“Touch switch and die,” Katarina spat as she exited the cage. The man’s fingers slid off the wall.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “This wasn’t my idea.”
“Too bad you go along,” Katarina said.
She grabbed the scared human by the neck and lifted him from the floor. His hands tried to loosen hers, but she was not letting go. Her vision wavered. The bastard stuck her with a tranquilizer. “Is boy and girl here? Are there bears? Speak quickly or I change my mind about you.”
“No,” he choked out when she eased off his windpipe. “Just… you…”
“Good. Now you join conniving friend.”
Katarina lowered him to the floor and dragged him with her while he fought to move her fingers from his throat. She threw him onto the cage floor ahead and picked up the tranquilizer needle from beside the man she’d knocked out. The hypodermic was long and full of white liquid. Hopefully, that meant she hadn’t gotten much from that tiny sting she felt.
She picked the needle up, walked to the now begging man, and shoved it into his arm.
“A little for you so you do not follow me,” she said, then withdrew it and lifted him up with one hand to toss him onto the bed where he backed into a corner like the coward he was.
“And you get rest,” she said to the man who’d planned to give the whole dose to her. She rolled his body over and shoved the needle into his shoulder, depressing it until it was empty. She left it sticking out of him as she stumbled out and closed the cage door behind her.
It sealed twice with a satisfactory click that said it was locked.
Katarina stumbled a bit as she moved forward to the room exit. On the wall was a switch, probably what the cowardly guy had been searching for. She flicked it and heard the cage hum again.
“Ha… I do not need Agent Nano Wolf to save me. I make my own escape.”
When she looked back at the cage, both men were still and unmoving. She opened the room door carefully. In one direction, she heard voices coming out of other rooms. That was definitely not the way out. But through a small opening in the door at the other end of the hallway, she saw a night sky with stars.
“Thank you, Ghost of Nicolai. You are greatest spirit protector in whole world.”
She started toward the exit door only to stumble and fall to floor. Her knees didn’t work. The tranquilizer was affecting her. She refused to let it stop her from leaving.
Katarina crawled to the wall and pulled herself up. Using the wall as both prop and guide, she moved along it until she finally got to the door. Beyond it was freedom.
Summoning what strength she could, she pushed the door open wide. She slipped out, relieved when the door clicked and seemed to double-lock itself behind her.
She felt righteous until an ear-splitting alarm went off that vibrated the air around the building.
“If this is joke, Nicolai, it is not very funny,” Katarina grumbled.
Well, at least she’d gotten out.
Hearing men yelling inside the building, Katarina knew they’d soon see she was missing.
Taking a deep breath, she ignored her wavering vision and summoned the last of her strength as she ran off into the night.
Resigned to not sleeping for a couple of days, Reed climbed a tree to rest his legs while he did his first nightly surveillance. Brandi said if the abductors were typical, they’d likely move any hostages they had in a day or two. Moving them frequently lowered the risk of someone stealing them before they handed them over and got their pay.
Leaning against a sturdy limb, he watched the building. Before the sun had gone down, men came and went with regularity. Some came out to smoke and talk. Others exited to walk around the area with guns. None lingered outside for long.
From what he could tell, they posted no guards. Did that make them arrogant? Or did they not worry about Katarina escaping? He remembered her recounting that Travis had kept her unconscious for the entire trip from Russia to America.
He must have blinked while he was pondering because the door appeared to open briefly, but he didn’t see anyone exit through the small crack it had made. When the alarms went off, he straightened on the limb and watched more closely. Something was moving through the tall grass of the field between him and them. It was struggling and short of breath, but steadily moving.
Intending to investigate, Reed leapt from the tree and landed softly on the ground beneath it, thanking his native ancestors for installing human survival skills in their offspring. Some wolves were too arrogant to worry about protecting their human side. Reed had learned the hard way to appreciate every ounce of his affinity with whatever land he found himself in.
He lowered to a crouch and headed for the moving object. He lifted his head and sniffed. Whatever it was smelled like medicine, which was too strange to think about for long or he’d want to run the other way. Pondering whether to shift to his wolf, he lifted his head when he heard the distinct sounds of wolves running and panting.
Yes. Wolves like him, Reed decided. They were running toward the object in the grass as well. He knew of no creature fit to eat that smelled like medicine. That meant the wolves were going after their prey for another reason.
With only a thought, Reed instantly shifted to wolf form. He was tall as the grass but moved soundlessly as he walked into it. Ahead of him, there was a distinct thud as something hit the ground, and then some swearing—swearing he recognized.
Katarina…
His wolf lunged forward with purpose now. Why did she smell like human medicine? Was she harmed? The thought of her being hurt dropped a red haze over his eyes. Reed growled low in warning to the other wolves closing in.
He didn’t know who they were, but he knew he would do whatever it took to stop them from hurting her again.
Katarina heard wolves running behind her. The wind was against her but she didn’t need to smell them to know who they were. Human guards were probably confused and wondering where to search, but her evil father and Clone Joshua were closing in.
She willed her body to rise and run, but her legs refused to obey the command.
