Kidnapped by the Werewolf Hunter [DeWitt's Pack 13] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (3 page)

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?”

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.

“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 those 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.

Cole’s hands flew away from his neck, and he went down clutching at his face. Everett dropped some of the rings, but he had to act quickly. He took one of the shackles in his hand and quickly clamped it back over Cole’s wrist. Cole was too busy writhing in his agony on the ground that he barely seemed to notice.

He kept Cole’s other hand free as he chained his hand to the tree. Now he was chained from the waist and one hand. Everett felt a little better about this now. He didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do about Cole’s injuries, though.

Finally, Cole tugged against the chains holding him and screamed. There was blood on his face. Everett could still smell the burning from where he’d shoved the silver rings. Great, now he had to find the ones he’d dropped.

“Let me go! Let me go!” Cole screamed.

He yanked against his chains, and he tugged and whipped around the chain that was reattached to his wrist.

To Everett’s sick horror, he watched as Cole bit down on his hand, just around the swell at the base of the thumb.

He was going to bite his thumb off!

Everett did the only thing he could think of doing at that point. He grabbed Cole around the neck, looping his arm just under the man’s chin, and pried his mouth away.

He hadn’t been in time to keep Cole from biting through some of the skin, and while there was a little blood, his thumb was still in place.

“Get off me!”

“Stop it! You’re hurting yourself!”

Cole shook and smashed the both of them against the tree, hard enough that Everett released him.

Everett stepped away until he was out of Cole’s reach. At least he’d stopped trying to bite himself.

“I’m going to kill you!” Cole snarled.

His golden eyes were back, and his fingers extended into those horrible claws that Everett had seen on other shifters. He’d seen claws like that rip through thick metal.

It was just the werewolf speaking, Everett told himself. This wasn’t the real Cole talking here.

That was right. Cole was sick. This reaction he was having was not his fault. The animal inside of him wanted out. It wanted to escape and defend itself against what it perceived as an attack.

Everett raised his hands and took a cautious step forward. He tried to bring to mind all the time he lay in bed with this man. How often he and Cole would sit on the couch together, snuggling after a hard day’s work for the both of them. He remembered the soft feel of his mouth and how gentle Cole had been with the world around him.