Red by Alyxandra Harvey Page A

my search turned up video games and mythology and not much else. As a last resort, I researched what other kinds of animals ate rabbits. There was a long list: wolverines, bobcats, bears, coyotes, owls, but mostly, as I’d seen the last time I’d researched this: wolves.
    Wolves.
    An image of the werewolf claw in the museum trophy room hit me so fast my head practically snapped back.
    Ethan smiling when he told me there were wolves in the area.
    The scratches on his arms and chest.
    The dead rabbit. Holy crap. Ethan was a werewolf.

Chapter Twelve
    Ethan
    Colt’s father paced and his mother sat steely eyed in a plastic hospital chair. Tobias came up behind me with a tray of coffee cups. He passed them out and then stood beside me, drinking some kind of green tea. “Did you get it?”
    I shook my head. “Got some blood on my knife, but that’s it.”
    “Do we know what it is yet?”
    I shook my head again, so frustrated I tasted copper. I must have bitten the inside of my cheek. “What about Colt?”
    “He probably won’t get full use of his legs back. Crutches if he’s very lucky, wheelchair otherwise.”
    I swore, feeling sick to my stomach. “Where the hell’s my dad?”
    “He was at the nurse’s desk, trying to get more information.”
    I tossed my cup away and stalked down the hall, feeling the tightness of the stitches Abby had given me to bind my wounds together. There were layers of antibiotic ointment and bandages under my shirt and more scratches and bruises on my face and neck.
    I closed in on Dad right as he switched from charm to abuse. It was a mark of his fear. He never lost his cool, not around pretty women. “Then find me someone who knows something. Anything!” he snapped.
    “If you’ll have a seat, sir,” the nurse returned calmly. “The doctor will be with the boy’s actual parents as soon as the surgery is finished.”
    Dad shoved a hand through his hair, cursing. After a moment of wondering if he was going to pull the hunting knife I knew was strapped under his pant leg, he used a different weapon entirely. He smiled a disarming smile. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just worried.”
    The nurse nodded. I could practically hear her shields melting off. “Of course.”
    Dad turned away, spotting me. “Ethan,” he said, with that warm, proud tone he used in public. I hated it more than basilisk poison. “There you are. Excuse me,” he said to the nurse before pulling me aside. “I’m having him transferred to the best medical facility in the city as soon as he’s stable enough to move. They’re already on standby.”
    “Am I supposed to be impressed?” I asked quietly, antiseptic stinging my nostrils. “You’re the reason he’s in this damn mess in the first place. You and the damn Cabal.”
    His hand gripped my arm, bruising in its censure. I had to restrain myself from tossing him into the cart of medical supplies beside us. I could do it. I was strong enough. I was considering it when he pulled me into a secluded family waiting room. “We need a show of solidarity right now, son,” he warned me. “I need you to keep it together, to be a leader. That’s what being Cabal is all about.”
    “God, enough with your damn Cabal,” I shouted, punching a lamp off a side table so that it cracked against the wall.
    “I made you strong. What are you complaining about? Childish tantrums won’t help us,” he said, barely acknowledging the broken glass at his feet. “And believe me, son, if you think I’m too hard, you really don’t want the Cabal coming for a visit. At least Colt’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. That energy will feed the wards. It will continue to keep our secrets, to keep the collection inside the boundaries. To protect. Just as Summer’s sacrifice did.”
    I took a swing at my dad. I’d never wanted to hurt him more than I did right then. Did that make me a monster? Or was he the monster?
    Whatever else he was, he was trained Cabal and ducked my