Pack Captive by Cate Corvin
Ayla
I slipped behind a tree,making sure that I was perfectly hidden from view, and then slid down to my knees in the gritty dirt, pretending I was peeing like I’d told them I needed to do.
The wastelands were almost completely devoid of any living plants or trees. The one I hid behind was gnarled and dying, its branches blackened by a lightning strike, but it was wide enough to obscure me from the Azurans’ sharp eyes.
I smashed my ankle into a boulder, but I hadn’t expected the bracelet to break. After several more half-hearted kicks, I gave up and decided to go for the rope first.
There were small, chipped pieces of rock down at the base, scattered among its tangled roots, exactly what I was looking for.
I slid down low, my upper back braced against the tree to hold me upright while I searched.
I let my arms dangle down, using my sense of touch alone to shift through the rock shards in the dirt until I found one with a sharp enough edge.
It would never match a razor for efficiency, but if Calian left me alone for long enough, I might be able to saw through the ropes.
It was impossible to go on like this.
I couldn’t lie. I was grateful that they had taken in my pack.
But I would be damned if I let Ryden bring me back to his home like some war prize.
Especially if he had me tied up like I was no better than a pet dog and treated me like I would abandon my own pack.
I even hated myself a little for how attractive I found him. He’d stolen me from my home, without even giving me the chance to follow my own people. I shouldn’t feel anything at all.
Maybe he was gorgeous on the outside, but his inside would never match.
As for Calian, there was something magnetic about him. I thought he might have sympathy for me deep inside, but he’d ruined even that.
I couldn’t give him the chance to explain it. If I was going to Lykos, it would be on my own terms, or not at all.
I leaned against the tree, settling in as I kept the rock in my slowly numbing fingers, and began scraping it against the ropes binding my wrists.
It was unbelievable that they’d even send me out to pee while I was tied up, but at least I could use it as an excuse for why it was taking me so long.
I adjusted the rock, angling it against the tight knot Calian had managed, and found purchase.
The faint sound of scraping filled the air as I sawed desperately, trying to work fast, but also as quietly as possible.
I was torn. How could they be so kind to the children and elders of my pack, and yet tie me up and throw me over a Guardian’s shoulders like I was a sack of grain?
Maybe they were deliberately punishing me.
Maybe this was because I had failed my people so badly, I couldn’t even be trusted.
I’d never thought about how other packs might treat their Callers, but maybe I had done something terrible and wrong, and had never realized it.
Lost in my dark thoughts, I sawed even harder, and then felt the slightest give.
Biting back a gasp of surprise, I almost dropped the rock. The ropes must’ve been flimsier than I’d thought if it had worked that fast.
I pulled my wrists apart, testing the strength. There was definitely more give now. I could almost slip my hands out if I pulled hard enough.
I was so absorbed in seeing how far I had cut through the rope, I almost didn’t hear the muffled growl coming from the darkness.
The second growl was louder, only feet away from my tree. I nearly dropped my rock for the third time and crouched down as low as possible, peering out into the deep shadows of the wasteland.
There was something out there. No blue runes lit up the darkness, and whatever it was, it was slowly creeping behind a stand of trees.
By the light of the waning moon, I saw the briefest flash of blood red eyes.
My heart seemed to stutter to a halt, then came back to life with a vengeance, galloping against my ribs.
One of Fenris’s shadow wolves. It must have followed us all the way from the valley.
And here I was, huddled beneath a tree, with my hands tied behind my back.
Completely useless, unless I called for the Alpha or Calian.
I didn't want them to be the ones to save me again, but neither did I want to be torn apart, my body left in the wastelands for the birds to pick to the bone.
But this shadow wolf didn't attack. It crept around one of the trees, staring me down, its dark outline becoming more obvious in the moonlight.
I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that something was different about this one. The way it looked at me...it didn't have the usual look of blind rage and hunger.
I didn’t want to know what that meant. The shadow wolves always killed any other wolf they came across.
I clutched the rock tightly and began sawing desperately at the ropes, no longer trying to stay quiet.
My breath was coming faster, my heart pounding in my throat. It was only feet away, stalking towards me, its head ducked low to the ground as more rumbles emanated from its chest.
I should never have come out here alone. It seemed my choice was between captivity or death. There were no other options left.
My form shivered as my primal instincts urged me to shift, the only way I would be able to fight this creature off. My soft human form was defenseless.
It slunk closer, and I desperately tried to snap the ropes, my arm muscles screaming with the effort.
Despite how easily the rock had sliced through the ropes, the last bits of cord still held together.
I was obviously incapacitated and not getting out anytime soon.
The wolf took that as its cue, lunging at me with its jaws spread wide open. I fell to the side, the roots of the tree scraping my arms and back.
I bit back a shriek as the creature’s rotten-smelling form crashed into me, driving me into the sharp rocks at the base of the tree, but the expected pain of sharp teeth never came.
