by Marcy Jacks
“No, I told you that. But there were things I did do,” Everett said.
Cole’s heart thumped loudly. The fire was dying in front of them due to lack of attention, but all his focus was on Everett. “Like what?”
Everett’s eyes sank shut, as though he were attempting to hide from the memory. “I was a hunter, Cole. I helped them track down werewolves. I set up traps, I prepared the tables they used to torture them, and there were times when I woke up in the morning and walked across the camp to see a wolf skin stretched out and drying on a rack.”
Cole shivered. Suddenly, the whole not actively killing anyone didn’t look so much better.
“Were they wild werewolves?”
“Does it matter?” Everett asked.
“Actually, it does. Wild werewolves can be as dangerous as the hunters paint us to be. They’re the reason why hunters even exist. A wild werewolf will attack someone’s farm and rip everyone to pieces in a blind rage, and the farmer who survived will blame all werewolves for that. They’ll go out killing normal werewolves for revenge, thinking they’re all the same when they’re not.”
He gave Everett a minute to let that sink in. He did seem to be thinking very deeply about it.
“Did you notice if any of the shifters you captured, while they were in human form, did any of them appear normal to you?”
Everett shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. You said that you were forcibly changed by a werewolf. I doubt that left you exactly normal in the beginning either.”
Cole had to give him that. He had nearly gone wild and was at least half-crazed by the time he and the others finally managed to track down James DeWitt and his pack of werewolves.
“See? What does it matter if the shifters we killed were wild when they could’ve had the chance to recover?”
“Some don’t want to recover. That’s part of the thing about being wild. Some shifters genuinely do go on a power trip, and they hurt people because they like it. I’m not saying that all the shifters you captured would’ve deserved to die, but if they were wild, then at least it wouldn’t’ve been like you had someone screaming at you that they didn’t do anything wrong. If the wolves you killed were wild, then the chances are you saved more lives than you helped to take.”
Everett still looked unconvinced. Maybe that was a testament to his character, that he wouldn’t so easily release himself from any blame.
“You’re not going to forgive yourself, are you?” Cole asked.
“I think that would be the least amount of punishment I could get for the things I’ve done.”
There was more that Cole wanted to ask, but he became silent. This one conversation alone was depressing enough, and the fire had burned down to smoking embers. They were both cold, and the stars were out.
“Maybe we should get some sleep,” he said, unable to bring himself to say anything else.
“Yeah, we need the early start.”
Everett started kicking sand over their fire, putting it out with little smoke.
They’d found some dry grass and leaves and managed to make a somewhat decent bed for themselves out of them.
“We’ll have to get up extra early to keep the morning dew from soaking us,” Everett said as he got down on their bed.
Likely the other man was thinking about how uncomfortable his clothes had been earlier today when Cole had pressed him down into the damp soil and grass and kissed him.
He didn’t want his clothes getting wet before travel either. “Agreed.”
“Right, good night,” Everett said.
Cole could hardly believe him as he turned onto his side, folded his arms, and shut his eyes.
Seriously? Was Everett that upset about their conversation that he thought Cole wouldn’t want to sleep with him? He would freeze lying there all alone.
He was going to have to put a stop to that way of thinking.
Cole lay down and shifted himself closer to the other man. Everett didn’t show any outward signs of surprise, but Cole felt the way his heart picked up when Cole spooned up behind him.
Cole wrapped his arms around his lover and pressed a kiss to his neck. He felt it when Everett reached his hand down to take hold of Cole’s, and their fingers interlocked together before they both fell asleep.
* * * *
Everett woke up to the darkness and someone gently shaking his shoulder.
He’d gotten used to sleeping lightly lately, so it was easy for him to come out of his daze and realize that it was Cole next to him, right where he should be, who was doing that.
He woke up and tried to look at him, but there was no moon in the sky, and his night vision was shit. “What is it?” he whispered.
“Hunters,” Cole whispered back. “I can hear their footsteps.”
Everett quickly, and as silently as he could, got to his feet, along with Cole. They’d purposely kept everything packed in their bags in case this would happen and they needed to make a fast escape.
Now was the time for that.
Once he was up, he could see the beams of light from flashlights through the trees, and they were getting closer.
“Come on.” Cole grabbed his hand after Everett strapped their bag of supplies to his back, and they started the awkward process of ducking and running at the same time down the rocky beach.
The smooth stones crunched under their feet, but there was nothing they could do about that except hope the others wouldn’t hear them. That wouldn’t matter in a minute when those men found the bed of leaves that he and Cole had been sleeping on, as well as the fire pit they’d made.
Luke, Adam, and Dan, the men Everett used to work with, who were all after his and Cole’s head at this point, would see all of that and know their prey wasn’t too far ahead.
They just kept on ducking and running until they were far enough away from the campsite, and the men closing in on it, to get back into the trees.
Those men didn’t have hunting dogs with them, but they would still be expecting Everett and Cole to be running in the water to slow down any tracking.
