Kallen's Atonement (9 page)

They moved in closer to the warehouse. While they outnumbered the Ravens, the birds were proving to be vicious fighters, and they weren’t giving up easily. Kallen was almost taken out three more times before he finally heard the words that he was listening for but dreaded hearing.

“Medic!”

Since Ash had already answered another call for medical assistance, it was up to Kallen to go. He veered to the right, shooting a Raven that was in his path, and made his way to the fallen soldier. This time it was a feline. A panther if he wasn’t mistaken.

The soldier only had a minor leg wound. Kallen quickly patched it up and sent him to the van to be transported back to base.

No sooner was he done with that, than he heard another call of, “Medic!”

He turned to answer it and found himself facing the barrel of a gun. On the other end was a Raven in human form. Like all Ravens, this one was dressed in head-to-toe black leather and had pasty white skin with black hair and dark, soulless eyes.

“What is a Hyena like you doing fighting for the coalition, and why do you reek of feline?” the Raven asked.

Before Kallen could answer, the sound of gunfire went off. At first he winced, thinking it was he who had been shot. Then when the Raven crumpled to the ground and Kallen felt no pain in his body, he realized that he wasn’t the one who had been hit.

He looked behind the Raven and saw Shane there, holding up a gun. Looking to his left and then his right, Kallen saw a relieved looking Drake and Gage who had been trying to make it in time to save him, but each had been too far away.

Shane lowered his gun. “You know what the funny thing is about Ravens?”

Kallen shook his head. Too rattled to speak yet.

Shane continued. “They always have to get talky before they go for the kill shot. That’s why they always leave an opening for us to get them first. Remember that lesson, and you may just live to see another battle.”

“Got it,” Kallen said, finally finding his voice.

“Now are you going to come help this wounded Hawk, or do I have to kill him, so I don’t have to hear him whining anymore?”

Kallen scrambled to his feet, grabbing his bag. “Coming.”

He followed Shane, this time keeping a close look out for any Ravens. The funny thing was, though, when one was with Shane, they tended to run the other way. They finally stopped at a wounded Hawk.

Kallen winced when he saw the chest wound. It reminded him of Drake’s, only a lot worse. He didn’t see how the kid…and the Hawk wasn’t much older than a kid….was going to make it.

Kallen steeled his resolve. He was damned if he was going to lose this patient. “You ready to play nurse?”

Shane shrugged. “Why not? I’ve done worse.”

Kallen got to work. Getting out some O Neg and other supplies. Drake and Gage came over and stood guard while Kallen worked on the patient, and for that, he was grateful. With the condition that the Hawk was in, there was no way he could play both soldier and medic at the same time.

Finally, he got the patient stable enough to move. “Let’s scoop and carry. The sooner we get him to an OR, the better his chances.”

They ran to a van, Gage and Drake providing cover-fire. Once they got there, Kallen called in a report, telling HQ to get an OR at the ready.

The ride back seemed to take forever. Kallen kept the patient alive, but just by a thread. He worked so hard that a sweat broke out over his body, and his adrenaline kicked into overdrive.

Finally, they pulled into the bay that led to the back of the infirmary. Doc Featherstone and Jacyn were waiting. They immediately took over care of the patient. Kallen gave his report, then leaned against the cabinet and let the crash hit him.

“You did good out there,” Shane said.

“So did you, Nurse Shane.”

“Yeah, don’t call me that again.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

The last thing Kallen wanted was to get on Shane’s bad side. But since Shane was smiling at him, Kallen felt pretty safe that he hadn’t pissed him off too bad.

After that, Kallen stuck around and helped with the wounded that were pouring into the infirmary. Things were just dwindling down, and Kallen was washing his hands when he felt a jerking at his arm.

He turned and was confronted with a very angry Drake and Gage. Since Kallen was very tired, he just let out a sigh and said, “Can’t we do this another day, guys?”

Drake took him by the arm and led him from the infirmary. “No, it can’t wait.”

Oops, it looked like Kallen was in big trouble. Bad Hyena. Somebody was due for a spanking, and it wasn’t the good kind.

