Revamped!

[There is only one more chapter left in this arc so enjoy this long one.]

The Big Bad Wolf: Part Nine

Scarlet's head pounds as she sits up in the backseat of a sports car that reeks of cigarettes and nauseating cologne. She coughs and that's when the Derrick and José know that she's fully conscious. Scarlet sits in the middle, looking out the windows and seeing cars whirr past them. At least she's buckled up. As of now, she has no plan for an escape since they're in the middle of the freeway. She thinks that she should've brought her gun with her. Scarlet leans forwards and props her elbows on her knees so her head could rest on her hands.

"Nice to see you're finally up," José says.

Scarlet doesn't respond.

"Maybe she's catatonic?" Derrick guesses.

Derrick turns around and waved a hand in front of Scarlet's face. She doesn't even blink. Derrick snaps his fingers but there is still no response. When he resorts to touching her face, Scarlet lunges her head forwards and bites down on his hand as hard as he can. Derrick screams as he pulls back, shaking his hand out and cursing at her. Scarlet spits as José laughs.

"You two are nothing more than Wolf's purse dogs," Scarlet tells them as she crosses her legs in the backseat.

"We're not his purse dogs," Derrick replies.

"We don't even fit in bags," José argues.

Derrick grumbles under his breath and Scarlet just stares with an utmost belief that she's in a car with morons.

"I think a body bag will do you two justice," Scarlet says. "Hey, I have a question. How the stars is Wolf supposed to find me if he doesn't know this is happening?"

"Wolf knows everything," José says.

"He's not that smart," Scarlet retorts. "For starters, he picked you two to be a Pack."

-o-

Cress takes a deep breath as the sirens fade. Wolf smirks as he enters the freeway and accelerates even more but this time, he's at an appropriate speed since everyone drives faster. Cress desperately wants to ask him where in the stars he learned to drive like that and if he knows where he's going, but the words don't leave her mouth. He probably knows where to go since he's driving with such a scary determination.

"Keep your eyes open," Wolf tells her.

"For what?" Cress asks.

"Sports car."

Cress looks ahead of her and in the rearview mirror to find a sports car. There are many which Cress points out but Wolf shakes his head. She only sees minivans and trucks going the same way as them. Then, Cress looks at the cars going the other way and points out a slick, streamlined navy blue sports car.

"That's them!" Wolf exclaims.

Cress braces herself for Wolf's next driving stunt. Since they're going opposite ways on the freeway, the only way to change directions is to exit and reenter the other way. But after the driving Cress has experienced from Wolf, she knows that's not going to happen.

Once the mid-length concrete wall separating the two directions is gone, Wolf illegally turns and now enters the other direction. He's now speeding up to catch that sports car. He changes lanes amongst that direction until he's close enough to the sports car. Wolf goes into the lane next to theirs and is relieved when he sees Scarlet in the backseat, with a glaring look in her eyes as she looks at Derrick and José.

"Cress," Wolf says, "switch places with me."

"What?!" Cress exclaims.

Out of all the crazy driving tricks that she has seen from Wolf tonight, that statement takes the cake. How in the stars are they supposed to switch without pulling over and walking around the car? Cress looks at Wolf skeptically and scared but his face is a hundred percent confident. Has he done this before? For a second, she thinks about this logically: Wolf knows how to handle this situation a whole lot better than she does.

"How?" Cress asks. He did tell her that being scared wasn't helpful and she doesn't want to be useless.

"Follow my lead," Wolf replies.

Keeping one hand on the wheel, Wolf unbuckles his seatbelt. Cress copies. Wolf reaches back with his free hand and lowers the seat all the way until he's lying flat. Cress picks up her legs and puts her feet on top of Wolf's that are on the gas and brake pedals so he could remove his. She grips on the steering wheel as Wolf slides out of the seat and lands in the back, remaining crouched. Cress shifts into the seat as Wolf adjusts it back to normal. Now behind the wheel, Cress buckles her seatbelt and can't believe that just happened. She calms herself down and tries to convince herself that this is all a video game and her character got an upgrade. It clicks into place when Wolf readjusts her seat for her.

"Oh my stars, I'm going to die!" Cress finally exclaims after holding that in this whole time. A part of her is happy that she'd get to die in such a badass way.

"Cress," Wolf says in the most sincere tone she's ever heard him use, "I swear on my life that you won't die tonight."

-o-

Scarlet plays with her nails in the car. She looks out the window and does a double-take when she sees the car next to them. Scarlet finds herself staring at the small white sedan burning rubber. When she gets a good look at the license plate, she's in shock when she sees that it's her Grandmère's car. Scarlet is even more confused when she sees Cress behind the wheel wearing her Grandmère's sunglasses.

That sight makes no sense for so many reasons. Maybe she's inhaled too much smoke and is hallucinating.

Scarlet goes back to playing with her nails until something else catches her eye. The backseat window of her Grandmère's car facing her is open and she sees Wolf in the backseat. Scarlet's heart flutters a bit and a smile unconsciously appears on her face despite being pissed underneath. He and Cress is a duo she never saw coming, especially in her Grandmère's car.

"Hey, Dirt Pack," Scarlet says to them. "You were right. The Big Bad Wolf did come for Little Red."

Derrick and José look over and sees Wolf in the next car over. They freak out, not expecting to see Wolf in a while let alone next to him on the freeway.

