He jammed a finger against her chest hard enough to hurt. "If Cole dies, I'm going to fucking tear you to pieces," he growled.
His eyes had gone glowy and yellow. She was pretty sure he wasn't trying to suppress his inner wolf at all. He wanted her scared. He wanted herterrifiedof the otherworldly thing he was.
And yep, it was working.
Just because she knew werewolves existed didn't mean she wasn't quaking when one had her cornered and looked ready to rip her throat out. Again.
Was he going to do it now?
She had to fight back. It was one thing to decide not to try and escape because she was pretty sure someone was coming to rescue her. It was another thing to wait meekly for a werewolf to do his worst.
Her magic was right there, and while she didn't have much offensive skill, she was ready to give it her best shot. But before she could reach for her power, Reece was torn away from her, and suddenly Nico was between them with Reece slammed against the opposite wall of the hallway.
"This is your last warning. You don't touch her," he growled. "You don't lay a hand on her."
Elise couldn't see the expression on Nico's face, but she could see how Reece was looking at him.
Oh, this was bad. This was really, really bad.
"You're not going to be able to protect her forever," Reece said. "She's hurting Cole. We can't trust her."
An inhuman sound escaped Nico's throat, and he slammed Reece against the wall even harder, maybe even hard enough to crack the drywall. "Get the hell out of my sight."
Elise was surprised when Reece dropped his gaze. And even more surprised when he slunk away.
Nico outranked Reece. Good to know.
Nico turned to her, and the glow from his eyes slowly faded. He placed a hand on her shoulder and carefully traced it down her arm.
She was shaking, adrenaline riding high. But Reece was gone. And that was all that mattered. "I'm okay," she said.
Nico stared at her so intently that she was almost sure he was going to kiss her. But then he lifted his hand from her arm and took a step back.
"I think you've done enough healing for today."
Chapter
Thirteen
Nico was losing his mind.Elise had to be doing something to him. But he couldn't say what.
If she were a witch, he would think it was some kind of love spell or distraction potion orsomethingto scramble his brain so that she was the first thing he thought about when he woke up and the last thing he thought about after he closed his eyes.
Of course, that probably had something to do with the fact that she was sleeping beside him. Every morning now he brought her coffee and breakfast, usually served in Cole's room, which he tried to convince himself was only logical.
She needed food. He was her host—if he was being kind about the role he played, or her captor if he wasn't. It was only natural to feed her, but that didn't explain why he put the flower next to her breakfast plate on day three. He'd plucked it from the wildflowers that grew in the backyard and tried not to think too much aboutwhy.
Elise didn't comment on it, and he wasn't sure if he liked that or not.
And he was still making her wear his T-shirts. Today, he'd given her one of his newer black shirts. She hadn't said anythingabout it, but she had a habit of plucking at the fabric whenever it got in her way and giving him a pointed look, which, okay, at this point, maybe he should be hunting down something more appropriate, but he couldn't force himself to do it.
And then there was Reece. He was becoming a problem.
After that little performance in the hallway, Nico knew the beta could not be trusted alone around Elise. They were still looking for Mark, so it only made sense to send Reece off to go help drag their healer back. And that decision, at least, seemed to be a good one.
Last night, Reece had sent a message that they finally had tracked down Mark and his healer friend, but it would take another two days to get into contact. Nico could live with that, especially if it kept Reece away from Elise.
But tonight, his skin was too tight, and the moon was too full, and he couldn't take it anymore. He asked for Aubrey's assistance on guard duty one more time, and she gave him a questioning look, but agreed to wait in the hall outside his room without saying anything.