They took him outside into the hallway and faced off against him like he was some kid in trouble with mommy and daddy. Kallen shot them both a dirty look. While he knew they both had his best interests in heart, that didn’t mean they had the right to treat him like a child.

“Okay, I know I messed up out there. That doesn’t give you two the right to treat me this way,” Kallen said.

“
You messed up out there
?” Gage echoed incredulously. “You almost got yourself killed, and you say you just messed up? That’s putting it mildly. If Shane hadn’t been there, you would have died.”

Drake put his hands on Kallen’s shoulders. “When I saw you in that Raven’s gun-sights and couldn’t get to you in time, I thought I was going to lose you for sure. Do you have any idea what that did to me?”

Kallen felt a moment of guilt. “I’m sorry, guys. I know I should have been paying better attention. I won’t let it happen again.”

Drake grabbed him by the hand and began to drag him toward the feline’s side of the building. “You better believe you won’t because I’m going to make sure you don’t.”

“What are you going to do to me?” Kallen asked as he dug in his heels.

“Nothing you won’t like, so don’t worry about it.”

Kallen un-dug his heels. “Well, when you put it that way.”

“Ewww….do I have to hear those details,” Gage called.

“Payback, brother, for all the times I had to hear you and Branson getting it on,” Kallen said with a wicked smile.

“You heard that?” Gage asked, his eyes growing wide.

“Every single damn time. I may be part Hyena, but I’m part Hawk, too, and I have excellent hearing.”

A chorus of laughter followed that announcement, making Kallen painfully aware that they had drawn an audience. Was nothing private in a coalition or a cast? As it was, several of them had already made comments about how Kallen had been wearing the newest scent of the season, eau de Drake.

Kallen didn’t have much time to be embarrassed, though, before Drake dragged him away. They made their way down the hallway leading toward Drake’s living quarters.

“What exactly are you planning on doing to me?” Kallen asked.

“Fuck you into oblivion. Does that sound okay to you?”

In an instant, Kallen’s body went hard with desire, and he couldn’t wait to get alone with Drake. Desire coursed its way through Kallen, and he wanted to be naked and pressed against Drake as soon as possible.

“It sounds great to me. Just so you know in the future, you never have to ask if that’s okay with me, because the answer is always going to be yes,” Kallen answered.

They finally arrived at Drake’s place. Once Drake opened the door and they got inside, Kallen expected Drake to lead him straight to the bedroom. So when Drake pushed Kallen against the wall, Kallen was confused.

“You have five seconds to take your shirt off and lower your pants down past your hips,” Drake ordered in that no-nonsense voice that never failed to set Kallen off.

Heart beating wildly, Kallen rushed to comply. Once he was finished, Drake had another command. “Turn around and face the wall.”

Once Kallen did as told, Drake pushed him so his body was so tight against the plaster that Kallen had to turn his face with his cheek was pressed against the wall. Drake leaned in and gave Kallen’s ear a love bite.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

The fact that they were still in uniform, covered in dirt and other mess from the battle should have been a turn-off, but it only added to the urgency of the matter. The wildness of the situation. It made Kallen so turned on that his cock was leaking pre-cum.

Then he felt a cool finger pressing against his entrance. Kallen jumped in shock. “Where did you get lube?”

“I swiped some from the infirmary before we left,” Drake explained as he slowly slid in a finger.

“Oh, that feels so good,” Kallen said with a moan.

Drake sawed it in and out for a few moments before adding a second. He worked them in and out, increasing the pace until Kallen was about to beg for mercy. Just when he didn’t think he could take anymore, Drake unzipped his pants, took out his fingers and replaced them with his cock.

Kallen let out a hiss. The intrusion hurt, but it also felt oh, so, so good. Drake only gave him a second to recover before he started to pound into him.

Kallen took it, knowing that Drake needed to feel a good, hard claiming again. After the earlier scare, he needed to make sure that Kallen was alive and well.

“Mine,” Drake said, confirming Kallen’s thoughts.

“Yours,” Kallen assured him.

“My mate.”

Kallen paused. This was the first time that either of them had used the
M
word. Yet, somehow it felt so right that Kallen couldn’t deny it.

