Reed: Nano Wolves 4

by Donna McDonald

  “What? Make you see heaven ten times in one night? This I can do.”

  Reed threw the fish bones into the fire. “Ten times? That’s a lot of pressure.”

  “Okay. I do half the work. Sound like better deal now?”

  “And this…” Reed began, waving a hand between them. “Your stupid compromises—your charming insults. This is why I know you could break my heart. I don’t know if I’m ready to have my heart broken again. That’s why I haven’t acted on my feelings.”

  Katarina blinked. Who broke his stoic heart? It wasn’t her. She laughed at his sincerity because the idea was ridiculous.

  “Temptation, I do not wish to break anything on you. It would be like defacing famous statue of… der’mo, I can’t think of anyone famous. You know my meaning. I know you are magnificent male without knowing about dick. My wolf like you too.”

  Reed shook his head and laughed. What else could he do? Katarina was the boldest female he’d ever met. She was also hard on his ego, despite her flattery. He’d stayed away from her today to prove to himself that he could. And she’d gone about her business like she hadn’t even noticed. Most females would have come back and argued with him. He could never predict what Katarina would do.

  He sighed and tossed her a bag of dried fruit, which she caught without looking away from him. “What do you want out of life, Katarina Volkov?”

  Katarina stared across the fire softly crackling between them. “I know you expect big answer, but I have none.”

  “So give me your little answer,” Reed said with a grin.

  Chuckling, Katarina tossed her fire stir stick into the remaining fire. “Here is what I want from life… I want you.”

  Reed was quiet too long. At his age, he needed a longer time to think about things. He expected Katarina to tire of waiting and head off on her own. Instead, the enigmatic she-wolf shifted her gaze from his to stare up into the night sky.

  Her gaze lowered to him again. “Did I scare you, Temptation?”

  Reed shook his head. “No. I want you too, but I have no way to protect you from the consequences. I’m sorry it worked out like this.”

  Katrina chuckled. “You are honorable male. I could get used to your poetic views. Twice, I was captured by bad guys we now chase. Many times in life before Alaska, I nearly die. What if I said to you that I would risk any consequence to have you before someone gets lucky enough to kill me?”

  Reed studied her across the fire. “I would say you’re not thinking with a clear head.”

  “Da. This is truth. For once, I am thinking with my heart. Last male I had was many, many years ago, and he was disappointing. With people wanting to kill me, I do not have time to wait and see if I live.”

  Reed swallowed the lump lodged in his throat. Her honesty called to his. “It’s been a very long time for me too, but…”

  Katarina rolled her eyes. “What is with all the buts? If you were younger wolf, we would not be having this debate.”

  Reed blew out a breath. “No, probably not.”

  Katarina sighed in resignation as she drizzled water she’d collected from the lake onto her dwindling tiny fire. She would not risk setting the nearby woods ablaze. When she was finished dousing the embers, she looked at Reed once more.

  “Wait alone this time, Temptation. I’m going to bed. You are welcome to share it. That is my offer. I am not untried female. I know sex does not change destiny. Sex only makes cross of life we carry easier to bear.”

  She rose from her seat and headed into the cabin. Her heart sank a little when Reed didn’t follow her.

  Had she really expected him to?

  She had learned not to expect anything much from the older wolf, but Reed had surprised her by coming to find her.

  She would not be surprised, though, to wake in the morning and find the male still sitting by the dead fire and brooding.

  When the door to the cabin opened, Katarina closed the book she’d found an hour ago and stopped pretending to read. It was far more entertaining to watch the tall Alaskan male untie his hair and undress.

  As strip shows went, Reed’s was certainly the best she’d ever seen. She didn’t have a change of clothing, so she wore none.

  “You are handsome male, Reed Black Wolf. If we make child tonight, I hope your genes rule. I will see that he or she grows to be good seed and not bad. You have my word.”

  Reed laughed. “You scare the hell out of me, Katarina Volkov.”

  Katarina laughed. “I think I have scared many males in my life. Why are you not running away like they did?”

