by Marcy Jacks
Owen must’ve gotten him there when he’d let the hunting knife touch down on his face.
The clinking of the shackle and chain that was still around Cole’s wrist was the next thing that Everett heard as Cole removed his shirt. He bundled it up, licked a spot, and started gently wiping away the blood on Everett’s face.
Everett watched him, his fear long gone by now. Was this actually happening? “Why did you come back?”
Cole’s eyes briefly flickered up to meet Everett’s before he went back to concentrating on his face. “I heard the gunshot.”
Oh, right. Owen had taken that cheap shot at Everett’s feet.
He recalled the way Cole’s hands had come down and killed the man as easily as though he were squashing a spider. Those same hands were being gentle with Everett. It was an odd contrast. “Why won’t you kill me?”
This time, Cole held Everett’s stare for just a little longer. His eye color had gone back to normal, but they were still wide and surprised. “Why would I kill you?”
“Because you’re a werewolf. You killed Owen,” he said.
“He was a hunter.”
“So am I.”
Cole grunted. A small frown marred his face. Finally he pulled his shirt away, apparently satisfied that Everett’s wounds had finished bleeding all over the place. He was still going to have to get some bandages from out of his pouch of first aid supplies.
“Well?” Everett prompted when Cole said nothing.
“Have you ever killed any shifters since becoming a hunter?” Cole asked.
Everett wasn’t too sure he liked the change in subject, mostly because he was ashamed of the answer, but he was truthful. “Not directly yet, no.”
“Yet?”
Everett clenched his jaw. “It’s to be expected that I would eventually. I joined the hunters for a reason, Colby.”
“Right, well, how did you feel about it? When you were involved in their murders?”
“What does this have to do with—”
“Everything. It has everything to do with it. How did you feel?”
Everett clenched his jaw. “I didn’t enjoy it, if that’s what you mean, but come on, Cole. They were shifters. They were evil.”
Cole wet his lips. That expression that spoke so much about how Cole wanted to punch him was back, but he kept his fists to himself. “I’m going to ignore that last part because I don’t want to get into that right now. Clearly you haven’t lost your soul to the hunters yet. Otherwise you wouldn’t have tried to save me, and you wouldn’t have felt any guilt about the shifter deaths either.”
“What are you getting at?” Everett had to get back to his feet. The cold and wetness from the damp earth was starting to seep into his clothes, and he didn’t like that. He didn’t want this conversation, period.
“You haven’t killed or tortured me, and I overheard you speaking with that hunter, so I know you were also telling the truth about becoming a hunter because of me. If you were really an evil hunter, you would’ve liked that all those other shifters had died, and you would’ve killed me the second you first saw me.”
“So what?” Everett snapped. He knew what Cole was getting at, and he was reminded of some of the last thoughts he’d had about the both of them when they’d been together. He tried not to blush.
“So, you saved me because you still want this from me.” Cole reached for him, putting his hands around the back of Everett’s head, pulled him forward, and kissed him.
Chapter Five
Cole pushed Everett back down onto the ground. It was wet and uncomfortable, but as he kissed the other man, Everett no longer seemed to notice.
Everett’s hands were still bound, so it was slightly awkward having them between their chests, but Cole instantly noticed the way Everett gripped his T-shirt, holding him close, as though preventing him from getting off of him. From leaving.
Cole had kissed him to…He didn’t know what he was hoping to achieve. He’d wanted some kind of reaction out of the man. He hadn’t expected to be the one taken under by just how good it felt to have Everett’s body beneath his or the high he got by how the other man responded to him.
Then Everett really started to push against him, but not in some playful way. He was trying to separate them.
Cole pulled back, disappointed that he’d been unable to go further.
“Fuck, it’s cold,” he said, get back to his feet.
Cole wanted to laugh at some of the mud that was now clinging to the back of his clothes. He was wearing outdoorsy stuff. He would be fine.
“It’s not funny,” Everett said, glaring at him and throwing his soiled T-shirt at him. He tried to wipe away the muck on the back of his legs with his bound hands, but he only seemed to be spreading it around more.
Cole couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he put his ruined shirt back on. They were both filthy, but he was pretty clean by comparison now that Everett had dirt all over him. “At least none got into your hair,” he said.
Everett groaned and sighed. He had apparently regained the ability to think now that he was no longer being kissed into the ground. “Okay, so we’ve established that I still find you sexually attractive.”
Cole made a face at the proper way Everett had just put it. He would’ve preferred it if Everett had said something along the lines of “still in lust” or “want to fuck you,” anything but the distant description of just being sexually attractive.
“But?” Cole prompted.
Everett clenched his jaw. “I’m still undecided about whether or not that means anything. You came back to save me, so clearly you aren’t the same as the other weres.”
They were going to do baby steps here. That was all right. “Well, I figure I have enough time to teach you how wrong you are about all shifters before we get back.”
