After hiding Reed as best she could, she stumbled back out and made her way to the trees closest to the building. White dust covered the ground, and she dragged it on over her shoes as she walked. When her consciousness faded, she fell to the ground. Her wolf howled to be let out, but Katarina didn’t dare let her loose. Any change back would leave her naked and vulnerable. She would not give their captors that to laugh at. Maybe she’d make a plan—right after she woke up.
Katarina woke when a bucket of cold water got tossed in her face. She now a soaking wet human in the middle of a large room with a familiar circle drawn on the floor. She’d never stood in the circle before, but she knew what it was.
“You should have brought the nightmare wolf with you. Now you have no second,” her father said.
Katarina climbed to her feet. A scientist walked forward and jabbed her with a needle before she back-handed him across the room.
“See how ungrateful you are? It was something to help you. Why couldn’t you have been a son? Sons listen to their fathers.”
“He was giving me drugs I did not ask to take,” Katarina stated flatly. “As for my gender, you must not speak like ignorant ruler. Everyone knows male seed decides sex of child. You made me female. It was your destiny. Now killing you is mine.”
Her father huffed angrily. “You need that drug to help you fight to death. Regardless of price they paid me for your dead body, Katarina Volkov, you are child of my loins. I refused to let them kill you without first giving you a fair fight. This is werewolf way.”
“You need better friends, Dmitri Skayaovich Volkov. Your scientists will betray you one day, just as you have betrayed all our kind.”
“Why would they settle for one wolf when they can get all they want with my help?” her father answered with a smile. “Every few months I bring them new wolves to use. Travis Black Wolf was a disappointment, but I have delivered many. My wolves do not escape.”
Katarina froze and stared. “You deliver your own pack to these vile scientists? That is despicable even for you.”
“Why?” her father asked with a grin. “It saved me the trouble of killing them. I will not tolerate rising rebellions in my pack.”
Katarina closed her eyes. The truth was worse than Brandi and Gareth feared. “What have you done with my friends? Their people will look for them and find you.”
“Doubtful. Canada is a safe country for brilliant scientists who make big discoveries.”
Frowning, Katarina glared at him. “Delusions!” she shouted as she waved a hand. “You have so many delusions. I should have killed you long ago. This is big mistake I must fix.”
Her father lifted a finger. “Before we fight, disrespectful female of my loins, you must defeat my new beta. I convinced him to renounce his old pack for mine.”
Katarina stared as a deformed male rose from his spot against the wall and walked over to stand by his father’s side.
“Edward?” she asked.
This close, she could see the deformed male was a deformed wolf in human form. Reed’s former beta didn’t answer. He howled. His eyes were wild with bloodlust.
“What have you done?” Katarina asked.
“Ask Edward. He can explain it to you better than I can,” her father said with a chuckle as he turned his back and walked to the corner of the room. “Look up, Katarina. The fate of your so-called friends is to be sparring partners for those like Edward.”
Katarina tilted her head up to look in the direction her father ordered. On the other side of a glass divider, she saw Brandi, Gareth, and an assortment of other shifters dangling in cages. Was that the entire team? She searched and searched, but saw no sign of Reed.
She looked back at her father in dismay.
“There are seven rooms like this one. Some are bigger. All of them are ready to receive the Black Wolf pack when our team goes after them. It took us a while, but we finally found a tranquilizer delivery system that works without fail. Bringing in bears will mean a tremendous bonus for me. Too bad informant turned out to be a wolf in lying sheep’s clothing.”
Yana. Stewart. They were going after the entire village. They would dust everyone there. How could she stop this from happening? Reed, she thought. He was their only chance. Reed had to wake up, and she had to let him know.
Please Nicolai, she prayed. Please lead him to right things.
“I waited entire life for chance to show you what it means to be real alpha. Today is very good day,” her father said. “Now you fight for life while I watch my created wolf do what I have dreamed of doing. If you win against him, only then will I enter fight myself.”
Katarina balled her fists and howled in frustration while her father laughed.
Edward—Reed’s former beta turned monster—tackled her from the side with all his might and knocked her flat. His teeth snapping near her throat meant business. She grabbed his waist and rolled Edward over her. It was a perfect defense move for someone her size. He skidded across the floor, flipped over, and sprung to his feet, intending to return.
Katarina rolled slowly to her side and climbed to her feet. Her wolf screamed at her, but she would need her wolf form to help kill her father. This meant she needed to fight Edward as human… and she had to win.
A red haze dropped over her eyes as she stared at the deformed wolf running toward her. Katarina caught him in a dead run, lifted his massive body above her head, and then slammed him to the floor at her feet. The poor creature curled in pain, but she could show no mercy in front of her father. They might kill the deformed wolf in human form for failing.
Praying Edward’s pack would understand when this story filtered back to them, she walked to the fallen wolf, lifted his head, and punched him hard—multiple times. Eventually, the wolf’s head fell to the side and did not raise again.
Dragging Edward out of the circle by one leg, Katarina slung him against the wall. “Done,” she said, glaring at the male who stared at her in shock. “Enter the ring, Father. Enter the ring with me and meet your destiny.”
