I’m here.
“Got a passenger demanding a drop off. He wants to go rogue. I’m thinking of letting him.”
Gareth was silent for a moment. Brandi waited to see if he agreed with her.
Tag and release him, Gareth finally said. We’ll have him tracked and do a pick up ourselves when we can. First order of priority though is to get the bears safely to Alaska. We need to contact Ariel and get her up to speed and up to the Black Wolf village. With Reed going rogue and the beta captured… they need someone.
“Agreed,” Brandi said. “I’ll make that call next.” She sighed into her headset mic. Did she really want to know if her son had killed a man today? Fuck it. Yes, of course, she wanted to know. “How’s the hostage doing?”
Still unconscious, but the concussion will heal eventually. I put him in the cage we brought for Stewart. He’s being guarded by a half dozen bears who growl to make sure he wakes up now and again. We all want him alive. Going to be fun watching the bastard fully wake up and find himself surrounded by bears.
“Check the hostage for suicide drugs. And make sure Stewart knows it's okay to be upset.”
I did all that, Agent Mom. I soothed your boy as best I could. He was happiest to hear you were already out looking for Katarina.
“I can’t even imagine what having a normal child would be like. Only our kid would be glad to hear his mother was out trying to save the world instead of taking care of him. God, Gareth, this parent shit makes me all teary-eyed. I’m not good at this.”
No, you’re great at this, but can I go on record saying I prefer our conversations about cow breeding? This was supposed to be a simple trip. Now Stewart is nearly my size and had to fight in his beast form without being prepared to do so. Next time we take a mini-vacation, we’re going down to the lower forty-nine and renting a cabin on a lake to fish.
Brandi chuckled. “Don’t get too keen on that dream, Longfeather. I’ve never fished a day in my life. To me, fishing always looked too boring to try.”
Get out. Surely someone took you fishing.
“Nope. And don’t you dare blame me for the shit show at Bear Central today. Who knew those bastards would come after them so soon? It’s like the attackers had inside info about our plans to move them to Alaska. My gut says something’s escalating back in Reed’s village.”
I hope your gut is wrong this time, Brandi. I hope this was a different group of bad guys.
“It wasn’t. Think about it, Gareth. Reed’s people all said they never saw or heard any of the attackers disappear, but they were suddenly all gone. Not a single bear or wolf or hybrid like me heard that silent helicopter today. That’s how they snuck up on us—and probably on Reed’s people too. Wolves are used to listening for the heartbeats of prey, not the hum of technology. Most wolves don’t even have cell phones. Hell, the bears don’t either. The only phones I saw in Bear Central were ours.”
When you have natural telepathy with creatures you’re related to and care deeply about, why would you need a phone?
“We use them. We’re using one right now.”
That’s for work, Gareth chided. Doesn’t count.
“Potential hangar’s in sight. I’m setting down to take a closer look.”
Understood. Watch your back. I love you.
“I love you too. Thanks for staying with Stewart today. He needed his father for this one. It took me ten minutes of flying to stop being a hand wringer. I’m more comfortable chasing bad guys than I would have been counseling my child about getting in over his head in a fight.”
I’m more comfortable catching the bad guys. Wait for me and we’ll do that part together. Now, keep in touch and get your ass back here as soon as you can.
“Count on it,” Brandi said, banking left to circle around for a landing.
Jon strained the lock on the double doors as he pushed them apart enough for Brandi to peek inside.
“Gentlemen, I believe we have found the getaway vehicle. She’s a big one just like Stewart said.” She stepped back. “Can you break the lock completely?”
Jon grunted and pushed harder. The giant padlock eventually snapped and came undone. He pulled it off and tossed it to the ground.
Brandi chuckled at his actions. “Littering, Jon? Isn’t that against your environmentalist’s code or something?”
“Normally. Today is not a normal day,” Jon said.
