Page 66 of Callen's Captive
Chapter Thirteen
KATE
The camp was completely empty. At first, Kate thought that she had misunderstood, and he had brought her some place other than his camp. Then she noticed the signs that people, or shifters rather, had lived here recently. There was clothing hanging from a line behind one cabin they passed, shoes neatly lined up outside the door of another.
Callen sent up a howl several times, but no one responded. He couldn’t hear anyone for miles. The closer they walked to the heart of his camp, the more agitated Callen became. Finally, he shifted and ran at break-neck speed.
Kate could feel the terror rolling off of Callen as he raced through the woods, presumably to other key locations. Then he sent up another howl, and another. No one responded. His expression when he shifted to human form was beyond shock. He was scared, truly scared, like she’d never seen him before. His fear was palpable, and she’d never felt so helpless in her life. Almost never. She hadn’t been able to save Janie.
Whatever was going on wasn’t hopeless. They found no bodies, blood, or other signs of catastrophe, which meant his pack was likely still alive.
The more they searched, the more the puzzle deepened. A bonfire had been built up by the lake, vegetables lay half cut up and were now rotting in the kitchen of the cookhouse. Books lay opened to the same page on every desk in one of the classrooms. It was as if someone had come in and snatched everyone up in the middle of the day, plucking the kids from their desks, the cooks from the cookhouse, and the rest of the pack from whatever daily chore they had been doing.
“They left,” Callen said as he scrubbed his hand over his eyes and took a deep breath. “No note, no sign of struggle, just gone. But some things are missing. Half the food from one root cellar and all the tents.”
“Tents?” she asked.
“For emergency bugout. The tents are considered crucial to keep the infants and children out of bad weather. My pack can live off the land for anything else they need, but caves aren’t always accessible.”
“Why would they leave?”
“Imminent threat.”
“The WSSO.” She couldn’t bear to finish the thought, not out loud.
“No signs of attack. Everything is where it should be except over one hundred seventy shifters.”
Callen was tied to his pack in ways she couldn’t really understand, and he wasn’t handling their disappearance well. Shock, maybe, certainly overwhelmed and maybe even lost. She couldn’t fathom what he was experiencing.
Kate put her hand in his. For the past two days, he had been keeping her panic attacks at bay. It was time she did something to help him. Beyond holding his hand, she had no idea how to help. If she could login from here, she’d hack a satellite to see where the pack went. But there was no Wi-Fi signal. Even if there were, hacking the government would only cause more trouble in the long run.
“Come on, let’s get you something to eat,” he said, taking her hand.
“Us,” she corrected.
“I’m not hungry.”
He’d eaten only berries since they’d left the gas station, having refused the high-energy protein bars she had in her backpack. He had said he didn’t want her to go hungry. “We’ll find them,” she said.
Callen flashed a smile. He was probably afraid she’d have another panic attack. She’d had a handful of those in the woods. He’d held her at the onset of those attacks, stopping each and every one of them. Here in the middle of a camp with houses and small buildings around, she was fine. It felt like a town, albeit a ghost town.
Callen led her to the biggest house in the center of a half-dozen paths that led outwards, like spokes of a wheel.
“This is Damien and Tess’s house." They had already checked the house for shifters as well as any information about what had happened. “Damien always keeps a stocked fridge, since several of us tend to hang out here a lot.”
She felt like she was intruding on someone’s private space, even though it didn’t seem like anyone would be returning anytime soon. Callen grabbed a pair of sweatpants from the cabinet just inside the door. The cabinet was full of pants and a few shirts, all in different sizes.
“A lot of shifters keep clothing by the door. For anyone who enters after shifting without stripping first. Guards especially don’t have time to strip first, so they shred the most clothes. Damien, Hayden, me. . . It seems there’s always a crisis, so Damien’s is stocked more than most since this is also where we conduct pack business. There’s usually a lot of activity in and out of here. Or there was.”
Callen fell quiet until she caressed his arm. “We’ll find them,” she said.
“Come on, let’s find you something to eat.”
“Us. You’ve got to be hungry, too.”
“Lost my appetite.”
The fridge was indeed stocked, but the power was off. Everything had spoiled.
