Chapter 14: Past Regrets

They scampered noiselessly down the streets of the city. Six wolves out to escape the deadly Wolf Hunters. Taking turns going forward to make sure the coast was clear around every corner and alley, they made their way to the shack that Tsume's gang met. Once there, they all filed inside and surveyed the area through the windows.

"They'll have a guard or two posted at the city border," Ryooshi whispered. "We'll have to get around them somehow."

"If it's only two we could take them head on," Tsume replied. "We outnumber them, three to one."

"Yeah, three unarmed to the one with a machine-gun and a wolf?" Ryooshi retorted, making Tsume glare at her. "It's more like three to one, but it wouldn't work, no matter the odds. Their wolves will know we're coming before we can jump them."

"Well then what the hell are we supposed to do?" he snarled.

"Distract them with one while the rest of you get through," Ryooshi replied without a second's hesitation.

"The runt's the decoy," Hige volunteered Toboe who stared at him in disbelief.

"What?!" he yelped. "Why am I the one who has to---?!"

"No," Kiba interrupted Toboe's outraged and looked at Ryooshi to say, "You be the decoy."

"Oh, that's even better," Hige smirked, making Blue stare at him in wide-eyed shock. "I hope you get caught."

"This is your chance to prove yourself," Kiba explained to her, ignoring his friend. "You get us out of here, and you've earned our trust completely. At least, you'll have earned mine completely."

Ryooshi set her jaw and nodded, determined to prove herself.

"Wait a minute," Toboe called. "What if she gets hurt? Maybe two of us could be decoys, just so she's not alone if they get separated."

"It's alright, Toboe," Ryooshi assured him with a warm smile. "I'll be alright. I know how to deal with them."

"Alright," Kiba nodded. "Let's go."

The pack darted from the shack in their wolf forms and toward the northern border of the city. The last buildings were tall hotels for people who had taken long trips to the city and needed a rest before conducting their business. The wolves ducked into an alleyway just as they saw two armed Wolf Hunters and their wolves next to the gate leading outside the city, just as Ryooshi had said.

Kiba looked to Ryooshi and she nodded, understanding that it was time for her to go to work. She darted across the street into the alleyway along the other hotel and Toboe went to go after her but Tsume stood in his way with a small, soft growl.

"She needs to prove herself," he reminded the pup and Toboe gave a small whimper of submission, but none of this went noticed by Ryooshi or the Hunters guarding the gate.

Ryooshi peered out from behind the brick she used for cover, forming a strategy. She darted down the alleyway and kept running when she reached the end, losing her cover. As she had predicted, the wolves with one the men spotted her and started barking at her, catching the Hunters' attentions.

"There's one!" one of them shouted, and they both ran toward her. "Shoot it! Kill it!"

Seeing the men neglect the gate, the pack ran out from their hiding place and toward it, but they were soon caught by one of the wolves who began barking at them. One of the men stopped, turned around and aimed at them. One by one the pack leapt over the gate, dodging the bullets fired by the Wolf Hunter that had spotted them. The other still ran after Ryooshi with his wolf.

The man ran toward them just as Toboe leapt over the gate, but Tsume was the one left. The wolf leapt at Tsume who leapt at him and they clashed mid-air, but Tsume grabbed a hold on the other wolf with his powerful jaws and a snap filled the night air. They landed in a pile of fur against the ground, both not moving and the Wolf Hunter came closer to inspect the mess of blood and fur. Once he was close enough Tsume leapt up and the last thing the man saw were fangs.

Tsume leapt over the gate and the group stared inside, waiting to see some sign of Ryooshi, now in their human forms.

"You think she ditched us?" Hige wondered.

"She's in just as much trouble as we are," Kiba reminded him. "She wouldn't risk it."

"Besides, Ryooshi's not like that," Toboe insisted. "She wouldn't sell us out like that…" He turned to Tsume and asked, "Right, Tsume?"

"How the hell should I know?" he snarled back.

"Would all stop fighting over it?!" Blue interjected. "She's one of us, isn't she? Why would she help us earlier back at the diner just to sell us out later?! Just leave her alone!"

They all jumped and turned their attention to the gate when they heard a loud, pain-filled yelp echo from the city beyond the gate.

"Ryooshi!" Toboe cried desperately and was about to jump the gate again but Tsume held him back, making him turn to him with a wide-eyed gaze and cry, "She might be hurt!"

"She might be dead!" Tsume shot back. "If that's the case, then that hunter isn't dead and he'll kill you, too!"

Toboe pouted, feeling tears come to eyes and they all watched through the gate to see if there was any sign of Ryooshi.

She slid herself in a U-turn on the concrete then bolted back toward the alley she'd come from. She noticed the other man go back but knew that Kiba and the rest could take down one…she just needed to get away from the one on her tail. Rounding into the alley she lost her footing and slammed into the wall of the building next to the hotel, letting out a small yelp of pain on impact and falling to the ground.

