Page 33 of Callen's Captive
“Janie was my best friend, my protector.” She had to stop, to keep the tears at bay. She had thought she was over this, but every time she visited, it took her longer and longer to move on.
“She died young.” Callen had seen the dates on the gravestone. Janie had been seventeen years old.
“Not died, murdered. They murdered her.”
“Who?”
“Our foster parents.”
“Explain,” he said with a clipped voice. Every now and then she noticed a hard edge to Callen, such as now.
“Janie was always different from the rest of us.”
“Different? How?”
“She could see in the dark, hear the smallest of noises from a distance, heal fast, really fast, like you.” She made eye contact with Callen, waiting for him to confirm what she already suspected.
“A shifter child being raised by humans. . .” He shook his head in disbelief.
“I suspected she was shifter, but I never asked her. I was hoping she’d trust me enough to tell me.” Janie had to have known what she was, but they never discussed it despite how close they’d been.
“Most packs would have taken her in. She should have been raised by her own.”
Kate stiffened at the reminder that she and Callen were different. He never made her feel different, but she was. If she were to accept his offer and go with him, his pack might never accept her.
“I’m not positive,” Kate said. “I mean, I don’t think she ever shifted or if she did, she never told me.”
“Children shift during puberty. It’s not something they can avoid especially the first time. Afterward, they’re taught how to control it. She knew what she was, Kate.”
Part of Kate felt betrayed that her best friend, her sister-of-her-heart, had never trusted her enough to tell her secret.
“Being a shifter in a human world is dangerous enough for an adult, but for a child who doesn’t have anyone to guide her. . . She must have been terrified.”
“If she was, she never showed it. She was always the brave one.”
“How did she die, exactly?”
Kate bit back a sob, the words caught in her throat. Then Callen took her hand in his and held it against his thigh. She soon found her voice again.
“Every time Brad, our stepdad, came after me with the belt, or had that look, the one that said I was in big trouble, Janie stepped in between us. She’d yell at me to run, and I did but then she never followed. I could hear her crying as she took the beatings I’d earned.”
Callen’s jaw clenched, and his eyes burned yellow, but he never let go of her hand.
“One day, I accidentally knocked my milk off the table at breakfast and broke the glass. Brad went for me. Janie got between us. I ran, hid outside. When I didn’t hear any yelling or crying, I thought he’d left her alone. I waited a few minutes, to be sure, then snuck around the side of the house, to spy through the kitchen window. Janie was on the floor, lying in the milk and broken glass. She wasn’t moving.
“I snuck inside while Brad was out back digging a hole. Janie’s eyes were closed. I remember whispering her name, telling her to get up, but she wouldn’t wake. Then I realized it wasn’t just milk she was lying in. He’d sliced open her throat.”
Kate must have been shaking because Callen wrapped his arms around her. She didn’t want to stop to think about what that meant. If she didn’t get the full story out now, she might never be able to. “There was so much blood, everywhere. I didn’t know what to do. I ran to my room, grabbed my backpack, stuffed it with whatever I could, and ran.”
“Fucking humans,” Callen said beneath his breath.
“I failed her.”
Callen kissed her forehead as he caressed her arms, trying to soothe her. “How old were you at the time?”
“Thirteen. I should have left long before then. Then maybe she’d still be alive.”
“You were a child, Kate. Janie felt she could protect you, especially since she healed quickly. But she was a child too, up against a monster. Neither of you should have been in that home.”