Not looking back to see if her cowardly parent followed her, Katarina walked back to the middle of the circle and turned patiently to wait for her challenger to show up.
17
Stewart woke in a cold sweat. “No,” he screamed in his new and deeper male voice.
In seconds, Kent and Aggie were by his side. Other than his mother, they were the only ones who understood the emotional toll his visions took on him. Both his siblings waited until he stopped shaking to ask questions. He rubbed his face and tried to decide what the impending doom feeling was trying to tell him. Could they really be returning so soon?
Stewart suddenly felt more people in the room and turned to see both Ariel and Jon in the doorway. He swallowed his fears of being misunderstood by two such powerful people and blurted out what he saw.
“White powder will rain from the sky. I think a plane spreads it. Whatever it is works like a tranquilizer does. It will affect all the wolves. Some bears will be affected too. Those it doesn’t work on will be left conscious to fight to their deaths. We can’t let that vision come true. The attackers are after all of us this time.”
Aggie reached out and ran a hand over Stewart’s forehead. “It was very brave of you to tell everyone about your vision. I can see you really have grown up.”
Stewart swallowed. “But I do not understand how to stop them. Why can’t I have a vision about that? Terra’s just getting well. As a human, she’ll have no defense against an attacker. There are too many innocents here.”
Kent paced back and forth by the bed. “I think we don’t want to stop them. Instead, we will want to lay a trap for them. We need a few volunteers to make them think they were successful so the rest of us can make a plan to take the bad guys out for real.”
Ariel snorted from the doorway. “And I suppose you have the perfect plan, Kent Longfeather?”
“No,” Kent admitted, chewing his lip. “Mom says no plan is ever perfect, but I
think what I have in mind will work.”
Jon looked at Ariel. “Do you believe these children and their stories?”
“Stewart is like Brandi. Among wolves, they’re considered pack visionaries. If the boy says trouble is coming, you can bet your giant bear's ass he’s right.”
Jon swept a hand into the room. “Devil wolf is trustworthy, but surely you don’t want to use the plan of a boy who wishes to be dictator.”
Kent sighed and put his face in his hand. “Katarina argued me out of my ideas of what being an alpha means. She was teasing me about becoming a dictator. Look… I honestly only want to help everyone. How long will take one of you to make a plan? Because I’ve already come up with three strategies in my head to keep this from happening. What makes me the most qualified alpha in the camp to do it is that I’ve been mitigating Stewart’s visions for a long time now.”
“You can trust my brother,” Stewart said with a nod. “Kent’s the smartest person I know when it comes to perfecting strategies. He keeps Aggie and me out of trouble all the time—or at least, most of the time.”
Aggie giggled when tiny Kent turned to stare at the grown-up Stewart in shock. Stewart lifted an eyebrow and stared back. Aggie sighed and pressed both hands to her tiny chest.
Ariel watched their silent conversation for a while and then looked at Jon. “It couldn’t hurt to listen to what the kid thinks. Maybe we can embellish his plan in a way that serves us all.”
“Fine,” Jon muttered with a tremendous sigh as he returned to his room to put on proper clothes for a strategy talk with the hybrid wolf children.
Reed woke to find himself draped over a limb high in a tree with his hair slapping at his face. He did not understand how he got there. He pushed off the limb and dropped twenty feet to the ground. Frowning over the white powder that rested on his clothes, he sniffed it and instantly recognized that it smelled like Katarina did when he rescued her.
He looked back up at the tree. How in the world did she get him up there? Because she had to be one that did it. No one else was around. Finally he laughed because he still hadn’t figured out how the petite Russian alpha tossed someone his size out of bed.
He removed his jacket and shook the powder off. The cell phone Brandi had given them fell to the ground. It instantly lit when he picked it up. On the phone screen, shining brightly in big letters, was the word “captured”.
He tried dialing 1, but no one answered. He dialed 2 and this time a man answered.
“Who is this?”
This is Stewart. Who are you?
“Reed,” he answered.
They’re coming back here. I saw it in my dreams. Tell Mom and Dad.
“When I see them, I will definitely share that information. So you’re a visionary like your mother? Trust that gift and it will grow. Is Ariel making a strategy to not be captured?”
Uh… Stewart began, then blew out a breath into the phone. Ariel and Jon are planning to kill them, so it sends a violent message to all the mad scientists in the world. Your entire village is armed and ready for them. Do you know if they will use white dust? I saw that, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
“It’s powdered tranquilizer. They used it here. It’s wicked and knocked me out. I don’t know what precautions you can take against that, but you will need something.”
Ariel’s trying to develop something to spray on us that will nullify the effects. Kent and Jon are looking for volunteers to be wolf guinea pigs who’ve succumbed. The plan so far is to lure them in with a few unconscious wolves. Then we’ll take their weapons.
Reed nodded, even though the boy couldn’t see him. “Tell them I said to check the storage house on the north end of the village. There used to be about fifty gas masks in there. They’re World War II relics, but they might help fight the powder floating in the air. Tell everyone to shed their clothes after the powder settles to the ground. Make sure you let Ariel and Jon know this too.”
