Callan: Outback Shifters #2

by Chant, Zoe

  Ella couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at that. “Yeah. I can see how that story might make you sound like a crackpot. Not sure the police would take it all that seriously.”

  Her father nodded. “It was always my intention to get word to you – to someone – but Hargreaves weren’t exactly impressed with me. It was… impossible for me. I was watched. Constantly. It was like being imprisoned. No –” His voice cracked slightly. “It was being imprisoned. I thought I would die there, in the room they were keeping me in.”

  Ella swallowed, feeling her own tears rising irresistibly in her eyes. “How long… how long did they –” She couldn’t finish the question.

  “Ten years, I think. I don’t know. A long, long time.”

  Ella stared at him.

  Ten years. Practically a prison sentence.

  Her father might have made mistakes, but it was clear that he’d also paid for them – and that he’d tried to do the right thing, in the end.

  Everything about her life – all the questions she thought she’d never have answers to – was beginning to fall into place. Her father had loved her, after all. He’d sent her away not because he didn’t care, but to protect her. He hadn’t contacted her not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t.

  There were still one or two things she didn’t quite understand, however.

  “But… if Hargreaves were watching you so closely, who made the phone call to me to tell me to get the notes? It wasn’t you – or at least, it didn’t sound like you,” Ella said dubiously.

  For the first time in their conversation, her father looked cagey. “I… want to tell you that. But…” He trailed off. “No, that’s not correct. I don’t want to tell you. Because it would put him in danger. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I can’t take any chances with his safety. Not after everything he’s done for me.”

  “He’s someone who works for Hargreaves?” Ella asked, before shaking her head. The answer was obvious. And her father had just told her he wouldn’t give away their identity, with good reason.

  Her father sighed. “Yes. I suppose there’s no point in hiding that. But I have reason to believe Hargreaves aren’t the only people he works for.”

  A deep cover agent, Ella realized in a flash of insight. She didn’t voice the thought, however – but she was beginning to see why Hargreaves had suspected her father from the start. For someone who had tried to pull the wool over the eyes of such a ruthless organization, he was a surprisingly terrible liar.

  “In any case, I don’t know much about him,” her father said. “Enough that I knew that I had to trust him when he told me that Hargreaves were going to start coming after you. I don’t know what tipped them off finally that you had what they were searching for – and they clearly thought everything they needed would be on that necklace.”

  Ella nodded. “They didn’t know about the notes. But why did you choose that spot to put them? How did you even know it was there? It was a good hiding place, though.”

  A long silence followed her question. She glanced up, but her father seemed lost in thought, his head bowed.

  “It was… a place your mother and I used to visit, when we were young. I was studying here. That was how we met. It was… it was the place I asked her to marry me. The place where we started our life together. I didn’t know what a brief time we were going to have together then, of course.” He drew in a deep breath. “She loved hiking, exploring. She loved showing me parts of Australia that perhaps no one else had seen – or at least, not for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. I didn’t want to put those notes in that place – it felt almost as if I was desecrating a place that was pure, free of all the things I’d done. But I couldn’t think of anywhere else.”

  Ella blinked, feeling tears rolling down her cheeks. Lifting her hand, she wiped them away, trying to swallow down the lump in her throat.

  When she looked up, she saw tears streaming down her father’s face, mirroring her own. He lifted his own hand to her cheek, gently brushing her tears away.

  “I’ve been such a fool – and believe me, I know the price of what I’ve done. I deserve whatever punishment I receive, and all the punishment I’ve already gotten. But know this, Ella – sometimes, in the darkest times… the only thing I had to hang on to was the thought that if I had a hand – even a small one – in creating you, then I couldn’t be all bad. That there was hope for me. You were always a beautiful, brilliant point of light in my heart. Whenever I felt hopeless, I remembered you – remembered the little girl who had always looked at me like I was someone worth admiring. And it was that, finally, that made me realize I had to do what I did. That I had to be the person you thought I was – at least, back then. I don’t blame you for whatever you must think of me now.”

  Her father trailed off, lifting a hand to his face. He took a deep breath. Ella felt her heart pounding in her chest. These were words she’d never imagined hearing from him. Never imagined that he would even feel.

  “I’m sorry, Ella. For everything.”

  Ella had leaned forward before she could think, wrapping her arms around him. He seemed to sit, stunned, for a moment, before finally he raised his arms and hugged her back.

  Squeezing her eyes closed, Ella stayed where she was, feeling a strange kind of peace flowing through her heart as she pulled her father into the hug she never thought she’d be able to give him – and felt him hugging her back, just as fiercely.

  * * *

  Callan was waiting to meet her when she exited her father’s hospital room. He looked at her questioningly, but the small, shaky smile she gave him seemed to at least partially reassure him that she was okay.

  And I am, Ella thought, a little to her own surprise.

  Of course, she realized that her life was never going to be the same again – but the thought was as exciting as it was scary. A new world had been opened up to her. A frightening one, in many respects, but also one of intense beauty and new horizons. One she couldn’t wait to begin exploring.

