“I might have left a couple alive outside. I’ll get Aggie to check when she shifts back. What? Yeah, it just happened. She and Kent both shifted into tiny wolf cubs. Everyone keeps saying they’re adorable. Yeah, I miss you too. See you soon.”
He smiled his gratitude—or at least tried to—when Terra slid the phone back into his pocket.
“So what’s next,” Terra asked.
“I have to find Yana. I need her to help me tie up the guards outside. My claws are meant for shredding, not tying ropes.”
“Can I come watch?” Terra asked.
“Sure,” Stewart said. He looked down at his brother and sister. “You guys come too. You can keep an eye on Terra for me.”
Kent and Aggie ran out of the room yipping and yowling.
Terra laughed. “They sound like feral cats. Are you sure they’re wolves?”
Stewart heard himself laughing, but it sounded more like grunting, which made him feel less confident. It would take a very long time to get used to what he’d become.
19
Katarina stared at her smirking father who danced around the outer ring doing odd movements that loosely mirrored a martial arts warm-up. He’d already made her wait twenty minutes, and it looked like it would take thirty for forty before he actively engaged.
“Stalling will not keep me from killing you. I mirror you, Dmitri Volkov. I always have. Your genes made me strong.”
“Da. I wish you’d gotten more from your mother.”
“My mother did not deserve to die. Today you will pay for that… and for killing Yana’s mother too.”
“They all failed me and gave me no choice.”
Katarina lifted both hands in the air. “How? How did all fail you? They shared your bed and made children for you. You should have shown some mercy and sent them away.”
“That’s not how an alpha works. An alpha must be strong so he or she can make their subjects do the right things.”
“Subjects? You are not a king, Father. Killing your mates was an evil thing to do.”
Katarina crossed her arms and paced within her circle. “An alpha helps people. They don’t harm anyone unless left with no choice.” She swept a hand back and forth between her and her father’s body. “You leave me no choice today. I must kill you before your evil spreads further”
Her gaze went to the wall when Edward sat up and groaned in pain. Could what the scientists did to Edward be reversed? Katarina could only speculate.
She turned to stare at her father again. He inched closer and closer to her line. One quick grab and tug would send him crashing to the floor in front of her.
Her eyes went to the exit when a tall, freakish beast wandered inside the room. The beast stared down at Edward until the male stopped struggling to get upright.
“Out,” her father yelled without looking.
Katarina stopped and stared. It was his eyes that spoke to her—Reed’s eyes. The beast strolled to the outer circle.
“I’m here to witness this fight to the death,” he growled out.
It was Katarina’s turn to smirk when her father nearly fell running away from Reed in ugly beast form.
“Who are you?” her father demanded.
Katarina held up a hand to stop Reed from answering. Really, with all those fangs, it was a wonder he didn’t cut his tongue when he tried to talk.
She turned to her father and smiled. “This is my new boyfriend. I like him a lot and he is very talented in bed.”
Her father swore viciously in Russian before glaring at her. “You’re abnormal—nothing but trouble. I should have ended you the day you were born.”
“How sad for you—a brilliant solution arrived at too late. Come into the ring with me, Dmitri Volkov. Come, fight me and meet your true destiny.”
Reed growled again. “I don’t trust him, Katarina. Can I kill him for you?”
“Only if I fail to do so,” Katarina replied. She giggled when Reed nodded his massive beast head. “He brought me to his challenge circle. I cannot refuse him. This is me fixing my biggest mistake, Temptation.”
“Only one thing will fix this, Katarina.”
“Da, I know, Temptation. I know.”
Katarina braced herself for the worst. Her father stared fearfully at Reed, but he wasn’t about to lose face in a challenge he’d begun himself. She could feel people staring at them, but she could not see where. Someone had lowered all the cages to the floor over her head, blocking her from seeing the others. But with Reed here… perhaps they were rescued.
Her father stepped into the circle with her. He walked to stand in front of her as if had no doubts about the outcome of this fight.
“If I kill you, perhaps my loins will try for better child. I left you alive for too long.”
Katarina chuckled. “I’ve thought the same of you—that I’ve let you live too long. I promise today one of us will check it off our list.”
“You’re irreverent and you laugh over foolish things. Your mother was like you. She was too much trouble to keep alive. I missed her for only four days. Then I get new mate. My bed has never been empty.”
“You are an evil male who must pay for what he’s done. I will punish you here and pray that Nicolai Vashchenko will kill you over and over in the afterlife.”
The door of the room opened to let Brand and Gareth inside. They joined Edward at the wall. Reed’s two grandson’s strolled in as well. They looked at their grandfather and stumbled. Walking backwards to keep him in sight, they finally bumped up against their own fraction of leaning space.
Katarina held out a hand and motioned him to engage. “I regret what I must do, but I cannot let you sell more of your pack’s people. I cannot let you abduct anyone from Reed’s pack.”
Lifting a shoulder, her father laughed. “They wanted your sister—and the mysterious children with many talents. Did I mention they’re being picked up even as we speak? 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.