I reached out to Trion's spirit.
He stepped forward, pressing his muzzle against my palm, and several faint images flashed into my head—a female wolf, the forest in the valley, a bloody fight—and I realized I was seeing Trion's memories, preserved in death.
"It's good to see you again, Trion." There was a lump in my throat as Trion's ghost looked back at me.
He suddenly shivered, his form wavering, and he dissolved into a silver mist that quickly faded.
"That didn't last long." I felt oddly disappointed, even though I should've been ecstatic that I'd managed it at all.
Calian spun me around, gripping my shoulders. "Ayla, you just did something the world hasn't seen in generations. This is game changing for all of us."
I tried on a smile, but I was still shaking from both the cold and the sudden tiredness that swept over me.
"I just don't understand why I've never done it before." I let Calian lead me from the vault, closing the heavy door behind us. "Not once in my life until I came here."
A familiar tapping echoed down the corridor. Yasemin came into view, leaning on her cane.
"Because you weren't with the pack you were meant for when you lived in the valley." She raised an eyebrow at Calian. "Your presence is required in the training grounds. Please see to it and get the messenger out of my temple. He's putting his dirty paws all over the floor we just swept."
Calian let out a silent sigh, then leaned down and kissed me, right in front of the Elder Caller. My face flushed as though I were doing something wrong.
It was because Ryden was her son, and she'd picked up on the tension between us all the other day.
I was afraid she'd think I was playing games with the Alpha, the same as Tyra had.
And I still hadn't forgotten her harsh greeting when I'd arrived. Messing with her son was going to land me in a world of pain.
"I'll come for you later," he promised, and squeezed my hand before shifting and racing towards the exit.
Yasemin rested both hands on her cane and looked up at me. "He's a tall drink of water. Always very angry, that one."
"I can see why."
"So he's told you his story." She eyed me shrewdly. "I've known him since he first came to Lykos, brought back by my husband. I fed him at my own table and tucked him in."
I couldn't help but smile. I bet young Calian had loved that.
"Very few people know his story, or Ryden's. What they went through together."
I fell in at her side as the elder began walking towards the stairs, her cane tapping again.
"Would you tell me?" I asked, curious to know more about the Alpha. How he seemed like sunshine one moment, and a storm waiting to break loose the next.
Yasemin considered that. "I'll tell you about my son. You see, his father was from the north, like Calian. He was a great Alpha...it was only because of him that we banded together enough packs to take Lykos from the shadow wolves. Ryden was expected from a very young age to take after him."
I offered her my arm as we walked up the stairs, listening intently.
I knew what it was like to have responsibility thrust on your shoulders from birth. From the minute I could walk, I was expected to take part in rituals and support the pack.
"He was only fifteen when Fenris attacked Pack Tempestas, and he and his father found Calian several weeks later, wandering in the wilds. Those two didn't get along at all when they met." Yasemin chuckled. "My husband insisted on taking him in, given that he was from a northern pack himself. Ryden and Calian in the same house...it was like trying to mix fire and ice."
"But he slowly opened up to us. Calian always kept his feelings bottled up, and a few years later...the role of Alpha was passed on to Ryden. My husband was too old to lead them anymore, too damaged from the relentless fighting. Fenris sent his best men, hoping to kill my son before he could win over the pack."
I pushed the door open, and Yasemin stepped out of the necropolis. She led the way to the tea room, but there was no sign of Kadin in there.
She settled on a pillow on the floor, patting the one next to her. I sat obediently next to her. "Calian had joined the Claws and spent several years training with them, I think to get away from Ryden. He hated being part of the center of attention. But when Fenris’s Berserker came and broke down the wall...that was when both my son, and my adopted son, realized they worked better together than apart."
The Berserker...we'd heard stories of him from a long time ago.
I'd been young when the Warriors had gathered around the fire in the village and told tales about a wolf made of stone and blood, who had towered over the heads of every other wolf and had broken down walls with his claws.
Looked like there was some truth to the campfire stories.
"They took down the Berserker together, but..." Yasemin stared down at the table. "My husband did not make it through that battle alive. The wall of Lykos was breached, and we haven't had the manpower to rebuild. Calian left the Claws to become the Second, and if Ryden ever falls, he will take his place."
I swallowed hard. It was too easy to imagine that happening, and I would do anything to prevent it.
"But this story matters to you, because you must feel the same thing." Yasemin poured herself a cup of water and took a sip, squinting at me over the rim. "When you are with the pack you were destined for, your power grows—your strengths and destinies intertwine with each other. I believe that while you may love Vesper, it was never your destiny. If you had stayed in that valley, you may never have learned you were a Spirit Caller."
"So there could be hundreds of Moon Callers out there with this same power, but they're not with the right pack to bring it out," I said, thinking aloud.
Yasemin snorted. "Hundreds? Try tens, if that. You, Kadin, and I... of all the packs Azura has contact with, we are the only ones I know of. Only us three."
"And that's why my Warriors were never this powerful. Right? Until Ryden came to my village, I'd never seen lunar runes glow like that." I nibbled my fingernail as I thought, and Yasemin smacked my hand.
"Correct. They've brought out the best in you...and you bring out the best in them." Yasemin gave me a sidelong look. "And I don't mean only Calian."
"Are you angling for more baby Callers?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.
She shrugged, looking at me angelically. "Perhaps. Our pack will only survive if your generation pulls through."
So Calian was what I was destined for...and Ryden, too.
They both lit up like the full moon when I touched them, and my power had grown by leaps and bounds since meeting them.
This must be what it felt like to find a true home.
Except for the part where most of the people here hated me. I'd done my best to be nothing like Tyra, and I'd somehow managed to become even worse to them.
And as for Ryden...he had to prove he was going to let me run with them and take full responsibility before I let him in.
I didn't want pretty clothes as much as I wanted to be useful and keep my people safe.
"Well, that'll have to wait," I told her. "I'm not even considering that until Fenris is dead."
No pups for me. It was hard enough to worry constantly over pups of my pack, let alone one of my own flesh and blood. I'd been taught enough lunar magic by my mother to know the spell that kept me from getting pregnant and performed it faithfully every full moon.
"That could take some time." Yasemin's face crumpled, and for a moment, she looked older than I'd ever seen her, like the weight of years was dragging her down. "I've lived in this temple for most of my life, read every book...and I still cannot fathom how he has lived twice as long as the average wolf. The magic he possesses...it's not of lunar nature.”
"Well, I brought back Trion’s spirit." I looked down at my hands, remembering how cold they'd felt despite the flames. "Only one ghost, but...I'll just have to try harder to become a Spirit Caller, and with all of us together...we'll find him and kill him for good."
"Try?" Yasemin looked at me gravely. "You must become one. This is the end of the line, Ayla. Lykos is the last stand, and all the remaining packs are wandering and afraid. There's no hope of them banding together against him anymore. Pack Azura, and an army made of every ancestor spirit you can raise, are the only chance we have now."