  “I’m emotionally running away on the inside. The rest of me wants to be exactly where I am. I think my wolf would punish me if I left you now.”

  Katarina lifted the cover on the bed. “Good then we have pact. Come to bed. Let me show you how nice I can be. You conquered fear of bears. Tonight you conquer fear of Katarina.”

  “Your pillow talk could use a little work.”

  “You can teach me,” she whispered, patting the space next to her.

  Reed chuckled as he climbed in beside the alluring she-wolf. Katarina’s dark hair curled over her shoulders and swept across her breasts. Her eyes flashed in the dim light of the room. She wasn’t typically beautiful. She was mesmerizing. Katarina was the female men dreamed of and rarely found.

  “I like how you look at me. Kiss me, Temptation.” Though she’d die before admitting it, Katarina was nervous. Reed was a beautiful male and it had been so long. But she didn’t want to be nervous. She wanted to be Reed’s and for him to have no regrets.

  In the mood to obey her, Reed put his lips on hers. She hummed in pleasure and turned him to stone. He moved closer and kissed her more deeply. Their tongues tangled in the pleasure dance. It had been ages since he’d cared enough to bed someone. Now he cared too much.

  He could have kissed her hours, but Katarina’s small hands went happily exploring. He rolled her to her back and rose over her. She stared up at him with more desire than he’d ever seen a female show.

  “I feel like I should make a speech,” he said, looking down into her face.

  Her snickering was accompanied by strong legs wrapping around his waist. He slowly pressed into the furnace of her body. When he was seated where he wanted to be, he bent his forehead to hers.

  “Wow,” he said, lacking other words to describe how much at home he felt inside her.

  Katarina smiled up into his eyes. “Wow is good word,” she whispered back.

  When he started to move, Katarina arched to meet every thrust. It was… perfect. Just perfect. He was perfect. To make a child from this? That would be perfect too.

  She lifted a hand and stroked his jaw. “I think I could love you.”

  Reed laughed at her lukewarm declaration and hid his smile in her neck. When his fangs grazed the skin there, Katarina shook in his arms.

  He moved again, but with intention this time.

  Russian streamed from her lips when he pushed her over. He followed closely behind with a groan.

  Genuine contentment settled on him like a warm blanket. His restless soul had finally found its match.

  “You are even better than you look,” she said when her breath returned.

  They lay panting against each other saying little.

  Reed didn’t realize she held his full weight until she roughly pushed him off. The feeling of rejection lasted for a nano second before she rose over him.

  Her lips and mouth rained reverent kisses everywhere.

  Then they traveled lower.

  “Katarina,” he whispered as she showed him what heaven was like.

  11

  Katarina woke in a mild panic with Reed’s long limbs wrapped around her and holding her in place. Luckily, she didn’t come awake clawing at him. She wasn’t used to sleeping with anyone, much less being constrained.

  Struggling to move his naked body off hers, Katarina froze when she realized someone watched her struggle from the bottom of
the bed.

  “Good morning,” Brandi said with a grin, saluting Katarina with a cup of coffee. “You looked so comfortable, I decided to let you sleep a little longer.”

  Katarina rolled her eyes as she finally freed herself from Reed, who was still out cold. The man slept like a tranquilizer dart had hit him. She should know.

  “I locked door, but that was not enough. Stupid. I am so stupid. What if bad guys did this to us?”

  Brandi chuckled and waved her coffee cup. “Relax. Your kidnappers are on the move again. So far, it looks like they didn’t bother trying to track you down. Being savvy agents, Gareth and I followed both your trackers here. I’m great at picking locks, especially the simple ones they put on places like this.” She stopped and took a sip before wrapping up. “Did I answer most of your questions?”

  Katarina shrugged and then nodded. There was no escaping reality.

  Brandi waved her coffee again. “We brought breakfast with us, including coffee. We keep some packed in our ready bags. Good thing we did. There’s literally nothing in this place to drink or eat. What did you guys do here—besides the obvious?”