Getting back into the woods was the only way. It would offer them cover and more places to hide. They just had to stay ahead of their enemy.
Everett had liked to think he was in shape, and after being recruited to join the hunters, he especially thought that to be true. Running behind Cole, however, was a whole new league that Everett could barely keep up with, and soon the other man was dragging him along, keeping him from falling behind.
After twenty straight minutes of running, his legs finally gave out on him and he collapsed, falling facedown onto the ground.
“Jesus Christ! Everett!” Cole yelled, rushing to his knees to help him back up.
Everett was as good as dead weight for all the help he was getting himself back to his feet. His entire body tingled, and he couldn’t seem to get any air into his lungs. It made him feel pretty damn pathetic considering Cole had even slowed his pace to allow Everett to conserve his energy.
“Here, drink this.” Cole tilted Everett’s head back and put the cool metal lip of the water canteen to his mouth.
Everett had to force himself to drink slowly before finally pushing the canteen away. “We can’t stop here. They were way too close to us.”
Much closer than either of them had thought. The hunters must’ve parked their four-wheelers somewhere before getting back on foot to track them. Likely that was how they’d managed to get so close before Cole scented them and woke up.
Thank God his lover was a light sleeper.
“Still are coming, too,” Cole said. Now that Everett’s night vision had improved, he could vaguely see the faraway look that came over Cole’s eyes as he used his other senses to track the whereabouts of the hunters.
“Where are they?” Everett asked, trying to force his heart to return to a normal rhythm.
“I think they must’ve found our camp because it sounds like they went back to get their four-wheelers. I can kind of hea
r the engines now. It’s getting closer.”
Not good. Not good at all.
“And we’re still four days away from your pack,” Everett said. He wished with everything inside of him that he hadn’t been so stupid. He wished he’d had the good sense to leave Cole with his pack instead of taking him from it because now they were alone out here being chased by hunters, who were definitely going to catch up to them and kill them because Everett couldn’t go as fast as Cole.
“You should leave me here.”
Cole’s head flew back in shock. “What?”
“Seriously. Go on ahead without me. You can run faster and get your pack. You can be safe with them.”
Everett doubted that Cole’s pack would want to do anything to help Everett from getting his head cut off by his old allies, but so long as Cole was safe, Everett would be fine. He was a hunter, too. Maybe he could even hide himself while covertly making his way back to Cole’s new home, making sure that none of his old buddies would find him before he made it to what would hopefully be safety.
Or maybe the werewolves would cut his head off in revenge before he had a chance to explain himself. He was still a little nervous on that part.
Cole grabbed him around the collar and pulled him close. Everett thought the man meant to kiss him until he heard the snarl in his voice. “Don’t you ever tell me to do something as stupid as that ever again, do you understand me? I will knock your ass unconscious and drag you behind me if I have to.”
Everett tried pushing him away, but Cole’s body was like a brick wall. More and more Everett was being reminded that he was no longer human, and that Everett was no longer the stronger of the two of them.
“They will catch you, torture you, and skin you alive if you stay with me. This way you can run back to your pack faster and maybe come back and find me if I don’t make it back. They must be looking for you within a certain radius. You might not even need to get all the way back before you can find some help.”
Cole didn’t see the logic in what Everett was telling him. If anything, he only got all the more angry.
Everett appreciated the loyalty, but not when it risked Cole’s life.
“Get onto your fucking feet. I’m going to shift and your going to ride on my back. I can get us back to my pack faster that way.”
“Will you be able to consistently run with all the extra weight? Because those men back there won’t need to stop and rest their four-wheelers.”
“Stop arguing with me,” Cole snapped, fidgeting around and pulling off his clothes.
By now even Everett was starting to hear the rumble of the engine. Now that they knew he and Cole were so close, they weren’t going to bother with being all quiet in their hunt.
“Cole, I’m not even saying it to be noble or anything. It’s the truth. I’m slowing you down.”
“If you don’t get onto my back when I shift, not only will I not run away and leave you here, I will let those hunters take me when they catch up to us.”
Everett’s eyes widened. “There’s no way in hell you’re that stupid.”
He heard Luke’s angry voice cutting through the night. “Everett! I’m going to fucking kill you! I’m going to kill you!”
They were really close now, and Cole was still staring down at him, determined like the idiot he was.
Everett got to his feet. “Fine. I’ll climb on your back and think thin or something.”
Cole might be a werewolf, and strength might go hand in hand with that, but there was no way Everett’s two-hundred-and-some-odd-pound body wouldn’t slow the man down, but this argument was slowing the both of them down, and they had to get out of here.
Cole nodded and fell on all fours. This was the first time he’d ever seen a man actually make the full shift into a wolf, and he still couldn’t see it properly thanks to the darkness.
Cole had made fast work out of it, and he shook himself out quickly, those golden eyes of his looking back up at Everett expectantly.
