by Marcy Jacks
“I didn’t see inside your room, but the police couldn’t block off the heavy trail of blood that led from out of your window and into the bushes.”
Cole had been bitten several times, his body dragged back out the window, the glass cutting into him even more. He remembered screaming for help, but his voice had deserted him. The last thing he recalled seeing before the shrubs and trees cut off the outside world was the glowing light coming from Everett’s kitchen down the road.
“No one could find your body, but everyone said you had been killed. People started looking for any kind of large animal, or even animals, that would’ve broken into a human house and dragged someone away.”
Cole didn’t need to hear the rest to know that they’d found nothing.
He had to ask, “So, where in all of that did you decide it made sense to become a hunter?”
Everett glared a little at Cole, but he continued on with the story. “I was like everyone else at first. I thought some animal had attacked you. Your house was on the very end of the street, just beside the woods, so it wasn’t like it had to go far or anything to get you. Then some other people come into town. A group of hunters, and they looked normal enough, just a bunch of guys out to shoot a buck or something. They had their licenses to hunt, so it wasn’t like I could stop them.”
That was right. Everett had worked for the town, keeping the trails clean of debris and making sure campers didn’t leave behind anything that would cause fires. It occurred to Cole that Everett might’ve even been one of the men to search the forest for him after Deacon had taken him. He briefly wondered how shitty that experience had been before deciding he didn’t care.
“And then?”
He shrugged. “Not much to say. Came across them one day, a lot farther in the woods than they said they were going to be when I spoke to them, but they had something caught in a bear trap.”
Everett rubbed his face at the memory. “It was the biggest wolf I’d ever seen in my life. It had to be twice the size of a regular wolf, and it was snarling and fighting like it had rabies or something. I was starting to think that even if those guys weren’t supposed to be hunting wolves, it was probably best that they put it out of its misery.”
“It shifted into a person?” Cole asked.
“Tried to,” Everett said. “It looked more like a monster than a person, though. It stood up on its hind legs, got tall and skinny for a second, and the hair was starting to shed off. Finally one of the hunters just shot it, and the others bitched and yelled at him about its pelt. I didn’t know at the time that those men were planning on skinning it and selling the fur.”
Cole shivered. He didn’t know who that wolf was, but it had been lucky, as far as deaths went. A quick bullet was considered much more preferable to being tied down, cut in certain spots on the body, and having one’s skin ripped off.
“I think I can put together the rest. They saw you watching and let you join their little club.”
Everett’s face went tight. He seemed to be having reactions like that a lot lately. “Something like that. I went down to them and asked what it was. Looking back, I’m surprised they didn’t just kill me, too, but they didn’t. They told me they’d heard about the shifter attack and that they were here to find and skin the bastards.”
Everett started walking around, as though he couldn’t bear to hold still any longer. He started picking up supplies and putting them away, pulling things to eat out of the little cooler he had with them, and then he just paced. “That was the first time I’d ever heard that something unnatural might’ve killed you, and when I looked down into the face of that dead thing, and I thought maybe this was what had dragged you off…” Everett trailed off, unable to finish.
“Instead I find out that you’re one of them.”
The betrayed sound in Everett’s voice only served to piss off Cole, more so than he already was, considering he was a hostage and tied to a tree.
Everett broke up with him. Everett was the one going around town with his new boyfriend for everyone else in that small place to see. Did he really think he was going to guilt Cole for being a werewolf?
“You fucking prick,” he snarled.
Cole had never seen a more confused look on the man’s face. “What?”
“You left me. You broke things off with me. Not the other way around. So when I get attacked and turned, that’s the time you decide you care so much about me and want to avenge my death or whatever, and now you’re going to act like I betrayed you or something.”
“You’re a werewolf!”
“I was attacked by a werewolf, you asshole! Getting turned into one tends to be the result!”
They were both breathing heavily. Everett looked like he wanted to punch Cole in the face for all the yelling he was doing. At the very least, he expected the gag to come back on, but instead, Everett dropped his fists and turned back to their cooking dinner.
“Whatever. Just keep your mouth shut while we’re here anyway. I don’t want anyone to hear us.”
“I would like it for someone to hear us so they can get me out of here. Psycho,” Cole added as an afterthought.
“I’m serious, Cole. The people we’re running from are dangerous.”
Christ. Cole had been told stories about how hunters brainwashed both their recruits, and themselves, but he’d never thought he would actually have to deal with this shit himself.
“Everett. My pack is made up of good people. If they are hunting you, just don’t fight back and let me go to them. They won’t hurt us. I promise you they won’t.”
The problem was that if his pack did find them and rescue him, he wasn’t sure he wanted James to release Everett that easily.
It hadn’t been something he allowed himself to admit that first night under Everett’s care, but Cole was still attracted to him. Even though Everett had broken his heart and might still have someone else waiting for him to come home, Cole still wanted the other man.
