Kidnapped by the Werewolf Hunter [DeWitt's Pack 13] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove), Marcy Jacks [book recommendations for teens .TXT] 📗

“I am killing these animals for my brother. I have been doing it long enough to know that I am not some idiot who runs around killing people. They are not people, they killed my brother, and you even suggesting that they aren’t responsible is the worst kind of slap in the face I never would’ve expected from you.”

“Luke, Cole did not kill your brother. Even if he is what you say he is, he didn’t do that.”

“And how long until he does? When will it happen that he goes wild, like you say, and then goes on some farm or sneaks into a small town and kills a person instead of a dog or something?”

“He won’t do that.”

Luke rubbed his face again. He did that a lot when he was having a heated argument. Then, oddly enough, he rested both of his hands on either side of Everett’s head, just against the bark of the tree.

“Everett, just tell Dan what you told me. I’ll speak to him, too. He thought Owen was a whining little punk anyway.”

Everett bit the inside of his cheek. He was as furious as he was helpless. He’d never seen this side of Luke before. The man really cared on some level after all. There was likely a way for him to use this to his advantage, but he couldn’t think of anything with all the rage floating around inside of him.

He leaned forward, and he noted the way Luke’s eyes flickered down to his lips. “Don’t bother doing me any favors unless you can do them for him, too.”

Angry red color flooded Luke’s cheeks, and he pushed himself away from the tree and walked back to the tent where the sounds of Adam’s treatment were still quite audible.

Everett sighed and struggled against the ropes that held him. He just had to get them loose.

“You should take his deal.”

Cole’s voice shocked him. He looked over to the cheap table where his lover was chained. His chest was still rising and falling in an even pattern, and his eyes were still calm and closed. He looked like he was still unconscious, but Everett knew what he’d heard.

Which also meant that Cole had heard everything Luke had said to him. Perfect.

He made sure to keep his voice low so that the hunters couldn’t hear them. They’d been left alone, so the team was clearly confident that their captives wouldn’t be going anywhere. “I won’t let them spare me just so I watch them kill you. They might even make me do it to prove my loyalty.” That was something he could never do.

Cole’s eyes opened a tiny slit. With his werewolf senses, he could probably smell and hear that the other humans weren’t exactly around to watch him, but he was still being careful. “I thought you said you weren’t close with any of them?”

“I said Owen and I weren’t friends. I never said anything about the others. And it was only Luke and me. I wasn’t exactly messing around with all of them.”

Cole nodded slightly, shut his eyes, and then stayed silent.

It was better for him to be quiet. The moment the hunters thought he was awake, the torture was going to begin. Hell, they could come back out here now and throw a bucket of silver-poisoned water onto him just to wake him up and get started.

Either way, it wasn’t good for Cole to draw attention to himself. Everett felt the need to defend himself anyway. “Don’t even think about labeling me as a cheater. You were gone. I thought you were dead. He clearly doesn’t mean a fraction to me that you do, so get that thought out of your head.”

Again, his eyes opened a slit to glare over at him. “I wasn’t thinking of you as a cheater. I never did, even when you talked about Dylan. I get it. He was around, and he was offering. I just wish it hadn’t been with a hunter.”

Everett wished that, too, but there was nothing that can be done for it now.

“I can tell you mean something to him. You should still consider taking the offer.”

“You know I can’t do that,” Everett seethed. “I just got you back. I am not losing you again.”

Everett watched Cole’s chest rise and fall as he inhaled deeply at those words. Not good. Cole needed to stay calm and focused.

Everett needed a little of that, too. He was tied up, and his weapons were currently sitting unloaded in his bag by the tent. He had no knives on him, so there was nothing he could use to cut his ropes with, and while that table might be easy for Cole to break, the chains he was being restrained with were an entirely different story.

Add all that up with the fact that they were out in the middle of nowhere with no obvious help in sight and it was clear to Everett that they were both on their own for this one.

He was going to have to use his head here. “Maybe I—”

“What are you muttering about?”

Everett shut his mouth tightly as Dan poked his head out of the tent flap. He glared at Everett and stepped out.

His clothes were spattered with blood from the care he’d been giving to Adam, but he wasn’t exactly in a rage or anything, even though the inside of the tent had gone quiet. Everett could only assume that Adam would survive to hunt another day.

Luke stepped out with him. He wasn’t as buff as Dan was. He was the kind of guy who was on the track team in high school and not the football one like Dan had been. Dan had later been a coach, and he’d never quite lost that enormous body of his required to play or the commanding attitude he needed to bully the kids under his care.

Everett figured that was the only reason why anyone ever bothered doing