A growl sounded behind her, but she didn't move from her place, playing dead. Footsteps came hurrying behind her as well, then stopped next to the wolf. The footsteps, now walking, came up next to Ryooshi as she still played dead. Once the hunter knelt down, she leapt to her feet and jumped toward the other wolf as it growled then barked. She landed behind it and as it turned to clamp its jaws onto some part of her body she darted down the street.

A shot rang out behind her just as she ran from the attacking wolf and that wolf let out a loud, pain-filled yelp. Ryooshi came to a sliding stop, breathing heavily and wide-eyes in disbelief. She had heard right. The wolf was dead. Dread suddenly seized her senses. That Wolf Hunter had shot one of her kind that was helping him, and the thing that had squeezed her heart in a death grip was the fact that she knew he didn't care.

Another shot and Ryooshi let out a yelp herself as a bullet struck her shoulder, but it seemed to bring her to her senses again and without turning to fight she ran as best she could toward the gate where the others were waiting. The Wolf Hunter ran after her, but she still had a good distance ahead of him, and soon she saw the rest of the pack waiting for her beyond the gate.

"Ryooshi!" Toboe called, a grin over his face, but it soon dropped when he saw that she was limping.

Without hesitation he leapt over the gate again, Tsume calling out after him to come back, but he ignored it. He passed Ryooshi and leapt at the Hunter running after her who had nearly caught up and the young wolf sank his teeth into the man's arm that was holding the machine gun and the man screamed in pain. Ryooshi turned to look on at Toboe's actions in shock and awe as the pup snapped the man's arm, making him scream again and fall to the floor.

Toboe let go of the Wolf Hunter's arm and ran toward Ryooshi as she still stared at him but she was snapped from her trance when he urged, "Hurry!"

She shook her shock away and they jumped over the gate together, landing on the other side and the whole group darted into the deserted horizon beyond the city gate. Once they felt they were far enough away they all stopped to catch their breath and Ryooshi sat, cradling her arm in one hand.

"Here, let me see," Toboe murmured, kneeling next to her and moving her hand. He started licking at the bullet wound in her shoulder, and she winced when he started but gave a contented sigh when she felt her pain melting away.

"We were worried you'd been killed," Toboe reported between licks. "I'm glad you're alright."

"We certainly thought you'd ditch us," Hige chimed in.

"That was all you, Hige," Blue snapped then smiled at Ryooshi. "Toboe and I knew you wouldn't."

"Thanks," she nodded and patted Toboe's head to silently tell him that was enough and he stopped his licking.

"Too bad the runt left that guy alive," Tsume added. "Now he'll probably tell his superiors and start a hunt for us out here."

"That won't happen," Ryooshi replied, shaking her head. "They don't go any farther than they're assigned to go. They won't even ask their superiors to start looking for strays who've left the area. They figure they'll catch up with them later."

"Still," Kiba finally chimed in, "we should keep moving." He looked at Ryooshi and asked, "Can you walk?"

Ryooshi only nodded and without a word, Kiba started heading north, followed by the rest and Ryooshi and Toboe got to their feet and followed. Toboe stayed with her in case she needed assistance, but he noticed Tsume start to trail behind the other three to walk a few paces in front of them.

He glanced to the necklace around Ryooshi's neck and asked, "So, what was the chief's name that gave you that necklace?"

Ryooshi jumped with a start and looked at Toboe with wide eyes then registering his question, pulled the gem on her necklace up to gaze at it with a smile.

"I'm not sure really," she admitted. "I just called him Chief like everybody else."

"What was his son's name?" Toboe wondered. "The one you saved."

"His name was Runs with Horses," Ryooshi smiled. "That kid could run like he was almost flying."

"How'd you save him?" Toboe continued to question his friend with a smile.

"He was too young to swim when I'd met him," Ryooshi explained. "He fell into the river, so I jumped in after him and pulled him out."

"What makes you think this guy's village will still be exactly where it was two years ago?" Tsume inquired, suddenly standing right next to her. She gasped and looked up at him, as did Toboe, but the older wolf simply stared straight ahead, waiting for his answer.

"W-Well, I don't, really," she admitted. That made everyone stop dead. They could all hear the conversation going on, and as she said those last words, they all stopped and turned to gaze at her with wide eyes filled with disbelief.

"You don't?!" Tsume snarled. "What, are you sending us on some wild goose chase just so you can be around your own kind?!"

"He may not be in the same place he was when I met him," Ryooshi quickly explained, "but we're headed in the right direction! If and when they move, they always move somewhere in the northern regions. Trust me---!"

"Trust you," Tsume growled, lowly. "Trust you?!"

