Was the wolf always so passionless? Reed should be livid and growling and angry beyond his ability to rein it in. If this was what a long life did to you, she would rather die screaming and fighting.
She shook her head at the sad thought that Reed’s personality no longer allowed expression of what feelings might rule him. Many Russian males were like that. They drank away their feelings or hid them behind fatalistic futility because they didn’t bother to keep fighting. That kind of stoicism did not bode well in a bed partner, and Katarina found her desire for the handsome alpha waning for the first time since meeting him.
Still… she watched him. She watched him and wondered what he was really like—or what had he been like at her age. There was something about him that pulled at her—something his bastard clone had lacked.
Reed nodded and listened to his people giving their reports about what happened during the attack. Like covert operatives from a TV show, the attackers had carried actual weapons, which they never used, not even when several of the Black Wolf males shifted to their wolf forms to defend the village.
Rather than shooting to kill any pack member, the attackers had instead used tranquilizers to stop the shifted wolves. They’d also used fire bombs to create a distraction the villagers had no choice but to fight. While the non-shifted wolves scrambled to constrain the damage from the fires, the attackers had run away like the cowards they were.
It had taken over five hours to put out the fires. A few of the defending wolves were still sleeping off the effects of the tranquilizers. Katarina shook her head. If they had only arrived sooner, things might have not gotten so bad.
After all she’d experienced since her abduction from her home in Russia, Katarina would never believe this situation was some random event. Someone had intentionally targeted Reed’s pack. And the attackers wouldn’t have been so merciful if they’d accomplished what they’d truly come to do.
When she finally caught Reed standing alone, Katarina went to confront him. If he wanted to yell at her for interfering, she’d rather get it over with than worry about it for days.
“Too bad Ghost of Nicolai Vashchenko was not paying attention today. Ghost of your bastard clone took advantage of situation,” Katarina joked, but then winced at the guilt flashing through Reed’s gaze.
Her hand instantly went to his arm to rub in comfort. The enormous Black Wolf alpha and his prehistoric-sized wolf irritated her nearly all the time, but that was no reason for her to be a thoughtless ass about what was not his fault.
“Forgive me, Temptation. I spoke without thinking. Is terrible flaw in my character—or so I hear.”
Reed shrugged off the apology with one shoulder as he stared at the still smoldering buildings. “I need to call Brandi and let her know about this. She warned me this could happen if Travis told the wrong people that he’d come from an entire village of werewolves.”
Katarina frowned as she looked at the damage done to the buildings along one of the two or three walkable streets in the center of the tiny village. She could see that two stores had barely missed being set on fire. There was a school with children of all ages who were peering from the windows, and an open-area community space wrapped in canvas that had been rolled up on all sides.
Though this place was only a fraction of the size of the Gray Wolf pack in Wasilla, the Black Wolf pack’s village looked far older and more established. No, that wasn’t the proper description. It was more proper to say Reed’s village looked like everyone in it all lived a much simpler life and had done so for a very long time.
Truth was, Reed’s home reminded her of her father’s village. Though she hadn’t lived there long, it was the only pack environment she’d ever known until she’d landed in Alaska.
“Okay. We tell Brandi, and then what? Do you move whole village to hide your people?” she asked.
Katarina’s shoulders grew heavy when Reed’s head dropped in contemplation of her question. Long ago, Nicolai Vashchenko found solace here in this tiny, secluded place of peacefulness. Now, Reed’s village was peaceful solace for no one.
“I don’t know what to do yet,” Reed reluctantly admitted.
When he stepped away, Katarina moved in front of him to block his exit. Her tongue ruled the moment. “Whatever happens, I will help you and your people. It is maybe why Nicolai helped save me from bastard clone, yes?”
“That’s some fanciful thinking, Katarina Volkov.”
Katarina lifted a shoulder. “Maybe—but no true Russian wolf would think being here was accident. Nicolai would be ashamed of me if I did not admit this.”
