Page 78 of Callen's Captive
Chapter Sixteen
KATE
To Kate’s surprise, the shifters who had taken her let her keep her backpack. That alone helped calm her as she trudged through the woods. She had no idea where they were going or why they’d taken her.
After Callen had gone down the ladder to the root cellar, Kate had laid down on the sofa and closed her eyes. She was struggling to come to terms with the fact that Callen would be returning to his pack. Every time she thought of him leaving, her throat tightened up and she got mad, madder than she should.
None of this was Callen’s fault, but she wasn’t ready to let him go. He’d wormed his way into her life and now that she’d finally come to accept that she could be happy, that she truly cared for someone, he wanted to leave. ‘Wanted’ was the operative word since Damien hadn’t ordered him. There had to be another way.
That’s what she had been thinking when a hand had clamped over her mouth, preventing her from screaming. The second shifter held a grenade over the root cellar and threatened to drop it down if she didn’t cooperate. She’d gone with them quietly to keep them from killing Callen.
Now they walked, single file, one large shifter in front of her and an even larger one behind. Large pines loomed everywhere. The shifter behind her growled, but Callen wasn’t there to calm her. The trees started closing in. It took everything she had to stay upright and keep moving.
She considered swinging her pack to her front and reaching in for her gun, but at most she’d only get one of them. She had to be patient, wait for them to stand together, giving her a chance at shooting both.
The shifter in front of her growled in a way that made goosebumps rise on her arms. The trees started spinning. Kate ground to a halt and closed her eyes.
“Get moving,” the shifter behind her said. He shoved her forward, sending her sprawling onto the ground. Her forehead struck a rock. Confusion and nausea kept her from rising. As the lead shifter bent down to pull her up, a third growl came from their right.
There stood a brown and tan wolf, gums pulled back and a very scary snarl aimed at her and the two shifters beside her. Both shifters dropped to the ground as they shifted into pure white wolves. They were massive. The brown and tan didn’t have a chance against them.
The white wolves snapped their teeth and growled their threats, warning the brown and tan off. Kate backed away, only for one of the white wolves to nip at her leg anytime she moved. That’s when the brown and tan lunged. He knocked one white wolf aside, throwing both of them into a roll that ended with the white wolf smashing into a tree. The second white wolf slammed his body into the brown and tan before the intruder could escape the blow.
The enemy wolf was lighter and faster, surging back to his feet as the first white wolf leapt behind him, cutting off his escape. When the two white wolves surrounded him, he snarled—not at the white wolves, but at Kate.
Kate tried to pull herself up, but the trees were still closing in. She lost her footing, and rolled down the hill, slammed into a tree forty feet away. Fortunately, her backpack and not her head took the brunt of the impact. None of the shifters had followed her. This was her chance to get away.
She ran as fast as she could, not sure where she was going. Another series of growls echoed through the forest, adding to her confusion as they seemed to come from all directions. The brown and tan wolf jumped in front of her, causing her to fall to her knees in front of him. His jaws, dripping blood, opened inches from her throat.
* * *
CALLEN
Callen’s wolf followed Kate’s scent trail south for an hour before he halted. Blood. Her blood was here, along with blood from one of the shifters who’d taken her. A third shifter’s scent was now present. What the hell was going on? Who had her and why? Ultimately, it didn’t matter who. He’d kill whoever had taken her, hurt her.
Their trail led down the hill, toward an old shifter camp, abandoned long ago after a forest fire. It had belonged to Drake and Hayden’s grandfather Jacob, before a pact between Jacob and Oskar declared it neutral territory. And then a family of bear shifters had taken over the area, which introduced a whole other set of issues. Either way, at least Callen had a sense of where the shifters who kidnapped Kate were headed, and how he could cut them off.
Even as his wolf forged ahead at top speed, Callen questioned the wisdom of leaving the trail. What if he was wrong and they changed directions? He could be wasting valuable time.
Images of Chitman and his friends slammed him hard, nearly causing his wolf to lose his footing. His wolf growled at him for the distraction. Callen gave his wolf more control, knowing it would increase his speed, hone his focus on the task of finding Kate, and hunting the shifters who took her.
* * *
Staying low to the ground,Callen surveilled the area. He stepped slowly, lightly, carefully, so no branches broke beneath his paws. Kate’s scent was thick with fear here. They’d threatened or hurt her, his female. Not his mate, but soon. He would claim her through a blood-bond.
Three distinct scents beside hers were on the ground and in the air. None was familiar. They were not family, packmates, or allies.
A branch snapped ahead. Then another. Two white wolves. Both large, but untrained. They hadn’t run perimeter or sniffed for intruders. That’s how he’d gotten so close. Instead of pointing outward toward the woods, they faced the brown and tan wolf who stood almost directly in front of Kate. The brown and tan was too close. A single swipe from his claws could kill her.
The wind shifted. The scent of the males’ excitement sickened Callen. He’d seen this warped behavior among white wolves once before, years ago. They would take her, claim her, then kill her.
Callen needed to take out the brown and tan wolf first, get him away from Kate. The wind shifted again. Growls from all three wolves blended together. Warnings, threats. They must have scented him!
“Please leave me alone!” Kate pleaded. The panic in her voice was making Callen and his wolf crazed, but he had to get into position.
“Just let me go,” she pleaded.
It was time. Callen had done this before. Knock an innocent out of the way and slice through an opponent’s throat in one move. She’d be sore later, but she’d be alive, unlike the brown and tan wolf.
