Yana sighed internally when Katarina only stared at Brandi without commenting. Her alpha sister rarely gave away her thoughts. She turned to Brandi herself. “No one heard Russian being spoken. Many here would recognize the language. Centuries ago, the great Nicolai Vashchenko taught entire village to speak it.”
Brandi tore her gaze away from Katarina’s intense stare to answer Yana. “The attackers were part of a private apprehension group out of New Zealand that works for hire. English is the primary language in New Zealand, but I’m guessing no one heard the attackers speaking much at all. That’s how professionals work when they’re collecting their targets.”
“Da. Is true,” Katarina admitted. “Villagers heard sharp, terse commands in English.”
Brandi nodded at her in acknowledgment. “After they took Heidi, we learned Travis hadn’t been working with just one group. He sold his apprehension services to the highest bidder. He collected subjects for nearly every global group involved in these sorts of experiments. My theory is that someone in Russia—probably the same someone who helped Travis abduct Yana and Katarina—got paid for the information about the exact location of the Black Wolf pack.”
Katarina rubbed her forehead as she swore over that bit of news. Her gut was screaming at her. She wanted to scream for real. “Trakhni moyu zhizn',” she muttered in Russian instead.
Yana gasped and stared at her sister. “Fucking is sacred, Katarina Volkov. It is bad luck to swear about fucking.” She went instantly silent when Katarina held up a hand to stop her.
Brandi cleared her throat to hide her urge to laugh at Yana’s outburst. Finally, she went on with her explanation. “Gareth and I both suspect the group we’ve been watching in Canada now has the Black Wolf pack members who were taken. Two of our best agents are attempting to confirm our suspicions. A retrieval team is standing by to go in there once we know more. We were intentionally delaying the complete shutdown of the Canadian facility until we could figure out the Russian connection that keeps surfacing.”
Katarina studied Reed, whose expression showed no emotion about what he was hearing. While he looked calm in his eyes, she also could feel a storm gathering. She turned to Brandi. “Do you think Canadian scientists kidnap wolves hoping to make more like you?”
Brandi shrugged before nodding. “I can’t say for certain, but we know Randall Crane’s work got disseminated to lots of people through his sister, Diane, who would have told anyone anything to get scientific funding. Diane Crane didn’t know specifically about Ariel, Heidi, and I until Travis lost Katarina and took Heidi instead. The other Crane sibling, Sheldon Crane, has spent his career trying to save those who ended up being experiments for Randall and Diane.”
“Then we know nothing for certain,” Katarina concluded.
Brandi shook her head. “We know some things, and if I had to make a guess about what’s happening, I would say the Canadian group hopes to replicate Randall Crane’s work. They intend to make werewolves using Reed’s blood.”
“Why did they not stay and fight to capture Reed?” Katarina asked.
Gareth pointed at the Black Wolf alpha. “Reed was likely their original target, but he wasn’t here when they arrived. Timing was off, and since Travis is no longer around to feed them information, they probably made plans that included a contingency for Reed’s absence. Once the village was on fire, their original plan likely changed to escaping with as few casualties as possible. This is why they settled for stealing two of Reed’s remaining grandsons and his beta.”
Katarina rose and paced a while before turning to look at Reed, who was not responding. His stoicism worried her far more than his ranting in anger would have. Was this truly his nature? She frowned deeply and fought off the sigh that had been building up as she thought about it.
She made sure she only looked at Brandi. “Russian werewolves are not like werewolves in America. In motherland, werewolf alphas rule with sharp fangs and iron 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.”