Chuckling dryly, Reed lifted a hand to the young alpha’s face. The woman had stupidly taken a tranquilizer dart for him—a tranquilizer dart that likely wouldn’t have affected him—at least not nearly as much as it had her. At nearly a hundred and fifty years old, Katarina wasn’t young by werewolf standards, but she was young to someone of his advanced years.
Too bad his wolf side didn’t see their age differences as the same kind of problem his human side did.
He tried to smile. “Once this village was the safest place on earth to be. I intended to offer you and Yana sanctuary and perhaps a new home here. It would no doubt make Nicolai’s spirit very happy to know some of his people found their way here too.”
“Okay. Make offer again later,” Katarina ordered, pulling his hand away from her face before she gave into the urge to wrap her arms around him. Telling Reed that everything would be fine was not a promise she could make. Or one he could make to her. “We call Brandi and Gareth. Then we have big meeting and talk to everyone who fought attackers. Yana is good at getting people to talk. She is friendly she-wolf—not like me.”
Reed pulled himself out of his funk and grunted in answer. Katarina’s empathy did not absolve her of interfering in his fight, but he’d deal with that later. “What are you good at, Katarina Volkov?”
“Being trouble—some would say,” Katarina immediately answered with a wicked grin that took all her effort to fake. She stepped away from the hurting male she badly wanted to comfort. “I hear I am also good at being pain in ass of Black Wolf alpha. It would be fun theory to test. Seems everything now must wait until later though, agreed?”
Reed nodded while inside his wolf howled about the challenge Katarina Volkov was potentially offering him and his beast. “Yes. Everything must wait.”
2
By the time Brandi and Gareth got to the village hours later, Katarina, Reed, and Yana had talked to everyone they could. A head count after the attack revealed two of Reed’s remaining grandsons were missing, as well as the pack beta that had taken Reed months to replace.
As Brandi went through her perspective of what happened, Katarina studied the nano wolf beta with as many alpha tendencies as she herself possessed. The woman was far more fierce than she let people know. Her mate, Gareth, didn’t seem bothered by Brandi’s need to be in charge.
Katarina felt a bit envious. It would be nice to be yourself and not worry about what the person sharing your bed thought. Such a relationship was one more thing she’d never had.
Brandi punched the table with a finger as she made her point. “We know there’s a group in Canada doing illegal human and animal experiments similar to what the two Crane siblings were doing. Diane Crane—the sister we recently took down—was working with that group in a top of the line lab they gave her. We’ve had their headquarters under surveillance, but they’ve been staying under everyone’s radar.”
Reed frowned at the news. “If it’s not the Canadian group who took our people, or the US group you’re working for, who else could be responsible?”
Brandi sighed and stared at the floor for a moment. Finally, she lifted her head. “I can’t confirm anything yet, but I have a theory about who your attackers were.” Her gaze shifted to Katarina. “And I think a group of Russians were the informants responsible for sending them here.”
Yana sighed internally when Katarina only star
ed at Brandi without commenting. Her alpha sister rarely gave away her thoughts. She turned to Brandi herself. “No one heard Russian being spoken. Many here would recognize the language. Centuries ago, the great Nicolai Vashchenko taught entire village to speak it.”
Brandi tore her gaze away from Katarina’s intense stare to answer Yana. “The attackers were part of a private apprehension group out of New Zealand that works for hire. English is the primary language in New Zealand, but I’m guessing no one heard the attackers speaking much at all. That’s how professionals work when they’re collecting their targets.”
“Da. Is true,” Katarina admitted. “Villagers heard sharp, terse commands in English.”
Brandi nodded at her in acknowledgment. “After they took Heidi, we learned Travis hadn’t been working with just one group. He sold his apprehension services to the highest bidder. He collected subjects for nearly every global group involved in these sorts of experiments. My theory is that someone in Russia—probably the same someone who helped Travis abduct Yana and Katarina—got paid for the information about the exact location of the Black Wolf pack.”
