Page 52 of Callen's Captive
Chapter Eleven
KATE
Kate woke up cold, wet, shivering, and with what felt like the killer of all headaches. She reached up to feel the stinging pain at her hairline. Her fingertips came back slick with dark red blood. Even after blinking several times, her vision remained blurry. When her vision finally cleared, she wished it hadn’t.
Large thick trees surrounded her as far as she could see. Her worst nightmare. . . She was in the woods. Kate started breathing too fast, her skin felt clammy, and the trees were closing in on her, leaving her no room to breathe. Any minute, the bad men would come and chase her with their knives.
Kate ran, ignoring the branches slicing across her face and arms and the tree roots that seemed to jump up at her and trip her over and over again. The cuts and bruises didn’t matter. She had to keep running, to get away from the men before they caught her.
Hands grabbed her. She fought as hard as she could, trying to knee her attacker, slam her head into his nose, even bite his face, but then he pinned her arms to her side and backed her against a tree. She kicked and kicked until he used his entire torso to trap her. The forest began spinning. Kate closed her eyes.
Something warm pressed against her forehead and she whimpered. They’d kill her like they’d killed her parents. Kate finally gave in and let the darkness swallow her.
* * *
CALLEN
Through some stroke of luck, Callen found Kate before the current pulled her under. The terror in her eyes nearly gutted him, but he couldn’t afford to lose his focus. Against the raging water, he somehow managed to tie the strap around her waist and then his, linking them together.
“I’ve got you, Kate!” he yelled against the pounding rain. She couldn’t hear him over the storm, or she was too panicked to process what he was saying.
More than once, the undertow sucked Callen under as he struggled to keep Kate’s head above water. He fought the current, fought for Kate. He couldn’t let anything happen to her; he knew that now.
Her skin cold, and her eyes wide in terror, Kate locked her arms around Callen’s neck. That’s when something hard struck the back of his head and he went under. When he surfaced, she was gone. The current had ripped her from his grasp.
“Kate!” Callen yelled into the endless sea of black as he reeled her back. She was limp, with a nasty gash on her head, but she was breathing.
When the waters calmed, Callen carried an unconscious Kate to the shore. He didn’t recognize the area, but they were on dry land once again.
Callen carried her for hours, a constant terror seizing him. She should have woken long ago. One day turned into two. He dripped water into her mouth when they passed a stream. Her eyes fluttered open every now and then, giving him hope.
His wolf wanted him to shift, to howl, to do something for her. There was nothing more he could do for her, except head home. With Kate in his arms, Callen continued walking in the direction of his territory, hoping he’d recognize a landmark or a scent soon.
For nearly two days, Callen headed northwest. He started to doubt himself and feared he was going in the wrong direction. Kate had been in and out of consciousness, mumbling to herself. At this point, he’d be happy to find a highway or other signs of human life nearby. She needed medical attention.
In early evening of the third day, he set Kate down at the base of a tree. He needed to shift, to find a clean source of water. He would move faster in wolf form.
To his relief, he finally found a stream, a mile east of where he’d set Kate. As Callen was drinking, he heard the heavy pounding of feet running through the woods. He shot off on an intercept course and caught Kate’s scent in the wind before he reached her. There were no other scents, either animal or human, mixed with hers. Whatever had caused her to run wasn’t a threat, but the noise she was making could attract the wrong type of attention.
As Callen neared her, he shifted back to human form. “Kate!”
She continued running, right through a tangle of low branches.
The scent of her fear would attract unwanted company, especially if they were in bear shifter territory. God, he hoped they weren’t. He might be able to fend off several wolf shifters, but protecting her against a single bear shifter would be a challenge, even for him.
Catching Kate was easy, except she fought him, clawing and even trying to bite him. There was no recognition in her eyes, only terror.
“Kate, Princess, it’s me, Callen,” he said as he pinned her arms to her side and trapped her against a tree as gently as he could to keep her from lashing out. It had to be the head wound causing her panic or the trauma of the flood. He kissed her forehead, and she whimpered seconds before she slumped in his arms.
Callen eased her to the ground and brushed the backs of his fingers over her bruised cheek. She had taken a beating in the river, and now she bore additional cuts from running through the woods. He shouldn’t have left her.
Kate bolted upright and grabbed hold of him so fiercely he could swear she had shifter strength in her. That was wishful thinking. He had told her that her being human didn’t matter. There wasn’t any history of males in his family going feral, not that that was a guarantee, but most likely he wouldn’t have to worry about permanently taming his wolf.
“Are you okay, Princess?”
“Callen?”
“Right here,” he said, smiling. He was relieved she recognized him, but she was looking at everything except him.