They would capture her. She was too weak to prevent it. After all she’d done to escape the bastards, they would drag her back to the cage anyway. How could this be fair?
She pounded the ground in frustration and pushed herself to her knees.
Halfway up now. Just a little more.
When she got up again, she would run. She would run and never look back.
Then she looked ahead and saw him—a giant black wolf with glittering green eyes running toward her. It was like in her dream. And he was staring at her—staring like he’d been searching for her.
Maybe she was asleep and didn’t know it. Maybe the dream was that she’d gotten away.
“Reed,” she whispered, his name raspy in her throat.
The black wolf with green eyes closed in on her, but instead of stopping, he leapt over her and landed three feet away.
She was on her knees and looking at nothing. So much for dreams.
“Idiot,” she whispered to herself as she fell face first into the grass.
Every strand of black fur on his body rose like porcupine quills as he braced for those coming. He bared his fangs and snarled at the wolves who skidded to a stop to stare in shock at him.
Reed pulled on his inner beast to make him intimidating to them. His skin tingled and stretched. He sent out his thoughts to scare them.
This is my female. You will not take her. Challenge me and die.
One wolf shifted immediately to human. Reed lifted his head and howled his pain into the dark.
The remaining wolf narrowed his gaze on the shifted one.
Reed watched coldly as his grandson, Joshua, turned to the silver and black wolf.
“This is my grandfather. I refuse to fight him. He always wins.”
The other man shifted to human as well. He was tall and broad with a black beard streaming from his chin. “Trus. Idiot
. How do you say it in English… coward? Yes—coward! You betrayed your pack. Do you think grandfather can spare you now? Fight alongside me and you have chance.”
Joshua looked at his grandfather and bowed his head. “I was only trying to make money to leave the pack. I did not know you cared about the female they captured. Spare my life and I will lead the humans away from you so you can escape.”
Reed nodded his head once and then watched another traitorous grandson shift to wolf and run away.
Joshua’s greedy betrayal was one more mark against his family—one more time he would have to tell his children that their children had turned against the pack.
He turned back to the remaining man and bared his teeth.
First order of business was to kill the male who thought he owned Katarina. She wasn’t awake to identify him, but it was obvious that he knew her and had been in on her capture.
“There many females in this world, comrade. Go find another one. Katarina was mine long before she was yours, d'yavol volk.”
You can’t have her, comrade. She is mine now, Reed sent to the man with all the male energy he possessed. His wolf chuffed in approval when the Russian clutched at his head in pain.
“Devil,” he spat. “You are devil of night. Shift to human. Do not speak in my head.”
I’m far too old and far too mean to let someone like you boss me around. Tell me, comrade. How do you prefer to die?
The man’s answer was a stream of Russian that came out too fast for Reed to interpret.
Hatred bloomed as he watched the man look beyond him to Katarina helpless on the ground. Anger greater than any he’d felt before lifted him to two legs to tower over the male. He looked down at the man and laughed when he backed away.
“Fight me, evil one. Let’s end this tonight.” Reed pretended not to be surprised that he now spoke as human, even though he’d ground out his threats through fangs that suddenly felt too large for his mouth.
More fire raced through his blood. His body expanded with every breath. He knew something incredible was happening to his wolf when the man’s eyes widened in alarm. Seconds later, the Russian mumbled to himself, shifted back to his wolf form, and ran back toward the building.
Reed briefly thought about chasing after him, but his need to get Katarina away from here won out over the urge he had to erase the man from existence.
He looked down at himself, trying to see what had sent the male running. What he could make out in the moonlight was the stuff of nightmares.
For a moment, his dire situation faded away entirely. The nanos that once saved his life—Ariel’s nanos that she’d shared so freely despite the risks—had now given him what nature had not all those long years ago, no matter how hard he had wished for it. All he’d ever been able to shift into warrior form was a single hand.
The Russian did not understand how right he’d been calling Reed a devil wolf.
Reed laughed with pure joy as he studied himself. No wonder Heidi had embraced this form so quickly. It felt both calming and lethal all at the same time. As horrible as the warrior form must have appeared to the Russian, becoming a fully shifted devil wolf had granted him the first real peace he’d known in centuries.
Keeping his new form, Reed picked up Katarina. He sniffed her before setting off. This close he could smell the strange scent and it was exactly how she’d smelled after getting shot with the tranquilizer dart meant for him.
He didn’t know how she’d escaped her captors, but Brandi was right, Katarina definitely was a survivor.
Reed moved easily through the grass back to his tree. He collected the two backpacks before putting Katarina gently over his shoulder and heading toward the road.
Brandi had gone over the layout of the nearby land on their drive. There was a small town within thirty miles from this location and a wilderness resort with cabins ten miles in the opposite direction.
Not having Brandi’s skillset in out-thinking criminals, Reed couldn’t gauge how ambitious the kidnappers might get in looking for her. He had the warrior form now, which would make it much harder for anyone attacking them.
Getting Katarina settled somewhere to recover made more sense than calling for help. One of the cabins at the resort could be empty. That would be good a place to spend the night and the day tomorrow if needed.
