Wild Hunt - Kali Argent Page 0,55

trouble with Ravagers.” Cade offered no further explanation. “We’re okay, but what is going on here? Where is everyone?”

They had driven all the way to the north side of Denver before the Coalition guard had finally abandoned his pursuit. Even then, she’d driven around in circles for another half an hour, just to make sure he wasn’t lurking somewhere, waiting to ambush them. When she’d felt confident that he really had resumed his patrol, she’d turned the SUV south and started back to the safe house.

Caution, and maybe a touch of paranoia, had her doubling back twice and heading down side roads whenever possible. So, by the time they’d reached the hospital, it had been well after sunset. At that time of night, the rec room and the dining hall should have been filled with people, alive with conversation and laughter.

Beyond the few people they’d passed in the corridors and the group of Revenant seated around a single table, there was no one. Mackenna had assumed they’d all retreated to their rooms, but Cade didn’t seem to think that was the case.

“Coalition,” Deke answered, standing from the table to join them. “It’s been eventful here since you left.”

Mackenna widened her eyes and fisted her hands at her sides. “Is everyone okay?”

“A little shaken up, but they’re fine.” Roux rubbed the back of her neck and shook her head. “We had to hide all the humans in a storage room in the basement. It freaked the kids right out.”

Cade’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. “They’re not still in there, are they?”

“What?” Roux clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. “Jeez, Cade.”

“Then, where are they?”

“Gaines and Grim took a lot of them on to Olympus. With so many humans in the group, we thought that would be safest. They left last night.”

It took Mackenna a moment to put faces to the names. She didn’t know either male well, but she liked Orin Gaines. He was incredibly calm for a werewolf. As for Oliver Grimble—Grim—she didn’t think she’d ever spoken to him. Mostly, she just knew him as one of the humans who followed around Luca and Abby.

“And the guards didn’t suspect anything?” Cade sounded skeptical.

Roux tilted her head. “Why do you think we’re starting to move people?”

“Well, shit.”

“Oh, it gets better,” Deke added. “One of the patrol teams had a run-in with Coalition guards. Barnes got separated from the group. He never made it back.”

Cade’s expression turned contemplative. “Barnes? Dude who looks like a ghost? Not very likable?”

“That’s the one.”

“Dead?”

“Or taken.” Sighing, Deke rubbed a hand over the stubble on his jaw. “We haven’t been able to find him.”

“We had our own run-in,” Mackenna told them. “About ten or fifteen miles west of here. The guard said he was looking for rebels in the area. Something about local grocers being broken into recently.”

Deke grunted. “That wasn’t us.”

“Well, it was someone,” Cade said. “We had to drive all the way into Denver to shake him off.”

“We made sure we weren’t followed back.” After the trouble they’d expended to get the refugees out of the state, Mackenna wanted to ensure them she and Cade had done their part to keep everyone safe. “Who do you think has been taking from the grocers?”

All three of them shrugged, clearly unworried about it.

“Could be Raiders,” Deke offered. “Could just be people passing through. We help as many people as we can, but there are plenty doing a pretty damn good job of taking care of themselves.”

Obviously, there were other survivors beyond those under Revenant protection. That probably should have occurred to her earlier, but frankly, she hadn’t given it much thought. Some days, it felt like she’d woken up on an alien planet, and she still had a lot to learn about surviving on it.

“You said you ran into Ravagers?” Roux glanced between them. “Where?”

“Nevada,” Cade answered before Mackenna could say anything. “I think they’re living in the mountains. Pretty big packs, too.”

“Packs? Plural?”

“We crossed paths with two different packs. The first one was average size, about seven that we saw.” Wincing, he rubbed at his injured shoulder. “The second one had at least sixteen pack members.”

“Ravagers give me the creeps,” Deidra said as she wandered over to join their loosely formed circle. “How the hell did the two you fight off that many feral werewolves?”

Mackenna tensed as she shared a look with Cade. With everything else going on, maybe it wasn’t the best time to tell them her secret. The slight inclination of