  “We fish in lake for food,” Katarina said, pushing the covers completely off. When she climbed from the bed, Reed didn’t even roll over. He just hunkered down in the warm space she’d vacated.

  Staring at his naked form half in and half out of the covers, Katarina shook her head. They hadn’t stopped until sometime early this morning. No wonder the man needed sleep. She could use a few hours more herself.

  “I’ve seen no one sneak up on an alpha before and live to tell about it. Have you checked to see if Reed’s dead?” Brandi asked with a laugh.

  Katarina snickered at Brandi’s teasing and hugged her clothes to her body. “Best let sleeping wolf lie this morning. Temptation is more dangerous than he looks.”

  Brandi grinned. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll get Gareth to wake him up when he and the team get back. Can I ask you a question before you run and hide in the bathroom?”

  “I never hide from what I do,” Katarina said with a serious glare for good measure.

  “No. Of course, you don’t,” Brandi said, unable to hide her wide grin.

  “Before I piss on floor like dog, what is your burning question, Agent Nano Wolf?”

  Brandi sipped her coffee and nodded at the bed with her chin. “Does the rest of him look as good as the half that’s showing?”

  Katarina narrowed her eyes. “That is not proper question for female who says she is like daughter to him.”

  Brandi lifted a shoulder. “Just my natural curiosity. Reed is supposed to be centuries old.” She waved a hand at the bed. “He looks as good as Gareth.”

  Katarina narrowed her eyes. “If you must know everything… yes, Temptation is magnificent fuck. Better than young wolf because he knows how to please female in many creative ways. His six hundred years of life was well spent.”

  “Ewww… don’t tell me the details,” Brandi ordered, making a face as she giggled. “Are you always this cranky in the mornings?”

  Rolling her eyes, Katarina stomped into the bathroom.

  Once she was clean and dressed, she and Brandi went outside and sat on the porch steps. Katarina ate two breakfast sandwiches from the bag between them before she could talk. “Sorry. I refused to eat drugged food while in cage. Bears did not serve meat in village. Fish here was good but gone from stomach soon. This is ambrosia.”

  Brandi nodded. She was on her second cup of coffee, which she secretly called “nectar of the gods” most days. She was trying to leave some for Gareth, who had taken the small patrol they brought with them and gone scouting for any signs Katarina’s kidnappers had pursued her. So far there was none.

  “Eat your fill. I ordered twenty of them. We’ll pick up more food on the way back to the plane. I can’t handle eating raw meat yet, not even in wolf form. So I stock up on things I can eat every chance I get.”

  “You enjoy life on run?” Katarina asked.

  “Not as much as I once did. Now when I’m gone, I miss the kids. I call them several times a day. It’s like something happens with them every second. Stewart has basically grown up in two weeks, which is a ton of pressure on him and us. Kent and Aggie are the same as when we left them. With a nearly grown son and two resentful eight-year-olds who haven’t yet changed, things will get even more interesting when we get home.”

  Stewart had begged her to let him go back to Alaska, but not to go home to see Kent and Aggie. He wanted to be with the bears and Gareth has convinced her to let him have his way. With his success in scaring off the last set of attackers, Stewart believed he could help defend Reed’s pack. His absolute surety about his abilities was scary as hell, but Brandi wasn’t stupid. Her son was anxious about Terra, who was still in a coma state from the bear tranquilizer. Her son had already called his brilliant sister and asked Aggie to see what could counteract the drug safely in a human.

  Brandi forced her mind away from her family and back to what was happening where she was. “Ready to talk?” she asked the well-fed and much happier she-wolf next to her.

  “Da. I am recovered. Ask your agent questions.”

  “How did you escape from the kidnappers?”

  Katarina shrugged. “Lucky break. Ghost of Nicolai still looks out for me.”

  Brandi laughed. “You’re a superb storyteller. I’ve heard you telling stories before. How about a few details? I know for damn sure you’re not shy about offering them.”

