“Your hands are freezing,” Cole said with a shiver.
“That’s why I’m putting them on you. You’re nice and warm.”
“Prick,” Cole said, though he still made himself comfortable next to Everett.
“How’re your wounds doing?” Everett asked. He resisted the urge to feel around with his hand to find out for himself. He didn’t want to accidentally pull open any scabs with his fingers.
“They’re doing better,” Cole said. “Some are closed up entirely.”
Everett blew out a sigh. “Good.”
They were both silent again, and in the darkness, many of the alpha wolves also fell asleep, aside from the ones standing guard, and Everett was being strangely lulled by their snores.
“Hey, Everett?” Cole’s voice was a whisper, but Everett heard it loud and clear, and he was wide awake once more.
“Yeah?”
“Y’know, I get that this makes you uncomfortable. Being here with the pack. We don’t have to stay if you don’t want. I still remember that you had other plans before all of this happened. You might be able to get another job if you apply for them.”
Everett clenched his jaw. He supposed now was as good a time to be having this conversation, before they made it all the way back to his pack and there were even more possible people around to see them or something.
“I think it’s a little late for me to be considering my old job now, or even a new one,” Everett said. “I doubt I’ll get any good references after the way I took off a second time to go and hunt werewolves.”
He was aware of the way that Cole held him after he said those words. Close, with his head over Everett’s heart. “Sorry you had to give it all up.”
The next words were easy because he meant them. “I’m not. I still have you.”
Cole looked up at him. It was so dark that he could barely see his outline anymore. “I thought you loved doing that kind of work?”
The park that had been trying to get Everett to come over before they’d turned him away certainly had been bigger, with a much larger number of tourists each season, but he’d been an idiot about it. The only reason why he’d fought so hard with Cole in those weeks after he announced he was going to take the job was because he’d been angry with himself that he’d basically signed the death certificate on their relationship, and he’d taken it out on Cole and pushed him away.
It was a big park, and they would always be hiring. If Everett tried hard enough, references or not, he might get in after a couple of years, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to stay right here.
Everett gently reached his hand out, and his fingers found Cole’s soft hair. “I love you more. I wish I didn’t have to think you’d died or anything to realize it, but I want us to stay together. I’ll go back to this town of yours where your pack lives, and then I’ll get all my personal stuff taken care of. Maybe I can find a job there.”
Cole’s head came forward for a kiss, but they bumped noses instead.
Everett hissed in pain before they both laughed, and they did it right the second time around.
“I won’t make you regret it,” Cole said as he kissed him again. “I swear you won’t regret it.”
He wasn’t regretting it now. The idea of living with werewolves, the creatures he’d hunted these last couple of months, made him nervous, if anything, but he would handle them, and he would handle that pack alpha if it meant he got to keep the man in his arms.
Cole suddenly laughed, and their mouths separated.
“What’s funny?” Everett asked, smiling at Cole’s good cheer.
He thought he saw Cole shaking his head. “I’m glad you’re saying you want to stay. I might not’ve actually been able to let you leave if that’s what you were planning to do.”
“Well, I’m not.”
Everett looked out from beneath the tree he was under. The branches were long and droopy, giving something similar to privacy for the both of them, but there were still open spaces where the wolves would be able to see them. Not many, and not very big, but they were there.
Despite that, and the knowledge that the ones who were still awake would be able to hear them and maybe even smell them, Everett couldn’t help but slide his hand up Cole’s thigh.
The man shivered, his warm skin developing goose bumps, and then he released a tiny groan when Everett fisted his swollen cock.
“They’ll hear us,” Cole warned. Despite that, he allowed himself to slowly slide down to his back, and he opened his legs as Everett shouldered between them.
“Let them,” he said, and then wrapped his lips around that perfect head to suck on.
Everett wanted every single one of those werewolves to know that Everett had a claim on Cole, and that Cole had one on Everett. He loved this man, and by the end of the night, those wolves were going to know without a shadow of a doubt that he did, too.
THE END
WWW.MARCYJACKS.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, where she is fervently pursuing the writer’s life while writing about lots of gorgeous guys. She loves hearing from readers, and you can reach her at [email protected].
For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
