No one in any pack is safe. Scientists. Governments. Military groups in higher numbers than you could believe. They all want to create versions of us before they kill the originals. It is modern logic to want the copy instead of the real thing.”
“It is flawed thinking. When this is over, I will work to end that too.”
The door to the room opened again. This time the room filled with several members of her father’s pack—members he’d sold to this scientific facility because he had no conscience. They filed in and glared at the challenge circle. Her father turned to them with a smile containing more evil that she knew he possessed.
“If I win,” Katarina whispered. “I will be their hero. I will be their alpha. This will happen, Dmitri.”
Her father shifted into his black wolf and lunged without warning. Katarina caught him and tossed him over her shoulder. She chuckled when her father landed hard. “Do you concede already?”
Her father put his legs back under him, then hunkered down to charge. Katarina shifted and snarled.
Then they were crashing together as wolves—rolling over the painted floor as they fought. Katarina felt herself go airborne, but she landed on all fours and swiveled to run back.
Accept your defeat. She sent the original command to her father and added an echo.
Why should I? You’re the one panting and out of breath, he sent back.
Katarina lowered her head and growled in warning as she stalked him. Her father danced back and forth, trying to distract her. She refused to let him succeed.
First chance she got, she put her wolf's muzzle close to his. He reacted exactly as she’d expected and lunged for her throat. She blocked the action by sinking her fangs into his shoulder and then tossing him over her head—the same way she’d done Edward.
Unlike Edward, though, her father was up almost instantly and running back toward her with fury in his eyes. Katarina narrowed her own eyes as she planned her strategy.
When her father rose in the air and positioned himself to pounce on her, Katarina twisted her wolf body away from his lunge. It was entertaining to watch him fall into the empty space she’d stood seconds ago.
Opening her jaws wide, she sank her teeth into the back of his neck and bit down hard. Her father howled in pain as she bit deeply enough to sever his spinal cord. Spitting his blood on the floor as she left his body, she walked slowly around her father until she was sure he was not getting up.
“Finish me,” her father demanded as he shifted back to human.
Katarina shifted back to human as well, blessedly with her clothes on this time. She looked upwards to stare at the ceiling. If a ghost had been hanging there, she wouldn’t have been surprised. Shifting with clothes on was a great gift in a moment like this. “Thank you, Nicolai.”
“Shut up and kill me, you weak bitch.”
“You will die today, but I would like you to suffer first. I want you to know what it’s like to be trapped and helpless. This is what you did to your own people. Shame on you, Dmitri. You sold me and then Yana. You killed both our mothers. What mercy for you is reasonable? None, Dmitri Volkov. You deserve none.”
Her father stretched his arms and tried to pull his body out of the circle.
“Do you concede?” Katarina asked.
“Go to hell,” her father said bitterly.
“I have been there all my life with you. I see heaven for first time only recently. In your pack, you were the only one who could be happy. Your reign is over. I claim your pack. Today I set them free of you.”
“Kill me and be done with it.”
“Nyet.”
Blood lust ruled her. She could feel many stares, but only one had the audacity to enter the challenge circle. The devil wolf was a man once more.
“This is bad time for me, Temptation. Leave the circle.”
“I can’t let you become the thing you hate. It would be one more burden for you to bear. Kill him and let him die.”
Katarina walked away. She put all the distance the circle allowed between them. “He hurt everyone. He sold his children, murdered their mothers, and betrayed his people for money. He deserves to hurt. He deserves to be punished.”
“Honey,” Reed said. “You already did that. You fought him and won.”
Katarina rubbed her forehead. She was calming at last. “I cannot kill him with so much hate