  Katarina stared at the lake. It helped her think. “Two kidnappers intended to steal me from their comrades and sell me themselves. My lucky break was that they were both idiots. Getting away from them was not big challenge, but they inject me with small amount of very strong tranquilizer. I ran and then fell down unconscious. For rest of story, you must ask Reed. I wake up here with him. I thought seeing him was dream.”

  Brandi nodded. “See anybody you knew while they had you in a cage?”

  Something in Brandi’s tone bothered her. Katarina’s head whipped up to stare. “You know who was there, don’t you?”

  “Maybe. I still need my inside information confirmed,” Brandi said as she took another sip.

  Katarina turned to stare at the lake again. “Bastard father was there and he was not alone.”

  Brandi turned to look fully at Katarina. “Reed’s grandson, Joshua, was there.”

  Nodding, Katarina hung her head. “Reed ran both off—this is story he told me. His heart broke for bad family again. He said my father and Clone Joshua hunted me down. He refused to let them take me.”

  Brandi grinned, wishing she could have seen Reed facing off with Katarina’s father. She had a silver bullet in her pocket with that Russian wolf’s name on it. “Well, I hope Reed didn’t hurt the boy. He’s our mole. Without Joshua feeding us information, finding all the players would be ten times harder.”

  Katarina lifted a finger. “So bad grandson is not bastard clone after all?”

  “Can’t say for sure about the bastard part, but in every other way, Joshua’s one of the good guys. Unfortunately, they don’t tell him all their plans. For example, he didn’t know they were planning to attack Bear Central. He said all the talk was about taking a few children.”

  Katarina’s eyes widened. “Terra and Stewart were there and easy catch. Thank Nicolai, I scared wolf boy into running away with girl.”

  “I will always be grateful. The kidnappers may have gotten them both if it hadn’t been for you. Of course, Stewart might have kicked their asses during his first shift. Apparently, they shot him with four or five tranquilizer darts and he kept right on running after them.”

  Katarina smiled. “So boy is really wolf now?”

  Brandi laughed. “It’s never that easy with my children. The boy is nearly a full-sized man now, but his beast is yet to be identified. Stewart never got a look at himself and what the bears described defied belief. God only knows what was in the concoction Randall Crane fe
d my kids before he foisted them off onto Shitty Sheldon. Randall Crane had them for over eight months. They were three-year-old humans when he had them kidnapped.”

  “This madness must stop,” Katarina said firmly.

  Brandi blew out a breath. “I don’t think it can be stopped—not forever. Humans will keep looking into genetic research because they’re fascinated by the challenge of improving on nature. Ariel was a biomedical scientist when she was human and she still loves that shit. The primary reason we got successfully turned was because of some break-through finding of hers. She refuses to disclose what she found to anyone, but do you think she’s the only scientist able to figure it out? That would be stupid to assume.”

  Katarina made a growling sound deep in her throat. “This is not helpful talk, Agent Nano Wolf. Give me clear bad guys I can kill. I want to believe good guys can end this.”

  Brandi met Katarina’s determined gaze with her own. “If we murdered every scientist in the world, we’d be no better than the people we’re chasing. We can only take out the scientists who are kidnapping shifters and experimenting on unsuspecting humans. I want the bad mad scientists to become terrified of the wolf packs living in Alaska. Word will get around.”

  Katarina nodded. “Okay. I will help you make this happen.”

  “Good. I have a plan.”

  Chuckling, Katarina elbowed the nano wolf in her side. “You always have plan. Is this good one?”

  “Hey now, I’m the one who sent Reed to you.” Grinning, Brandi elbowed Katarina. “First thing on your help list is to wake up the alpha prime who’s sleeping his life away today. Gareth isn’t back yet, so you get the honors.”

  “Fine. I will do this task, but you must stay out here in case alpha prime wakes up in frisky mood,” Katarina commanded as she climbed to her feet and walked toward the cabin door. “I did my best to wear him out last night, but like me, he is pent up after long time without female. This is unfortunate timing for your plan.”

  “I know I explained earlier that I didn’t want that level of detail. That’s TMI, Katarina. Don’t make me say that in Russian. It wouldn’t translate well,” Brandi warned.