“What is it?” he asked, getting back to his feet.
He put his hand onto his gun in its holster, trying to hear whatever it was that had Cole on edge. There was the distant twitter of birds and the rustle of the leaves in the wind, but he didn’t hear anything else.
“What is it?” Everett asked. If Cole was having him on again, then he was a bigger fool than his father always told him.
Cole’s eyes went wide, and he started tugging on his chains with a renewed vigor. “Someone’s coming. We need to get out of here. They’re coming.”
He didn’t yell out the words, but he might as well have with the panic that was in his voice.
Everett was such a sucker, but despite Cole’s escape attempt five minutes ago, he found himself moving toward him once more, key to the chains in hand.
Cole was like a wild and scared animal. Everett was doubting at this point that he even noticed his presence as he came forward to unlock him.
“Stop fighting. You’re making it worse,” he said, trying to get the key into the lock. “Who’s coming? Hunters? Werewolves?”
Cole was still fighting to get out of his chains, and when Everett managed to get the lock opened and the chains released, he practically jumped out of the ones that had been keeping him connected to the tree.
He ran. Cole bolted for the trees and left their small clearing. Because he still had that one shackle around his wrist, the long chain was dragged behind him until it too was gone.
Everett stood there, unable to summon the will to chase after him. He guessed he deserved that for allowing himself to be tricked twice, but Cole had seemed so sincere. Everett had actually believed him when he’d panicked and said that someone was coming.
Now he was left standing there, alone, like an idiot.
He’d wanted to save the other man, but it seemed now that Cole was a werewolf, he couldn’t be saved. He was going to run wild around these parts with the risk of hunters all over the place, no matter what Everett did.
No, he couldn’t let that happen. Everett was a decent tracker and he’d learned a lot by being with the hunters, despite how cruel they could be about their work. He was going to find Cole and bring him across the border where animal protection laws were stronger.
He got started packing up his things. He was going to have to be quick if he was going to catch the other man before Cole vanished on him. The chain might slow him down a little and maybe prevent him from transforming.
He was probably going to head straight back to his pack. If Everett managed to get ahead of him and set up some fairly safe traps, he could—
“Get your hands in the air right now, you filthy fucking traitor.”
Everett froze, his inner planning cut off as he looked up and turned around.
Owen stood there, one of the men in Everett’s former team. He didn’t look happy as he pointed his Glock at Everett’s face.
Everett raised his hands. He didn’t want to die tonight.
“Owen, listen—”
“You shut the fuck up! We took you in! We trusted you! Then you go and abandon us to run off with a Goddamn werewolf?” He then seemed to think of something, and his anger spiked. “And what the hell about Luke? He’s been the most worried about you.”
Everett kind of doubted that. He and Luke hadn’t been close at all. Not really, and as far as Owen knew, he and Luke had just been strictly friends, and they’d barely been that, even after they’d spent that one night together.
Owen had lost his pregnant wife to a shifter attack. He was the religious sort, so Everett would keep his feelings for Cole to himself, but maybe if he was able to explain that Cole had been the friend he’d spoken of, the man he’d joined the hunters to avenge, then Owen might understand his position.
“I know that werewolf. He was the one I told you all about. I couldn’t let you kill him.”
Owen blinked at him, his gray eyes suspicious. “You said that boy was dead.”
“I thought he was. He was transformed after the attack. I had to try and save him.”
“Save a werewolf?” Owen looked at him like he’d lost his damn mind. Then the angry snarl, the one he got on his face whenever he was ready to make a kill, twisted his lips. “They can’t be saved. They aren’t human anymore, you stupid shit.”
Owen reached into his back pocket ad produced a radio. He put it to his mouth and held down the black button. “I got him. We’re southwest from the highway.” Owen told the others the rest of the coordinates where they could be found, and Everett clenched his jaw.
This was going to put a dent in his plans. “I know you’re angry, but you would’ve done the same is you found out Rain was still alive.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Owen actually fired his gun. The bullet punctured the ground and kicked up some damp leaves and dirt inches away from his foot, and Everett jumped back.
“Are you out of your fucking mind!” he yelled.
Owen didn’t answer him. He pulled a pair of handcuffs from out of one of the dozens of little pockets along his pant legs and then tossed them at Everett’s feet, right where the bullet had just struck. “Put those on.”
Everett looked down at them. They were a pair of the silver cuffs that Owen carried around with him.
This wasn’t going to end well.
Chapter Four
There was nothing Everett could do while Owen pointed a gun at him but put on the handcuffs as he’d been instructed. He put them on while keeping his hands in front of him. He knew how to get out of them, but he didn’t have any tools on him that would do the job. He was going to have