  And one that includes Callan, she thought, looking up at him. And that would be worth anything.

  The glow in her chest surged suddenly as she looked at him. Perhaps he could feel it too, because the intense look in his eyes as he returned her gaze made her shiver, a tingle running down the full length of her spine.

  “How is he?” Callan asked.

  “He’s fine,” Ella said. “Or he will be. He’s definitely on the road to recovery.”

  “And you?”

  Ella hesitated a moment – but only for a moment. “I’m… also going to be fine. This is going to take some getting used to, but…”

  She didn’t need to finish the sentence. She knew Callan understood.

  She’d have to get used to having a father again – a father who, for all the mistakes he’d made, loved her, and had always loved her. A father who was a deeply flawed man who’d caused a great deal of problems and hurt, but wasn’t an evil or irredeemable person. A father who wanted to try to make up for the things he’d done.

  Ella knew it wasn’t just that she’d have to get used to the fact that her father wasn’t necessarily the person she’d always thought of him as.

  She’d also have to think hard about whether she was the person she’d always thought of herself as: a spiky loner with a chip the size of Tasmania on her shoulder, who didn’t get over a grudge in a hurry.

  Can I really do it? Can I forgive him?

  That was the question she had to ask herself. Both personally and professionally. As a scientist, she deplored that he’d sold out his ethics, even if only temporarily, for the lure of the money Hargreaves had promised him. As a daughter, she wondered if she could fully forgive him for all the years she’d felt abandoned by him. Knowing that he’d had his reasons only slightly softened the blow. If he hadn’t agreed to work for Hargreaves in the first place, none of it would have been necessary.

  “Well, let’s not talk about this anymore,” Ca
llan said. “You must be tired.”

  “I am,” Ella admitted. “And as much as I know I need to think this stuff through, I’m just not really in the mood right now.”

  “You take as much time as you need,” Callan said. “There’s no timeline for this – just know I’ll always be here for you. No matter when you need me, or how long it takes you.”

  Warmth flooded Ella’s chest, filling her heart with love.

  “I know you will be,” she said softly. The urge to reach out and touch him was near-overwhelming, but Ella resisted it. Despite the fact she was proud of the bond she shared with Callan, she still wasn’t one for public displays of affection. And right now, she knew if she touched him, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from wanting more.

  “Come on,” Callan said. “Let’s get you home.”

  He nodded to the two plain-clothed guards who were standing by her father’s hospital room door, before he put an arm lightly over her shoulder.

  Ella shivered at the contact.

  “Yeah, let’s,” she said, smiling up at him.

  Everything’s going to be fine.

  She knew it with a sudden, perfect clarity. She wasn’t sure where the thought had come from, but somehow, she knew it was true. The world might be a complicated and uncertain place, and nothing would ever change that. But knowing she had Callan by her side – forever – was one thing that seemed completely simple and utterly certain.

  And as long as they had each other, she knew that they could get through anything. Together, there was nothing they couldn’t do.

  He’s mine. And I’m his.

  The thought echoed in her head, filling her heart with light.

  And right now, there was nothing she wanted to do more than show him just how thoroughly they belonged to each other.

  “Yours or mine?” Callan asked – and Ella could hear the rough edge in his voice, showing just how aware he was of the turn of her mind.

  “Isn’t yours closer?”

  “I think so.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Chapter 20

  Ella was honestly surprised they made it out of the hotel elevator without throwing themselves at each other and making out with wild abandon, regardless of her feelings on PDA.

  The heat between them had grown during the ten-minute car ride, and by the time the ding! signaling the elevator’s arrival went off, it had reached almost a fever pitch.

  Callan fumbled with the keypass to the room in his urgency – the first time Ella had ever seen him make any kind of clumsy movement – and his lips were on hers before the door had even closed behind them.

  Ella threw her head back, giving herself over to it, as his arms wound around her back. He lifted her up as if she weighed nothing at all, spinning her around slightly as he carried her toward the bedroom and laid her down on the bed.

  “You seem happy,” Ella laughed, a lightness of spirit she hadn’t felt in a long time spreading through her.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” Callan gazed down at her, face serious, but eyes dancing with laughter. “I’ve got you. And whatever happens in the future, I’ll always have you. And you’ll always have me.”

  Ella grinned at him. The words were so close to her thoughts back at the hospital that she wondered for a moment if Callan might have read her mind. But she had often felt that way – and he had explained that his diprotodon had a keen empathetic response to people, so it only made sense that he responded to her emotions. The mated bond probably only made it even more powerful.

  “Well, when you put it like that,” she said. “Sounds perfectly reasonable.”

  “Believe me, nothing about my feelings for you is reasonable,” Callan replied, a slight growl in his voice that sent a delightful shiver of anticipation deep into Ella’s stomach. She could already feel heat gathering within her – and she could tell by the hardness pressing against her thigh that Callan was right there with her.