The roaring of the engines from those four-wheelers was as loud as ever. Either the hunters were going to keep driving down the river, and maybe go right past where he and Cole were, or they were going to point their giant flashlights into the woods and see Everett and Cole just looking at each other then they should be making their escape.
Cole was a large wolf, so Everett didn’t feel like too much of an idiot when he climbed onto the man’s, wolf’s, whatever’s, back.
The only problem was that it was hard for him to get a proper grip. It wasn’t like there was a saddle for him to sit in or a harness for him to gasp. All he could do was grip the fur as tightly as he could and hope for the best.
Cole made a rumbling sound deep within his chest, and Everett replied to what he believed the sound to mean. “I’m ready.”
Cole launched himself into the woods, and the wind sailed through Everett’s hair almost as quickly as if he was on any four-wheeler.
Almost.
He could vaguely make out the bright lines of flashlight beams out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t dare look over his shoulder because of the way he bounced up and down on Cole’s back. He was clinging to the body beneath him with his arms and legs just to keep from flying off.
A loud whoop sounded through the air as one of those beams of light passed right over the pair of them before coming back and staying on them. “I got ’em! They’re right there!”
Shit, shit, shit! They were going to get caught. They were never going to make it back to Cole’s pack in time, and to ever assume they would outrun those machines had been beyond stupidity.
He still had his weapons in the bag. Surprising them would be simple with how into the chase the hunters were. They might not even notice Everett’s attack before it was too late.
Everett let go of Cole’s fur and rolled along the hard ground before finally coming to a stop. It took him a few seconds longer than he’d hoped to pull his weapons from out of the bag he carried, but then he finally had the sawed-off shotgun up and pressed to his shoulder, pointed right at the blinding lights zooming toward him, and he pulled the trigger.
Chapter Eight
Cole had been so focused on running that at first he wasn’t entirely aware of Everett jumping off of him. It took him about two seconds to realize that his back wasn’t feeling a whole lot lighter because the man had dropped their bag of supplies, but by then, he was already another fifty feet away, at least.
He skidded to a halt just as the sound of a gunshot blasted through the air following by a crash. His heart stopped for a split second before he started running back to his lover.
If Everett wasn’t dead, then Cole swore he was going to kill that idiot.
More guns went off from different directions. The hunters were closing in on Everett. It seemed they were going after the threat that was firing back at them.
Cole had better night vision than they did, so now that the hunters were no longer paying attention to him, he was able to sneak back into the fighting.
He found Everett hiding behind the base of a large and thick pine tree. The branches on the other side of him, where the bullets were striking, were being blown off, but so far he seemed like he was uninjured except for a new cut on his forehead.
He was going to have a scarred face at the rate this kept going at.
He ducked away as the headlights from the four-wheelers flashed by. The hunters were parking their vehicles and using them for cover whenever Everett managed to reach around the tree and fire a shot off.
He was a sitting duck there.
Cole sneakily made his way around the circle of fighting. He caught sight of one hunter in particular, a muscleman with long hair tied back and a blue baseball cap on his head.
He had a rifle against his shoulder, and he was using the shots his friends were sending off as a distraction to circle around to the other side of the tree. Kind of like what Cole was doing.
No way was he letting this man sneak up on Everett.<
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There was a hill where Cole stood, and he watched this hunter carefully, following him. The man’s heartbeat was calm and ready. He was focused, so much so that he didn’t even know Cole was watching him.
Everett was in the same condition. He was looking around one side of the tree, firing off his handgun, while the hunter snuck up on the other.
The hunter lifted his weapon when he was nearly across, almost to where he would be able to see his prey.
Cole jumped when the man was at the perfect spot, his long claws out and his jaws open and ready.
He bit down on the hunter’s forearm, knocking him back, and the hunter screamed and fired the gun in the air. He fell on his back, and he tried to pound his fists against Cole’s snout and neck to make him release his arm, but he wouldn’t do it.
He was going to bite the bastard’s arm off for thinking he could hurt his mate!
The screaming attracted the hunters, as well as Everett from his hiding place.
“Cole!”
More lights flashed. “Stop right there, Everett.”
“Luke, please.”
“Shut the hell up!”
Cole didn’t know what they were saying after that. His inner wolf was going wild. He was going to kill all of them! The hunter body beneath him relaxed a little, and he was sure the man was faking it because there was no way he could be dead yet from something like this.
Then he managed to finally shove Cole off of him, despite how tightly he had his teeth locked down on the man’s arm. Cole tried to get up and follow him as he scrambled away, but his limbs were heavy, and he was tired.
This wasn’t right. This shouldn’t be happening to him. It was possible for even a werewolf or any sort of shifter to become tired and all, but he should still have more than enough energy left over to keep on fighting.
Then he noticed the object the hunter held in his hand that wasn’t dripping with blood.
He wasn’t sure how to describe it, it was too big to be a needle, but it wasn’t a knife either. Whatever it was, it had something other than Cole’s blood dripping from it.