Red {Wolf Rebellion I}

Chapter 20~Nowhere We Can Hide Pt. 1~

I want to hide the truth, I want to shelter you. But with the beast inside there's nowhere we can hide.

-Imagine Dragons, "Demons"

Chapter 20~Nowhere We Can Hide Part 1~

It took me awhile to locate Cas, and that in and of itself was not a good thing. With each step I took, and every breath that left my lips, my anger crescendoed, blocking out the fear from earlier. I couldn't get Carmine's expression out of my thoughts, or the way he'd acted cold and distant to me afterwards. I needed to know what had happened, what our plan was now, and why Carmine was so upset.

I found the aforementioned wolf in the conference room, pouring over charts and graphs with a laptop in front of him. Shani was by his side, studying a small bottle in her hands.

They both looked relatively healthy. The only mark on Shani was a shallow scratch from her left temple to chin. I couldn't see any visible marks on Cas, but I planned to change that.

I made my way over to Cas, trying to force down my anger as he glanced up. "Hey princess! You'll never believe what your blood-

I swung at him, barely catching the edge of his jaw before he managed to move in a blur-too fast for my eyes. When he stopped, he was a few feet away, brushing a hand across his jaw as his eyes widened. "Damn princess, what the hell was that for!?"

"Down girl," My eyes caught the quiet words that left Shani's lips, but I ignored her for the moment.

He was being overzealous in his actions, I'd barely managed to make contact with skin, let alone enough to bruise. "Cut the garbage Cas. What the hell happened today?" I demanded. "How did Carmine get that wound in his side?" My eyes narrowed as I glanced at Shani. She wasn't getting off easy either. When neither of them immediately started spilling their guts, I ground my teeth together. "Well?" My heart was racing, and I attributed it to my anger. As much as Cas made me nervous, I wouldn't shrink away. I wouldn't allow Red any more control over my life.

"We ran into a Runner team on our way back," Cas shrugged. "It got a bit rough, but it wasn't that big of a deal. We knew it was possible we could encounter one. They were armed, but they're no Hunters."

"Not a big deal!?" I nearly shrieked at him. I tried to shove the anger down, remembering the last time I'd let my emotions get the better of me, but it was impossible. "I could see Carmine's ribs from the hole in his side! Now tell me how that's not a big deal."

"What? But he-" Cas sputtered, "he told us it was just a scratch, that he was fine. Other than the cut on his arm, he seemed okay." He glanced at Shani, before looking back at me. "How is he?"

"Alive, no thanks to you. Kat used some ameliorators to heal him." I inhaled slowly, closing my eyes and shoving my anger away. Not here. "When he woke up, he was pissed-more than I've ever seen him before. I don't understand why. What else happened? What are we doing now?"

Cas moved to his chair again, shuffling through some papers. "He's probably just having a hissy fit because he isn't as invincible as he'd like to believe. I'll have a talk with him later." He flipped through a few more papers, pulling one from the stack. "We've decided to wait it out a bit longer. The Runners caught us at the north end of the city, so they'll be localizing their search there in the coming days. We've agreed that when the time comes, we'll move into the southern perimeter of the city. From there, we'll have enough warning when your team comes for you."

I felt a bit of the dread from earlier return, and I looked up at both of the naive wolves in front of me. "Neither of you have ever been a part of Red, you don't know what they're like, how far Claret will go to track us down. If those Runners return tonight, that entire city will be on lockdown by Saturday night. Every available agent will be pulled back to headquarters to help with the Hunt." Saturday, and it was already Thursday.