when our team goes after them. It took us a while, but we finally found a tranquilizer delivery system that works without fail. Bringing in bears will mean a tremendous bonus for me. Too bad informant turned out to be a wolf in lying sheep’s clothing.”
Yana. Stewart. They were going after the entire village. They would dust everyone there. How could she stop this from happening? Reed, she thought. He was their only chance. Reed had to wake up, and she had to let him know.
Please Nicolai, she prayed. Please lead him to right things.
“I waited entire life for chance to show you what it means to be real alpha. Today is very good day,” her father said. “Now you fight for life while I watch my created wolf do what I have dreamed of doing. If you win against him, only then will I enter fight myself.”
Katarina balled her fists and howled in frustration while her father laughed.
Edward—Reed’s former beta turned monster—tackled her from the side with all his might and knocked her flat. His teeth snapping near her throat meant business. She grabbed his waist and rolled Edward over her. It was a perfect defense move for someone her size. He skidded across the floor, flipped over, and sprung to his feet, intending to return.
Katarina rolled slowly to her side and climbed to her feet. Her wolf screamed at her, but she would need her wolf form to help kill her father. This meant she needed to fight Edward as human… and she had to win.
A red haze dropped over her eyes as she stared at the deformed wolf running toward her. Katarina caught him in a dead run, lifted his massive body above her head, and then slammed him to the floor at her feet. The poor creature curled in pain, but she could show no mercy in front of her father. They might kill the deformed wolf in human form for failing.
Praying Edward’s pack would understand when this story filtered back to them, she walked to the fallen wolf, lifted his head, and punched him hard—multiple times. Eventually, the wolf’s head fell to the side and did not raise again.
Dragging Edward out of the circle by one leg, Katarina slung him against the wall. “Done,” she said, glaring at the male who stared at her in shock. “Enter the ring, Father. Enter the ring with me and meet your destiny.”
Not looking back to see if her cowardly parent followed her, Katarina walked back to the middle of the circle and turned patiently to wait for her challenger to show up.
17
Stewart woke in a cold sweat. “No,” he screamed in his new and deeper male voice.
In seconds, Kent and Aggie were by his side. Other than his mother, they were the only ones who understood the emotional toll his visions took on him. Both his siblings waited until he stopped shaking to ask questions. He rubbed his face and tried to decide what the impending doom feeling was trying to tell him. Could they really be returning so soon?
Stewart suddenly felt more people in the room and turned to see both Ariel and Jon in the doorway. He swallowed his fears of being misunderstood by two such powerful people and blurted out what he saw.
“White powder will rain from the sky. I think a plane spreads it. Whatever it is works like a tranquilizer does. It will affect all the wolves. Some bears will be affected too. Those it doesn’t work on will be left conscious to fight to their deaths. We can’t let that vision come true. The attackers are after all of us this time.”
Aggie reached out and ran a hand over Stewart’s forehead. “It was very brave of you to tell everyone about your vision. I can see you really have grown up.”
Stewart swallowed. “But I do not understand how to stop them. Why can’t I have a vision about that? Terra’s just getting well. As a human, she’ll have no defense against an attacker. There are too many innocents here.”
Kent paced back and forth by the bed. “I think we don’t want to stop them. Instead, we will want to lay a trap for them. We need a few volunteers to make them think they were successful so the rest of us can make a plan to take the bad guys out for real.”
Ariel snorted from the doorway. “And I suppose you have the perfect plan, Kent Longfeather?”
“No,” Kent admitted, chewing his lip.