Jon laughed and knelt down to be more on the boy’s level. “Is that right? So, what do you see about my group and Reed’s pack becoming allies?”
Stewart studied the man to see if he was serious, then looked at his mother. “Can I tell him what I see?”
Brandi shrugged. “Follow your gut.”
Stewart turned back to the bear shifter. “If you go to Alaska, all the bears will want to stay there. That works out best for everyone because Reed’s pack will protect your pack, and you’ll protect them back. Everyone will feel safer—eventually.”
“Except bears don’t normally live in packs,” Jon pointed out with a grin.
“Well… right,” Stewart agreed with an eye roll, “but calling you a ‘sloth of bears’ doesn’t make any sense at all. If you don’t like ‘pack’ as a term, I’d rather say ‘group’ when I talk about your people. If you were real bears, your wife would have run you off by now so she could raise your children all by herself without your input. I’m guessing it works differently for bear shifters because she’s giggling at my comment.”
“It does indeed work differently, which makes me a fortunate man to get to keep my family. How did you get to be so smart, Stewart?” Jon asked.
“Mom told me Grandpa Sheldon put special vitamins in my milk when I was a toddler. I don’t really remember it,” Stewart explained.
Jon nodded his head as he stood. He looked at Reed and sighed. “Let’s take a walk, Reed of the Black Wolf pack. I’ll show you around our humble compound. We’re living completely off-the-grid out here and proud of what we’ve created. Most of our energy is solar now.”
Reed looked down at Katarina and grinned a little. “I’m leaving. Don’t get into trouble while I’m gone, shorty.”
Katarina waved away his insinuation about her height. She could take teasing as well as give it—most of the time. “Go talk man stuff with Jon until the two of you trust each other. Maybe talking will make you more like Russian werewolf who is not frightened of bears.”
Reed chuckled at Katarina’s insults. She loved bossing people around, especially him. “The only thing that frightens me at the moment is you being out of my sight. What happens if you jump in front of someone’s tranquilizer gun while I’m gone? Your bravery will get you in deep trouble one day.”
Katarina snorted as she crossed her arms. “Or it will bring me great honor. Do not forget that I saved you, Temptation. I am still waiting for thank you.”
“You did not save me. You interfered in a fight meant for me,” Reed said.
“Da,” Katarina answered. “And my actions kept you in fight. Otherwise you would have slept through it.”
Reed lifted a hand. “Whatever happened… the bad guys still got away.”
She lifted a shoulder. “The bad guys had weapons. You and your people did not.” Katarina glared. No man was worth this headache. “Fine. Next time, I not interfere. Instead, I let tranquilizer dart find you. When bad guys abduct you, maybe I will ask if they need help.”
Reed laughed at her statement and at the fire in gaze. “Fine. You win. Thank you for taking a tranquilizer dart for me, Katarina Volkov.”
“Your words are too much like Yana’s. One minute this thought. Another minute that feeling. I don’t know why I care about what you think,” Katarina said.
Snickering, Reed reached out and used a knuckle to lift Katarina’s chin. “Guess finding out is yet another thing we have to put off until later.”
Katarina stared in Reed’s eyes. “Yes. Later. Always later.”
Laughing, Reed dropped his hand and stepped away to put some distance between them before he did something stupid—like kissing her senseless the way he kept wanting to.
Stewart watched Reed for signs of aggression as he quietly moved to Katarina’s side. “Don’t worry, Alpha Prime. Mom and I will look out for Katarina while you’re gone.”
Reed laughed at the human boy who so badly longed to be a wolf. All of Brandi’s adopted children were enigmas, as were the unusual beasts growing inside them. “Guarding Katarina is quite the job. Only someone with the heart of a wolf would offer.”
“Thank you,” Stewart said, hoping the man was right.
When Reed and Jon were out of sight, Stewart slowly turned to the woman he’d promised to protect. Katarina was smiling oddly as she watched Reed walk away. Maybe it was a Russian thing. “I don’t know what it means, but Reed’s entire body gets stiff when he talks to you, Katarina.”
Katarina chuckled at Brandi’s soft swearing as she patted a confused Stewart’s shoulder. “Da, I know what it means. That’s why I call him Temptation.”
Jon asked them to stay overnight so they could meet everyone. While Brandi, Gareth, and Reed were talking to Jon about the logistics of temporarily moving his people to Alaska. Katarina roamed the camp with a nervous Stewart dogging her heels.
“Why are you following an old she-wolf around? You should be talking to those here your age. You are not wolf. You are a hybrid human with wolf tendencies. I think you are closer to them as people.”
“It’s too hard. Do you expect me to talk to other eight-year-olds? Or someone who’s a teenager?” Stewart asked with a snort. If his legs grew any longer or bigger, he’d be busting out of the pants he’d worn here. So far his parents hadn’t noticed his recent growth, but once they were no longer focused on bears, they would. It was the downside of having two government agents for parents. “I don’t even know what age I am.”
Katarina stopped and fisted a hand on her hip. “Did we not discuss the wisdom of accepting your destiny? You are growing like special werewolf. Deal with it.”
“We discussed my destiny, but not the specifics,” Stewart admitted as he kicked a rock. “Talking with an adult is very different from talking to humans closer to my body’s alleged age—whatever that is, at any given moment.”
“You whine like the four-year-old you were last week. Wolf up, boy.”
Stewart burst out laughing. He was eight last week, not four. But it was still funny. “Wolf up? Is that a Russian saying?”
Katarina grinned. “No. That is Katarina saying.”
They wandered by a group of teenagers who were hanging out. A blonde with blue eyes and a long braid running down her back to her waist waved at Stewart, who immediately ducked his head and pretended he hadn’t seen her greeting.
Sighing, Katarina grabbed the boy by the arm and forced him to go with her as they headed toward the snickering and giggling teens.
“Privet vsem vam. My name is Katarina Volkov. This is Stewart Longfeather.”
“Dobro pozhalovat' v nash dom,” the pretty blonde replied with her gaze fixed solidly on Stewart.
Katarina’s mouth quirked at both corners. The girl had welcomed them in decent Russian, but she knew all that effort was not for her but to impress the handsome yet too-quiet boy at her side. “Bol'shoye spasibo. Your Russian is good. We are happy to find such a warm welcome here.”
“Thank you. Mom and Dad studied abroad in St. Petersburg before I was born. They happily passed along what they learned because that’s what they do. It wasn’t much,” the blonde said as she reluctantly moved her gaze back to Katarina. “My name is Terra spelled like terrain. Dad said he was in a weird place when he helped Mom name me. My older brother’s name is Brett.”