Katarina rubbed her forehead as she swore over that bit of news. Her gut was screaming at her. She wanted to scream for real. “Trakhni moyu zhizn',” she muttered in Russian instead.
Yana gasped and stared at her sister. “Fucking is sacred, Katarina Volkov. It is bad luck to swear about fucking.” She went instantly silent when Katarina held up a hand to stop her.
Brandi cleared her throat to hide her urge to laugh at Yana’s outburst. Finally, she went on with her explanation. “Gareth and I both suspect the group we’ve been watching in Canada now has the Black Wolf pack members who were taken. Two of our best agents are attempting to confirm our suspicions. A retrieval team is standing by to go in there once we know more. We were intentionally delaying the complete shutdown of the Canadian facility until we could figure out the Russian connection that keeps surfacing.”
Katarina studied Reed, whose expression showed no emotion about what he was hearing. While he looked calm in his eyes, she also could feel a storm gathering. She turned to Brandi. “Do you think Canadian scientists kidnap wolves hoping to make more like you?”
Brandi shrugged before nodding. “I can’t say for certain, but we know Randall Crane’s work got disseminated to lots of people through his sister, Diane, who would have told anyone anything to get scientific funding. Diane Crane didn’t know specifically about Ariel, Heidi, and I until Travis lost Katarina and took Heidi instead. The other Crane sibling, Sheldon Crane, has spent his career trying to save those who ended up being experiments for Randall and Diane.”
“Then we know nothing for certain,” Katarina concluded.
Brandi shook her head. “We know some things, and if I had to make a guess about what’s happening, I would say the Canadian group hopes to replicate Randall Crane’s work. They intend to make werewolves using Reed’s blood.”
“Why did they not stay and fight to capture Reed?” Katarina asked.
Gareth pointed at the Black Wolf alpha. “Reed was likely their original target, but he wasn’t here when they arrived. Timing was off, and since Travis is no longer around to feed them information, they probably made plans that included a contingency for Reed’s absence. Once the village was on fire, their original plan likely changed to escaping with as few casualties as possible. This is why they settled for stealing two of Reed’s remaining grandsons and his beta.”
Katarina rose and paced a while before turning to look at Reed, who was not responding. His stoicism worried her far more than his ranting in anger would have. Was this truly his nature? She frowned deeply and fought off the sigh that had been building up as she thought about it.
She made sure she only looked at Brandi. “Russian werewolves are not like werewolves in America. In motherland, werewolf alphas rule with sharp fangs and iron claws. My father killed without remorse—family, friend, or foe. By pack law, I could have challenged my father for his pack after I killed my two younger brothers, which he sent to kill me, but I did not. I regret that now.”
“Your father is still your father, even though he made himself your enemy. Not all alphas are like that,” Brandi added.
Katarina nodded. “Da—I see Matt do good things.” She chopped the air with her hand. “My mistake was letting my father know where I lived. I told myself it showed everyone that I was not afraid. As I got older, reality sank into here,” Katarina explained, pointing to her head. “With entire pack of wolves to help him, my father could have killed me anytime. I waited my whole life for him to make attempt. Now I think my father saw future and decided to make profit on his biggest problem. When I escaped, he betrayed Yana in same way. For him, females are possessions.”
When Brandi started to speak, Katarina held up her hand to keep her from interrupting. She needed to get the whole thing out.
“Travis never say my father made deal for me to be taken, but he never say my father did not. On plane from Russia to America, Travis talked on phone to the person who told him about me and arranged money to be sent. Yana’s mother sent her away as young wolf to protect her. Instead of killing her, our father ignored her like he did me. Who told Travis where to find the one female wolf who was my blood sister? Answer is obvious. Everything circles back to the bastard who made me.”
Yana rose and walked to her sister. “If our bastard father now betrays all wolf-kind, then we take his life to teach him and his whole worthless pack a lesson. We go back to Russia, sister—you and I. We find a glorious destiny in fighting our bastard father to his death.”
