“Mom says no plan is ever perfect, but I think what I have in mind will work.”
Jon looked at Ariel. “Do you believe these children and their stories?”
“Stewart is like Brandi. Among wolves, they’re considered pack visionaries. If the boy says trouble is coming, you can bet your giant bear's ass he’s right.”
Jon swept a hand into the room. “Devil wolf is trustworthy, but surely you don’t want to use the plan of a boy who wishes to be dictator.”
Kent sighed and put his face in his hand. “Katarina argued me out of my ideas of what being an alpha means. She was teasing me about becoming a dictator. Look… I honestly only want to help everyone. How long will take one of you to make a plan? Because I’ve already come up with three strategies in my head to keep this from happening. What makes me the most qualified alpha in the camp to do it is that I’ve been mitigating Stewart’s visions for a long time now.”
“You can trust my brother,” Stewart said with a nod. “Kent’s the smartest person I know when it comes to perfecting strategies. He keeps Aggie and me out of trouble all the time—or at least, most of the time.”
Aggie giggled when tiny Kent turned to stare at the grown-up Stewart in shock. Stewart lifted an eyebrow and stared back. Aggie sighed and pressed both hands to her tiny chest.
Ariel watched their silent conversation for a while and then looked at Jon. “It couldn’t hurt to listen to what the kid thinks. Maybe we can embellish his plan in a way that serves us all.”
“Fine,” Jon muttered with a tremendous sigh as he returned to his room to put on proper clothes for a strategy talk with the hybrid wolf children.
Reed woke to find himself draped over a limb high in a tree with his hair slapping at his face. He did not understand how he got there. He pushed off the limb and dropped twenty feet to the ground. Frowning over the white powder that rested on his clothes, he sniffed it and instantly recognized that it smelled like Katarina did when he rescued her.
He looked back up at the tree. How in the world did she get him up there? Because she had to be one that did it. No one else was around. Finally he laughed because he still hadn’t figured out how the petite Russian alpha tossed someone his size out of bed.
He removed his jacket and shook the powder off. The cell phone Brandi had given them fell to the ground. It instantly lit when he picked it up. On the phone screen, shining brightly in big letters, was the word “captured”.
He tried dialing 1, but no one answered. He dialed 2 and this time a man answered.
“Who is this?”
This is Stewart. Who are you?
“Reed,” he answered.
They’re coming back here. I saw it in my dreams. Tell Mom and Dad.
“When I see them, I will definitely share that information. So you’re a visionary like your mother? Trust that gift and it will grow. Is Ariel making a strategy to not be captured?”
Uh… Stewart began, then blew out a breath into the phone. Ariel and Jon are planning to kill them, so it sends a violent message to all the mad scientists in the world. Your entire village is armed and ready for them. Do you know if they will use white dust? I saw that, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
“It’s powdered tranquilizer. They used it here. It’s wicked and knocked me out. I don’t know what precautions you can take against that, but you will need something.”
Ariel’s trying to develop something to spray on us that will nullify the effects. Kent and Jon are looking for volunteers to be wolf guinea pigs who’ve succumbed. The plan so far is to lure them in with a few unconscious wolves. Then we’ll take their weapons.
Reed nodded, even though the boy couldn’t see him. “Tell them I said to check the storage house on the north end of the village. There used to be about fifty gas masks in there. They’re World War II relics, but they might help fight the powder floating in the air. Tell everyone to shed their clothes after the powder settles to the ground. Make sure you let Ariel and Jon know this too.”
“Are Mom and Dad okay?”
Reed paused, then decided. “They’re okay, but they’re captured. I’m going inside and free them. Do you