Page 61 of Callen's Captive
“Kate, please, talk to me. I promise you, I’m not mad.”
No, he no longer looked mad. Frustrated maybe, or even worried, but not mad. “I didn’t want you to think less of me.”
“Think less of you? Explain.”
“I’m twenty-six, Callen.”
He sighed, and there was something in that sigh that made her insides twist. She’d hurt him. He wasn’t going to say it, but somehow, she’d hurt him.
“When are you going to start trusting me with the truth? It doesn’t matter if you’re twenty-six or eighty-six; it’s something you should have told me.”
“Why?”
“So, I could do things differently.”
“I don’t want different. I want you to treat me like any other woman.”
“You’re not like any other woman. You’re special.”
She rose. Special was never a good word where she grew up.
“Come here,” he said, his voice cold and steely.
He stood opposite her, but looked larger, harder than she was used to seeing him. Reluctantly, she approached. He leaned his forehead against hers. The moment their foreheads touched, she had that instant need to curl into his arms. He was safety, warmth, and peace all wrapped up in one delicious bundle.
“I want you, Kate,” he whispered with all the tenderness she’d felt from him when he was making love to her. “But it has to be right for both of us. This isn’t just about me or you, but us, together. When you’re ready—”
“I am ready,” she said really fast, trying to rectify the situation, but that only seemed to make him mad again as he shook his head and pulled away from her.
“Kate, this isn’t going to work between us unless you start telling me the truth, including when you’re scared or mad, or whatever. When I said I didn’t have a condom, and you said, ‘we’re good’, I thought that meant you were on birth control. I don’t want to get you pregnant, and I sure as hell don’t want you doing something you’re not ready for.”
“I didn’t think we’d go that far, Callen. Then it all just happened so fast.”
“You should have spoken up. I know you’re not shy when it comes to talking back to me, so why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know!”
“Look what Damien’s dog brought us,” said a man’s voice from behind Callen.
Three men, each as big as Callen, stood shoulder to shoulder, effectively blocking their exit.
The yellow in Callen’s eyes were already taking over the brown as his head lifted. He didn’t jump as she had, almost as if he knew who was behind him. Slowly, he turned around.
“Leave,” he said with such a commanding voice that Kate was sure the three shifters would at least back away. They didn’t.
“Our territory, our prize,” the tall guy with the missing pinkie said as he lifted his chin toward Kate.
Kate shrank back into the shadows.
“We’ll be out of your territory in an hour, Shitman.”
“That’s Chitman, asshole, and you know it.”
“Yes, I do,” Callen said with a grin that showed absolutely no fear, only confidence with a heavy dose of challenge.
“I smelled you hours ago, Ford. I was surprised you were this far south, but then I realized you were heading North, so I decided to let you go. Then I picked up the most enticing scent to hit these woods in a long time. Found a few friends and decided to investigate.”
“She’s mine. Leave, before this gets ugly. Last warning, Shitman.”