9
Katrina woke to the sound of running water. Her hands rested on soft bed linens instead of the rough covering on the cot in her cage. She’d run away from the cage. Right?
She fled into the tall grasses outside her prison and fell on her face in the dirt. Everything before that was fuzzy—she’d dreamed something—and then passed out. That was all she recalled, and it was vague. Perhaps remembering yesterday was not as important as her current situation.
Where was she now?
Katarina blinked the desire to go back to sleep away and tried not to think about how sluggish and sick she felt. Had someone taken her from her captors? She knew the bad guys had betrayers among them.
Her hand stretched out to touch the other pillow. Someone had slept beside her in the bed. Her sense of smell was off this morning, but what lingered definitely wasn’t human. Her hand came back to her chest. All her clothes were still on and her body felt no violation.
It couldn’t be either of the men who tried to steal her. First, they were both completely human. Second, she’d shot both of them with the tranquilizer and locked them up in her cage.
Hadn’t she?
Sighing at her lack of certainty, Katarina put a hand to her hurting head. Whatever they’d given her was more than a tranquilizer. The one man had said it would keep her out for days. Thank Nicolai, all she’d gotten was a tiny bit of it.
Bringing her attention back to the immediate problem, that she didn’t know who was in the shower, she wondered if the person was friend or foe? This was the first problem to solve because it would determine what else needed to be done.
She rubbed her eyes and groaned softly at how much she hurt all over. She could use a shower herself… and some food that wasn’t laced with drugs.
Logical—she needed to be logical. Use your head, Katarina. Think like a smart she-wolf.
If the person in the shower was one of her kidnappers, her wolf would have been snarling by now. Since her wolf was not driving her crazy, it must be a rescuer. Right?
This had to be true.
Trusting her beast to warn her if she was making a mistake, Katarina pushed to the edge of the bed and slid her feet to the floor. The room and everything in it swum for a moment. Finally, she stood up and coaxed her wobbly legs into walking toward the bathroom.
This was a compact space. All the furniture was in one room with a small kitchenette in a corner. She saw a modern fireplace as she limped by. It was equipped with a small carousel of heavy wrought iron tools. She limped over to it and selected one with a pointed end like a spear. She tested her strength and made a stabbing motion in the air. Shifting to her wolf might be riskier than fighting a human if her wolf was also affected by the drug.
The shower cut off as she quietly pushed the door open enough to peer inside. She held her makeshift weapon up and took a fighting stance so when the naked person saw her, he or she would know she meant business.
A large man stepped out the shower and looked around for a towel. Relieved, Katarina snorted as she watched him. Why did men never get their towel before they got wet? It was one more disappointment about him to add to her list.
Reed’s naked body, though, fulfilled every fantasy she’d had and then offered more… temptation. It was the only word that fit. Yana would laugh when she told this story. Her sister would think it funny that she stood in the shadows to watch in secret.
Reed’s nearly waist-length hair dripped water down the back of him, which was soaking the mat he stood on. The front of him, though, was as muscled and toned as any male a fraction of his age.
Katarina looked her fill, sighed, and then walked i
nside the room to confront him.
Grabbing a white towel that wouldn’t cover much, she grinned and slung at Reed’s face. He caught it after almost dropping it twice when he saw her.
Katarina laughed at his nervousness and lowered her makeshift weapon to use it as a cane. “Males,” she said, shaking her head. “No wonder you take mate. You need keeper.”
Reed lowered the towel to hide his reaction to her perusal. “Were you planning to skewer me with that fire poker?”
Katarina lifted the wrought-iron tool and inspected it. “Maybe. It is good weapon.” A wave of dizziness hit her. Her fireplace weapon cane wasn’t enough, so she leaned against a counter. “Whatever they gave me was very strong. My legs are still weak.”
Forgetting his discomfort over being caught off-guard, Reed tossed the towel on the counter and went to her. “You need to stay in bed and rest for a while. You’re not ready to be up yet.”
Katarina shook her head. “No. I need food and shower, then we must go rescue your grandson.”
When she pushed away from the counter, Reed had to grab Katarina to keep her from falling. He held her close. His relief that she lived hit him square in the chest. His legs threatened to buckle at the force of his feelings. “You’re in no shape to rescue anyone.”
Katarina pushed slightly out of his grip so she could glare up at him. “Talking to you is like talking to mountain. You are so tall I have to yell up at your head.”
Laughing at her insults—well, her comments sounded like insults to him—Reed bent and touched his forehead to hers. “I was coming to free you, Katarina Volkov. I was outside in a tree watching for my chance.”
Katrina grunted. “Always you are waiting, Temptation. I get tired of waiting. No one comes so I freed myself.”
Reed chuckled until Brandi’s lecture popped into his head. He needed to be honest if he would ever convince this woman of anything. “I worried about you every moment. However it happened, I’m glad you escaped.”
Katarina nodded and patted his chest with a weak hand. “Me too, Temptation. Me too. Now I must soothe starving human stomach before my beast goes hunting without my permission. Did you bring food?”
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