Cole didn’t need to hear the rest to know that they’d found nothing.
He had to ask, “So, where in all of that did you decide it made sense to become a hunter?”
Everett glared a little at Cole, but he continued on with the story. “I was like everyone else at first. I thought some animal had attacked you. Your house was on the very end of the street, just beside the woods, so it wasn’t like it had to go far or anything to get you. Then some other people come into town. A group of hunters, and they looked normal enough, just a bunch of guys out to shoot a buck or something. They had their licenses to hunt, so it wasn’t like I could stop them.”
That was right. Everett had worked for the town, keeping the trails clean of debris and making sure campers didn’t leave behind anything that would cause fires. It occurred to Cole that Everett might’ve even been one of the men to search the forest for him after Deacon had taken him. He briefly wondered how shitty that experience had been before deciding he didn’t care.
“And then?”
He shrugged. “Not much to say. Came across them one day, a lot farther in the woods than they said they were going to be when I spoke to them, but they had something caught in a bear trap.”
Everett rubbed his face at the memory. “It was the biggest wolf I’d ever seen in my life. It had to be twice the size of a regular wolf, and it was snarling and fighting like it had rabies or something. I was starting to think that even if those guys weren’t supposed to be hunting wolves, it was probably best that they put it out of its misery.”
“It shifted into a person?” Cole asked.
“Tried to,” Everett said. “It looked more like a monster than a person, though. It stood up on its hind legs, got tall and skinny for a second, and the hair was starting to shed off. Finally one of the hunters just shot it, and the others bitched and yelled at him about its pelt. I didn’t know at the time that those men were planning on skinning it and selling the fur.”
Cole shivered. He didn’t know who that wolf was, but it had been lucky, as far as deaths went. A quick bullet was considered much more preferable to being tied down, cut in certain spots on the body, and having one’s skin ripped off.
“I think I can put together the rest. They saw you watching and let you join their little club.”
Everett’s face went tight. He seemed to be having reactions like that a lot lately. “Something like that. I went down to them and asked what it was. Looking back, I’m surprised they didn’t just kill me, too, but they didn’t. They told me they’d heard about the shifter attack and that they were here to find and skin the bastards.”
Everett started walking around, as though he couldn’t bear to hold still any longer. He started picking up supplies and putting them away, pulling things to eat out of the little cooler he had with them, and then he just paced. “That was the first time I’d ever heard that something unnatural might’ve killed you, and when I looked down into the face of that dead thing, and I thought maybe this was what had dragged you off…” Everett trailed off, unable to finish.
“Instead I find out that you’re one of them.”
The betrayed sound in Everett’s voice only served to piss off Cole, more so than he already was, considering he was a hostage and tied to a tree.
Everett broke up with him. Everett was the one going around town with his new boyfriend for everyone else in that small place to see. Did he really think he was going to guilt Cole for being a werewolf?
“You fucking prick,” he snarled.
Cole had never seen a more confused look on the man’s face. “What?”
“You left me. You broke things off with me. Not the other way around. So when I get attacked and turned, that’s the time you decide you care so much about me and want to avenge my death or whatever, and now you’re going to act like I betrayed you or something.”
“You’re a werewolf!”
“I was attacked by a werewolf, you asshole! Getting turned into one tends to be the result!”
They were both breathing heavily. Everett looked like he wanted to punch Cole in the face for all the yelling he was doing. At the very least, he expected the gag to come back on, but instead, Everett dropped his fists and turned back to their cooking dinner.
“Whatever. Just keep your mouth shut while we’re here anyway. I don’t want anyone to hear us.”
“I would like it for someone to hear us so they can get me out of here. Psycho,” Cole added as an afterthought.
“I’m serious, Cole. The people we’re running from are dangerous.”
Christ. Cole had been told stories about how hunters brainwashed both their recruits, and themselves, but he’d never thought he would actually have to deal with this shit himself.
“Everett. My pack is made up of good people. If they are hunting you, just don’t fight back and let me go to them. They won’t hurt us. I promise you they won’t.”
The problem was that if his pack did find them and rescue him, he wasn’t sure he wanted James to release Everett that easily.
It hadn’t been something he allowed himself to admit that first night under Everett’s care, but Cole was still attracted to him. Even though Everett had broken his heart and might still have someone else waiting for him to come home, Cole still wanted the other man.
It was something he hated
