Elise remembered the brave little fox who she hoped was thriving now. What was the zoo even thinking about the break-in? They had to have reported it. Was she wanted by the police for that? After all, drugs had gone missing and so had she.
"Foxes," she finally said, "and bears. But we've never had a bear in the rescue. We get foxes pretty often. They're?—"
Javi interrupted. "What about wolves?"
"Our rescue doesn't handle wolves," she said. And the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, sensing a threat. Was he testing her? Was this a trick?
"Yeah, but do you like them?" he pressed.
She almost snapped something like, "I like them more when they don't kidnap me and hold me hostage," but she wasn't supposed to know that Javi and his pack were werewolves, so she had to bite back that response.
"Eh, wolves are okay," she said, deciding he was just making conversation. "But sometimes I think they're a bit overrated."
Javi made an affronted sound and clutched a hand to his chest like she had just stabbed him.
Yeah, she definitely could have liked this guy in another life.
She almost regretted that they would never be friends.
A little later, Reece opened the door. His broad frame filled the doorway, and he looked at her with an expression fierce enough to pick her to pieces. Elise refused to flinch back or apologize for stepping out onto the balcony.
He jerked a thumb out towards the hallway, and Javi gave him a lazy little salute.
"Duty calls," he told her and took off, which left her with Reece.
The air was about twelve degrees cooler with him leaning against the wall, arms crossed, glaring at her. He stood by the balcony doors as if he thought she'd try to make another run for it.
Shereallydidn't like this guy.
Reece didn't say a word or offer to bring her lunch even though it was already mid-afternoon. He just stared at her like she was going to start stabbing Cole at any second. She was tempted to bare her teeth at him, but that would probably only make things worse.
And then Cole had to go and screw everything up.
One minute he seemed fine, and then a terrible gurgling sound started in the back of his throat. Then came the vomit.
Elise sprang into motion, rolling him to his side to make sure he didn't choke. She grabbed a small bowl from the bedside to catch as much of the barf as she could and barked at Reece to get her some towels.
Reece slowly reached for the pile on the table on the other side of the bed and tossed them at her hard enough that they bounced off her shoulder and onto the floor beside her. She was too busy to do anything except glare.
Elise would have snapped at him, but her priority was Cole. Her latent magic ability could sense that there was stillsomething wrong within him. She wished she could send the tiniest spark of magic into him to check, but out of all of the wolves she had met so far, there was no way she was going to risk even the littlest peek with Reece in the room.
After a few minutes, Cole settled down.
"Prop that pillow up behind him," she commanded, keeping her hand on Cole's shoulder. "If this starts again, we don't want him lying on his back."
Reece did it, but he glared daggers at her the whole time, as if she'd done something to Cole. Elise wiped off Cole's mouth and sopped up as much from the bed as she could, and then she sat back in her chair.
"Is he going to be okay?" Reece demanded.
She made a gesture with her hands and shrugged. "He seems okay now."
"But is he dying?" Reece pressed.
Something inside her snapped. "I don't fucking know. Do you see any sort of equipment in here?" she gestured around wildly, almost hitting Cole. "I'm trying my best withnothing."
Reece marched around the bed and yanked her arm, tugging her out of the room. He pushed her up against the wall in the hallway, and she flashed back to yesterday and the way he'd caged her then. Her throat burned, and she waited for the feel of his fingers digging into her flesh.
This anger was nothing like Nico's the night before. He had been mad, yes, but she hadn't been scared. But with Reece, yeah, she was freaking terrified. He looked like he wanted to kill her.