“No, it’s sure as hell not. Wait… wait,” she cautioned, catching Reed’s arm to stop him from charging forward to the vehicle.
“We have to check it, Brandi. She could be in there,” Reed said.
“Doubtful,” Brandi replied, barely able to keep her grip on him. Beneath her fingers, Reed shook in fury. “Pickup teams don’t get paid until they deliver. We may get to discover their plans if we can get a look inside their bird, but we need to be safe about it. If they have security measures in place, we don’t want to get our asses zapped by them.”
Taking out one of her favorite devices, Brandi scanned a beam of infrared over the aircraft and the rest of the space. No laser alarms vibrated in greeting. That padlock appeared to be their only security.
Idiots.
“Okay. Let’s go,” she said, sighing softly when Reed charged ahead of her.
The entry and exit door on the side of the craft was still open. They all climbed inside and spread out to look around. It was as spacious inside as a small passenger jet, but Stewart was insistent that it flew like a helicopter.
“This is not one of ours. The cat-men will love getting a look at this.” Brandi took a moment and messaged the coordinates to Fallon and Lars. She urged them to do a quick recovery because she had no idea when the owners of the craft would return.
“Jon? Check the back of the plane for a cage.” She turned to Reed, who was glaring at the inside of the compartment. “You’re with me, Reed. We’re going to check the logs and see if they left anything of interest behind.”
“I found a cage,” Jon said. “It’s snapping and crackling.”
“Don’t touch it,” Brandi ordered. “That’s portable electricity powering that baby. It could be generating enough to knock even you out.”
Jon nodded and went back to searching.
“I can smell her scent in here,” Reed said.
“Me too,” Brandi said. “That’s why I want the most data I can get. Let’s hope they haven’t found the tracker in her.”
Reed nodded. His gut had been a twisted knot since he’d learned someone had abducted her. “I should never have let her roam around the bear’s compound alone. Do you think she has a secret death wish?”
“No,” Brandi said with a chuckle. “I think she has natural alpha tendencies and protecting others is just what she does naturally.”
Thirty minutes later, she was on the phone. “Hey Emilio, I need some info fast. Yeah, I know it’s snack time. Stick your banana in a drawer and look this up for me. It’s critical. I’m trying to find a kidnap victim while her trail is hot.”
Brandi listened to the search, updated her app when she was told to do so, and immediately saw the blip. “Got her! We got her. Go have your snack, Emilio. I owe you a bunch and you know I’m good for it.”
Reed and Jon both stared at her when she disconnected. She chuckled. “Intel guy. He has a thing for bananas.” When Jon lifted an eyebrow, she gave a tiny shrug. “Anyway… we found Katarina’s tracker signal. She’s within a hundred miles of us. They probably rent places to hide abductees until they can move them for delivery. It’s a common practice.”
“Can we fly there?” Jon asked. “Or run there as our beasts?”
“Probably best if we drive there in a vehicle. I’ve got a recovery team coming. We’ll borrow one of theirs,” Brandi said with a smile. “But I have another plan.”
Reed rubbed his face. “Your last plan didn’t work out so well.”
“Yes, it did,” Brandi insisted with a grin. “The bears could have been abducted, but they weren’t. They
’re coming to Alaska. You have to count that as a plan win.”
Reed blew out a breath. He wondered if they were hurting Katarina. The thought made his blood boil. “But one of us got abducted making your plan happen. That is not a win.”
Brandi groaned. “You sound like Gareth. Nobody—and I repeat, nobody—could have predicted that attack on the bears so soon after the bad guys tried to burn your village down. We’re damn lucky Katarina and Stewart stopped them cold before any of the bears got abducted. If you ask me, this has all worked out well considering the odds of us being here at all. What if we hadn’t been in Bear Central when those guys came? How many bears would be in their hands right now? They almost got Jon’s daughter.”
“Bear Central?” Jon interrupted Brandi’s rant to ask as he laughed.
