Jacks, Marcy - The Blind Werewolf Assassin [DeWitt's Pack 4] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (3 page)

Adam wouldn’t stop, not until Jimmy dropped his legs, and Adam nearly bit through the rope they shoved into his mouth as he screamed. He could feel the teeth of the bear trap sinking just a  little bit deeper into his ankle, scraping his bones, when that kid dropped him and the trap clanged on the hard ground.

“Well, now, that’s what you get for being difficult about it,” said the father, smiling down at Adam with all the paternal wisdom in the world.

Adam glared at him, wishing something would come and knock that stupid son of a bitch right off his high horse.

Something did. A huge black blur flew out from seemingly nowhere, teeth clamping down on the old man’s neck and shoulder, and he screamed and he was pushed down into the tall grass with the monster on top of him, biting and clawing, both struggling with each other.

“Pa!”

“Dad!”

Both boys screamed as they forgot all about Adam and ran to help

their father.

The black-haired werewolf must have run off, because Adam

could just see the commotion above the tall grass as the old man  stumbled to his feet and clutched at his bleeding neck, looking down  at all the red in his hand. His face turned the color purple.

He wasn’t going to die from his wounds, but he was severely  pissed off. “You think you can kill me that easily?” he shrieked,  spinning around, addressing the trees and still searching for wherever  the wolf who had bitten him had gone.

“I don’t die that easily! I’ve survived two wars!” he yelled. Then  he snatched the rifle from his youngest son and advanced on Adam.

Adam’s heart raced as his end came nearer to him. “I’ll kill him

right now! You think I give that much of a shit about a stinking wolf

pelt?”

18
                          
Marcy Jacks

Again, the black wolf who had saved Adam’s life emerged from the tall grass, this time his jaws clamping down on the gun, taking it clean out of the old man’s hands, right before dropping it and running straight for Jimmy.

The eldest boy stood there, frozen as the creature advanced on him. He stood no chance as the wolf’s mouth locked down on his

head.

“No!” the old man screamed. He ran for the rifle first, then threw

down the two pieces of it he’d picked up. It was useless to him now.  He and Tommy then focused their efforts on chasing after the wolf  who was dragging away one of their own into the woods. Their  screams as they gave chase slowly disappeared into the distance, and  Adam was left alone.

That had happened so quickly, he was hesitant to move in case the

hunters would come back and remember that he was still there.

He waited a full sixty seconds, and still heard nothing. The youngest boy, Tommy, must have had another weapon on him because eventually the sound of a single gunshot cracked the air.  There was nothing after that at all, and  Adam wondered if that wolf had killed the kid.

He decided he didn’t care a lick about what happened to the little punk after having a riffle pointed at his face, and he worked on struggling out of his ropes.

Yeah, those young guys had definitely earned a badge in knot tying. Adam could barely move no matter what he did, and his arms, shoulders, and hands, anywhere with exposed flesh, began to bleed as he attempted to loosen the ropes by rubbing them off somehow.

A low growl sounded only feet away, and a heavy paw came down in the grass near his head.

Adam twisted and spun to see just as a huge black nose came down on his face and inhaled deeply. Then the wolf made a small whining sound and backed away.

Not an enemy then, Adam thought, sighing with the absolute

The Blind Werewolf Assassin
                    
19

relief that filled him.

The wolf remained gone for at least two minutes, and some of that anxiety began to return. That wolf didn’t leave him here, did he?

But then a familiar voice, one that he had once adored so much

and never thought he would hear again, sounded in his ears.

“Adam. Is that you?”

Adam stiffened. There was no way. No. Way.

“It’s me, Nick.”

As though Adam could ever forget who he was.

Though a rope in the mouth hardly did anything to keep a hostage quiet, it still muffled his words enough when he tried to reply.

Nick’s fingers touched down on Adam’s face, and his whole body, heart, lungs, organs, everything inside him seemed to stop at that touch.

It took every ounce of power he had over his body to keep from shivering until Nick’s fingers finally stopped playing around and removed the rope.

“Are you all right?” Nick asked.

Adam spat out the little fibers of rope that had stayed on his tongue. “Of course not. I have a fucking bear trap on my ankle.”

“What?”

“Look!”

Adam lifted his leg as best he could, and Nick looked, though it seemed as though he were looking past it instead of at it. His eyes were a watered-down version of the chocolate color they once were.  There was no reaction on his face at all concerning his injury, but he could clearly see it, otherwise he wouldn’t have come here to fight off those hunters.

Maybe he just needed to get his glasses on. Nick always did have bad eyesight.

“I’ll help you get that off in just a second.” Nick lifted Adam into a sitting position then worked on the ropes that bound him.

“What happened to those hunters?” Adam asked.

20
                          
Marcy Jacks

“Killed them.”

Adam hadn’t expected that answer. “The young one, too?”

“He would’ve just gone back to wherever he came from and told more of his hunter friends there was a pack here.”

Made sense, hell, it was the only logical option. Still, Adam was surprised. Nick was usually the one who left the hunters alive if he could help it and if they looked young enough. Guess that guy had passed the age bar.

“What are you doing here?”

His  answer socked Adam in the gut. “James asked me here to teach you lot proper tracking.”

The Blind Werewolf Assassin
                   
21

Chapter Three

It was a strange walk back, considering they were both naked, and  Adam’s injury meant he couldn’t do a whole lot of walking.

