Reed (Nano Wolves #4) - Donna McDonald Page 0,6
claws. My father killed without remorse—family, friend, or foe. By pack law, I could have challenged my father for his pack after I killed my two younger brothers, which he sent to kill me, but I did not. I regret that now.”
“Your father is still your father, even though he made himself your enemy. Not all alphas are like that,” Brandi added.
Katarina nodded. “Da—I see Matt do good things.” She chopped the air with her hand. “My mistake was letting my father know where I lived. I told myself it showed everyone that I was not afraid. As I got older, reality sank into here,” Katarina explained, pointing to her head. “With entire pack of wolves to help him, my father could have killed me anytime. I waited my whole life for him to make attempt. Now I think my father saw future and decided to make profit on his biggest problem. When I escaped, he betrayed Yana in same way. For him, females are possessions.”
When Brandi started to speak, Katarina held up her hand to keep her from interrupting. She needed to get the whole thing out.
“Travis never say my father made deal for me to be taken, but he never say my father did not. On plane from Russia to America, Travis talked on phone to the person who told him about me and arranged money to be sent. Yana’s mother sent her away as young wolf to protect her. Instead of killing her, our father ignored her like he did me. Who told Travis where to find the one female wolf who was my blood sister? Answer is obvious. Everything circles back to the bastard who made me.”
Yana rose and walked to her sister. “If our bastard father now betrays all wolf-kind, then we take his life to teach him and his whole worthless pack a lesson. We go back to Russia, sister—you and I. We find a glorious destiny in fighting our bastard father to his death.”
Katarina chuckled and patted Yana’s face. Her sister was fierce, but she was too young to understand the danger. “Do not be so quick to seek death, Yana Volkov. Our father hate that he made an alpha daughter instead of an alpha son. That does not mean he betrayed all wolves.”
Yana shrugged, her mouth a grim line. She patted her stomach as she stepped away from her sister. “Gut still says it is a good guess that our bastard father sold us both.”
Brandi crossed her arms. “My gut is saying the same thing as Yana’s, but I’m glad I wasn’t the first person to suggest your father was the informant. I knew you’d hate hearing it.”
Katarina lifted one shoulder and let it fall. It wasn’t the first time she’d had to accept that her father was evil. “So what we do until we know truth? Reed’s people must be protected. Pack has suffered many losses and now more of his strongest wolves are gone from village.”
Brandi nodded—her mouth tight with determination to fix this. “I know and I have an idea about how to keep everyone safe. However… my solution is a bit off the wall,” she explained, turning away from Katarina’s questioning gaze to look at an equally bewildered Reed. She smiled, hoping to reassure him. “So… tell me, Reed. How do your people feel about bears? I’m talking about bears of the shifter sort.”
Brandi’s question was so unexpected, Reed laughed at her for daring to ask it. “Wolves leave all bears alone, but especially shifter ones. Despite our wintery conditions in Alaska, there aren’t many bear shifters here. Most bear shifters prefer desolate, isolated places like the forests of Siberia where they can be completely alone. Like all true predators, they don’t hang around creatures who aren’t on the menu for dinner.”
Gareth chuckled in agreement. “True, but the bears Brandi’s referring to aren’t natural shifters. They were created like she and her pack were. They aren’t typical shifters and haven’t been shifters for very long. They’re also having a similar problem in trying to stay off the radar of ambitious mad scientists. Before they were turned into science experiments, they were a quirky human environmental group living off-grid. Learning to live as bears has been quite the challenge for them. But like Brandi and her pack, the bears have done what they needed to in order to protect themselves.”
Reed blew out a breath, hoping it would let his resignation settle into place. “My first instinct is to say