He wandered down to the woods, and once he was past the tree line, he stripped off his clothes to bathe himself in moonlight before he let the change overtake him and took off running. In this form, he was massive, with black fur mixed with gray. His paws dug into the dirt as he sprinted.
It wasn't long before he sensed the presence of two wolves following close behind. Hugh and Javi. Hugh was a dark wolf, almost black in the night, while Javi was gray all over with a shocking burst of reddish hair on the center of his chest.
Nico had thought he would be alone, but he could enjoy the company. Especially in this form where things were so much less complicated than they were in his human skin. He tilted his head back and howled, letting the joy of nature suffuse him.
Hugh and Javi chased him, but Nico was faster. They darted under fallen trees and over logs, and splashed in a particularly inviting puddle of mud, and sent a rabbit scampering off into the underbrush. On another night, Nico might have chased it, but he wasn't hungry.
He just needed to move.
They ended up at the pond in the middle of the woods, and Nico dived into the water in his fur, but he surfaced in his human skin, the shock of cold enough to make him gasp. Javi and Hugh did the same.
They were quiet for a while, swimming and splashing and trading the same barbs and insults they normally did. But eventually, the three of them ended up lounging near the rocks at one end of the water, and Hugh and Javi both gave him serious looks.
Yeah. He had been expecting this.
No doubt Reece had told them about the last blow up with Elise and had painted that situation in the worst light possible. The fact that these betas had waited an entire day to say anything told him they must have been concocting some sort of dialogue in their heads.
He wished they wouldn't. His wolf was still close to the surface, not quite satisfied with the run, and all he wanted to do was curl up next to Elise and sleep for a week, but that wasn't possible right now.
"What?" he finally asked, ripping the Band-Aid off. They could dance around it all night, or he could just deal with it now. It was no use letting the thing fester.
"I don't think that Cole's getting any better," said Hugh.
"The little healer's trying her best," Javi offered in something that sounded like defense.
But Nico couldn't stop the growl that came out of his throat.Little healer, he thought.She'smylittle healer. He didn't want Javi talking about her like that.
Javi glared at him.
Nico really needed to get his responses under control.
"What's going on between the two of you?" Javi asked. "And don't say nothing, because she is covered in your scent. She looks at you like you hung the moon, and you look at her like you want to eat her. We're not stupid."
Nico had to get this under control. "There's nothing going on between us," he replied. The kiss had been a mistake, and he wasn't about to tell them about it. "She is here to heal Cole. That's it. And it wasmaybestupid of me to bring her in," he admitted.
But if he hadn't, she wouldn't be in his bed. He wouldn't know the taste of her. He wouldn't know her scent. Even if it was stupid, he couldn't regret it.
"She's human," Hugh reminded him. "She doesn't belong here."
"No shit," Nico snapped. "You've been dancing around this conversation for days. You think I don't know that?"
"But do you want to tell her?" Javi pressed. The asshole was persistent, Nico had to give him that. Javi's dark hair was even darker in the water, and he didn't seem at all bothered by the chill in the air.
Under his skin, Nico's wolf was prowling, barely leashed and ready to lash out. "I can't tell her. I know how this works."
"That's not what I asked," said Javi.
"It doesn't fucking matter!" Nico could feel his eyes flashing yellow as his wolf peeked out.
"I think the answer to the question does." That was from Hugh.
What did they want him to say? "It's simple. Cole gets better, we don't tell her we're werewolves, and she goes home none the wiser."
"Oh, you think it's going to work out that simply?" Hugh scoffed. "You don't think she's going to run to the cops and report the kidnapping? I don't know if you've read the newspaper lately, but the zoo did report the break-in, and they are investigating."
"Did it say anything about her?" Fuck. He hadn't considered it, but Elise could be a prime suspect, and he hated to ruin her life any more than he already had.
Hugh shook his head. "I didn't see a word about any missing women or suspects."