Cole walked past him. He figured they should pack up the rest of Everett’s gear and get out of there before any more time passed. There wasn’t much they could do about hiding that hunter body, however. That was just something they were both going to have to deal with.
“And where the hell do you think we’re going?” Everett said, glaring at Cole as he walked by.
Cole turned and smiled at him. “You’re the one wearing shackles now.”
Everett looked like he was about to blow his top. “Don’t you even think for one second that this changes anything. These are still silver. I can attack you with them.”
Cole swung around the chain that was still attached to his wrist. “Don’t worry. I should be able to avoid them just fine. You can still call me your prisoner if you want, but either way, you’re coming with me. I’ll take you back to the pack and you can see for yourself that we’re not as dangerous as you seem to think we are. We’ll put some distance between this place and any hunters who might be coming, and on our way back, we’ll find a couple of nice dry places to finish what we started.”
* * * *
Everett had never been so angry in all his life. Not even when he walked down the street to find all the police, forensics people, and yellow tape around Cole’s small house.
Well, maybe he’d been a little more emotional on that day, but right now he was still fuming pretty hard.
The worst part came when Cole tied the end of his chain to the middle links that connected Everett’s handcuffs, easily avoiding his attempts to burn the other man with the silver. Now he was the one being led around like a dog.
Cole had all the supplies on him, and he had all the keys. Everett was probably the worst werewolf hunter in the history of time.
“Stop pouting back there. You’re making my head hurt,” Cole said, barely casting him a glance.
“I was not pouting,” Everett snapped. He’d been glaring at the back of Cole’s head, trying to think of ways he could possibly sneak up on the other man and get free. The problem was that everything he thought of, all the ways he could sneak up on the other man and attack him, always in his mind ended with his back p
ressed down onto the soft ground, Cole on top of him, and both of their erections thrusting together as they moaned and kissed wantonly.
How they’d ended up naked during his mental planning for escape, he wasn’t sure.
If only Cole hadn’t kissed him. Everett had thought he could just get the man across the border or something and let him go, but clearly what the two of them had was not over yet.
They barely talked. Their main goal was to get as far away from the hunters who were tracking them as possible. That was the only thing they could both agree on.
The thing that bothered him even more was the way that Cole seemed to know more about the land he walked and the direction he was heading, even though they were still days away from where his pack should be.
“Where are we going?” Everett asked, finally losing all patience. They’d long since gotten off the trail that Everett had been following, and it was obvious to him by now that Cole wasn’t taking him deeper into the woods to kill him.
He was way past the point of thinking that Cole was capable of doing something like that to him. Now he just had to find out why. Was it only Cole who had control of himself like this? Or were the other shifters really just as innocent as Cole claimed them to be?
“I hear water coming from this direction,” Cole said. They hadn’t spoken to each other in at least three or four hours. Everett heard the tired note in Cole’s voice now that they were finally talking.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked.
Before, he would have been suspicious about Cole faking an illness in an attempt to get away, but now that Cole was the one in charge, there was no need for this.
There was actually something wrong with him.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head and not bothering with looking back at Everett.
“Bullshit.” Everett stopped and dug his feet into the ground. Cole tried dragging him, and he even managed to pull Everett along for the next couple of steps before the other man finally gave up and stopped.
He still wasn’t looking at Everett.
“What’s wrong? Is it your wrists again?”
Everett had barely had the chance to take a look at those injuries after Cole had tried making a run for it. Even after they came back together, Cole had bandaged Everett’s wound on his face, but hadn’t bothered with much of anything for his wrists other than pouring some disinfectant on them.
With the keys now in his possession, he’d been able to get that last shackle off of himself as well before connecting it to Everett’s cuffs, so it wasn’t like he could be making them any worse.
Cole allowed Everett to take hold of his wrists, but he was quick to point out the problem when Everett saw no more swelling or discoloration.
“I need to transform. I need to make the shift.”
Everett’s head flew up. Cole’s eyes were golden again, and there was a thin sheen of sweat on his face. The day had warmed up once the sun had gone farther into the sky, but it wasn’t nearly hot enough to be giving Cole this kind of reaction.
Everett swallowed. He hadn’t prepared for this part, and now he was standing there, with Cole holding onto his leash—because that’s pretty much what the thing was—unable to get away. “I see. You’re fighting against it?”
Cole nodded. “Oh yeah.”
Even Cole was worried about what his inner wolf would do once it was let out. Why did the man have to argue with him and be stubborn about everything? Everett could help him if Cole would just admit that shifters were dangerous.
Even the ones that didn’t want to cause any harm were something to be feared. Everett could see that now.
“What should I do? Will you come after me if you shift? Should I go into the trees or something?”
Everett was already looking up into the branches, searching for something that could be easy enough for him to climb into, hide him, and hold his weight for several hours while Cole wolfed out. There was no way he was going to be able to outrun something like that. Hiding in the trees was the only thing that made any sense to him, even if it would make him look stupid and cowardly. If Cole’s wolf saw him while he was up in that tree, he was screwed. He’d seen some of the things werewolves had chewed through. Getting him out of a tree would hardly be a problem.
