Page 57 of Callen's Captive
“How would you know?”
“Because you wouldn’t have left them if there was any real reason to think they wouldn’t make it back.”
He was touched that she thought that highly of him, but until he got back and saw with his own two eyes that Blade, Anna, and Frank were safe, he couldn’t relax.
“I hope you’re right. Even so, if I. . .whenI see Blade again, things will be different between us.”
“Will you tell me what happened?”
Tell her that he’d nearly killed Blade with his jaws? That he’d taken his best friend down with the intent to kill and then he had failed to see that Blade wasn’t completely lost to his wolf? If anyone should have seen that Blade was trapped but not lost, it was Callen. He had failed Blade. He had nearly killed his best friend, and it was all in a day’s work for Callen. The pack expected Callen to put Blade down, without hesitation. In the end, he hadn’t hesitated—that was the worst part.
As Callen gazed into Kate’s face—she was so ready to help him heal—he couldn’t explain that he was the monster. Not because he was shifter, but because of what he did to shifters and humans alike—anyone who threatened the pack.
Callen threaded his fingers through her hair. So silky and soft, like all of Kate.
“I wish I could tell you.” He swallowed, unable to say more.
“Is it because I’m not one of your pack?”
“I’m afraid of what you’ll think of me when you learn the truth. I don’t think I can handle you looking at me differently, Kate.”
“You already know everything I’ve done, Callen. Whatever you’ve done can’t be worse.”
He kissed her forehead and pulled her to his chest and walked into the small cave-like area created by a rock outcropping. “We’re going to sleep here tonight, and it’s going to get cold. I don’t want to build a fire and attract attention. You can sleep in my arms or not. It’s your choice.” She belonged in his arms, but he’d meant it when he said it was her choice. He’d never force her to do anything again.
“I think together would be nice,” she said as her hand came around his back and she held him tight, as if to say she was there for him.
They laid down where it was dry, just as the rains returned. Kate’s skin was like ice, but quickly warmed as he wrapped himself around her. They lay there, watching the rain fall beyond the rock ledge.
“What’s a blood-bond?”
Callen took a deep breath. There was no escaping this, not given how persistent she was. “It’s the equivalent to a marriage among shifters, except it’s permanent. There’s no divorce in shifter communities. During the ceremony, the male and female cut their palms, and then they clasp them together, so their blood mixes. Genetic material is exchanged, changing each shifter slightly as they share their gifts. They’re bound together in this way, and I’m told some shifters even gain a sixth sense about where their mates are, if they’re in danger and so on. There’s an unbreakable sense of oneness, of being whole that builds on the love they already have for one another.”
“It sounds beautiful and scary.” She fell silent, and he wondered what she was thinking, if the idea of a blood-bond scared her, as it did some shifters.
“You said you wanted to blood-bond me, Callen. Why?”
“I spoke rashly, Kate. I was only trying to find a way of telling you that I don’t think of you as less than me. Yes, I recognize you’re human, but it’s simply who you are, and I could never hate anything that makes you who you are. I care for you, Kate, and yet I’m not good at showing it. I don’t do poetry or know how to cook, or any of the stuff a guy should be able to do for a girl.”
For some reason, she nestled in closer to him. “That’s not the stuff that matters.”
Perhaps not, but he still didn’t know what he could offer her. She could barely tolerate being in the forest and here he’d been thinking of blood-bonding her.
“Don’t worry, Princess. As soon as I deliver the details of those files to Damien, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.” He pulled her closer, fearing that this would be one of the last times he’d get to hold her in his arms.
