Page 35 of Callen's Captive
Suddenly that place between her thighs heated. How did he do that to her? She couldn’t stop her eyes from raking over him. Oh yes, she’d like to explore him, very much so. She leaned in, breathing hard, then plastered her mouth to his. It was a long and deep kiss, one where he cupped the back of her head and kept her from pulling away as if he knew she’d try. And she would have, because this was a goodbye. It had to be. She needed to finish what she’d begun with the WSSO.
“Come with me, Kate. For a little while? Talk to my alpha. He’s the strategist. The two of you can brainstorm about the WSSO, devise a plan with teeth, no pun intended.”
“Seriously, Callen. Most of my associations are over the net. That’s where I’m effective, that’s how I fight. And I’m betting you don’t exactly have internet connect up there in the woods.”
* * *
CALLEN
Internet?She refused to come because his pack had no fucking internet? Devil’s Peak did. She could do her hacking at any number of places in the small town, though if the WSSO ever tracked her there, it could place Damien’s and Drake’s packs in danger. Maybe even Liam’s, though the Greyson pack was farther east. The answer of how to let her continue her attacks against the WSSO–—which Callen was against for her own safety—would fall to Damien and Hayden.
He just wanted to get Kate the hell out of Riverview and worry about the details of her mission later.
Callen needed to get back soon. Until Anna and Alex devised a vaccine against SEV2, the shifter eradication virus the WSSO had created, his pack and wolf shifters everywhere were at risk.
Alex. Hell, he’d forgotten about him. Callen had let himself get so wrapped up in Kate’s problems that he’d totally forgotten he should be helping find the shifter. Damien would have assigned several shifters to the task by now, but Callen should be there to help. If there were any interrogations to be done, the pack didn’t have another enforcer. Callen had taken off after Kate without permission and without thinking about the pack’s needs. That was a first for him.
“You can’t go it alone forever, Kate.”
“I’m not alone. I have contacts, people who have skill sets I don’t or can get me things I need, like a passport. Most are like Anna. People who have a common goal of bringing down the WSSO.”
Kate had never even met Anna. She’d had an email relationship with her, and from the sound of it, she hadn’t met her other contacts in person either. It had to be a lonely life, but Kate would never admit it. She had her freedom and her mission, and she’d convinced herself that was all she needed. Maybe it was, but she hadn’t had a chance to experience what life offered, not fully.
Being in a pack was different. They answered to their alpha, and they relied on one another for everything from safety and company to joy and solace. They were always there for one another. Kate hadn’t had anyone there for her after Janie. He wanted her to have more than a mission and faceless friends. Or was he being selfish, hoping to be the one she’d lean on?
Life had been ‘off’ lately, and it was why he’d lost his edge. It wasn’t until he’d met Kate that Callen started to realize how he’d closed a part of himself off. The part that was lonely. Having an entire pack essentially treat him like he were a reaper had taken its toll on him over the years. He’d never completely been able to ignore the hurt of seeing shifters in his pack turn away or avoid him outright, all because they feared him, or were disgusted by what he did for the pack. Callen was a necessary evil, as their pack’s previous alpha, Damien’s uncle, had referred to him.
Thankfully, Callen had his pack brothers, Damien, Blade, Hayden, Pryce, and Frank to give him a sense of belonging, but he needed something more. He needed Kate. She could be sexy and flirty with him one minute and mad, demanding, and difficult the next, but there was nothing disingenuous about his Kate. Holding her, feeling her fingers entwine with his, gave him a sense of belonging he hadn’t had in a long time. Hell, he needed her more than she needed him. Maybe that was the problem.
He pulled her around and kissed her. A long deep kiss that spoke of more than wanting a quick roll in the grass with her. “Can any of your contacts do that?”
She pulled away, breathless, “Depends. Do all shifters kiss like you? Because I do have a shifter who helps me out from time to time.”
That stunned him, but the thought of her kissing anyone, shifter or human, angered him. His wolf too, given how his wolf was pacing inside of him, as if he wanted to be let out to run, or rip into some WSSO flesh, whichever came first.
“Who?” Callen asked, not intending his tone to be so harsh with her. He’d sworn to himself that he wouldn’t take out his insecurities on her.
“I doubt you know him. His name’s Logan.”
Callen’s entire body stiffened as his wolf growled and dug his claws into him—deep.No, it can’t be! Logan’s dead!Hayden had killed the crazed alpha who ran his former pack before Drake.“Logan? Are you sure? Tall, older shifter with a mole on his lower left cheek?”
“I only met him once in person, but he was about your age, and no mole. Shorter than you, too. Nice guy, likes talking technology with me. Why?”
Callen calmed down. The very thought that Hayden’s uncle was still alive scared the shit out of him. He was one nasty bastard, worse than Drake, though Drake had idolized him. Hayden came from one messed up family.
“I knew a shifter by that name. Dangerous, nasty, the works, but he’s been dead over a decade.”
“Well, this shifter’s very much alive, and he’s been helping me find the truth about what happened to my parents. They died in a crash when I was five.”
“Oh.” It was all he could think to say. She’d had one rough life and given her determination to rid the world of all its evil, she was in for a rough ride.
