Pack Captive (Moon Called Book 1), page 23
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Ayla
We shifted in unison, rising up to face her.
So this was Tyra...the shadow over my life, the Caller whom I’d believed to be dead.
Now, with what Merikh had told me, I understood what that really meant to my pack. They’d all called her ‘fallen’.
Tyra was the thing Ryden had feared us coming across.
She was a Void Caller, the corruption inside her destroying the moon’s light. Her runes pulsed steadily, gleaming a raw, painful-looking crimson.
They made me sick to look at, making my stomach lurch and my power buzz with aggravation. This was what Kadin had meant—the power of a corrupted Caller’s runes was unmistakable.
But Tyra smiled at Ryden, a heart-wrenching expression. Whatever Fenris had done to her, he’d preserved her extraordinary beauty. “You don’t seem pleased to see me.”
Ryden stared at her, his blue eyes veiled. I’d never seen him look so deadly. “I’d rather have come across you in a shallow grave.”
Tyra’s lips twitched, and her fingers tightened in the fur of one of the wolves at her side.
They were growling quietly, claws scratching at the ground as though they longed to drag them through us instead.
“It took you far too long to figure out our little game, but you were never the brightest, were you? All brawn, no brains.” Her gaze shifted to Calian. “All this time you’ve been chasing after the Bloodfang...you see, with what Fenris gave me, it was so easy to fool you. A simple little charm had you running after the wrong wolf.”
Tyra held out a hand, and a small ball of smoke coiled above her palm, twisting and writhing like a living creature.
She blew it towards us with a kiss, and the scent of cinnamon wafted over me.
Calian snarled when he realized. We’d been following a fake trail laid by Tyra.
She’d been killing our Warriors, leaving a trail that smelled exactly like Merikh.
Tyra let out a little chuckle. “You chose the wrong side, Ryden.”
His lip curled, his fangs lengthening.
Her eyes roved to me next, as hard as yellow glass. She sneered at me.
“You could’ve had power,” she told the Alpha. “Instead you have this. A scrawny little girl, worth nothing.”
“She must be worth something if Fenris sent you all the way here for her,” Calian said evenly. “Were you not enough for him?”
I wished I had a comeback, but I was speechless in the face of this woman.
It was hard to believe she’d once been a Moon Caller, with all the hate and vitriol boiling out of her...and that I’d let the legacy of someone so bitter bring me down.
Tyra smiled at Calian, but was tight, a muscle twitching in her jaw.
I realized that despite the power she had, she hated being here, seeing Ryden and his Second.
Maybe they were a reminder of everything she’d failed to take for herself.
“I do not question the orders of my mate,” she said, tossing her head. Then she laughed at the look on Ryden’s face. “Oh, didn’t I tell you? Fenris is my mate. He knew what he had when he found me.”
She pulled down one of the bloodied wolf skins, exposing her shoulder. Red scars, a bite like the one Calian had left on me, glowed on her skin amidst the streaks of gore.
Ryden just shook his head. “I would expect him to have better taste than a power-hungry, third-rate Caller.”
Tyra scowled, her anger finally breaking through her smug mask. Her fangs flashed as she snapped orders to her wolves. “Vali, Sever. Hold them down.”
She raised her hands as the wolves lunged at us.
Black smoke coiled from her fingers, and the wolves melted in thin air, winding around us in dark ropes.
I struggled against them, but the bonds held tight. When the smoke had curled around us all, locking arms, legs, and heads into place, Tyra strolled forward.
I’d always had an image in my head of Tyra being a fairly useless Caller, considering everyone’s contempt for her.
But I was starting to realize how wrong I was...whether she’d taken to the Void like she was born to it, or if Fenris had somehow given her more power, she was truly dangerous.
She went to Calian first, dragging her nails across his cheek and leaving open red wounds behind.
He tried to bite her, his teeth snapping shut just short of her fingers.
Tyra waved her fingers over his lips, and the smoke followed, pinning his jaw shut. His dark eyes blazed over the ribbon of black.