Instead, it wrapped its jaws around the ropes tying my arms and hooked its teeth into the harsh material.
The change in this wolf was so shocking, I almost allowed the thing to drag me away.
It only got several feet from the trees before my senses came back to me, and I thrashed around, letting out a wild scream that they’d hopefully hear back at camp.
The Fenris wolf snarled, dragging me even faster. Rocks gouged through my thin clothes, leaving long scratches down my body.
I managed to flip myself around as it pulled me down a shallow hill, and smashed my foot towards its flank.
My heel skated off its side, and the wolf let out a sharp bark of displeasure, pulling even harder and yanking me away from the stand of trees.
I hadn’t come all this way just to die out here at the hands of an enemy, especially after being humiliated by the Azuran Alpha.
Nor had I wanted to use up what power remained of the last full moon ritual, but the wolf left me no choice. I pulled on the power resting in my veins, alarmed at how little was left, lighting up my runes with a glow like starlight.
It wasn’t as powerful as I needed—its light was dim compared to how it had felt back in the valley—but it was enough to make the wolf pause.
That split-second hesitation was all I needed. I heard the sound of paws pounding on the ground, and several wolves came spilling over the ridge.
The Alpha came first, his teeth flashing white in the moonlight, runes lit up brighter than I’d ever seen on a Warrior before.
They made mine look like a flickering, dying candle flame next to his sun.
Even Calian was glowing brightly, his fur standing up in a thick ridge of hackles. He raced towards me, plowing into the shadow wolf and standing over me, guarding me with his own body.
The Alpha circled the Fenris spy, trapping him between the two Azurans.
The wolf finally released me, ears pressed flat against his head, bloodied eyes flickering from one wolf to the other.
He knew he wasn't going to get out of here alive.
But he could take me out with him.
Alpha Ryden seemed to sense his intentions before he even managed to get his teeth into my throat.
Laying on the ground, I saw my death lunging towards me, and then the Alpha’s jaws clamping around the shadow wolf’s throat. He moved like lightning, faster than anything I’d ever seen before.
Then he bit down, the sound of shattering bone filling the night air.
Calian shifted, still crouched over me. His fingers fumbled at the ropes, which were torn both from my sawing and the shadow wolf’s teeth.
“You should have screamed for help earlier,” he said, scowling at me. “You don’t wait until after it tries to drag you off.”
I gave him the same look. “I wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't tied me up in the first place.”
Calian just grumbled under his breath, tugging at the ropes and ensuring they were still tightly bound. Of course the asshole wouldn’t untie me now, even though his restraints had proven to be a liability.
The Alpha was next to shift. He dropped the shadow wolf’s corpse and became a man as he strode towards me.
To my surprise, he didn't immediately launch into berating me the way Calian had. Instead, he smoothed my tangled mess of hair out of my face, kneeling next to me.
“You weren’t bitten,” he assured me, although he was checking me with both eyes and fingers, as though reassuring himself of the same thing. “But these scratches look bad.”
Goddess forbid they lose their new prize. I had to keep in mind that his only sympathy lay in his own people; it had nothing to do with me.
“He dragged me,” I said hoarsely, suddenly thirsty now that the wolf was dead. After all that screaming, I’d inhaled a good amount of dust kicked up from the ground. “If you freed me, I could’ve helped myself.”
Neither of them answered, though the Alpha’s gaze darkened as he took in the wounds on the back of my arms and shoulders.
He ran his fingertips over my bare skin, sending a shiver through me.
But the Second was still inspecting my ropes.
Calian gave me a sharp look, his dark eyes suspicious, but I gazed right back steadily. He probably could tell that the frayed strands of the rope had been cut with a sharp object, not just torn by the wolf's teeth.
I turned my gaze back to the Alpha, curious if he would accuse me of trying to escape.
It was strange, but I did have the sense that his concern was actually for me, even if I didn’t want to admit it.
I could have been the one to point out that binding someone against their will was not the way to treat them if you wanted them to appreciate anything they did for you.
“Let's get back to the camp.” Ryden put his hands under my shoulders and gently pulled me to my feet. “We'll wash this off, and make sure your wounds are cared for. This is no way to bring a Caller home.”
“But keeping me tied up is?” I muttered in frustration, but Ryden wasn't listening.
He gazed out at the wastelands, his brow furrowed, but as far as we could tell, there was nothing else out there.
But instead of just walking away and expecting me to follow, he slung a protective arm around my shoulders. A rogue butterfly fluttered wildly in my stomach before I crushed it out of existence.
None of that. These were not my wolves, and never would be.
But I couldn't help but notice that whenever he touched me, skin to skin, his runes lit up with the same bright, clear light I'd noticed back in the valley.
A brightness that made my dead Warriors seem like dim stars next to these wolves.
I couldn't help but wonder exactly what that meant for me.