For that reason, he was a little confused when Cole started laughing at him.
“This isn’t funny! You’re about to change, and your wolf could kill me!”
“I’m not going to hurt you. That isn’t what’s making me fight it,” Cole said.
Everett didn’t understand. “Then what is? Why would you make yourself sick to avoid shifting?”
Cole started walking again, only this time, he started swinging the end of the chain around in a circular motion. “I don’t want you running away while I’m a wolf, but I don’t want to tie you to one of the trees either.”
“What?”
Cole turned around and looked at him. “I want you to stick around while I make my shift. Don’t panic, and don’t run away.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Everett couldn’t see his face, but by Cole’s sigh, he guessed he was looking at the other man like he’d just lost his mind.
“I’m being serious here. I want you to see firsthand that I’m not dangerous. I can control it now. I couldn’t back then.”
Everett was already taking several steps back, as far as the chain would allow him to, at any rate. “No way. If wolves could control it, then hunters wouldn’t exist.”
“I came back for you, remember? I saved your life when that guy was about to put a knife through your skull. You know I’m not evil, so why would I put your life in danger like that?”
It made sense. Everett didn’t like admitting to it, but it did.
Cole’s voice was pleading. “You know me, and I know you still love me. Let me show you that I really am, okay?”
Everett wanted to believe him. He was tempted to try. He was the kind of person who stuck to his beliefs, but he liked to think of himself as being open minded enough to be able to change his mind should he see proof of his mistakes. Cole was offering him that proof, but still, he wasn’t sure if he could do it.
“I—I don’t know if I can. I mean, I haven’t seen any werewolves yet who weren’t wild. I’ll run. My legs will start going the second I see you start to wolf out.”
It would be either run and hide or attempt to wrestle his weapons out of Cole’s hands, and he wasn’t prepared to kill the man just so he could live.
Cole thought about that for a minute. “But you are curious?”
He was indeed that. “Yes.”
Cole started looking around. “Would it be easier if I did tie the chain to one of these trees? I wouldn’t want to do it, but if it’ll make it easier for you to see because you couldn’t run…”
Everett got what Cole was saying. It reminded him of the times when he and Cole had messed around in bed with ropes and ties and other things they’d gotten from the S&M places online. They’d tried the stuff out, being each others’ firsts when it came to getting hot wax dripped on them, and all the while they liked to pretend they were hardcore for doing it or something.
They’d always had the safety word. It was recommended in pretty much every website they’d visited after buying some strange-looking shit. It allowed them both to be able to say no without really saying no.
This was just like that. Kind of. Everett didn’t want to run, but he was going to panic if Cole didn’t tie him down. The chain would keep him in place.
The only problem was that he was going to be dealing with a possibly wild wolf Cole, not the sensible human he was looking at now.
It went back to the trust thing. “Okay.”
Cole looked at him. “Okay? You’re letting me do this?”
“I’m surprised you’re even asking my permission, considering I’m your prisoner now.”
Cole’s face turned a little dark as he blushed. “I know I wouldn’t hurt y
ou, but I still wouldn’t want to force you. I want you to see this because you want to see it.”
Everett nodded. “Will you give me the key? So I can get loose if you do turn into a snarling monster.”
Cole nodded. “We’ll have to figure that part out so you don’t immediately unlock yourself and start running, but I think we can come up with a way so you can get it if you want to bolt. If you do, and you get away from me, I won’t chase you.”
Everett raised a brow at him. “Not to bring me back or to drag me to your pack for revenge?”
Cole smiled at him. “It was never about revenge. I just wanted my alpha to meet the guy who saved my life.”
It was still debatable on whether or not Everett had even done that. Just because he’d removed the man from the fighting didn’t mean that Cole wouldn’t have been able to handle himself just fine without Everett at all.
He didn’t feel like pointing that out to him. His guts were still in knots over the fact that he was about to let a real werewolf, who was about to get into his wolf form, near him.
“Let’s just get to the river you were talking about.”
They made it there pretty quickly. Cole had been right, it was a crisp and clear river, and they both took long drinks and refilled the canteen they’d been sharing.
Cole dropped their bag onto the dry rocks just before the water. They got started making their camp, and the entire time, Everett kept his eyes on Cole. He watched him, waiting for a sign that he was about to lose his mind and transform.
Aside from the sweating, there was no twitching, no hair starting to poke from out of his pores, and Cole’s mood stayed relatively cheerful.
It didn’t stop Everett from wondering if this was the worst mistake of his life.
After about ten minutes, when everything was set up, Cole started to look around. “That tree over there looks good.”
Everett looked in the direction Cole pointed.
A tall birch tree, thick enough that Everett wouldn’t be able to break through it no matter how hard he tried.