Toboe hurried in front of Ryooshi to protect her, but the silver-haired man shove the young boy out of the way and grabbed Ryooshi by her uninjured arm to bring her closer to his face.

"Hige was right!" he snarled as Ryooshi tried to struggle out of his death grip, frightened. "We don't know a damn thing about you! Why should we trust you?!"

"I helped you get out of the city, didn't I?!" Ryooshi cried, still struggling.

"Tsume! Let her go!" Toboe shouted, gripping the other man's arm to pull him away.

"So what if you helped us out of the city?!" Tsume growled, ignoring Toboe pulling on his arm. "So what if you helped us get away at the diner?! That doesn't mean you're not working for them?! You could be leading us into a trap right now! You are, aren't you?!"

A growl erupted from Ryooshi as she threw herself at him. He let go of her as they fell to the ground and she straddled his stomach with one hand on his neck, her nails sinking into his skin enough to leave indents.

"Don't you ever imply that I'm working for those dogs!" she snarled at him as he stared at her in confused awe.

Toboe went to pull Ryooshi off of Tsume, but Kiba stopped him.

"Kiba, what the hell are you doing?!" Hige snapped. "Get her off of him!"

"Wait," he only replied.

"Those Wolf Hunters are nothing but killing machines!" Ryooshi continued, still snarling at Tsume, her hand still over his throat, but she didn't close it anymore than it was already digging into his neck. "I don't care if you really don't trust me. But it looks like you don't really have a choice, do you? I know more about these guys than anybody, and I should know more about them for reasons you could never understand. Your 'asshole attitude' isn't the worst thing I've dealt with. It doesn't even come close! Don't think you can ever scare me with it while talking about those asshole Wolf Hunters!"

She gave a howl of pain when Tsume grabbed the shoulder where she'd been shot, then grabbed the hand around his neck and shoved her onto her back as he hovered above her, her hands in his grip on either side of her head.

"I told you you didn't have to tell me shit about your problems," Tsume snarled back as she stared at him, not in terror, but in anger with a set jaw. "Well, it looks like I'm going back on my word. What the hell is the matter with you?!"

"Tsume!" Toboe called, but didn't move. "Get off of her!"

"Not until she tells us how the hell she knows all about these damn Wolf Hunters!" Tsume snarled back, not looking at the pup, but keeping his eyes on Ryooshi as he snarled at her, mockingly, "Speak."

"What am I, you're trained pet?!" Ryooshi barked back. "I don't take orders from lowlifes like you!"

"Fine," Tsume snapped, still holding her wrists as he stood up, taking her with him. He pulled her closer then shoved her back as hard as he could, making her stumble away from him as he barked, "Get outta here! We don't need you or your stupid Indian chief! We'll make it on our own!"

"That's not your call, Tsume," Kiba suddenly piped up and Tsume turned a wide-eyed expression at the white wolf that turned from shock to rage.

"What did you say?" he growled.

"You're outnumbered," Kiba replied. "You and Hige might want her to go, but Toboe and Blue want her to stay."

"Is that so?" Tsume growled, still enraged and he glared at Toboe and snapped, "Well?!"

"I want her to stay," Toboe replied without hesitation, unafraid of the older wolf. "She's not working for those Wolf Hunters."

"You can't possibly know that!" Hige blurted.

"Did she give us to them?" Blue questioned him irritably, turning his attention to her.

"Well, no, but Tsume's right," Hige replied. "She could be leading us to the real trap!"

"I want her to stay, too," Blue said, looking at Tsume in resolution.

He looked at Kiba and observed, "You haven't said whether or not you want her to stay. It seems to me like it's a tie."

"Then I'll break it," Kiba replied, calmly. "I want her to stay as well."

"You're askin' for trouble, Kiba," Hige warned. "She won't even tell us what her connection is to these hunters. If she's not working with 'em, then how does she know---?"

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Ryooshi barked, drawing everyone's attention as she cradled her arm again. Toboe stepped closer to try to help her with her wound but she only shook her head when she caught his action. She then turned to Hige and set her jaw in her own resolution.

"You wanna know how I know their moves and strategies?" she asked, half mocking and half in honesty. "You really won't trust me after I tell you this, but if it's what you want, I'll tell you." She stopped and swallowed before replying, "I used to be one of them."

She could feel the shock wash over all of them, even though she was sure Hige, Kiba and Tsume suspected it, she knew they were still shocked. There was no other answer was there? They didn't take live wolves as prisoners, and it's not like she could stay among them any other way. They killed all wolves…even the ones that helped them.

"Five years ago, my pack was gathered up by these guys and taken to a lab somewhere," she began when no one spoke. "I never saw the place because the cages they loaded us into were all covered with heavy, black tarps. Only when we were in the lab were the tarps lifted and we were spoken to by humans in camouflage that pointed guns at us.

