Reed (Nano Wolves #4) - Donna McDonald Page 0,30

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