Page 83 of Callen's Captive
When both shifters started to protest, Drake silenced them with a slight snarl. “I’ll hear your side later.”
“They threatened to drop a grenade into the root cellar where Callen was if I didn’t go with them.”
“Root cellar?”
“She was in Damien’s house. You said to find and bring her back.”
Drake brushed the hair off Kate’s forehead, exposing the gash. Callen growled again. Kate wanted to go to him, to assure him she was fine, but given the tension in the group, she didn’t want to move or cause the situation to degrade.
With a long exacerbated sigh, Drake cupped her cheek. “I picked up your scent nearby two days ago. I thought you were looking for me, that maybe something had happened, and you were in trouble. I sent my two best shifters to escort you to me. My fault, really. I should have made it clear that you are an ally.”
“We understood,” the taller shifter said. “That’s why we pulled her away from Damien’s house as quietly as we could. We threatened his life to get her to cooperate.”
“You threatened to blow him up! Of course, I cooperated!”
“They didn’t say anything about bringing you to me?” Drake closed his eyes. “Okay, I confess, they’re not mybestshifters, but the two best that are healthy. Many of my shifters were struck by the virus and are still recovering. My apologies for all of this, it should have been avoided. Now, which one of my shifters did that?” he asked pointing to Blade.
“You damn well know this is my doing,” Callen said.
“You? Isn’t that rich. Damien’s shifters are turning on one another. Why?”
“I got careless. Nothing more. You can leave now and take your guards with you.”
“A very good idea. You and your scout can stay as long as you need, Ford. But Kate’s coming with me.”
* * *
CALLEN
“The hell she is,” Callen said, knowing he had nothing to back up his words. Abso-friggin-lutely nothing.
“Callen?” Kate looked confused and slightly nervous, but not scared. She had no idea who she was dealing with in Drake. She saw him as a friend, a shifter-ally named Logan instead of the duplicitous maniac that he was. Hell, the alpha had taken his uncle’s name as a disguise, a shifter who was even worse than Drake, an alpha who terrorized too many innocents in his time.
“Please, Kate. Trust me on this. Stay here, with me.”
She faced Drake again. “I think I should stay here. Callen needs someone to watch him while Blade heals. And he’s getting tired.”
Her dark eyes never left Callen’s. Her worry for him was touching, but misplaced. She was the one in danger.
“It’s time I took over for Callen, give him a chance to rest.”
Drake bent down and placed the back of his hand on Blade’s forehead. “You can’t, Love. If he takes the pressure off, even for a second, the scout won’t survive the sudden change in pressure.”
“What does that mean?” Kate asked.
“Some theorize that once a wolf starts healing a deadly wound, any interruption could cause the wolf to back away and not restart the healing. Letting go, changing the pressure even for a second could do just that,” Drake explained.
Callen hadn’t wanted to tell her that, to worry her further. Damn, Drake had a way of spinning situations to his advantage. Callen read it in her face; she was torn, not sure what to do.
She began biting the silver pendant again, a sure sign of how stressed she was. Her eyes focused on the tall pines around them. Hell, she was going to have another panic attack and he couldn’t do anything to help her while he was bent over Blade.
Callen’s muscles burned from applying pressure for so long, and his wolf hadn’t stopped clawing and nipping at him, trying to get him to protect Kate, but he couldn’t sacrifice Blade, not again.
“It’s okay, Princess. You do what you need to do. Keep your gun on you. I’m sure Drake won’t have any reason to take that from you, will you, Drake?”
Drake lifted his brows, wry amusement in his eyes. “I intend to catch up with her, Ford. See why she’s here and to make sure you haven’t been taking advantage of her.”
Callen bit back the curse that was on the tip of his tongue. He knew Drake’s tactics, and he wasn’t going to let himself be pulled into a pissing match. If Drake intended to harm Kate, he could have done so already. Whatever Drake was up to, Kate was probably safe.Probably.
