“Reed ran both off—this is story he told me. His heart broke for bad family again. He said my father and Clone Joshua hunted me down. He refused to let them take me.”
Brandi grinned, wishing she could have seen Reed facing off with Katarina’s father. She had a silver bullet in her pocket with that Russian wolf’s name on it. “Well, I hope Reed didn’t hurt the boy. He’s our mole. Without Joshua feeding us information, finding all the players would be ten times harder.”
Katarina lifted a finger. “So bad grandson is not bastard clone after all?”
“Can’t say for sure about the bastard part, but in every other way, Joshua’s one of the good guys. Unfortunately, they don’t tell him all their plans. For example, he didn’t know they were planning to attack Bear Central. He said all the talk was about taking a few children.”
Katarina’s eyes widened. “Terra and Stewart were there and easy catch. Thank Nicolai, I scared wolf boy into running away with girl.”
“I will always be grateful. The kidnappers may have gotten them both if it hadn’t been for you. Of course, Stewart might have kicked their asses during his first shift. Apparently, they shot him with four or five tranquilizer darts and he kept right on running after them.”
Katarina smiled. “So boy is really wolf now?”
Brandi laughed. “It’s never that easy with my children. The boy is nearly a full-sized man now, but his beast is yet to be identified. Stewart never got a look at himself and what the bears described defied belief. God only knows what was in the concoction Randall Crane fed my kids before he foisted them off onto Shitty Sheldon. Randall Crane had them for over eight months. They were three-year-old humans when he had them kidnapped.”
“This madness must stop,” Katarina said firmly.
Brandi blew out a breath. “I don’t think it can be stopped—not forever. Humans will keep looking into genetic research because they’re fascinated by the challenge of improving on nature. Ariel was a biomedical scientist when she was human and she still loves that shit. The primary reason we got successfully turned was because of some break-through finding of hers. She refuses to disclose what she found to anyone, but do you think she’s the only scientist able to figure it out? That would be stupid to assume.”
Katarina made a growling sound deep in her throat. “This is not helpful talk, Agent Nano Wolf. Give me clear bad guys I can kill. I want to believe good guys can end this.”
Brandi met Katarina’s determined gaze with her own. “If we murdered every scientist in the world, we’d be no better than the people we’re chasing. We can only take out the scientists who are kidnapping shifters and experimenting on unsuspecting humans. I want the bad mad scientists to become terrified of the wolf packs living in Alaska. Word will get around.”
Katarina nodded. “Okay. I will help you make this happen.”
“Good. I have a plan.”
Chuckling, Katarina elbowed the nano wolf in her side. “You always have plan. Is this good one?”
“Hey now, I’m the one who sent Reed to you.” Grinning, Brandi elbowed Katarina. “First thing on your help list is to wake up the alpha prime who’s sleeping his life away today. Gareth isn’t back yet, so you get the honors.”
“Fine. I will do this task, but you must stay out here in case alpha prime wakes up in frisky mood,” Katarina commanded as she climbed to her feet and walked toward the cabin door. “I did my best to wear him out last night, but like me, he is pent up after long time without female. This is unfortunate timing for your plan.”
“I know I explained earlier that I didn’t want that level of detail. That’s TMI, Katarina. Don’t make me say that in Russian. It wouldn’t translate well,” Brandi warned.
Grinning when a laughing Katarina walked inside the cabin, Brandi pulled a sandwich out of the bag, set her coffee to the side, and got comfortable enough to wait however long it took.
“Temptation?”
Reed rolled in the bed and reached for the owner of the sexy voice. Memories of last night had him smiling and wanting more. He opened his eyes wide when his hand found nothing but empty bed beneath his questing fingers.
He shifted to look around and found Katarina stuffing everything into their packs before carrying his clothes to the bed.
“I planned to let you sleep while I catch us more fish. Delivery arrived first.”
Seeing she