Reed (Nano Wolves #4) - Donna McDonald Page 0,53

powder affected everyone? It acted like a tranquilizer. Her heartbeat sped up in alarm. And why wasn’t she being affected? Looking down at Reed, she could only think one thing—that she needed to hide him.

“One of us must not be found. Wake up quickly, Temptation,” Katarina whispered.

She rolled Reed up into a seated position, grabbed the back of his shirt, and started dragging. She had to hide him before she succumbed to the powder as well.

After hiding Reed as best she could, she stumbled back out and made her way to the trees closest to the building. White dust covered the ground, and she dragged it on over her shoes as she walked. When her consciousness faded, she fell to the ground. Her wolf howled to be let out, but Katarina didn’t dare let her loose. Any change back would leave her naked and vulnerable. She would not give their captors that to laugh at. Maybe she’d make a plan—right after she woke up.

Katarina woke when a bucket of cold water got tossed in her face. She now a soaking wet human in the middle of a large room with a familiar circle drawn on the floor. She’d never stood in the circle before, but she knew what it was.

“You should have brought the nightmare wolf with you. Now you have no second,” her father said.

Katarina climbed to her feet. A scientist walked forward and jabbed her with a needle before she back-handed him across the room.

“See how ungrateful you are? It was something to help you. Why couldn’t you have been a son? Sons listen to their fathers.”

“He was giving me drugs I did not ask to take,” Katarina stated flatly. “As for my gender, you must not speak like ignorant ruler. Everyone knows male seed decides sex of child. You made me female. It was your destiny. Now killing you is mine.”

Her father huffed angrily. “You need that drug to help you fight to death. Regardless of price they paid me for your dead body, Katarina Volkov, you are child of my loins. I refused to let them kill you without first giving you a fair fight. This is werewolf way.”

“You need better friends, Dmitri Skayaovich Volkov. Your scientists will betray you one day, just as you have betrayed all our kind.”

“Why would they settle for one wolf when they can get all they want with my help?” her father answered with a smile. “Every few months I bring them new wolves to use. Travis Black Wolf was a disappointment, but I have delivered many. My wolves do not escape.”

Katarina froze and stared. “You deliver your own pack to these vile scientists? That is despicable even for you.”

“Why?” her father asked with a grin. “It saved me the trouble of killing them. I will not tolerate rising rebellions in my pack.”

Katarina closed her eyes. The truth was worse than Brandi and Gareth feared. “What have you done with my friends? Their people will look for them and find you.”

“Doubtful. Canada is a safe country for brilliant scientists who make big discoveries.”

Frowning, Katarina glared at him. “Delusions!” she shouted as she waved a hand. “You have so many delusions. I should have killed you long ago. This is big mistake I must fix.”

Her father lifted a finger. “Before we fight, disrespectful female of my loins, you must defeat my new beta. I convinced him to renounce his old pack for mine.”

Katarina stared as a deformed male rose from his spot against the wall and walked over to stand by his father’s side.

“Edward?” she asked.

This close, she could see the deformed male was a deformed wolf in human form. Reed’s former beta didn’t answer. He howled. His eyes were wild with bloodlust.

“What have you done?” Katarina asked.

“Ask Edward. He can explain it to you better than I can,” her father said with a chuckle as he turned his back and walked to the corner of the room. “Look up, Katarina. The fate of your so-called friends is to be sparring partners for those like Edward.”

Katarina tilted her head up to look in the direction her father ordered. On the other side of a glass divider, she saw Brandi, Gareth, and an assortment of other shifters dangling in cages. Was that the entire team? She searched and searched, but saw no sign of Reed.

She looked back at her father in dismay.

“There are seven rooms like this one. Some are bigger. All of them are ready to receive the Black Wolf pack