Katarina chuckled and patted Yana’s face. Her sister was fierce, but she was too young to understand the danger. “Do not be so quick to seek death, Yana Volkov. Our father hate that he made an alpha daughter instead of an alpha son. That does not mean he betrayed all wolves.”
Yana shrugged, her mouth a grim line. She patted her stomach as she stepped away from her sister. “Gut still says it is a good guess that our bastard father sold us both.”
Brandi crossed her arms. “My gut is saying the same thing as Yana’s, but I’m glad I wasn’t the first person to suggest your father was the informant. I knew you’d hate hearing it.”
Katarina lifted one shoulder and let it fall. It wasn’t the first time she’d had to accept that her father was evil. “So what we do until we know truth? Reed’s people must be protected. Pack has suffered many losses and now more of his strongest wolves are gone from village.”
Brandi nodded—her mouth tight with determination to fix this. “I know and I have an idea about how to keep everyone safe. However… my solution is a bit off the wall,” she explained, turning away from Katarina’s questioning gaze to look at an equally bewildered Reed. She smiled, hoping to reassure him. “So… tell me, Reed. How do your people feel about bears? I’m talking about bears of the shifter sort.”
Brandi’s question was so unexpected, Reed laughed at her for daring to ask it. “Wolves leave all bears alone, but especially shifter ones. Despite our wintery conditions in Alaska, there aren’t many bear shifters here. Most bear shifters prefer desolate, isolated places like the forests of Siberia where they can be completely alone. Like all true predators, they don’t hang around creatures who aren’t on the menu for dinner.”
Gareth chuckled in agreement. “True, but the bears Brandi’s referring to aren’t natural shifters. They were created like she and her pack were. They aren’t typical shifters and haven’t been shifters for very long. They’re also having a similar problem in trying to stay off the radar of ambitious mad scientists. Before they were turned into science experiments, they were a quirky human environmental group living off-grid. Learning to live as bears has been quite the challenge for them. But like Brandi and her pack, the bears have done what they needed to in order to protect themselves.”
Reed blew out a breath, hoping it would let his resignation settle into place. “My first instinct is to say it could never
work, but with my people in constant danger of being abducted, I don’t have the luxury of being close-minded. How many bear shifters are we talking about?”
Reed directed the question to Gareth, but Brandi answered for her mate. “Their group contains thirty-ish shifters plus their human children. Last time I took an actual head count, the group had close to fifty people total living in it. This includes a still human teacher and another guy who wasn’t there when the other adults got abducted.”
Human adults and human children weren’t the problem. Reed ignored everything but the thing that was. “Thirty bears shifters are a lot of bears running around a wolf pack.”
Brandi laughed a bit nervously as her mate lifted an eyebrow. She knew this would be a hard sell. She’d admitted as much to Gareth on the trip here. “If it helps, most of the bears are normal-sized black or brown bears like the kind you find natively in Alaska. They’d likely blend in with the real bears here. Only two are different.”
“I’m afraid to ask, but I have to. What are they?” Reed asked.
Brandi ran a hand through her recently cut and very short hair that grew six inches every time she shifted as she searched for words. “The leader got injected with a DNA cocktail comprising multiple bear species. Mostly he’s an enormous Russian Big Brown. Last time I saw him, Jon’s shifted form was already larger than any natural bear on record, including Polar Bears and other Russian Browns. His wife is also a Russian Brown, but not nearly the same size as him.”
“How can I contemplate doing this, Brandi? You’re talking about over-sized, recently converted, very dangerous bears who one day could decide werewolves are prey instead of fellow predators.”
Brandi barked out a laugh. Jon and Susan eating wolves was not out of the question, but it was highly, highly unlikely given they were vegetarians when in human form. Both had said the only food they ate in bear form was fish. If Reed said yes, she’d tell him this. Right now, her alpha prime couldn’t hear anything that clearly.
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