Pack Captive by Cate Corvin
Ryden
All of the wolves’eyes were on her as I led Ayla back to the tent I'd had my Guardians set up for her pack.
I couldn't help the feeling of pride that welled up inside me whenever I saw her, or the respect in my Warriors’ gazes.
She was everything I've been searching for, her power coursing through my veins in a way I had never felt before.
Even though she needed to be cared for, carefully tended into a proper Caller, I already knew she was what my inner wolf had been leading me towards my whole life.
But she hated me.
I wish I could tell her the real reason why we had to keep her tightly under control, in our line of sight, her every movement watched carefully by the Warriors.
Our last young Caller, Tyra, had vanished seemingly into thin air during one of the last pack raids, and I was absolutely determined that this one stayed put.
The ropes would prevent her from wandering too far; the bracelet would warn me if she was in danger, as it had done only moments ago.
I could tell my Second and best friend, Calian, didn't care much about Tyra's disappearance in a personal way, but he felt the loss to our pack’s defenses just as badly as I did.
Caller Yasemin was too old to hold down the fort on her own, and Caller Kadin was too young to imbue the Warriors with enough lunar power to hold off the Fenris wolves.
Ayla was necessary to our survival.
Not just because I wanted her for myself, but because we desperately needed her if we wanted to keep Fenris out of our city.
Right now, it was hard not to begin the courting process immediately. Only the fact that she might have been injured was what held me back.
Well, that, and the fact that she didn’t trust me at all.
I'd caught her scent from the moment we'd walked into her valley. It was one of the most tempting things I've ever smelled, making it difficult to even focus on the shadow wolves despite the danger they posed.
An older Warrior had once told me about the mating bond: when you came across another wolf who was your ideal match down to the base genetic level, you would know it deep in your bones.
When she was with me, I felt it in my bones. It was like she’d been designed for me.
The Warrior had been right.
It didn't hurt that her lunar power seemed to give me a bigger boost than I'd ever felt before, but maybe that was helped by the mating bond that was waiting to be formed.
There were so few Callers left, it was impossible to say whether or not their mates tended to be made more powerful by their presence.
At least she didn't shove my arm off her shoulders as we walked back into the camp.
She glanced at the pups as we passed their campfire, where they'd already gnawed half a deer down to the bone.
A look of relief crossed her face, so stark and open that it pierced me straight into my heart. But her pups were cared for, as were her elders, and she needed to look out for herself now.
The tent itself was pretty simple, not what I would have chosen to give to a Caller who would become my mate. Two of our Guardian wolves had carried the packs, used to hauling heavy burdens when we traveled far.
Even so, it was a basic configuration of canvas and poles, with a floor of furs for comfort.
At the very least, it offered privacy for her to wash. I would have preferred to give her an entire bathtub, along with the clothes and jewelry her station afforded, but for now, this would have to do.
As soon as we got back to Lykos, I would make sure that she was put in one of the finest rooms in the Dawn Palace reserved for the Callers.
The Elder Caller had convinced me to have a new temple built for the rituals around one of the lakes in the city, and the Callers had been given quarters as close as possible to their new temple. They were some of the most beautiful places in the city.
Ayla looked at the canvas tent and raised one eyebrow. She didn't look unhappy with it, more confused about what we were doing here.
Then a look of abject horror crossed her face.
She stopped dead in her tracks, digging her heels in so I couldn't pull her any further. Then she looked directly into my eyes.
“You might have taken me captive,” she said quietly, “But I will not whore myself out to you for the sake of my pack.”
Gods, but I could get lost in the deep ocean color of her eyes.
Then I realized what she had said.
Holding back a snarl, I steered her towards the tent, pulling one of the canvas flaps that served as a door out of the way.
“I didn’t bring you here to be a whore,” I snapped, irritated with her assumption. With that, I pushed her into the tent and stepped in behind her, pulling the flap closed behind me.
She spun around, glaring up at me with the scowl I’d become accustomed to.
I held out my arms, showing her the entirety of the small tent, which was mostly empty except for the furs piled on the floor and a small basin of steaming water that had been left for her.
It was pathetic. I wanted to be in the Palace now, giving her a room overlooking the glittering waves of Desiderii Lake, not this sad excuse for a shelter.
“This is the bare minimum of what a Caller deserves.” I pointed to the basin. “That is for you to wash in. If I could, I’d give you the clothes that suit your rank, but that’ll have to wait until we get to Lykos and assign you to temple quarters in the Dawn Palace.”
Another look of confusion crossed her face. “What do you mean, the Palace?”
Did she really not understand how this worked?
As a Caller, she was not only a priestess, but a princess among our kind.
I thought about explaining it to her more slowly, but that would likely just irritate her. “What did you do in the valley? How did you live?”
At least she was beginning to settle, the tense set of her shoulders relaxing. “I tended to the temple, blessed our warriors, and handled the lunar rites.”
“That's what Callers do in Lykos. You will enter into training under our Elder Moon Caller, but all packs revere your kind as the sacred link to the moon. Maybe they did things differently in your valley. But here, among the Azurans, you will be treated as what you are. The only wolves who will rank higher than you are myself and my Second—our orders are the law, but we are nothing without you.”