“Code name,” Brandi said to him with a grin before turning back to Reed. “When a shit show like that happens, having only one casualty is damn good. And now she’s leading us to them. They’re going down, Reed. One day soon, we’ll get your grandsons and beta back too. Then you and your people won’t have to keep looking over your shoulders all the time.”
Reed nodded reluctantly. “I am seeing a side of you that makes me wonder how Gareth Longfeather copes.”
“Thanks… Dad,” Brandi said with a chuckle. “Don’t you care how I cope with him?”
“I think you could take on an entire war by yourself and come out okay,” Reed admitted.
Brandi laughed and threw herself at Reed to hug him. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you.”
“It wasn’t really meant as a compliment,” Reed grumbled as he hugged back.
Brandi pulled away. “It will be when we get Katarina back. You’ll see.” She nodded her head at the helicopter. “Let’s check for supplies. I bet they have packs with emergency rations and tools stashed somewhere. We might need them.”
“What are you planning?” Reed asked.
Brandi lifted her chin and stared at her alpha prime. “I’m planning to tag you with a tracker like Katarina’s and drop you off where she’s being held. Your job will be to watch and report to us if they try to move her. Gareth and I will see the bears off and then head your way to help bust her out. Ariel and Heidi will be at the village with Yana to greet the bears when they arrive.”
Reed nodded. “I like that plan.” Except for the part about watching Katarina’s kidnappers and doing nothing.
7
She’d spoken nothing but Russian since she’d woke up in an electrified cage. Her abductors did not deserve the politeness of English.
Though both hungry and thirsty, Katarina refused to eat any of their food offerings. She remembered well Heidi and Yana’s stories about being drugged with food and drink during their capture.
If they thought someone like her would wake up on a medical table and not kill everyone poking at her with needles and knives, they would get a big surprise. She was Russian alpha wolf. They would get fangs and claws. She was not soft-hearted Healer or young untrained wolf like her sister.
She growled low in her throat and called them bastards in her native tongue while she glared at her guards. The human men wore masks and tried hard never to look at her. Her blood boiled with the desire to spill theirs. If she saw any sign they had taken Stewart and Terra too, she would destroy the cage to get to them, even if it meant her death while trying.
What she had not counted on were the two wolves walking into the room to smile at her.
“Fuck,” she said in English, forgetting her Russian vow. Her worst fears came to life as the larger of the two males laughed at her predicament.
“Come now, daughter. You should be appreciative. Your captors are kind because you are worth great deal of money to them.”
“And to you as well?” Katarina demanded, snarling at the male responsible for her existence.
He shook his finger. “I refuse to answer surly question. You should be respectful of your father.”
“And you should be afraid of betraying your alpha daughter,” Katarina replied.
She turned to stare at the man standing next to her father. He was easily recognizable. “Even now, your grandfather works to save you and here you wait to betray him. What is your name? Or should I call you Bastard Clone like others?”
The wolf scoffed at her sarcasm. She enjoyed knowing she’d irritated him.
“My name is Joshua and my grandfather is a wolf relic who needs be buried. An evolution is taking place, and he refuses to see it.”
“He sees it,” Katarina said flatly. She lifted a finger and pointed. “You are enigma, Clone Joshua. How is it sons look normal and grandsons look exactly like grandfather? Black Wolf genes are strange. Me? I look like dead mother.”
She turned to sneer at the man who killed her maternal parent. “All I have from wolf sire is evil heart. Once I regretted this. Now I think it will be useful thing when I get chance to kill everyone.”
Reed’s grandson laughed at her statement. Maybe the electrified cage lured him into a false sense of safety. Katarina couldn’t be sure. His amusement made her ego-driven father glare at them both because he hated to be laughed at by anyone. It was so… stupidly political.
Katarina turned her head and spoke again to Reed’s clone. “They took two grandsons. Where is other one?”
