Page 116 of Callen's Captive
“And stop comparing yourself to Valerie. This isn’t a competition. It’s about finding and using our strengths in ways that help everyone. We’ll find yours soon enough.”
Jason gave him a disheartened smile and ran off to grab something to eat. Callen’s wolf went on high alert. He surveilled the immediate area. It looked like business as usual, some shifters hanging out talking by the food table or the fire, others going about chores. The banging of wood sounded as Yarnell tossed additional wood onto the bonfire. That’s when he spotted his sweet Kate on the other side of the fire, standing with a gun in her hand.
Callen quickly scanned the shifters in the area. All friendlies. As he scented the air, his eyes traveled upward to the trees. There were no snipers in the trees either.
“Kate?” he called as she slowly raised the gun, but she didn’t respond or turn toward him. The safety was already off. She cocked the gun. He followed her line of sight. Hayden!
“Kate, no!” he yelled as the gun fired and kept firing.
He stood there as the compound erupted in shouts and screams. Shifters ran for cover. Three shifters tackled Kate to the ground. Hayden lay prone in the snow, blood spreading across his mid-section.
All sound seemed to disappear, and everyone was moving in slow motion. It was surreal. All Callen could do was watch like he was on the outside of a glass dome, peering inside at some macabre scene within.
A shifter bumped into him. Pryce racing toward Hayden.
Kate’s screams suddenly pierced the fog that had trapped Callen. She was screaming at the shifters to let her go, to stop hurting her. She yelled for him, and his wolf nipped at him to move his ass and protect his mate.
Enid and Lou had already secured her, pinning her arms behind her. Then Hudson backhanded Kate. Callen shifted and ran at full speed. Enid and Lou backed up in time to avoid being run over as he slammed Hudson into a tree.
Before Callen could sink his teeth into the shifter who had struck his mate, a silver wolf slammed him from behind. Callen turned, teeth bared.
Damien shifted. “Enough Callen. They had to restrain her.”
Callen shifted. “He struck her.” Never mind that she’d shot Hayden, something his brain hadn’t fully processed, they were threatening his mate!
Damien turned to Enid and Lou, “Lock her up and guard her. No one’s to see or talk to her except me.”
“Damien—” Callen started to protest.
“Especially not you, Callen.” Damien didn’t stick around to debate. He ran over to Hayden, who lay on the ground, deathly still.
Callen looked at Kate as Enid bound her wrists with rope. “He was going to kill me!” Her eyes kept going toward the trees. “He already tried but the hat man stopped him!”
“Kate.” Callen reached out to touch her, but Lou blocked him.
“You heard Damien. No talking to the prisoner. Certainly, no touching.”
“She’s my mate!” Callen growled.
“Yourmateshot Hayden, in front of a dozen witnesses,” Lou said, not giving an inch. “You don’t want to go up against Damien, Callen. Not on this.”
They escorted her away. She kept looking over her shoulder. “Callen, they’re going to kill me! You promised to protect me, Callen!” She sounded terrified, and she should be. Damien could banish her, even execute her.
“Callen.” Blade was by his side, his voice uncharacteristically serious. “It’s bad. Pryce can’t stop the bleeding.”
As hard as it was to do, Callen turned his back to Kate and followed Blade over to where Pryce and now Alex were working on Hayden. The snow around Damien’s second had turned red. Except for the sound of Pryce shouting at someone to get him the supplies he needed, no one made a sound. Frank cleared the area of shifters the best he could, but even those who never fully accepted Hayden into their pack were shocked to see him so prone, gunned down by a human.
Already, the whispering began. They didn’t understand why Callen had blood-bonded a human who hated shifters. They questioned if she worked for the WSSO. Another postulated that she worked for Drake.
That’s when Callen lost his temper. He charged after Hudson, the shifter who had struck Kate and was now starting rumors that would get her executed.
“Callen!”
Someone was shouting his name as he pounded his fists into Hudson. Two sets of hands yanked him backward. Frank and Blade. Tess jumped in front of Hudson and shifted, ready to defend him.
“Callen, get out of here. Now!” Damien’s voice boomed.
This wasn’t the time to press Damien. Kate was Callen’s priority, and making an enemy of Damien would not help her. Callen pulled away, never breaking eye contact with Hudson until the shifter collapsed.