“Are Mom and Dad okay?”
Reed paused, then decided. “They’re okay, but they’re captured. I’m going inside and free them. Do you know who Shitty Sheldon is?”
He’s our adopted grandfather.
“If you get hold of him, tell them we need re-enforcements here.”
I’ll have my brother do it. Kent knows the details of the fight plan better than I do.
“Trust your beast to return when you need help. When we get home, I’ve got something interesting to share about your beast. Keep having faith in becoming exactly the wolf you are supposed to be, Stewart.”
Thanks, Reed.
When the boy finally disconnected, Reed starting walking to the facility. He would not bother to change into his devil wolf warrior form until it was critical to do so. His rescue attempt required that he first discovered where Brandi and team were being held. Once the agents were free, he would find Katarina, and everyone in the building better be praying that no harm had come to her. He knew the Russian she-wolf had once again sacrificed her freedom for the good of others.
Rounding the building corner, he came face to face with an assault rifle which he suspected was loaded with silver rounds. Reed held up his hands in surrender. “I’ve come for my future mate. I’ll go along peacefully if you take me to her.”
The guard, some kind of snake hybrid, pushed out his flicking tongue and hissed in approval. He walked behind Reed, using the barrel of the weapon to move him forward.
They stopped in front of a room with no doors. The guard wouldn’t let him in, but that didn’t matter. He could see a fuming Katarina pacing inside the inner challenge circle. The outer circle was empty of challengers, but blood stains covered her face and what was on the floor matched.
Had she’d killed someone already? Had she killed her father?
His last question got answered when he saw the bearded Russian walk to the outer circle. A low growl rose in his throat and barely stifled it. He did not want to disturb her or distract her while fighting that evil bastard.
Reed looked back at his guard. “I can wait until she’s finished. Is there someplace I can watch without her knowing I’m here?”
The softly chuckling guard punched his back with the weapon. Reed stepped away from the doorway and started walking.
The snake guard put him into a small cage, attached a chain, and hoisted the cage into the rafters where twenty plus cages hung with people in them. Everyone looked uncomfortable, but none looked harmed.
Brandi? Reed sent with his mind. He once could only talk to very close family that way, but he’d had that communication with all three of his nano wolves from the beginning.
Reed! Thank God. Katarina had to fight Edward. It looked like she didn’t kill him. It’s hard to tell from this distance. He looks nothing like he used to look.
Reed shifted his weight to one side and got a better view of Brandi and Gareth. Are you ready for us to risk leaving? I want to retrieve Katarina before she has to kill her father.
Brandi’s head hurt from their silent communication. She wasn’t a natural at mind-speak. Gareth sent out a call for more help before the tranquilizer powder took us both out. We’ve been in these cages for hours. I have no idea about what’s happening outside.
Reed peered into the room below. Why didn’t you shift and let your wolf help fight?
Because our cages are genuine silver and so are the bullets in those customized rifles they carry everywhere.
Reed shifted in his cage. He needed time to think, even though he was completely lacking in privacy. He remembered Heidi saying the devil wolf form seemed impervious to silver. Maybe he could use his devil wolf warrior form to free them… or maybe use the one hand he’d been naturally born with.
Reed stood up in his cage and wrapped both his human hands around bars of his cage. He closed his eyes and focused. At first he only felt a mild tingling, but gradually the change in his hands—both hands—then fingers grew into claws that looked sharpened. With a single swipe, he sheared off th
e lock. Freed now, he leaned out of his cage and jumped onto the chain holding up the cage in the air.
Keeping his claws, Reed jumped from steel chain to steel chain. He shimmied across each cage top while doing the best he could to avoid being burned by the silver. Soon, though, he’d broken the locks. After opening the last one, he jumped to the floor and rushed to lower Brandi’s and Gareth’s down.
“We’ll free our team, then go searching for your grandsons and any other hostages,” Brandi said. She glanced down at Reed’s hands. “Those look lethal.”
Reed held them up. “I think Ariel’s nanos gave these to me.”
“Can you do the full out devil wolf thing now?” Brandi asked.
Reed stepped away from her and smoothly changed into the warrior form of his inner beast. “Not too bad the second time I could do,” he said through a mouthful of fangs.”
Brandi laughed. “Because of seeing Heidi in her form, I’m not afraid of yours. You look like a complete badass. I love it. Now go rescue Katarina.”
18
The entire pack village looked like someone had poured fake snowflakes everywhere. Many pack members had gotten a glimpse of the plane dropping the white substance. Some speculated that a local crop dusting pilot had likely been paid to drop the chemicals.
Several wolves in their human forms littered the streets as the powder sent them under. Which on the surface looked like a bad idea, but in reality it was all part of the plan.
An unmarked transport helicopter carrying their attackers touched down silently in same place they’d probably landed last time. No one heard them land, but Stewart had followed his gut, which had brought him to this field.
This time Stewart was watching their every move, and his siblings were keeping him company.
Not bothering with their assigned lodge accommodations, the three of them had stayed in the healing center with Terra. Yana had stayed there too, monitoring everything, but mostly the bear healer.
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