“Last time I saw Adam, he was in the cage next to the former beta who’s getting lessons about how to live a better beastly life. My cousin actually believes all that ancient shit my grandfather keeps shoveling out to our misguided people,” he answered.
Katarina closed her eyes. Reed’s poor beta. He had become an experiment. She needed to find out where he and the good grandson were being held. That might mean waiting a while in this cage. It would be hard not to drink or eat. She would suffer… but when she got free, she would make others suffer.
Except for her father. Her father she would kill. She should have killed him long ago.
Katarina hoped her glare combined with a wide smile reflected all the evil working in her heart as she stared at Clone Joshua. The cowardly wolf looked down and away. It brought forward a laugh born of power. Something inside her squirmed and wanted to be set loose.
“Your government has scientists too, Clone Joshua. They are coming for those who paid you. They are coming for everyone here. They will kill you for betraying your pack if I don’t do it first.”
“Your warnings do not scare me,” he declared.
Katarina laughed loudly. The sound echoed in the room. “A smart wolf does not expect someone stupid to believe truth. You need proof, yes? Proof I am happy to provide you. I swear on spirit of Nicolai Vashchenko that soon you will have your proof.”
“Vashchenko was a traitor to his original pack.”
“Nyet. Nicolai left pack who killed his mate to find people who were kind to each other,” Katarina argued. “He saved me from Clone Travis so I could be here now.” She shook her finger. “If you want to see true traitor, look in mirror, boy.”
“Enough,” her father said with a swipe of his hand through the air. “Katarina has vile tongue like snake. Do not test her.”
Katarina laughed again. “Tongue like snake? Maybe. My fangs are more deadly than snake. Would you like to see?”
Her father manhandled Clone Joshua as he dragged Reed’s traitorous grandson from the room. She felt sorry for Reed again. He might be stoic and passionless, but he was a magnificent wolf who cared for his people. Reed deserved to make a version of himself as good as he was. He deserved to create a Black Wolf alpha to replace himself.
When they were gone, Katarina couldn’t stop thinking of how it would hurt Reed to discover he had yet another traitor grandson. A wolf who’d been a fair alpha for hundreds of years surely deserved a better legacy.
“You’ve gone soft,” she said aloud. “And do you think to help him create miracle version of himself, Katarina Volkov? You are dreamer instead of realist. Reed is done with such things—done w
ith family. He has said this. His heart has suffered from too much failure. Better you think of how to escape cage than indulging in female dreams like Yana.”
Katarina closed her eyes and hoped the metal thing Brandi had put inside her would help betray her captors. She knew they were coming for her. Brandi and Gareth would look. Maybe Stewart too—their smart son—would look as well.
But Reed? The man seemed too close to dead to make the effort. She would be wise to let all her wishes for that handsome wolf fade away.
Brandi liked silence—preferred it even—but Reed took it to a whole other level. He hadn’t spoken in over an hour, not even to ask questions. When she couldn’t handle the silence anymore, she cleared her throat to get his attention.
“Jon really seemed to enjoy tearing that helicopter apart. His strength is amazing.”
Reed nodded. “He has exceptional control of his beast. I’m glad for him.”
“Loving your children provides exceptional motivation,” Brandi replied.
Reed turned to smile at her. “It does. You’re a great mother, Brandi. Given how that bear described the boy’s transformation, I have even more respect for what you and Gareth have taken on.”
Brandi nodded. “I’m choosing to be positive about it. I didn’t see it, but I heard the description. Maybe Stewart’s form is like Heidi’s fighting form.”
Reed thought about it and nodded. “For that to be the case, whatever wolf blood was used would have had to have that form within its genes.”
Clearing her throat, Brandi stared out the front window. “Yeah, well, about that—I think I know who supplied the wolf genes that Randall fed to my kids.”
“Me?” Reed guessed, appalled at the idea that they had used him to create more werewolves.
“Only indirectly. The first wolf Randall used was definitely in your gene pool,” Brandi whispered.
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