Page 81 of Callen's Captive
“No one’s coming. We wait while he heals. His wolf will heal the worst injury first, but it takes time. Until the artery is repaired, I have to apply pressure, so he doesn’t bleed out.”
“Then we wait.” She sat down across from him, on the other side of Blade. With the gun still in her right hand, she placed the back of her left hand on Blade’s forehead. “He’s burning up.”
“That’s normal for a severe injury. It means his wolf is working very hard to repair the damage.”
“He challenged two white wolves earlier, both at the same time. He kept them occupied long enough for me to escape. I didn’t realize who he was or even what he was doing. I only knew I had a chance to run, and I did. It didn’t take the white wolves long to catch up to me again, but he was fast, Callen. He got between us. When I moved, he moved, keeping me at his back.”
The sorrow in her face, the heaviness to her voice made Callen want to pull her tight against him, but he didn’t dare take his hands off of Blade.
“He was protecting you. He must have recognized your scent.”
“How?”
“From the cabin. The same place I first learned it.”
“Was he out here looking for us?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where’s Anna?”
“I don’t know that either, Princess.” He had softened his voice, both to keep her calm and to keep from distracting Blade’s wolf. Callen couldn’t let anger rule here. He didn’t want to scare her. He was scared enough for both of them.
Blade shouldn’t have been here, shouldn’t have inserted himself into danger, but of course he did. He had picked up Kate’s scent somewhere and knowing Blade, he had investigated. He wasn’t a guard, but he could fight if he had to. He had some good moves, and he was fast, but he was trained as a scout. He hoped for Blade’s sake that Anna was somewhere safe.
The silence stretched for another hour. Callen’s arms were getting tired and his body felt as if it was locking up. When he started rotating his head, to relieve the tension, Kate said, “We should switch.”
“Not taking my hands off of him until I know he’s healed.”
“When will you know?”
“When he opens his goddamn eyes.”
He didn’t mean to take any of this out on her. It was his failing. He had left her alone upstairs in Damien’s house. It had never occurred to him that she wasn’t safe there, of all places, in the middle of his territory. He should have known that without guards patrolling the border, sooner or later, another pack or lone wolves would move in to lay claim to Damien’s land.
Callen had been so shortsighted of late. To top it all off, he hadn’t recognized Blade’s scent. How could that be? Had he been too distracted, too focused on finding Kate, that he made an assumption that the third scent belonged to another adversary? These were not the skills that would take Drake down. Maybe Callen needed to consider a suicide mission instead of a plan with an exit strategy.
Small but strong hands began working the knots out of his neck and shoulders. Kate had slipped in behind him to massage his muscles. Having her scent so close comforted both him and his wolf. She was the reason he could never take on a suicide mission.
He had promised he wouldn’t leave her, but he had already broken that promise, hadn’t he? He said he planned to return to his pack to aid Damien. Maybe if he told her about his plans to work with Hayden and take Drake down, then return to her, he could smooth things over with her. Then again, she’d worry about him, and there was an increasing probability that he might not return. Better that she should move on with her life and think he returned to his pack.
Kate stopped massaging his muscles and drew her gun. “Do you hear that?”
Three, no four wolves. Hell, five.They were being surrounded. There was no way she could shoot them all before they’d get her. Callen couldn’t let go of Blade. Even switching with her, letting her keep up the pressure was risky. She’d have to put the gun down, and he couldn’t shift until she took over. That would give the enemy the advantage they needed. Right now, Kate and her gun were their only defense.
“Stay calm. And breathe,” he said, trying to calm her. She was already holding her breath from fear. “We’ll get through this.” If he had to shift to protect her, he would, but he would buy whatever time he could first, to give Blade the best chance of surviving.
“What do I do?”
“Nothing, yet. But if I shift, get down here and apply as much pressure as you can. Put all your weight into it.”
