Reed (Nano Wolves #4) - Donna McDonald Page 0,16

he could easily locate Katarina on his own. The place was barely bigger than the backyard at their house, and that wasn’t including the tree-covered hillside behind them where he, Kent, and Aggie ran drills.

Brandi smiled at her son’s caution with the girl. He was as careful with Terra as he was with Aggie. “Thank you,” she said, giving the boy a quick hug and kiss on his cheek before striding away.

“I know where Katarina is. She’s at the sanctuary,” Terra whispered when she thought Brandi was out of earshot.

Stewart felt both his eyebrows raise up. Did the human girl have psychic gifts like his Aunt Heidi? “How do you know that?”

Terra giggled. “Because Katarina asked me if she could go sit there for a while. She said she needed some peace and quiet.”

Stewart blew out a breath. “You could have told my mom that.”

Terra snorted. “Dude, I do not tell adults everything. I only tell them what’s critical. Otherwise, I’d never get to do anything around here. Now we get to do something useful and they’ll think we’re wonderfully behaved children. I call it laying groundwork. When I break the rules, they don’t react so badly because I’ve been so good in every other way.”

“Very calculating,” Stewart said.

“I call it resourceful,” Terra corrected.

Stewart laughed. “You reason like my brother, Kent.”

Terra chuckled. “That better be a compliment, Stewart Longfeather.”

Stewart thought of his siblings. They’d been together every day since they got pulled from the orphanage. This trip was the first time he’d been away from them that he could recall. “My brother and sister are more special than I am.”

Terra hooked her arm through Stewart’s as they walked. “I seriously doubt that, but if they’re anything like you, I’m sure they’re amazing.”

Stewart nodded and wondered if Kent and Aggie were going through their own amazing changes back home.

Katarina tuned out the village noises behind her. Out here in their sacred space, she was nearly out of sight of the compound buildings. The dappled light slipping through the thick foliage overhead brought her the kind of peace she hadn’t experienced in a long time. She missed Russia sometimes, even though she would likely never return to her homeland.

Not that she wasn’t grateful to have been saved by such wonderful people here in Alaska, but she missed the land she’d been so abruptly ripped from without her permission. The university had already replaced her because they assumed she was dead. Her apartment and her meager belongings were also gone.

What would she have now if she returned to Russia? Her father’s pack was only full of enemies. Had Nicolai felt that way when he’d left the pack to roam the world?

“I am helping Reed make friends with whole group of bears, Nicolai. Is this why you saved me?”

There was no answer, but Katarina didn’t mind. Perhaps Nicolai’s wolf spirit had more important matters to see to back at the village he’d loved so much.

Thinking of the village, she wondered how Yana was faring. Luckily, her sister was also a survivor. Yana had survived being captured by the evil scientists they were trying now so hard to fight.

It was quiet here in the bear sanctuary—so quiet that Katarina heard the soft crunch of leaves under light boots mere seconds before masked people carrying guns emerged from between trees. She counted eight walking in front and more behind them that she could not yet see. They were dressed very much like those who had attacked Reed’s village.

Katarina rose and lightly exited the area, walking backwards so she could guard herself. She needed to warn the others, but she also needed to keep these people from reaching the village. How was she supposed to do both?

When she backed into something that stumbled away from her, Katarina swung to see a startled Stewart. Next to him was a laughing Terra. She shushed the girl, but it was too late. A quiet snick of a weapon and Terra’s laughter ended. Looking down where she’d fallen, Katarina saw a dart sticking out of Terra’s fragile human neck.

She grabbed the boy and gripped him hard enough to bring pain. “Take Terra and go back, Stewart. Tell others before it is too late. There are attackers in the woods. I will hold them off as long as I can.”

Stewart stared down at the girl on the ground. “They shot her—they shot Terra.”

“Probably with tranquilizer meant for bear,” Katarina said. She pushed the boy to the ground as two more darts whizzed