Getting that bear trap  off his ankle had been more painful than when the thing clamped on, and he felt bad for any bear who had seen its use before he did.

Luckily, his ankle didn’t look ready to fall off, though it throbbed and burned like a bitch, but supposedly that was a good thing. It meant he was healing already.

He wished the healing process wasn’t so damn painful. Hopefully  Old Maggie would have some of her herbs with her for the pain.

To make matters worse, because his walking had been hindering him so badly, Nick, without warning, scooped him up into his arms, like Adam was some kind of damsel or something.

“Quit complaining. This is faster,” Nick grumbled.

Adam grumbled back at him. Whether it was faster or not was debatable, considering how carefully Nick was walking through the woods, as though they were on a leisurely stroll or something.

That wasn’t even Adam’s biggest concern.

They were both naked, and Nick was carrying Adam the way he used to right before jumping into bed together.

He made sure to keep from looking Nick in the face, and thankfully, Nick did the same. He didn’t want the other man seeing the red that was, undoubtedly, climbing his neck. Nick used to say that it went all the way to his ears whenever he was embarrassed about something. He didn’t want Nick seeing it now.

“I didn’t know you were with Phillip’s pack,” Adam said, unable

22
                          
Marcy Jacks

to keep his mouth shut while his naked ex-lover carried him around

like a bride.

“Yeah,” Nick said awkwardly. He didn't say anything else.

One town over. That meant for the last ten years, Adam had never  so much as caught a whiff of Nick, and he’d only been in a  neighboring pack one town over.

Nick really must not have wanted to see Adam in that whole time  for them to have never so much as seen each other even in passing  during all that time.

“Well, thanks for saving me. I’d like to walk before we get onto  DeWitt’s land. I don’t want anyone to see you carrying me like this.”

Nick nodded. “Understood.”

“And don’t tell anyone we used to be together either. It’s none of

their business.”

“Fine.”

Adam couldn’t take any more of this easy walking. They could have been back so much sooner if Nick would just run, or even walk faster. For a minute Adam thought they were about to go right into a tree until Nick stopped three feet away from it then walked around.

“What’s wrong with you?” Adam asked, looking up at him again.

Nick stared straight ahead, not so much as glancing down to acknowledge that Adam had said anything. “What?”

“You’re walking funny. What’s wrong with your eyes? Are you

having trouble seeing the trees?”

Now that he thought about it, they were in a forest, and Nick had  once told him that faraway objects were blurry without his glasses. He  definitely wasn’t wearing them now. Maybe all the trees around him  were blobbed together in his vision, and he couldn’t see them  properly without his glasses.

Made Adam wonder about James’s decision to bring Nick here to  begin with.

Nick’s chest heaved with the heavy sigh he made, but he still  wouldn’t look down into Adam’s face.

The Blind Werewolf Assassin
                   
23

“You’re going to find out about this eventually. I thought you  would’ve known after it was announced I was coming, but clearly you  didn’t.”

Know what? “They never said who was coming. At least not to me.” He wasn’t about to admit that that could have been due to his

sulking around ever since James said he would be bringing in  someone to help hone their hunting and tracking skills. Christ, Nick’s  name could have been announced during one of the meetings he’d  missed. Shit.

“Well, everyone else knows. I was already at the pack to drop off  my things. James and the others were much more polite than you are  now.”

Adam saw red. “So you decided to go on a run before class

started?”

“I wanted to get a feel for the land before I began teaching anyone

else how to behave on it. You all know these woods better than I do.

I’m at a disadvantage here.”

“It can’t be that different in Brampton,” Adam said.

Nick’s lips quirked. “Different enough that I have to walk around like this, at least until I turn back into my wolf and my scent and hearing sharpens again.”

Adam waited. Nick was clearly stalling. “So, what is it that I don’t know?”

Nick stopped walking, licked his lips, and sighed again before looking down into Adam’s face. “Can’t you tell?”

Adam looked, but he could put nothing together except for the strange color of his eyes. “Is your sight worse?” he asked.

Nick nodded. “Yes, you could say that.”

“Could say?”

“I’m blind, Adam. I can’t see anything right now.”

“What?” Adam deadpanned. For a second he didn't believe it.

Nick nodded again. “Yeah. I know.”

Adam waved a hand in front of Nick’s eyes, and Nick frowned, as

24
                          
Marcy Jacks

though annoyed. “I still know when people do things like that. And I

don’t like it.”

“But how  ”—

“We’re werewolves, Adam,” Nick said. “We already have  superior senses. Humans say that when they go blind everything else  picks up the slack for them. Imagine that with werewolf hearing,  scent, touch, everything.”

Adam looked around, noting the trees and bushes they were not  bumping into. The fallen twigs and branches on the ground that Nick  was not tripping over, but still carefully avoiding.

“Jesus Christ,” he said. “When did this happen?”

Nick suddenly put Adam back onto his feet. His one foot really.  Adam was not about to let any pressure onto his injured ankle. “We’re  close enough that you can walk now. Unless you want someone from  your pack walking by and seeing me carrying you.”

Adam looked up. Recognizing these specific trees and bushes, and  that fallen log over there, he knew that Nick was indeed right. They  were close, but not close enough for Adam to pick up any scents or  sounds that could potentially be coming from the rest of the pack.

“How much has your hearing improved?”

Adam allowed Nick to take him by the arm and put it over his  shoulder, allowing Adam to lean onto him as they both hobbled along.