“My terms are very simple. You are to surrender the city of Lykos, and send both the brat and this...” She looked me over, her nose wrinkled. “—girl to us, alive and in good health. If you can concede to these terms, Fenris is willing to negotiate an offer for your pack’s safety. Azura will be permitted to retain their name and sovereignty over this territory, so long as you bow to Fenris.”
The brat...she meant Kadin.
Anger flared through me, remembering how Kadin had flinched away from me at first, looking at me like I’d reach out and hit her.
Tyra had probably tormented her prior to becoming a Void Caller. This just confirmed it for me.
“You can tell your mate to fuck himself. We’re not surrendering anyone to him.” Ryden struggled against the bonds of smoke, but his arm barely moved.
Tyra smiled sweetly at him, walking to me next.
She reached up and wrapped a lock of my hair around her fingers, then tugged experimentally.
It didn’t hurt until the second time, when she ripped downwards with all her strength.
I heard the sound of my hair coming out by the roots and barely bit back a shriek as pain burst through my skull.
“You really want to do this the hard way?” she asked, holding up her hand and letting the clump of my hair fall to the ground. “Fenris will tear your city apart. He’ll take your Callers, even your mother, and then he’ll slaughter you in the streets. Oh...and he’ll save the pups for last. They can watch their parents die screaming, and when it’s their turn, they’ll know it was their pack’s fault for not protecting them when they finally experience true pain.”
“You’re a monstrous bitch,” I whispered, a tear leaking from the corner of my eye. My whole scalp was throbbing.
Tyra laughed, reaching for another lock of hair to tear out, then stopped. She frowned, moving my shirt aside and exposing my own mate bite.
“Who did this?” she asked sharply, staring at the glowing blue dots. “Which one of you?”
Calian was still silenced by the smoky magic, but he struggled desperately as the Alpha growled.
“Get your hands off my mate,” Ryden snarled, and he almost broke free. The bonds became wispy, then re-formed around him.
Tyra looked back at me with a mixture of puzzlement and shock, her lip curling. “This is who you chose?”
She slapped me hard, again and again, until my head was ringing.
I heard Ryden’s roar through the ringing in my ears. Warmth was leaking out of my nose and coating my lips.
But Tyra left me. I opened my eyes, blinking away tears, and found that she’d covered Ryden in so many shadows he was nearly invisible.
“I think I’m going to keep you,” she breathed. She reached up, the smoke parting to allow her hands through. “I’m going to break you. Your pathetic little mate can watch me fuck you until your bond is utterly destroyed.”
I felt sick as she ran her hands over Ryden’s chest, her sharp nails cutting through his shirt like it was air.
She trailed them over his stomach, then reached down and grabbed his cock, squeezing hard through the fabric.
He struggled, eyes full of pure hate as he tried to pull away from her, but Tyra’s smoky magic wouldn’t allow him. She was gripping him like a puppet, bringing him closer.
The rage that reared up inside me washed away any pain. I wasn’t going to allow her to threaten my Alpha, to use this twisted magic to molest or rape him.
The cold fire inside me responded to my anger.
It burst out of me, pouring into Ryden and Calian, filling the clearing with brilliant light.
The smoke dissolved everywhere it touched, unable to withstand the cold light of the moon.
We all fell to the grass, and the smoke condensed, becoming the two dark wolves once more.
They howled, writhing in the grass, their fur scorched. Slowly they got up, launching themselves at Calian and Ryden.
They would take care of them, but Tyra was mine.
“Don’t you dare touch him,” I said hoarsely, climbing to my feet. “He’s not yours.”
Tyra was hunched over, her hands clasped over her eyes. She gasped for breath, her shoulders shuddering.
When she looked up and took her shaking hands away from her face, her eyes were bloodshot, tears running through the black paint and leaving streaks down her face.
I summoned more of the moon’s light, charging at her and landing a punch right in her gut.
Tyra bent over double, but her claws sank into me, tightening as the light burned into her skin.
“You utter bitch,” she growled, raking her claws down my sides.
Warmth soaked into my clothes, then she shoved me away. I landed heavily in the leaves at her feet, and looked up at the claws dripping blood.
My blood.