She gazed up at me with frustration. “You make no sense.”
“How so?” I found one of the bags that my pack had left behind, finding a cloth in it that she could use. “You’re very special to us. I didn't expect to find a Caller hidden in the wilderness when we set out on our raid, or we would’ve prepared better for your arrival.”
I set the cloth next to the basin, and found her staring down at me, pointedly indicating the ropes around her wrists.
“Those will come off so you can bathe,” I told her. “Then you will eat more. We need you at full strength.”
“Calian already fed me.” She looked at the basin askance, but I could tell she was tempted by the prospect of hot water.
“What have you been living on?” I held back a derisive snort, not wanting her to think I was deriding her appearance even though she was starved. “A tiny nibble of meat here and there? Look at you. The Elder Caller will take a bite out of my hide if I try to give you to her in this condition.”
It was ridiculous that my future mate was arguing with me over the fact that I wanted to give her a hot bath and food.
Maybe they'd been savages in that valley and hadn’t understood what they owed to what she was.
And the same way that I was born to be an Alpha, she was born to be an Alpha’s backbone, his spiritual guidance and the power source for his warriors.
Between the two of us, Lykos would once again become a formidable force against Fenris. Azura would become one of the greatest packs in the world.
Once we got to the city, and I gave her the gifts I've been reserving for the wolf who would become my mate, she would see that I had entirely good intentions towards her.
But I wasn't going to give her the opportunity to vanish into the night, even if it pissed her off now.
I finally stood up, even though leaving her in here alone was the last thing I wanted to do.
“I'll take the ropes off for now,” I told her. “But this tent will be guarded. Try to slip out if you want, but you will be run down and caught.”
She lifted her chin, as though preparing to refuse, then held out her hands.
I bent over them, anticipating the rush of power that jolted through me as soon as our skin met. It fizzled in my veins, and the blue glow of my runes washed across her face like luminescence.
But she was silent, watching me carefully as I untied the ropes. I held back a wince at the sight of her reddened skin.
It pained me to do it, but it was better than having her disappear. She might appear to do what was best for her pack, but I wasn't willing to risk our chances of getting her home.
Even if it meant tying her up and carrying her myself, slung over my shoulders the entire way.
I couldn't stop myself from rubbing her arms and fingers, trying to erase the red marks and get the blood flowing back into her hands. Her lips parted slightly, and she watched my hands as they dwarfed hers.
Her hands weren’t soft and pampered. Old scars covered her knuckles in thin white streaks.
I traced a particularly long one that wound towards her wrist, wondering what had made it.
Then she seemed to come back to herself and pulled them out of my grip. “I can do it myself.”
I had a feeling she was going to be telling me that she could do a lot of things by herself in the near future. Anything to avoid feeling like she'd accepted something from me.
That was fine. I'd waited over thirty years to find my mate, and now that I had her in my grasp, I had the patience to bring her over to my way of seeing things.
To help her understand the sacrifices that an Alpha had to make to ensure his pack’s future, and how badly I needed a strong female to be the one at my side.
A Caller like Tyra, who’d been convinced she was the Moon’s gift to wolfkind, would’ve been a disastrous mate. I needed someone like Ayla.
Someone who would do whatever was necessary for her pack’s survival.
So I let her pull away from me.
“Get washed up, but remember what I said.” I jerked my chin towards the basin. “You won't be escaping this tent, or this pack. I’ll have a Guardian bring some ointment for your wounds.”
She took the hesitant step towards it, then gave me a sidelong look. I realized she was waiting for me to get out.
“Unless you’d like me to tend to them myself,” I offered, unable to keep the growl out of my voice. I’d tried hard not to think of her naked, to keep my raging lust for her under control.
She opened her mouth, for once not wearing an expression that suggested she’d prefer me dead.
Then her gaze dropped, and her cheeks reddened.
So maybe I’d failed at keeping myself under control. Knowing she was my future mate had sent my body into overdrive, and even now, with her gaze on me, my cock was hardening even more.
I couldn't help myself. Maybe it was the jolt of power that she'd given me running through my veins, making me feel almost drunk on it, or maybe it was just her scent filling the small, enclosed space around us, but I needed to touch her one more time before I left.
I took her shoulders, bent down and brushed a kiss over her lips.
For a moment, she seemed to lean into me, her body bending towards mine like she'd been born to fit against it. Her soft lips opened for me.
I wrapped my arms around her, my cock aching as it pushed against her.
Then she stiffened, pressing her hands flat against my chest, and she shoved herself away.
Ayla turned her head aside, refusing to look at me. “You can go now.”
I turned towards the tent door, my veins humming. “I've changed my mind,” I said.
“About what?” She gave me a suspicious look, but I didn't miss the fact that she quickly took her hand away from where she'd been touching her lips.
So she had enjoyed kissing me.
I grinned at her. “When we get to Lykos, you'll be living in the Alpha Quarters with me.”