"They wore the garb, but they're not military. They could never be, 'cause they brag too much about their operations. They're sloppy, unorganized, ruthless and they can't keep their mouths shut. Not really a special ops force at all, or any kind of ops force for that matter.

"The Wolf Hunters gave us a proposition: Join them to hunt down and kill every wolf, or die right there and then. Some of us resisted. Some. Others took up the offer, but the ones that resisted were shot until they were dead, and sometimes even after they'd stopped breathing they'd fire another round into the dead bodies 'just to make sure'."

"You took the offer," Tsume assumed, his fists and teeth clenched as he stared her down and she looked back at him.

"I regretted it every second after I did," Ryooshi continued. "I never appeared as a human in the years I spent as their hunter, not once. Some of them did, and some of them told the humans their names, but I never did. They gave me a number. 102. I was the one hundredth and second wolf they'd recruited."

"So, you hunted and killed your own kind just to save your own ass?!" Tsume growled.

"I was young," she replied. "Younger than Toboe at the time. I was scared. I didn't know what to do. I thought I was making a choice of survival over death. I wish they had killed me."

"How did you escape?" Kiba wondered, sounding truly interested.

"I fought my way out of the facility we were kept in," she replied. "I didn't know where the hell I was going but once I got out of there, I ran as fast as I could in some random direction."

"How long were you with them?" Blue whispered.

"Three years," Ryooshi answered. "Like I said, I regretted every second."

"When did you end up in the Indian village?" Toboe asked in a raw voice.

"A month after my escape," she replied. "I spent two years there at Chief's request." She looked at Kiba and took a deep breath before saying, "So now you know. Apparently, I'm not to be trusted, right?"

Kiba stared at her in evaluation as she stared back at him with sorrow-filled eyes that looked pained to the core. She hadn't been with her kind for five years, at least not hunting them. Before he could even think to accept or reject her, Toboe spoke up.

"I still want her to come," he murmured, drawing everyone's attention as he walked toward her and held her uninjured arm in his hands. "It's been five years since she escaped. If she wanted to kill any of us, she would have done it herself because those Hunters probably train their wolves that way. She helped us get out of the city and away from them. I think she's proven herself."

"Toboe---"

"He's right," Blue cut in before Ryooshi could object. "We kind of owe her. If it wasn't for her, we would have been captured or killed. I still want her to stay too."

Ryooshi stared at Blue in shock, but her attention was drawn to Hige as he said, "Well, I guess I was being a little too harsh. I didn't even know the whole story. I feel kinda bad for you now."

"Are you kidding me?!" Tsume snarled at Hige and the other wolf frowned at him.

"What?" he shrugged. "I have a right to change my mind, don't I?"

"But you were the one that didn't want her to come in the first place!" Tsume shot back.

"Oh, and like you did?!" Hige snapped.

"Hell no, but it's not like I had much of a choice, is it?!" Tsume barked.

"You don't have a choice now either," Kiba chimed in, drawing the other wolf's attention. "You're outnumbered, three to one."

"And what about you, Kiba?" Ryooshi chanced to ask, looking to the blue-eyed boy.

He stared back at her as she waited for his answer, evaluating her, making sure that everything she had said was the truth. He'd heard the disdain for the Wolf Hunters in her voice, and while she was telling her story, he heard the disdain for herself in her tone. She would die before she betrayed her own kind again. He saw it in her eyes.

Kiba nodded his approval to her, making her smile and he looked at Tsume, saying, "Not it's four to one."

Tsume growled then let out a roar of anger and started marching in the direction they'd been heading. The rest of the pack watched him walk away and Ryooshi felt like she could have died. For some reason, Tsume's opinion of her mattered to her even more than Kiba's or any of the other's. She was sure he truly hated her now.

"Well, we'd better follow him," Hige shrugged. "His sense of direction is crap when he's angry like that."

"Don't worry, Ryooshi," Toboe said, soothingly as they all began following Tsume northward and she looked at him. "He'll come around. I'm sure he liked you, even if he won't admit it. He didn't admit liking me."

"But did you ever do what I did?" Ryooshi wondered, not really believing that sweet, innocent Toboe would hunt his own kind. Toboe lowered his head and shook it in the negative and Ryooshi gave a sigh, saying, "I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to challenge me now just to have an excuse to kill me."

"He won't," Toboe assured her. "He just needs to blow off some steam and he'll come talk to you about it."

"I doubt it," she sighed then ruffled Toboe's hair as she smiled, "Thanks for stickin' up for my, pup."

"I couldn't let them kick you out after you helped us like that," he grinned. "Blue is right, too. We owe you."

"No you don't," she replied, shaking her head. "No you don't."

A/N: wow, another long one. so you know the whole story of Ryooshi, and Tsume is ticked! lol! reviews?