He hadn't really thought of what was involved in purchasing scrubs ever in his life before. It had never occurred to him. "But youtoldme you were a veterinarian." He remembered that, even if he hadn't been thinking clearly at all that night.
"No," she corrected, shaking her head. "I told you I worked at the zoo."
"But why did you play along?" It made no sense. A witch should have run from him. And she had, he now remembered, but she should have used magic against him.
"Were you actually carrying a taser?" he asked. He vaguely remembered throwing her keys away and that strange flashlight he thought had hurt him.
She shook her head slightly. "No, I tried to zap you, and I failed miserably. And as for why, seriously? Wouldn'tyouplay along if an angry werewolf was trying to kidnap you? I'm trying to survive."
"But you were in there doing something to Cole." He had sensed the magic in that room, seen the way her brow was furrowed, and her concentration was so intent she hadn't seen him watch her for a solid ten seconds, mind reeling with what he was seeing. "After all this, you're just going to go in there and hurt him?"
"No, you idiot. I was trying tosavehim." She moved like she wanted to pace but kept herself rooted in place. "Oh my god. Don't you get it? I'm trying to heal him, but I could not use magic around any of you assholes. Because then, you'd try and kill me. I never wanted to be here." She paused and took a deep breath. "I don't have anything against your alpha. He's not the one who kidnapped me."
"How can I possibly know you're telling the truth?" He'd gotten close to her, close enough to touch, close enough to sense the angry change in her scent.
"You need to trust me," was her response.
"Howcan I? You've lied to me this whole time."
"To be fair, you lied to me too," she pointed out. "It's not like you ever told me you guys were werewolves. And I haven't lied about his condition. He's almost healed. There's some sort of silver concoction inside of him that I've been trying to remove. It's like a liquid or a powder or something. We can't just go in surgically and get it out. But I was getting his body to expel it, and there's only a little bit left." She was talking the way Mark talked when he was working on a difficult healing, determined to solve the case like he was a detective and the disease was a serial killer.
"You really think he's almost healed?" He wanted to let himself hope.
"Would you believe me if I said yes?"
They were too close now. It was almost hardernotto touch her. And he couldn't stop himself from running the back of his fingers down her arm.
She shivered.
"I trust you," he said.
And then he kissed her.
She was too close. The emotions were too high. Everything was too intense, and he couldn't stop himself.
It was more than desperate. The want that had fueled their earlier kisses was nothing compared to this. It was fueled by desperation and the horrible truth that reality was crashing down around them.
Any sane man would pull back in that moment, but nothing was going to stop Nico from getting more.
He tore off his shirt and ripped his own off Elise. They kissed again before managing to wrench themselves apart.
"This can't happen," Elise gasped.
"I know," Nico responded, and then he kissed her again.
Chapter
Eighteen
Elise's shirtlanded somewhere on the other side of the room, and she wasted no time taking her bra off. It was the one piece of clothing that was actually her own, and she'd been washing it in the sink every night to keep it clean enough. She did not give a single shit about that bra right now.
Nico was kissing her like a man possessed.
"You're being a barbarian," she said. "Are you going to give me more of your clothes to wear?"
He groaned, and it turned into a dark chuckle. "Not a barbarian, a werewolf."
And it hit her.
