Chapter 126 Chapter 126
Shaelan hadn’t gone far. Calum was thankful that she knew enough not to take off alone. He could hear her sobbing and felt like the air was harder to draw into his lungs. His cat had gone completely still. Figures, he thought, bail on me and leave me to do this without help.
Moving silently, he went over and pulled her to her feet, and tried to wrap his arms around her, but she swatted them away. “Shaelan…”
She jabbed him in chest with her finger and glared at him through the tears. “This he-man, king of the jungle stuff is ridiculous.” Shaking her head, she stepped back from him and hugged her arms around her waist. “I don’t care if this is how it is in the animal world.” She paused and looked at the ground, “a week ago, I didn’t live in the animal world with all…” her hands waved in the air, “this.”
He moved to go to her, his cat reappearing and almost shoving him, but the warning look she gave him told him he needed to ride it out a bit longer.
“Leroy is a cruel, sick man that has filled the lives of the whole village with violence and fear.” She stomped over and smacked him on the chest. “How is fighting him by using more violence going to change that?” Turning away from him, she stood and looked into the night.
For whatever reason, he had always thought mates couldn’t harm one another, yet she’d smacked him twice now. Before this, no one would have dared. His mate was incredible, filled with so much emotion and passion. He clenched his jaw, so he wouldn’t grin at this revelation. She put her head down and started sobbing again. Moving quickly, he grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. “It’s going to be okay, love.”
“You can’t.” She looked up at him with tears running down her face once more. “You could die.” She buried her face in his chest again.
He could, he knew that, but it didn’t mean he was going to dwell on it. “There is no other way, that I can think of to end this.” Lifting her chin so she’d look at him, “It could take weeks for the alliance to get everything under control—without going in guns blazing and innocents getting hurt.” He wiped a tear from her cheek. “How many more people will pay the price with Leroy and his henchmen in that time?” Smirking, he tried to lighten the mood. “The cave isn’t big enough for the whole village.”
Taking a ragged breath, she shook her head. “You can’t. There has to be another way.”
The way she was looking at him, almost had him willing to back down, then he remembered how her mouth had looked when it was swollen. How she’d risked her own life to save his. How right in this very moment there was a man that may never recover in the cave. Gene, he couldn’t think of a worse way to go, lost, alone and no one would have known if Calum hadn’t gone in that direction by mistake. He ran his hand down her back gently. “I can’t think of another way, love, and believe me I’ve been thinking about it since the moment I regained consciousness.”
“What if… what if… you…”
He placed a finger gently over her lips. “Don’t think like that. I can’t think like that going into it.” Moving his finger, he replaced it with a soft kiss. “For all we know, he may just turn tail and run when confronted by someone that isn’t afraid of him.”
“You’re not afraid of him?” She blew out a shaky breath. “Everyone is afraid of him.”
He shook his head and smirked. “I don’t think they are. You’re not, or you wouldn’t have marched up to Nona’s when you were just a kid and asked to learn how to care for every person in that village.” Kissing her again, he continued. “How can I not help my mate do that?”
“I could see even then, that people needed help.” She exhaled a ragged breath, “Nona was always so strong, always knew what to do… I want to be like that.”
“You are.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not, or I would have a better solution than you fighting him.”
He grinned. “It’s who I am, I can’t walk away when someone is in trouble… never could, despite Devin and Gage trying to drag me away. I got them beat on many times while we were growing up.” Hugging her, he inhaled that sweet cinnamon scent. “And now fate has given me a mate that compliments who I am perfectly.”
She leaned back and looked up him with a questioning look.
He shrugged, “you can patch me up afterward, whenever I have to step into a situation.”
The look she gave him, told him that revelation was not a good thing. When she blew out a breath, he could feel some of the anguish leave her on it.
Her dark eyes moved over his face for a moment. “You can’t just walk in the gates and call him out.” Biting her lip, she paused briefly. “I think he has someone watching it all the time. It has to be a surprise, catch him and the men loyal to him off guard.” She leaned into his chest and rubbed her face there.
He grinned, she may not realize it, but that was very cat like gesture. “I was thinking I’d go to Nona’s tonight and already be in the village in the morning.” Looking back up at him, she searched his face as a shudder went through him seeing the soft expression in her eyes. “Everyone can hide at Nona’s.” He hoped it was a small consolation that he wasn’t going to try to exclude her from this, of course that didn’t mean he was letting her watch, either.
Biting her bottom lip again, she shook her head. “Chad can’t be moved yet, and I don’t think Dale and Marc are ready to be…” she gave him an annoyed look, “physical.”
He looked from her mouth back to her eyes as she kept nibbling at that lip when she talked it through. When this was over, if he was still standing, he was abducting his mate and spending a week with her, alone, without interruption. “They’ll be safe here. I’ll text Jesse to send someone here when they’re coming back up here.”
She nodded, but didn’t say anything.
He pulled her closer, just in case she had any ideas about hitting him again, sensing that now would not be a good time to tell her he found it sexy as hell that she did. She looked up at him for a long, silent moment, then reached up and grasped his hair to pull his head down to hers. She kissed him with such passion, he had to remind himself they weren’t alone out here as he pulled her tight against his body and molded her to him with his roaming hands.
Pulling her mouth away just as suddenly, she glared up at him. “If anything happens to you. No one responsible will survive. I will tear them apart with my own hands.” With that she stepped out of his arms and started back down the incline. “I’ll tell everyone to get ready to go.”
Calum stood there and watched her go. Blowing out a long, drawn-out breath, he rubbed a hand over his chest again where it still stung from her palm. Two weeks, he needed at least two weeks alone with her… for a start. Shaking his head, he went down the incline to see Devin and Gage waiting there and looking at him.
“That went well,” Devin said with sarcasm.
Inhaling sharply, Calum glanced toward the cave. “Yeah.”
Gage motioned to the cave. “The girls are getting our stuff. Marilyn took off back to the village as soon as you went after Shaelan.”
Nodding, Calum turned and looked out into the night. “I don’t see another way…”
Devin moved to stand beside him. “We don’t either.” He glanced over his shoulder. “They’re going to be pissed when they realize Gage and I won’t be standing idly nearby.”
Gage tapped Calum on the back. “We’ll be there to even the odds, something tells me this Leroy won’t fight a fair fight.”
Rubbing the spot on his chest again, Calum sighed. “Just don’t let him shoot me with a fucking tranquilizer dart.”
The walk to Nona’s was long, tension keeping every person there silent. Crouching down, he paused to watch Shaelan and Billie move by him to catch up to the others. Neither had been in touch with their new-found cat side long enough to have it ingrained in their movements, but they moved as silently and stealthy as the others. It was just one more thing that showed him they had grown up under all the wrong circumstances, yet learned it to survive.
Gage stopped beside him and nudged him. “Knock it off. The rage coming off you has my cat wanting blood.”
Huffing out a breath, Calum tried to shake the feeling off. “Stockpile that feeling, we may need an enraged tiger before this is over.” He watched Shaelan motion for Billie to keep going and then turned around and looked back at him. She hadn’t said a word to him since she’d walked out of the cave carrying his pack. He honestly had no idea if that was a good or bad thing. This mating stuff was complicated enough, he could have done without all the other complications involved. Things like being held captive, escaping, and freeing a whole village from a maniac.