"I hope you have a plan," Scarlet says with a little tune, "because he does."

José steps on the gas, passing Wolf's car. He cuts off the person in the next lane over and so on and so forth until he's on the other end of the freeway. Scarlet looks back with a hopeful smile. Maybe Wolf does know everything.

"Quick question," Scarlet says, sitting up straighter. "How much money does Wolf owe you?"

-o-

Cress is startled by Wolf's sudden outburst as he slams a fist against the car seats. She tries to cut lanes to get closer but the traffic isn't on her side. Wolf is antsy and Cress looks down at the wheel for a second. She won't be useless. She balls one of her hands into a fist and slams it into the horn. As the horn blares, Wolf falls back and covers his ears since he didn't see that coming. As the surrounding cars outside slow down and wonder what the stars that noise was, Cress swerves to cut some of them off and is in the lane next to the Pack again. Then everything returns to normal.

"Aces, Cress…" Wolf mutters as he sits up again. "I didn't think you had it in you."

"Me neither…" Cress replies, still shaking from her stunt. "What now?"

"I need more time to think. Can I trust you to be behind the wheel?"

"You should've asked that before we swapped places."

Wolf perks with an idea as he opens the window. This will be a stupid and dangerous plan but this whole car ride has been stupid and dangerous. His eye meets Scarlet's again and she seems more angry at him that his Pack.

"Sorry," Wolf mouths to her.

"I hate you!" Scarlet mouths back followed by a flood of crude slurs Wolf can't keep up with.

Wolf rolls his eyes as Scarlet sticks up her middle finger at him. He can't blame her for being mad since if he was in her shoes, he'd be pretty pissed too. Wolf wonders if she really hates him or if that's current anger speaking. Possibly both.

"Do you trust me?" He mouths to her.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Not really."

"Then yes."

-o-

"500 univs," José responds to Scarlet as to how much Wolf owes them.

"Wow," Scarlet states. "You guys must be incredibly pathetic to do all this for only a couple hundred univs."

The Pack says nothing. Scarlet snickers at their stupidity again. She reaches into her back pocket and grabs her wallet. She opens it and leafs through some bills before throwing them at the Pack. Derrick counts it and it equals the amount. Scarlet shoves her wallet back in her pocket.

"Can I go now?" Scarlet asks.

"We could take the next exit -?"

"No. Good-spading-bye."

Scarlet unlocks her door and opens it. The gust of wind due to the speed at which the car is driving blows her hair back. She looks ahead at which Wolf is in the car next to hers as close as it could get. Half of his body is sticking out of the car window and his arms are stretched out. She cranes her legs out and the courage on her face vanishes. Her breathing is frightened at the idea of jumping from this car into Wolf's arms on a speeding freeway is deadly.

"Keep the car steady!" Wolf yells at Cress.

"I'm trying to keep myself steady!" Cress panics in return.

Wolf and Scarlet lock eyes and it feels as if time slows, which makes this moment feel easier for her. Scarlet takes a deep breath and holds it. She grips the edges of the car tightly as she stands, keeping her back arched. Scarlet bends her knees and launches herself off the car and into the air. The Pack speeds and drives off just as Scarlet lands in Wolf's arms. He holds her tightly as she keeps her knees to her chest to avoid them scraping against the road. Scarlet's nails dig into the back of his neck as she holds on to him, her curls hitting his face. Wolf slides over and Scarlet puts her legs in through the window. He should've opened the door. She holds the roof of the car as Wolf gets in first. Once he's inside, he holds Scarlet's legs as she shimmies inside. Cress finally relaxes since she can drive calmly now.

Scarlet finally exhales. She and Wolf are sitting on the floor of the backseat, breathing loudly. They look at each other, neither of them saying a word until Scarlet makes the first move. Her brows furrow as she lunges forwards towards Wolf to punch and scream curses at him. Wolf accepts them all until he finally holds her hands by the wrists to stop her.

"Aces, I hate you!" Scarlet screams at him.

"I know," Wolf replies calmly. "Listen to me. I didn't want you to get involved in this. I didn't think you would. I thought I was making it better."

Scarlet scoffs. "Good job so far."

Wolf narrows his eyes for a second. "Well, then this is a terrible time to tell you something."

"What? An apology?"

"Well, I wasn't thinking that but I'm sorry."

"I'll forgive you but what were you about to say?"

"Ever since you saved Winter in the hallway, I've been falling in love with you. You and that moment haven't left my mind and I didn't want it to. You got me to rethink my choices in such a short amount of time and it's only written in the stars on what you could do forever because that's what I want. This will sound crazy but would you be my Alpha Female?"

Scarlet looks at him with shock. "Wolf, I -"

Before Scarlet could properly react, Wolf cups her face and pulls her into a kiss. Scarlet's body tenses and she freezes. Her eyes are wide open as she starts to realize what's happening: Wolf's lips are pressed into hers as his strong and calloused hands cradle her face and pull her closer. It feels heavenly. Wolf's lips are soft and his cologne is musky. Then she closes her eyes and grips his shirt's collar to pull him closer to her.

Cress is staring, gawking. She's as surprised to see Scarlet and Wolf kissing because, out of everything that happened, she didn't see that coming most of all. Then she focuses back on driving as the two of them make out on the floor of the backseat.

[Poor awkward third-wheel Cress. Although if I had a chance to get a front row seat to watch Wolflet make out, I would take it in a heartbeat.]