It was something he hated to admit, but it was the truth. Not only that, there was something different about the other man that didn’t have much to do with his new hunter gear. He looked different somehow, even though he was exactly the same. There was something that made him even more beautiful now than he had been the last time Cole had seen him. That enhanced beauty even affected his eyes, his deep, dark eyes, and his scent.
If James came and rescued Cole, he decided that he was going to kidnap Everett, much like Everett was doing to him now, and drag the man back to his pack to keep him. Maybe he would make the guy into his own personal servant. That would be amazing.
He had to shake himself a little and remind himself that this was not the best time in the world to be having these thoughts.
“I never said I was running away from your pack,” Everett said.
That actually threw Cole for a loop. “Uh, who are we running from then?”
Everett looked over his shoulder at him, and then he plated their hotdogs and went back to sit beside Cole, this time on a small stool. “My team.”
Cole’s eyes widened, and he didn’t know why, but his face suddenly went extremely cold as well.
“Relax, all the color just left your skin.” Everett pierced one of the sausages with a fork and lifted it to his mouth, taking a bite. Then he offered it to Cole.
As though he could eat after Everett told him something like that. “Your team? Why would they be hunting us?”
“Because I abandoned them and stole a good portion of their supplies.” Everett nodded to the blankets, bags, and weapons that made up their camp. There wasn’t a whole lot there, and it wasn’t like they had a tent or anything either, and as far as hunters thinking they’d been wronged somehow, well, even for that he just couldn’t see them wanting to chase after Everett for this stuff that much.
Hunters lost their stuff all the time, after all. There had to be something else to this.
Then it hit him. “Is it because you took me?”
&n
bsp; Everett nodded. “I bagged my first werewolf and didn’t bring him back to camp with me. They’re going to be pissed.”
“How do you know? I mean, how do you know they’re following us right now?”
“Radio,” Everett answered simply. “I got a call from one of the leaders in charge of the hunt, when they managed to regroup after the attack, and they’d gotten their asses handed to them apparently, and Buddy is dead. He was with us.”
“I figured,” Cole deadpanned.
Everett cleared his throat. “Anyway, they were looking forward to coming back to camp and seeing me there with my catch. Little did they know that I wouldn’t be there and neither would any werewolf for them to torture and kill.”
Everett took another bite of his sausage. Though he was no longer feeling hungry, Cole’s stomach growled loudly.
Everett looked at him and held up his sausage to take a bite again.
Cole turned his face away. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t be stupid. You need to eat something to keep your strength up.”
“What’s the point if I’m going to be chained the entire time anyway? Or drugged?”
Everett’s lips thinned. “I won’t drug you anymore, and the point is so you’ll have enough energy to keep coming with me and maybe to defend yourself if we get attacked.”
Cole gave him a hard look at that last bit.
“I’ll release you if we find ourselves under attack,” Everett clarified. “It’s just that for now I can’t really trust you enough to be wandering around.”
“Wandering around?” Cole said incredulously.
“I don’t know what you’ll do anymore. You’re a werewolf. I don’t know you anymore either.”
“I’m no different than I was the last time you and I saw each other.”
Admittedly, Cole couldn’t really recall when that had been. During the end of their relationship, all he could remember was the stress he felt and how strained every conversation had been.
Cole hadn’t wanted Everett to leave, but the other man was insistent. He wanted to take the new job and leave, saying they could make it work long distance, but Cole knew better, and he could hardly have stopped him from going to work in a different state with better pay. They’d only been dating for three months, it wasn’t right for him to hold the man back.
Then, as a kick in the teeth, not only did Everett not leave right away, but Cole had seen him around with another guy.
Everett seemed determined to ignore that last bit that Cole had said. “Just open your mouth and take a bite. It’s not that hot,” he said.
With Everett sitting so close to him, reaching out to hand-feed him like this, Cole had never felt hotter in his entire life.
Chapter Three
“When are you going to untie me?”
“Not now,” Everett said.
“It’s very uncomfortable walking like this.”
“I got that.” He’d only heard about it a thousand times. “We’ll rest in a few minutes.”
Everett was really starting to feel like he was speaking to a child now. He knew Cole was only doing it to annoy him. He was a strong werewolf, he couldn’t be that uncomfortable, but he was now Everett’s responsibility, and he was going to get them to the highway, find a car, and get Cole across the border.
Regardless of how much the other man bitched about it.
“Seriously, my hands are itchy. Everett, will you stop?”
Everett did, and he rounded on the other man. “We can’t stop. We need to get out of here as fast as we can before we’re found.”
“I can’t smell any humans for miles,” Cole said, reminding Everett with a sick clarity that he was no longer human. “All I can get for miles around here is forest. Do you even have any idea of where you’re going?”
He kind of did. His compass had busted when he attacked that pack, but he was pretty sure he was still headed in the right direction.
