Page 46 of Blade's Battle
“I have Liam’s word that he’ll take her home,” Callen added.
“But—”
“You don’t have a choice in this.”
That’s when Blade realized Liam was whispering in Anna’s ear, and she was nodding.
Anna stepped in front of Callen, who gave her space. Her scent, light and sunny, held no fear, but her eyes, bright blue with a hint of sorrow, had dimmed.
She wasn’t leaving with Blade.
It wasn’t right. He couldn’t leave her behind, and Callen had no right to expect him to.
“Thank you for everything,” Anna said as she kissed Blade on the cheek. A simple peck, not a full mouth-on-mouth kiss, not that he would expect such an intimate kiss out here in the open in front of everyone. Anna wasn’t brazen in that way, but her kiss delivered a message, nonetheless. This was goodbye.
“You need to go home so you can find a shifter to blood-bond, Blade. And I have plans that don’t involve being stuck with a shifter ever again.”
He sucked in air. She couldn’t mean what she was saying. They weregoodtogether. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he was being forced to leave her behind among the enemy. No, not the enemy. She’d explained that Liam had believed her and hadn’t threatened her.
Then why did it feel like Blade was abandoning her?
Callen’s large hand was still on Blade’s shoulder, pushing him forward, away from Anna. Blade couldn’t take his eyes off of her as his feet moved at Callen’s urging. Then he dug in and jerked out of Callen’s grip.
In two seconds flat, Callen had him in a headlock. Blade flailed, trying to flip Callen over him, but the shifter was too heavy and tall and had anticipated the move enough to dig his legs in at the perfect angle to counter the maneuver.
“He’ll kill her!” Blade said low enough that only Callen would hear him.
“Liam isn’t sending her back to Drake, but she’s not coming with us. She doesn’t want to be with you, Blade. You heard her. Let her return to her world, where she belongs.”
“But—”
“Blade, we need to go.Now.Trust me on this,” Callen whispered in his ear.
The words, the tone, sent Blade back to when he had first arrived at Damien’s pack with an injured Callen over his shoulders. Blade had been a lone wolf for too many years at that point, deathly afraid of entering another pack’s territory. Callen had whispered those same words with such conviction that Blade had gone against his instincts and trusted the shifter that he barely knew.
Now he knew Callen, a shifter he’d fought beside for years. Despite his wolf clawing at Blade to beat Callen down and take Anna and run, Blade nodded his head. Slowly, Callen relaxed his arm from around Blade’s neck. Before Blade could change his mind, the enforcer grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him to the trail that led home.
Each time Blade glanced back or slowed his pace, Callen was there, shoving him forward again, each time rougher than the last. He suspected Callen was trying to aggravate him enough to get his mind off Anna. In mere minutes, Blade lost sight of Anna, her beautiful smile and sad eyes obscured by the thicket of trees.
“Can you shift without giving up control to your wolf?”
Bladed nodded. He had no desire to speak, as he might say something crude to Callen for forcing him to leave Anna behind. This situation wasn’t Callen’s fault.
Callen gave him a reassuring slap on the back right before shifting. The black wolf released a howl, and Blade followed suit, shifting. Unlike Callen, Blade didn’t howl at the freedom of being in wolf form again. He howled to mourn the loss of his Anna.
Chapter Eight
BLADE
He and Callen had stayed in wolf form for only a few miles before Blade felt himself losing control to his wolf. He shifted, and Callen shifted seconds later, wary and watchful of everything Blade did. For over an hour, Blade’s wolf raged inside of him, making talking unbearably hard. Callen must have sensed as much for he soon stopped talking to him altogether, allowing Blade to focus.
“Why?” Blade finally demanded of Callen.
“You know why. You didn’t make it out of Drake’s territory clean.”
“I did get away clean. Drake didn’t know it was me until Anna. . .” No, he wasn’t going to blame this on her. She had told Liam about the cure Drake had to save lives. He couldn’t fault her for that. He’d been the one to bring her to Liam’s pack in the first place, seeking their help.
“You may have gotten away, but in the end, Drake found out where his prisoner was, how she got there, and who killed his shifters.Fourby the last count.”
