The Red Hunter

C h a p t e r 1 1

"Then allow me to shine some light on the situation." Cole stated.

"Please do." I hissed between my teeth.

"The accident--two dead; one a werewolf, the other a hunter. Yesterday morning, a black car sped into a gas station, crashing into everything and nearly causing an explosion. Even so, the station was a wreck and the car was beyond repair. Thing is, there was nobody in the driver's seat, just two dead bodies crammed in the back."

I forced my face relax into a neutral expression; I didn't want to give anything away.

A black car. Was it the one from that night, the one that had disappeared from the warehouse?

"And?" I asked Cole casually, hiding the fact that I was bursting with questions and curiosity on the inside.

"Fine, I'll cut right to the point. Knowing you hunters, you're going to want vengeance on whoever killed one of you own." Cole said.

"Of course."

"So if you bring whoever killed the hunter to your council, they might accept you as one of them again." Cole finished, watching my expression carefully with his swirling grey eyes.

It was smart of him to think of that, except the council had already made their deal and only Kane's head would pardon my "betrayal." Either way, that wasn't what concerned me at the moment.

"'Accept me again?' Why would you think I'm not accepted by my own?" I asked, angered by his words.

"Flower, trust me when I say I can recognize a lone wolf. Your behavior says it all." Cole answered simply as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I saw Kenji give a single nod in agreeance from the corner of my eye.

"You forget, I'm not a wolf." I say in a low tone, my eyes burning into Cole's cool ones, sparking tension in the room.

"Not literally, no," he agreed, "but take off the sheepskin clad on your shoulders and what will you find underneath? Don't act innocent like some saint in all of this, you have as much blood on your hands as the rest of us in this room."

I clenched my jaw. "I never claimed innocence, nor have I ever claimed to be saint. But where you spill blood for the joy of killing, I spill blood to avenge those who couldn't defend themselves against the creatures lurking in midnight's abyss. Call me what you want, just don't compare me to you dogs."

It was deathly silent in the kitchen, as eight pairs of eyes probed into me out of disbelief and shock from my words. The other pair of eyes, Cole's, on the other hand, were livid as he took in my words.

I heard Faith shout his name in warning, but it was too late.

Cole had me backed up into the wall in a second, his eyes flashing with anger begging to be released. He was holding himself back, barely using any strength on me, but the message was clear.

"That is not a topic I will allow to be discussed. You need to get this through your head before my wolf snaps at you--fate gave you to me with the Moon's permission to be my mate, not my oppressor. My pack has done nothing to deserve this type of judgement from you, so you best leave them alone, or I will show you what a true monster looks like." With that lingering threat, Cole backed off and strode out of the kitchen, the slamming of the front door coming a moment later.

Nobody spoke a word as we all stood there in the kitchen replaying everything that had just burst out.

A moment later, Kayla came bouncing down the stairs changed in new clothes, only to stop in her tracks at the sight of our grim faces.