It would take another couple of days before they reached the road, however. Everett hadn’t wanted to risk getting on the highway right away for fear that his former teammates would be driving up and down it, searching for his thieving ass as well as the werewolf he’d stolen from them. By the time they made it to the intersection where he was heading, they should be far enough away from the original scene, and his former camp, that running into them wouldn’t be a problem.
By then his only concern would be figuring out how to convince Cole to get into a stolen car or truck with him. “I know perfectly well where I’m going. I just need a minute to think without you nagging into my ear.”
That was the wrong thing to say, apparently. Hair started growing out from the pores on Cole’s face. His eyes turned a bright golden color that would probably glow in the dark, if it was still nighttime, that is.
Cole looked ready to tear off his chains and rip into Everett, and for the first time since he’d found the other man and taken him did he become really and truly scared.
He dropped the other end of the chain he held that was connected to Cole’s hands and pulled his gun from his hip, the one with the silver bullets inside, and he pointed it at Cole’s face. “Calm yourself down. Now.”
Please don’t make me kill you. Please.
Miraculously, Cole did as he was told. There was no more fight out of him as his eyes sank shut and the hair either shrank back under his skin or shed completely off. His face had been stretching out to turn into a long wolf snout, but now it was becoming the more flattened shape of a man.
Everett put his gun away. They’d both been walking for six hours. Practically since waking up that morning. Neither of them had a good night’s sleep. Clearly that was part of the problem in this situation.
They needed a rest, and they needed lunch. Everett wished he wasn’t running out of supplies. “Maybe we can rest here for a couple of minutes. I can make us something to eat.”
He bent down to pick up the other end of the chain, not taking his eyes away from Cole’s face.
More and more the other man was taking on looks of depression and sadness, and more and more Everett had to tell himself to not feel any sympathy for him. He was doing this for his own good. Cole would thank him later.
Everett looped the chain around the nearest tree that looked strong enough to hold, and he locked it in place. He would leave Cole like that for a little while. He wouldn’t bother with any gags or extra chains today.
“Rhett, seriously, my hands are killing me. They’re numb. I can’t take this anymore.”
Cole hadn’t called him that since before they’d had their argument that ended everything between them. He couldn’t help himself. The pain he heard in Cole’s voice was too much for him to ignore.
“If you try and attack me,” he warned, thinking of the silver rings in his pockets. He didn’t want to have to use them on the other man. But if Cole went wolf on him and tried anything, well, he would have to defend himself.
“I won’t, I won’t. Just take these things off,” Cole begged.
Everett wasn’t sure if he could carry through with his veiled threats, but he couldn’t very well take the chains off with Cole like this.
“Give me one second, baby,” he said, pulling his backpack from his back and unzipping it. The extra chains were near the bottom. He would have to tie Cole around the waist with them and then lock these around the tree as well to keep the other man from running.
Everett was still going to have to worry about Cole attacking him, but he could handle that.
“Step back a little so I can get this around you,” Everett said, and then proceeded to add the extra chains when Cole did as he was told.
Only then did he allow himself to really get a close look at the shackles secured tightly around Cole’s wrists. They hadn’t come off since Everett had put them there, four days ago now.
He winced at what he saw. Torn skin and blood from when Cole had tried to force his hands through and escape. Everett had thought he’d cleaned th
ose wounds well enough, but apparently Cole had still been fighting against them, pulling away more layers of skin.
Shit. Cole wasn’t just trying to be a pain in the ass. He really had been hurting. Now Everett felt like an idiot.
“Why didn’t you say anything before?” he demanded, pulling the keys from his pocket and undoing the shackles.
“I did. You weren’t listening to me,” Cole muttered.
“I meant before today,” Everett said, even though he still felt like a jerk. “This looks older than what you could’ve gotten just today.”
The shackles snapped off. There, Cole was free from them. Now all he had to do was get some antiseptic wipes and maybe some—
Everett didn’t get a chance to finish his thought before Cole grabbed him and flung him against the base of the tree with enough force to knock the wind out of him. He tried to grab for Cole’s hands, but the other man wasn’t as weak and frail as he’d made himself out to be. Everett couldn’t get Cole’s hands off his neck.
Then he realized with the worst sort of sickening clarity that he couldn’t breathe. Cole was strangling him!
He punched at the man’s elbows, hoping to throw off some of that strength he was putting into his arms and hands. It was like punching down on a metal pipe, and it actually hurt to do so. Cole would not be moved.
That didn’t stop him from trying some more. His body was using up more oxygen the more he fought, but he didn’t dare stop. His face grew hot, and a long ringing sounded in his ears.
He was going to pass out. He was going to pass out, and Cole was going to kill him.
In the deep haze that clouded his brain, a recollection suddenly poked out from the smog that covered his rational thinking. Everett remembered the silver rings in his pockets.
He reached down and grabbed for them. He couldn’t get them on in the position he was in now, but the second he had them in hand, he pressed them against Cole’s face.
There were ten of them. One ring for each of his fingers and thumbs. Cole shrieked an awful sound that Everett had never heard him make before once the metal touched his skin.