Page 127 of Callen's Captive
Callen diverted to intercept the mercenary before he could get far with the child.
The angle wasn’t right. If he lunged at the mercenary, he would hit Molly, hard, too hard. She was so small.
Callen shifted to human form. “You want that necklace, human? Then take me. The child is lousy cover for a man your size.”
The mercenary held Molly by her neck, his entire hand wrapped around her small throat. He put the gun to her head. “I don’t care about the fucking necklace. I just want to get out of here alive.”
“So do I. Give me the child.”
“You’ll kill me, like you did the others.”
“She’s my priority. I can’t chase you down with her in my arms.” Callen had to secure Molly. He would track and kill the asshole later.
The mercenary grabbed Molly by her arm and flung her toward a tree. Callen shifted and leapt and threw his body between her and the tree. Her small body bounced off his wolf, narrowly avoiding the tree. Callen shifted back to human form and ran his hands over her head, neck, and torso, not even sure what he was doing. His hands shook until she opened her eyes.
“I want Mommy.”
Callen scooped her up and held her tight to him, finally able to breathe. “Let’s go find her, okay, Molly?”
Two small hands clung to his neck as he ran back toward camp. Callen passed the child off to the first shifter he spotted that wasn’t a guard. One of the women from the cookhouse. No words were exchanged. None were needed.
“She’s safe,” Callen reported as he stood guard over Damien as the alpha shouted orders to a nearby guard.
“The immediate area is secure,” Damien replied. “Hayden’s still out there, and he’s weak, Callen. He won’t make it far.”
“On it,” Callen said as he shifted and followed Hayden’s scent. Frank’s wolf joined him a moment later.
Hayden had taken a path that would be easy for the soldiers to follow, to draw them as far away from the camp as he could. When Callen and Frank reached the river, they lost Hayden’s scent, but not the mercenaries. Half the footprints led upstream while the rest headed downstream. He and Frank sniffed the ground and the air. Hayden’s scent had completely disappeared. The shifter had entered the river, despite the depth and wild current.
“Shit,” said Frank. “The water’s high. You think he made it across?”
“Don’t know. If he did, he’ll find his way back to us.”
“Want me to hunt one of the groups, reduce their numbers further?”
“They’ll realize soon enough that they’ve lost the advantage when half their team doesn’t check in. For now, we need to secure a perimeter around the pack.”
When they reached camp, Damien was issuing orders as Pryce worked on removing the bullet from his lower leg. Tess was organizing the children who’d been separated from their parents, and Blade was instructing a few teens who would act as messengers between Damien and the other groups of the pack that had fled to safety. They needed to start counting their pack, see who was missing so they could set up search parties and retrieve any injured or dead. Kate was nowhere in sight. Callen’s stomach churned with the reality that Briggs could have her, or worse, she could be dead.
“They split into two groups at the river,” Callen said as Damien cursed up a storm. Pryce was digging deep to remove the bullet.
Even as Callen stood there, his mind going over everything he needed to do to secure the pack, he had trouble focusing. He was frantic for Kate, especially when he looked inward, toward their bond, and sensed nothing. Not even her anxiety, which should be soaring now, traveled across the bond.
“No sign of Hayden. We think he crossed the river at the rapids,” Frank finished reporting for him.
“The rapids? Damn! He’s not strong enough for that.”
“Do you want me to go back?” Callen asked, though what he wanted was to search for Kate. Searching for missing people was Blade’s job right now.
Callen never realized before how having family in a pack could make a shifter vulnerable, how it would change one’s perspective and be so utterly terrifying when that family was in danger. Callen also knew he wasn’t the only one with family here. They all had loved ones, and they all had to do their jobs despite the crushing worry of not knowing who was safe or not.
His job was to secure the entire pack, not only Kate. If the WSSO hadn’t captured her, the search parties would find her. The search parties would stay within the perimeter that his patrols were establishing as they spoke. Only trained guards would venture past the perimeter, but they too would be watchful for any pack members. Callen scanned the camp again. Anna was missing, too. The WSSO could have grabbed her as well. Damn, he should have done as Frank suggested, pursued the WSSO at the river.
“Full sweep and tighten the patrols first,” Damien answered.
“Damien.” Frank nodded his chin toward the edge of camp. There, mostly hidden by a thick pine, stood a white wolf.
“Hayden!” Tess shouted as she started running toward him. She was only a few steps away from the wolf.
