They hadn’t been, and never really were, but that was beside the point.
Dan looked over to Cole’s prone body. Cole had managed to relax himself enough so that it seemed like he was passed out again.
Everett fumbled with his words for a few seconds. That was probably for the best. If he looked worried for his life, all the better for Luke to help him out.
“I was speaking with Luke a second ago, and he and I were talking about why I kept the werewolf over there.” Everett barely nodded toward Cole.
Luke’s eyes suddenly went wide and hopeful. Clearly he hadn’t given his final verdict to Dan yet.
“Dan, Everett and I were talking, and—”
“He’s a fucking traitor who’s going to get it just as bad as his faggot boyfriend.”
Everett didn’t care what Dan thought of him, but he watched as Luke bit the inside of his cheek.
“He said from the beginning that he joined us because a werewolf killed his friend. That’s the friend. He was transformed when he was attacked. It’s not Everett’s fault that he fell for the monster’s tricks.”
While Luke spoke, Dan was busying himself with grabbing one of the medical kits that were kept around for the time when the hunters needed to treat injuries or inject their captives with something strong to get them awake and aware in time for their torture sessions. Sometimes the stuff was even used to stimulate the nerves in the body, making every sensation felt multiplied ten times over. Everett grew anxious as he watched Dan handle the stuff. He knew exactly what the man planned on doing with it.
“Adam was injured, and Owen is dead. I’m not overlooking that.”
“You didn’t even like Owen. That piece of shit was always questioning your authority, and now we do need another man with him gone and Adam’s arm being tended to. He might not even survive.”
For the first time, Dan stopped what he was doing and actually gave Luke’s words some thought.
Thank God, because he’d been walking toward the table when Luke finally got through to him. Luke always had been good at manipulating other people to do what he wanted them to.
Everett just needed these two dipshits to untie him. He needed them to cut his ropes loose so he could get to the bag of weapons while they were distracted, grab a rifle or a Glock, and then he could kill the both of them before they did anything too serious to Cole.
Cole could get off the table and maybe squirm out of the way or something while Everett took care of business. All they needed was for his ropes to be untied.
Dan walked away from the table, the long needle still held menacingly in his hand. Dan leaned his free hand against the tree, his arm stretched out right beside Everett’s head, similar to the way Luke had done, but much more threatening. There were wolf tattoos, ironically, howling up and down his forearms and biceps.
Maybe he was trying to show Everett how much strength he had in his arms, or, really he didn’t know what the hell Dan was trying to accomplish with this.
“Is that true? Was he the guy you told us about?” Dan said, first pointing the needle at him and then back at Cole, as though it were a laser pointer or something.
“Yeah, it’s true,” Everett said. He wanted to show Dan how little he feared the man, but that was a difficult task to accomplish when he had some genuine worries about the needle he was constantly holding just under his right eye, as well as when he might be putting that needle into Cole.
“I saw him, and I saw that he was alive, and I thought I could save him from his shifter nature. I was going to bring him to Canada.”
Dan nodded thoughtfully and didn’t become anymore enraged, as though he thought no one at all lived in Canada and so a werewolf couldn’t possibly hurt anyone who might be there.
“We need the extra hands, Dan,” Luke reminded him when Dan stayed silent for a solid sixty seconds. That was a long time when someone was contemplating what to do with a man’s life.
Dan smacked his lips, and then he nodded. “All right, but you’re on the shitty duty, clean up, packing, and whatnot until I decide your punishment has been served. I doubt Adam will be coming hunting with us after this for at least a couple of months, if ever again, so you’ll take on his chores as well.”
Everett nodded, accepting the punishments he had no intention of carrying out with as much grace as he possibly could. His wrists were starting to itch now with the urge to be free. They were going to untie him. He was going to save Cole.
“If you want me to prove myself,” Everett said. “I can help you put him down.”
They had to put one weapon in his hands. Just one. Luke could give him a butter knife and he would go for Dan’s throat with it.
He wasn’t very encouraged when Dan continued to study him and then licked his lips before turning away.
“Just to keep everything safe, I mean, you could be faking it, how’s about I leave you like that for a little longer?”
Everything inside of Everett’s chest clenched up in panic. “What?”
Dan walked back to the table, the needle still in his hand. “If you want to prove yourself, then you can do that by standing there for another three hours while I get this monster to show us his true colors. Then Luke and I will skin him, and you can clean up the mess. Think of it as being put in time-out for running