Tyra pressed her hands together, then drew them apart.
“Get away from her, Ayla!” Ryden roared. He gripped one of the wolves by its throat, wringing its neck with his bare hands.
I forced myself up, even though my sides were screaming in pain, and black splotches were blooming at the edges of my vision.
My blood was sizzling on Tyra’s fingers, as though her hands were white-hot. It was congealing, forming a dark mass between her palms that was quivering like a heartbeat.
I raised my own hands, intending to form a shield, but I’d sent almost all of my remaining power into that burst of light and empowering my men.
The cold fire barely flickered around my fingers, trying and failing to shield me.
Tyra hissed as red cracks began to gleam on the dark mass between her hands. Within seconds, the cracks had split it apart, and it burst into blackened flames.
“You can become one of the shadows,” she said, grinning at me cruelly. With her reddened eyes, she looked like a devil. “After this poisons you from the inside out, you’ll be laughing when I break Ryden to pieces in front of you.”
She drew back her arm and threw it at me.
I tensed, ready to fling myself aside, but an enormous shape hurtled between me and the blood-curse. It knocked me aside, catching the flaming orb in its mouth.
Merikh.
The breath was knocked out of my lungs when I crashed into a tree, but I saw the Bloodfang bite down hard, shattering the orb and swallowing the dark fire, breathing smoke as he rounded on Tyra.
For the first time since I’d met her...she looked fearful.
She raised her hands, almost in supplication. “Bloodfang. I expected you to be running home to our master by now.”
Merikh snarled, keeping himself between us. More dark smoke curled from his nostrils when he growled.
He was protecting me...at the cost of his own life.
Tyra swallowed hard. I saw her throat move, the anxiety shining in her eyes.
Then her gaze flicked to me, and the men rushing towards me. Vali and Sever were dead, their corpses strewn behind us.
The Alpha and his Second shifted, charging at Tyra, glowing like the moon and their eyes bright with bloodlust.
She turned, shifting into a smoky wolf as she ran, going straight through the trees like a ghost. There was no scent left behind; it was as if she’d never existed at all.
Merikh turned and looked at me, and I saw that his runes were searing, blood soaking into his fur.
But he’d taken the hit for me. I would’ve been a cursed creature, one of the shadow wolves, if Tyra had gotten her way.
“Merikh,” I whispered, opening my arms as I stumbled towards him.
He sighed, making a soft, pained sound, and collapsed to the ground.
Ryden and Calian had been about to run after Tyra, but as soon as Merikh went down, they spun, kicking up leaves as they rushed towards the fallen wolf.
Ryden’s teeth closed around Merikh’s throat. He snarled as he reared back, ready to shake him and break his neck.
“No!” I threw myself over Merikh, jamming my hand into Ryden’s teeth and forcing him to either bite me or let go.
He dropped the Bloodfang, backing up a step and staring at me with astonishment.
“Ayla?” he asked hoarsely, shifting into human form.
I crouched over Merikh, keeping my arms around his neck. Through his thick fur and the clotting blood, I could feel his heartbeat. Weak and tenuous, but...
He was still alive.
I wouldn’t allow Ryden to murder him while he was being ravaged from the inside by the blood-curse. Not after what he’d done.
“We have to kill him. He’s dangerous, Ayla. He’s one of them.” Calian had shifted as well, but he stood by Ryden’s side, giving me the same look.
Like I’d betrayed them, their eyes wary as they watched me embrace the fallen wolf.
But Merikh had never harmed me. He’d saved my life. He’d offered me freedom.
He’d sacrificed himself for me
“No.” I hugged him tighter, his blood warm against my skin. “I claim him. He’s mine.”
* * *
The End
To Be Continued in Pack Instinct
About the Author
Hello reader!
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Cate loves all things passionate and paranormal, from sexy, hunky warlocks in haunted houses to shredded shifters under the full moon! She lives in the South with her family and pets, and loves every kind of coffee, horror and fantasy movies, and cats. Reading is her favorite hobby when she’s not writing.
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Cate Corvin, Pack Captive (Moon Called Book 1)
