Reed (Nano Wolves #4) - Donna McDonald Page 0,35

back at the male who now sat stoically in his chair. “I guess we are both lucky that you only find me interesting.”

When she disappeared from sight, Reed stood and walked to the fireplace. He picked up the wrought iron tools and bent them quietly in half while he listened to Katarina sniffling in the shower.

10

To put a healthy distance between her and Reed, Katarina spent the day by the lake. What Reed did with himself, she had no idea. Used to her own company, it was no hardship for her to entertain herself. Colorado was beautiful. It was warmer than Russia or Alaska. It was like a vacation to be here.

She skipped rocks and gathered firewood for the people who would be in the cabin next. There was a place near the cabin to stack it. Heidi would say her actions were good karma. Katarina was simply happy to have a purpose that accomplished something.

When she felt she was recovered from the tranquilizer, Katarina undressed, shifted to wolf, and spent a couple hours in the lake catching fish. It was a fun activity and one the icy lakes where she’d lived most of her life would not have made as enjoyable. She kept only enough fish for their evening meal and let the rest go free.

Assuming she and Reed would both be keeping their human forms, she built a fire in a metal ring that looked like they had made it for that purpose. With all the trees surrounding them, it was easy to find a stick or two to slide the fish onto. What was hardest was finding something to raise the food to a decent height so the fish wouldn’t burn. A pile of discarded bricks she discovered behind the cabin served the purpose quite nicely.

She’d found some lawn chairs back there too. Under better circumstances, this place would be a fun place to stay.

She was staring into her tiny but hot fire when Reed exited the house. Sighing in resignation, she looked her fill again, absorbing his male beauty. Desire to touch him churned in her, but she was no untried she-wolf. She ruled her hormones, not the other way around.

“Come eat, Temptation. While you were brooding, I caught fish for dinner.”

“I was resting… and thinking. I brought dessert,” Reed said, holding up two packs of dried fruit.

“Dessert? We have feast then.” Katarina pointed to a chair she purposely placed on the opposite side of the fire. “Sit there. It’s not safe for you over here.”

Grinning, Reed nodded and obediently went to sit where she’d indicated. “I appreciate you keeping the fire low enough not to be seen. Billowing smoke might give us away.”

“Low fire is so fish doesn’t burn, but I take compliment. I suspect you don’t give many.”

Reed’s mouth lifted at one corner. “No. I guess I don’t. I always thought that made the ones I gave more sincere.”

Katarina raised a shoulder. “You are stoic—means you are quiet, strong, and brooding. It is no crime to be that.”

Reed waited a heartbeat or two to speak. “Maybe I was brooding. I’m sorry about what happened earlier.”

“It is our fate to wait, yes?” Katarina asked, then chuckled. “I am rhyming in English. My command of your language has improved since I got stranded here.”

“Stranded? Is that what being in Alaska feels like to you?”

“Not as much now as at first,” Katarina answered, poking at the fire with a long wooden stick to stir the embers. “When I think clearly, I think here Yana and I can safely live among wolves for first time in our lives. There would be no need to fool humans as I did for many years. Maybe we live easier life in Alaska than Russia.”

Reed leaned back in his chair and stared at the fire. “Matt has a few humans living with his pack. My pack has none. The bear children are about to change that, I guess. What did you have to give up to fool the humans?

“Give up? Nothing. But always there was pretense. I moved every thirty years and started over. I paid werewolf underground to make me new ID so humans never know my real age. It was…” Katarina picked the fish up and flipped it over. “It was pain in ass to always move. Lose job, status, friends, house—lose everything.” She shrugged. “It was also necessary.”

Reed studied her across the fire. “You’re not nearly as youthful as I thought you were. After all that’s happened to you,