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The whimper of his prey echoed all around, jolting me out of my reverie.
I frowned. Was it because the fun ended too quickly? Possibly. I’d always found challenges valuable, and this wasn’t as challenging as I’d presumed. Unless it was all part of Rainer’s plan.
Leaping over a boulder, I landed on the muddy ground behind Cole with athump. I caught him, his fingers wrapped tightly around a brown, yellow-eyed werewolf’s throat—Rainer, obviously. Cole’s death-grip on him was so asphyxiating that he struggled, shifting half in and half out of his human form as he gasped for breath, face turning purple.
“Bro!” I shouted at Cole. “Aren’t you going to let him speak?” Just then, I realized something. Neither of them was good at talking or negotiating. “Actually, no. Don’t let him speak, but don’t kill him either.”
“Keith is dying because of whatever poison this jerk put in that damn dart!” Cole growled, digging his nails deeper into the sides of Rainer’s neck. Beneath Cole, Rainer struggled to pry up Cole’s white-knuckled grip.
A bitter expression crossed my face. “Oh, come on, you think killing that son of a bitch in your hands is gonna keep Keith from dying?”
“Well …” Cole bit his lower lip.
“Just listen to me, okay?” I pleaded. “Let him go and let me talk to him before you do anything reckless, because trust me, they always talk.”
Cole hesitated. “What if there’s no cure?”
I bobbed my head, contemplating my next words. It would have been easier if he’d already known about my secret meetings at the Crescent Lake or that I had the cure for Keith’s poison.
As soon as I returned to reality, Cole broke Rainer’s arms, and Rainer yelped in pain before pulling his bones back into place. When I noticed how Cole looked equally satisfied and sickened by his own act of violence, I spun him around to face me.
“Let me handle this,” I said with authority, pulling my jacket off and tossing it over our naked fellow werewolf.
Rainer sucked in air to launch an assault, but the dust from my jacket flew into his nose and made him sneeze like a fragile leaf.
“You sure he was the one who shot the dart?” I attempted to make Cole give Rainer the benefit of the doubt. “He looks defenseless.”
Already recovering, Rainer proceeded with his evil laughter, flawlessly making my statement sound outrageous. “Hey now, if Cole here hadn’t signed up to be a werewolf hunter, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened, and it would’ve made my life easier.”
Cole breathed through his nose, the veins in his neck nearly popping out as he forced himself to calm down. He squeezed his fingers into a fist, wanting to kill the only suspect. “Where’s the cure?” he asked, perfectly poised despite his shaking voice giving him away.
“You don’t really think I’d give it to you so easily, right? Because I won’t.” Rainer’s laughter grew louder. “But if you leave The Nightstalkers and team up with me to build our own pack, I’ll consider giving you the cure you so desperately want.”
“Oh, Good Lord.” I pinched my lips in disbelief.
“You want me to team up with you?” Cole interrupted. “How about Gray?”
I cocked my head to his side, mouth agape. “Bro, seriously?”
Rainer hummed, his ocean blue eyes fading into the brightest shade of yellow again. “Gray ain’t like us yellow-eyed werewolves. Sure, he smells like someone you’d want on your team, but I doubt someoneinexperiencedlike him would make a good leader or a team member. But you … you’re just like me, Cole. You’ve taken an innocent life.” Rainer’s eyes flashed as if he knew he'd hit a soft spot. “You understand how it feels to be different. That’s how I know we’d make a great team. Our only difference is … here you are, trying to act like a saint so humans will love you and call you their beloved hero. Don’t you feel pathetic when you’re using your abilities for the wrong reasons?”
Cole gritted his teeth, suppressing a growl. He looked just about ready to give up everything but his pride, and the idea of him losing the chance to redeem himself by simply walking away from Rainer had my stomach in knots.
Cole never had it easy, though. Back when he was still learning the ways of a werewolf, he’d accidentally killed a man hiking in the woods and ended up detesting himself for it. Then he hated the fact that werewolves even existed. He might as well have hated me. I had kept him in the shadows for that very reason.
Cole raised his fists abruptly, the anger fueling inside him waking his inner lycanthropy. He was about to put an end to our common enemy and create another gory blood bath in the middle of nowhere, but I blocked his view.
“Hey, hey, look at me.” My command left no room for argument. “Cole, you don’t have to kill him, alright?” I gripped his shoulders, noticing that his muscles roiled and shifted beneath my grip—he was barely hanging on to his transformation. I rocked his body gently, attempting to rouse him from his own living nightmare. “Just go home. I’ll fix this.”
“You will?” Cole’s voice was strangled, anguished.
“I will,” I assured. “Cole, you made a promise, remember?”
Cole spoke softly, his eyes distant. “I know, and I don’t want to kill him. I’ve never wanted to kill anyone.” His breathing increased, his claws pushing through the tips of his fingers. “Am I becoming just like my father?”
“You won’t. I got you.” I squeezed his shoulders and met his yellow eyes, calling on my natural alpha powers to overcome his killer instinct. “You will not think of the hiker or about killing anyone, okay?”
“How?” Cole croaked out.