  It was obvious he had no patience to wait. He stripped off his clothes quickly and efficiently, tossing them across the room. Ella let her gaze drift appreciatively over him: the hard planes of his body, the dips and grooves of his muscles.

  He’s magnificent. Truly magnificent.

  She fumbled with her own clothes – her shirt, the pants she’d bought just so she’d have something decent to go visit her father in, since she’d had no time to replace what had been trashed at her house – and let them fall.

  Her fingers were clumsy in their urgency as she tried to unhook her bra, until Callan’s hands came up, covering them, and undid the clasp with ease.

  His eyes were hungry as they looked her over, and Ella found herself growing even more desperate for his touch as his gaze roved over her body. She had never seen such desire in someone’s eyes before. She’d barely even considered that she could be the object of such desire.

  She had been too frightened of ever letting herself get close enough to someone for that; in cutting herself off from others, she’d also cut herself off from herself. From the side of herself that wanted to be wanted.

  I could never let myself go like that, Ella thought. I was always cutting off my feelings before I could feel them properly. I was terrified of being abandoned, being alone. And so I just never let anyone get close enough to leave me.

  Ella closed her eyes, glorying in the feel of Callan’s body above hers, the warm golden glow around her heart bright and throbbing.

  She knew she’d never have to worry about that with Callan, though. They’d already been through so much together, and she knew what their bond meant. What the glow in her chest meant.

  He’s mine. And I’m his. Forever.

  She groaned as Callan pulled back slightly, looking down at her. He raised his hand, brushing some hair back from her face.

  “Ella, are you sure you’re okay? Not too tired?”

  Ella shook her head. “Believe me, I appreciate you asking. And to be honest, I’m kind of hungry. But right now, I don’t really care.”

  “We can get room service afterwards,” Callan said, leaning down to kiss her cheek, his hand running down her side, making her shudder. “No need to leave the hotel room for the rest of the day.”

  “That sounds – oh God – that sounds nice,” Ella gasped, squirming under his touch as his fingers drifted over her breast, teasing her nipple.

  He laughed softly as she hissed out a breath, back arching.

  I love you, she thought, as her eyes slid closed, glorying in the feeling of his touch. I love you so much.

  And I love you. More than I can ever say.

  The answering thought was in her head a moment later. Ella was too lost in her own pleasure to really think about what it might mean – but even so, she didn’t care. It seemed natural that she’d be able to sense such a strong emotion from him.

  We’re mates, after all.

  His kisses were hungry, consuming, and Ella simply opened her mouth to him, winding her arms around his neck, drawing him closer. His knee nudged her thighs apart and she spread her legs willingly, wanting to feel him between them.

  Ella cried out as his fingers found her, stroking gently, finding exactly the right spot immediately. Her fingers dug into the hard muscle of his back as she shuddered against him, eyes squeezed shut.

  She whimpered when his mouth slid down, kissing over her neck and throat.

  “Oh God. Please, just – don’t make me wait –”

  Ella couldn’t stop the stream of words leaving her lips. There’d be plenty of time later for them to take things slow.

  Right now, she knew what she wanted.

  “Don’t make you wait? For what?”

  Callan’s smile was mischievous as the tip of his finger circled her slowly, sending a spasm of ecstasy straight up her spine.

  “Oh my God, you know what I mean,” Ella managed to get out as her body was wracked with pleasure. “Is there any way of trading in mates? Do I get a receipt or something?”

  “No
pe,” Callan said, still grinning. “You’re stuck with me for good.”

  “I suppose I’ll just have to make the best of it then,” Ella replied, as her fingers curled into his back again, her spine arching. “Though your manager can expect a call about unsatisfactory service.”

  “Oh, no. I suppose I better do what I can to make up for it,” Callan said. “I take complaints of this nature very seriously.”

  “I should hope so,” Ella said, looking him in the eye as he positioned himself above her. “It’d be very bad policy to leave someone dissatis-fied!”

  The ending of the word came out as a shriek as Callan thrust forward, entering her in one swift, smooth motion that had Ella seeing stars. Pleasure tore through her, leaving her feeling utterly breathless.

  Her heart raced, wreathed in the golden light of the mated bond. She could feel it growing, glowing brighter with every movement their bodies made. This – this togetherness – was the affirmation of everything the bond stood for, she realized. She was more open and vulnerable now than she’d ever been before in her life.

  And to Ella’s surprise, the thought didn’t scare her at all.

  Instead, she felt only love.

  Love, and excitement for where the future would carry them together.

  Heat raced through her veins. She could hear herself crying out, and hear Callan’s answering groan every time he thrust forward, filling her to utter perfection.

  Ella wound her legs around him, pulling him closer, raising her hips to meet his thrusts.

  “Oh God, Ella…”

  His gasped-out words sent a shudder through her. Hearing him say her name like that – in that desperate, breathless way – filled her with desire. She knew nothing would ever compare to this – to knowing that Callan felt exactly the same way about her as she did about him. And knowing that it was forever.