her as well?”
“Shut up and focus. The only thing you need to think about is the fact that we will be rich when we sell her to the highest bidder. Her bastard daddy said she was a highly prized alpha female. The scientists will get both wolf’s blood and babies from her. She’s worth a freaking fortune.”
Voice one escalated. “Yeah, well, if you know so much, tell me how we’re going to sell her. It’s not like we can advertise her on Wolfs-R-Us.”
“Just shut up and turn off the cage,” voice two demanded.
“I still don’t like this.”
“You don’t have to like it, just do what I say.”
Katarina heard the humming noise from the cage suddenly stop. She heard the bars open and felt someone roll her over in the cot. She opened her eyes and reared back with her elbow to disable her attacker. She squirmed from a sharp prick as she reared backwards but ignored it as her elbow connected sharply. The most important thing was silencing her startled aggressor, which she finished by knocking him back into the bars. She nodded as he slid to the ground.
The man outside the cage ran to the wall and felt it with trembling fingers.
“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