Kidnapped by the Werewolf Hunter [DeWitt's Pack 13] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (6 page)

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 you, 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.

He didn’t want to get into these kinds of details. Cole might’ve stayed cheery, but Everett’s mood dropped with every second they got closer to doing this. “Sure,” he said, following Cole.

Cole was able to wrap the chain twice around the tree itself, and using the other shackle, he locked it firmly around the other links, preventing Everett from getting away.

Everett tended to twitch his feet around when he got impatient about things, and he blew out a breath.

“Are you okay?” Cole asked, putting his hand on Everett’s.

“Not really,” he admitted.

Cole looked away from him. He reached into his back pocket and pulled the key out. “I’ll put this on that rock right there.” Cole nodded toward the miniboulder that was only a couple feet away from where Everett stood.

He looked as Cole walked around him and placed the key carefully onto the rounded surface. “If you stretch out enough, you should be able to get it with your foot and drag it back to you.”

It was also just that perfect length of far away so that Everett couldn’t just take hold of it, unlock himself, grab one of the guns that Cole had left in the bag, and then make his great escape.

He clenched his jaw and nodded instead of pointing that out. Cole already knew it, and that was the point. He wanted enough time to shift so he could come back and find that Everett was still here.

“Your whole body is shaking, relax,” Cole said.

Everett didn’t even realize the man was on front of him until he felt Cole’s hands press firmly against his shoulders.

He couldn’t help it. His body twitched with the urge to run, to escape, to survive. He couldn’t do it while he was tied like this, but he’d agreed to it. Even if he said no, Cole wouldn’t unlock him because there was already a method for Everett to escape. He just had to reach it before Cole returned as a snarling animal.

“I’m a little too trusting, I think,” he said.

Cole smiled at him. “What?”

He shook his head. “I just can’t believe I’m letting you do this. I’m the worst hunter in the world and probably incredibly stupid.”

“Then I’m glad for that.” Cole’s hands went to his face this time, and they were warm instead of cold as he pulled Everett closer for a long and comforting kiss.

It was like the warmth of the kiss spread through Everett’s body, ceasing his trembling and only marginally reducing his fear.

He kissed Cole back. Cole was right. He did still love him. He loved Cole enough to become a hunter and try to avenge him, and he loved him enough that, even if Cole did come back through those trees with a foaming wolf mouth, then at least Everett would die knowing he’d given the man his shot to prove himself.

Hell, his former team was after him anyway, with one man already dead, so it wasn’t like he was going to live much longer anyway.

Cole gently opened Everett’s mouth with his tongue, and Everett had only the briefest of seconds to reach out and touch it with his own tongue, to feel the slick push of Cole inside his mouth, before the other man pulled away.

“I’ll be back in two minutes,” he said.

Everett felt cold again when Cole removed his hands and started walking into the tree line. He was already pulling his clothes off as he went, and then he started running the rest of the way as the hair began pushing through his skin, changing him.

Everett focused all his attention on getting that key the second Cole vanished from his sight. His panicked mind was taking over, preventing him from thinking about anything but escape.

He wouldn’t unlock the chains, he told himself. He just wanted to hold the key in his hands. It would be like a security blanket of sorts. If Cole came back and he looked wild and vicious, then, and only then, would Everett unlock himself and try to make a break for it.

Try, being the key word there.

His boot just touched down on the little metal skeleton key before he heard a long howl from several yards down into the woods.

Everett instinctively stopped what he was doing and turned toward the sound. He didn’t think Cole would be done with the shift that soon. From how he understood it, the massive change that the body went through in order to become a wolf was never instantaneous like how the movies depicted it. The most skilled of werewolves could transform in ten seconds or less, but Cole hadn’t been a wolf that long to be that skilled with putting off the pain of the change and shifting so quickly.

Or maybe he had.

He stretched his leg out farther, trying to nudge the key toward himself. When it slipped down the other side of the rock, where Everett wouldn’t be able to reach it at all, despair clouded around him.

He swallowed hard, his throat hardly daring to work as he turned his face back to the spot where Cole would be making his appearance.

There was nothing he could do now. Without the key, he was just going to have to stand here and wait to see if death would be coming for him in the twisted form of his former lover.

He heard the snuffling sounds of hard breathing and twigs crunching as Cole came closer, but he couldn’t yet see the wolf itself.

He braced himself, he didn’t know for what because it wasn’t like there was anything he could do to defend himself, but he got ready all the same.

The bushes rustled, and out from behind the shade of the canopy and from between the long grass and branches of the trees and shrubs, a gray wolf head emerged.

It looked about the same as any other wolf, except that it was larger, and the eyes glowed a golden color as Everett and the wolf looked at each other.

His heart beat an unsteady rhythm that made his head swim a little, but he forced himself to keep it together. He wasn’t about to pass out for this. Cole was here now, so he was going to see what the other man, or wolf, would do now that Everett was helplessly tied here.

The wolf’s head lowered to the spot where the key was supposed to be sitting on the rock, and a strange groaning sound emerged from deep within his throat as he looked back up at Everett.

“It slipped over the other side,” he explained, not really knowing why he bothered. It wasn’t like Cole could understand him. Could he?

An expulsion of gasping air then came from the animal. It shoulders actually shook as it looked away from Everett.