“Yes, mate,” he replied.

“Forever.”

“Forever,” Kallen promised.

He meant it, too. For as long as he lived, there would be no other for him. He had meant it the other night when he had said that Drake was it for him. This was just further cementing of it.

Drake reached around and stroked Kallen’s cock, his movements fast and tight. Kallen let out a cry as he came, his come spraying the wall in front of him. Just a few more thrusts later, he felt Drake tighten up behind him, then Kallen could feel Drake filling up his ass with spurt after spurt of spunk.

Drake leaned his forehead to the nape of Kallen’s neck while they both caught their breath. Finally, after a few moments, he took a step back and slipped out of Kallen.

“We better get washed up and get back. We need to get disarmed and go to the debriefing,” Drake said, his voice full of reluctance.

Kallen turned around and gave a saucy grin. “So I guess that means there isn’t going to be a round two?”

Drake reached out and pulled Kallen in for a kiss. Since Kallen’s pants were still around his hips, he kind of fell into the embrace, but Drake was there to catch him.

“Don’t worry. We’ll have plenty of time tonight for round two and three and four if you’re up to it.”

“Oh, I’ll be up it,” Kallen promised.

“We’ll see. We keep it up at this pace, and you won’t be able to sit for a week.”

Kallen let out a throaty laugh. “Sitting is way overrated anyway. I can stand to do my job.”

Drake kissed him again. “Be careful. You have no idea how tempting you are.”

Chapter Ten

By the time Drake and Kallen managed to disarm, they were just in time for debriefing. Drake led Kallen to one of the back seats next to his friend Lance, and they sat down. If anybody noticed that they were late, they didn’t comment on it.

Mitchell and Daniel were up front, talking, and they had barely gotten started when the alarms went off, letting them know they had another situation.

Daniel let out a curse, before he said, “Everybody get ready, I’ll go see what we have.”

By the time they all got ready and met outside in the common area, Daniel was there. “We have a group of Hyenas attacking a small group of feline homes two miles from here. So far, we don’t have a casualty report.”

“Is it Malcom’s family?” Mitchell asked.

“Yes,” Daniel confirmed.

Mitchell ran his hand through his hair and began to pace.

“I told them that having so many felines building houses close together would make them a target, but they all wanted to live by each other.”

“Maybe they should have lived in one big ass apartment like us,” Carson snarked.

“At least we’re on base and have that for safety. If they still wanted to be together, they should have built their homes closer to base,” Mitchell pointed out.

Drake hated to admit it, but the leader did have a point. While two miles might not seem like much, it didn’t take long for an attack to take out an entire family. He had seen that firsthand as a child.

They all loaded up into vans and started toward their destination. It was only then that he noticed how pale Kallen was. He had even broken out into a sweat and was beginning to tremble a bit.

“Hey, I wouldn’t worry. I’m sure it’s going to be a quick mission. It’s only a small group, and we should be able to take them out quickly enough,” Drake assured him.

“That’s not it,” Kallen said, his hands, clenched into fists.

“Then what is it? Is it because they are Hyenas? If that’s the case, then you can wait in the van. I’m sure the others will understand.”

Kallen glanced up at Drake and his eyes were full of fear. “I have a gut feeling that this is my old pack that we’re going to be dealing with. Not the one that exiled me, but the stray one. There was just something about the way Albert was acting the other night that made me think that Crispin was up to no good, and I think this is the kind of thing they’re into now.”

Drake reached over and put a comforting hand on Kallen’s arm. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“I’ve learned a long time ago to go with my gut feeling, as it’s never let me down before, and it’s screaming that it’s Crispin.”

“Do you want to sit this one out?”

Kallen looked up from under the fringe of his bangs. “Hell, no. If they went rogue, then it’s my job to bring them down. I used to be their leader, and it’s my responsibility to bring them down, especially Crispin.”

Drake wanted to argue further, but they’d already arrived. The van stopped, and they all rushed out of the back. They were met with a scene straight from hell. Bodies lay scattered about, and most of the homes were on fire. Several felines were running around, screaming, with Hyenas chasing them.