Reed (Nano Wolves #4) - Donna McDonald Page 0,3

was in the right place.

Ariel, the alpha nano wolf, was the only exception, and she’d secretly decided that was a mistake coming from the nano wolf’s unholy creation. Until she’d met Katarina. Her alpha sister shifted on orders from her gut and without regard for the dangers to her body—whatever its form. Somehow that also translated into flashing your womanly assets to all with eyes to see them.

Yana sighed as she stared down and wondered what to do to help her sister. Muttering again to herself in Russian—because English had no adequate words to express her level of frustration—she hurried back to the truck to retrieve the rest Katarina’s clothes.

Yana told her that none of the wolves who had been tranquilized woke as quickly as she did. For her rapid return to consciousness, Katarina was deeply grateful. Yana had also warned her about Reed’s anger as she dressed in her clothes that had magically ended up in the truck during her shift. She wasn’t surprised that Reed was angry over what she’d done, but the stoic Black Wolf alpha had yet to express that anger to her. In fact, Katarina noticed Reed said little to anyone.

Was the wolf always so passionless? Reed should be livid and growling and angry beyond his ability to rein it in. If this was what a long life did to you, she would rather die screaming and fighting.

She shook her head at the sad thought that Reed’s personality no longer allowed expression of what feelings might rule him. Many Russian males were like that. They drank away their feelings or hid them behind fatalistic futility because they didn’t bother to keep fighting. That kind of stoicism did not bode well in a bed partner, and Katarina found her desire for the handsome alpha waning for the first time since meeting him.

Still… she watched him. She watched him and wondered what he was really like—or what had he been like at her age. There was something about him that pulled at her—something his bastard clone had lacked.

Reed nodded and listened to his people giving their reports about what happened during the attack. Like covert operatives from a TV show, the attackers had carried actual weapons, which they never used, not even when several of the Black Wolf males shifted to their wolf forms to defend the village.

Rather than shooting to kill any pack member, the attackers had instead used tranquilizers to stop the shifted wolves. They’d also used fire bombs to create a distraction the villagers had no choice but to fight. While the non-shifted wolves scrambled to constrain the damage from the fires, the attackers had run away like the cowards they were.

It had taken over five hours to put out the fires. A few of the defending wolves were still sleeping off the effects of the tranquilizers. Katarina shook her head. If they had only arrived sooner, things might have not gotten so bad.

After all she’d experienced since her abduction from her home in Russia, Katarina would never believe this situation was some random event. Someone had intentionally targeted Reed’s pack. And the attackers wouldn’t have been so merciful if they’d accomplished what they’d truly come to do.

When she finally caught Reed standing alone, Katarina went to confront him. If he wanted to yell at her for interfering, she’d rather get it over with than worry about it for days.

“Too bad Ghost of Nicolai Vashchenko was not paying attention today. Ghost of your bastard clone took advantage of situation,” Katarina joked, but then winced at the guilt flashing through Reed’s gaze.

Her hand instantly went to his arm to rub in comfort. The enormous Black Wolf alpha and his prehistoric-sized wolf irritated her nearly all the time, but that was no reason for her to be a thoughtless ass about what was not his fault.

“Forgive me, Temptation. I spoke without thinking. Is terrible flaw in my character—or so I hear.”

Reed shrugged off the apology with one shoulder as he stared at the still smoldering buildings. “I need to call Brandi and let her know about this. She warned me this could happen if Travis told the wrong people that he’d come from an entire village of werewolves.”

Katarina frowned as she looked at the damage done to the buildings along one of the two or three walkable streets in the center of the tiny village. She could see that two stores had barely missed being set on fire. There was a school with children of all