Page 93 of Callen's Captive
“Do you even know what he does, or why he does it?”
Both good questions, to which she had no answers. Torture. Maim. Kill. Drake had laid it out for her. “I don’t understand how he can hurt people, kill people like that. There’s always another way to get information from someone.”
“First of all, shifters, not people, at least not usually. And don’t forget that even when there’s a need for torture, our wolves can heal practically anything, in time. Pain is an effective tool. Secondly, you’re misinformed if you think torturing a spy or traitor is all he does.” Blade wasn’t laughing or grinning as he tended to do so often, even in a serious discussion. His face was quite somber. “He has a lot of layers to him, Kate, and you have to peel them back slowly, or you’ll never get to the real Callen.”
“The real Callen?”
“The shifter who’s good at what he does and takes pride in being the pack’s enforcer. We would have been wiped out several times in the six years I’ve been with the pack if it weren’t for what Callen does. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy for him. He takes no joy in hurting others, Kate. He does it because someone has to, and no one else will.”
Someone has to. Maybe this was a shifter thing, some element of their survival she didn’t understand. “Every pack has an enforcer?”
“Yes. It’s a necessity, like having an alpha and a second. A scout, guards, teachers. . .”
“He said he nearly killed you a few weeks ago, on Damien’s orders. How can you forgive him?”
“Damien or Callen? I can and have forgiven both because neither one of them had a choice in the matter. Everyone thought that I’d turned feral. My wolf trapped me, and only Anna saw it, as any mate would, though we hadn’t blood-bonded at that point. Blood-bonding prevents a shifter from going feral. In any event, Callen didn’t realize I was only trapped, not lost to a feral wolf. I can’t hold that against him.”
“But he nearly killed you, Blade.” She was trying, but wrapping her head around everything he was saying wasn’t easy.
“And it’s tearing him up, except he won’t talk about it with me.” Blade dragged his hand over his face as he looked up to the stars. You think I’ve forgiven him, but it’s not like that. Technically, I can’t forgive him, because there’s nothing to forgive. If you’ve ever seen the destruction a feral wolf can bring to a pack, you wouldn’t question why Damien had ordered me put down or why Callen had agreed to carry out his orders. In fact, I was lucky it was Callen. At least he would do it humanely.”
“Humane? How can killing someone be humane?”
“Putting down is not the same as killing, though the end result is the same. As for humane, there are a lot of slow, painful ways for a shifter to die. And one very quick way, to minimize the terror, the suffering.”
She still wasn’t sure she understood it all, but clearly from what Blade was saying, Callen was not a monster. She cringed at the fact that she’d ever attached that label to him. The image of Janie laying on the floor in her own blood kept popping into her head. Her foster father had been a monster. Callen was nothing like him.
“Quite frankly, Kate, just between us, I was scared. I wanted it to end swiftly, and I didn’t want Anna there. Callen had promised me she wouldn’t be there to witness it, and he kept his promise.”
“What happened? You said he nearly killed you. Did he simply change his mind?”
“Anna happened. She convinced Callen to release me. He took a big risk doing so. I don’t think I would have had the courage he had at that moment had the roles been reversed. Releasing what is probably a feral wolf who can turn on you?” Blade gave a low whistle. “That takes balls.”
Blade spoke of Callen with such honesty and loyalty, and he’d been the one Callen had nearly killed. She hadn’t given Callen any real chance to explain anything. In all fairness, she hadn’t known everything an enforcer did or why. Only that Callen hadn’t told her, and now he barely talked to or looked at her. She’d condemned him based on the WSSO’s profile and they were the last source she should trust.
“Tell me everything, Blade. I need to understand.”
