He was in something much, much worse.
And when Javi, Reece, and Hugh got their eyes on Elise, they'd want to killhim. And her. This wasn't going to end well for anyone.
But maybe Elise could help Cole.
Nico would figure the rest out later.
Chapter
Five
Elise's sisterswere going tomurderher when they realized she'd gotten herself kidnapped by a freaking werewolf.
She'd realized what he was sometime between his eyes glowing in the hallway and her desperate attempt at a magic zap fizzling to nothing. It would have knocked a human out. Or, well, it should have.
In theory.
She didn't get to practice that kind of spell very often.
She was trying to keep her wits about her as Nico—no, thewolf, she couldn't be thinking of him as a person—drove farther east towards the edge of the city. They were driving away from Iron Runner pack territory, which was probably good for her. The Iron Runner pack was big enough to have witch-hunters, wolves who specialized in scenting witches and hunting them down.
Lucky for her, most shifters couldn't sense a witch if she wasn't actively doing magic. And even luckier, her wolf kidnapper hadn't sensed the magic when she tried to zap him.
Briana might have tried her luck with magic again. Delainey could have laid him flat with barely any effort.
But Elise was a healer at heart, and hurting people, even wolves, didn't come naturally.
Nico thought she was a vet, which she could work with. Hopefully. If someone in his pack needed medical attention, she had some basic training she could use. All healers had a bit of non-magic first aid and field medic training to support their magic. Because she definitely couldn't risk using her true power anywhere near a wolf.
Heat scoured her all over, and she didn't think it had anything to do with her anger.
Nico was gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles had turned white, and every two minutes or so he glanced her way with a look like he wanted todevourher.
Which wasn't supposed to behot.
He was a werewolf! He was a kidnapper!
And when he'd backed her up against that door and stolen the keys from her hand, a small part of her had wanted to melt.
Ugh! She had a terrible survival response.Thiswas what she got for being coddled her whole life. Instead of running or fighting like a sane witch, her stupid body wanted to climb the werewolf and never let go.
If her sisters didn't kill her for getting kidnapped, they'ddefinitelykill her for that.
But maybe she could turn this kidnapping into a kidnaprotunity. She couldn't think of a single witch that had been inside a shifter's inner sanctum. Witches and weres weren't at war, not exactly. But the threat of it was always there.
And when shifters got bored, they liked to make that a problem for witches.
If she could get inside of his pack headquarters, maybe she could plant some magic. Not enough to do anything or even be detected, but something that could be left to take root and be used later.
Serena would be better at that, but Serena hadn't been kidnapped.
If Elise could pull it off, she'd be a freaking legend. And if she sawenough, maybe her coven could even sell the information. It wasn't liketheywere going to start fighting wolves, but shifters all had enemies. And those enemies liked to pay.
If her werewolf knowledge was up-to-date, she was almost sure Nico was taking her to the territory of the Southern Basin Pack. The Iron Runner pack ruled most of the city, but packs like the Southern Basin had carved out their own territory and were always nipping at the Iron Runner pack heels, which, as far as she was concerned, was a good thing.
If the shifters were fighting each other, they weren't killing witches.
Was Nico the alpha? He sure seemed commanding. But she couldn't exactly ask. She'd already slipped up, but he hadn't noticed.
