Page 137 of Callen's Captive
“Anyone can give those files to the media.”
“She’s going to hack into their servers and install a program that will obscure all traces of shifter activity in the forests. Something about altering the satellite images to make the photos appear real but without showing any signs of shifter activity. That, together with adding reports in their system showing that shifter numbers are declining rapidly due to the virus.”
“They are declining.”
“She’ll inflate the numbers. Make us look like we’ve been wiped out in areas. And she’ll be camouflaging us, digitally. She’s the only one who can do that for us, Callen.”
“Once it’s done, she’ll disappear. I’ll never find her. Which is why I need to go now.”
“She was right about one thing. If you get caught, she’ll give in. She’ll do anything to save you, she knows it, and I think you know it.”
Callen paced. “I can’t do this, Damien. I can’t let her go.”
“Even if it’s what she wants?”
“She’s alone out there, with no pack to protect her.”
“Frank will watch over her, and if she tries to give him the slip, then his backup will take over. Nate and Enrique will watch her from a distance. She won’t know she’s being watched. They have her scent, human and wolf.”
“She’s crafty when she wants to be,” Callen warned, trying to convince himself that Damien knew what he was doing. Damien was a strong alpha and usually won’t lose her. When the job is done, Nate and Enrique will approach her, escort her to our new location, if that’s what she wants.”
“She won’t. She’ll be afraid the WSSO will have eyes on her. She’ll lose them, hop on a bus or a plane.”
“Have I ever chosen the wrong shifter for a job?”
Damien was good at placing shifters according to their strengths, it’s part of what made him a strong alpha. Enrique and Nate were smart, strong guards. Kate, however, wasn’t easy to catch. That was the only comfort he had in any of this, the knowledge that she might escape the WSSO’s reach.
“She’s my mate. . .”
“Do you understand why I let her go?”
“To protect the pack.”
“To protecther. She can’t live here, Callen. It’s not that I wouldn’t allow it. There are too many bad memories here for her. Her words, not mine. Maybe in time she’ll feel differently, but until then, I have to protect her because she is a part of this pack. Protecting her means more than protecting her body. This is what she needs. I can’t ignore that.”
“She never needed me.”
Damien put a heavy hand on his shoulder, one Callen knew was meant to comfort, but nothing could comfort him. His Kate was leaving.
“Give her time to figure out what she needs. If it’s meant to be, she’ll return for you. In the meantime, I have a job for you. It will keep your mind off of Kate.”
Before he could object, Damien gave him that look, the one that said he was dead serious. “I need you to retrieve a package.”
“I’m no messenger.”
“I need an enforcer and someone I can trust on this mission, Callen. Anna had a sample of the Shifter Origination Virus in the bunker. It wasn’t with the equipment and other supplies our team retrieved when they went back to salvage what they could after the WSSO burned the cabin and trashed the lab. She thinks the sample is still in the bunker.”
“More like the WSSO took it.”
“They didn’t know it existed. And Anna said she had a special hiding place for it. She was reluctant to tell anyone about its existence before, even Blade.”
“She should trust her own mate.”
“Trust wasn’t the issue. If anything, shifter hearing was. She’s smart enough to know that if word of this gets out, the WSSO will burn the entire forest for sure. She was afraid who might overhear her telling anyone, which is why she was content with letting it stay buried in the rubble of the bunker.”
“What’s changed? Why tell you now?”
“She’s carrying a half-shifter baby, and she’s scared the baby won’t survive when the SEV2 virus returns.”
