She looked tired, but anyone could look tired. More importantly, she lookedhuman. If any of the others came into the room right now, they wouldn't see anything that would put her in more danger.
"It's done," she told him. "I got all the silver out of his system, and his body just needs more time to heal. But I can feel that it's working. He's healing naturally. He's going to wake up."
That should have been good news. He should have been fucking elated.
Instead, Nico's heart was beating fast, and panic was threatening to creep in.
It was almost nine a.m., which meant they had no more than three hours until Mark got back. And Mark would start questioning things because even if he couldn't sense the magic, he would wonder why Cole had been unconscious for six daysbefore miraculously getting better just in time for the pack healer to show up.
"When?"
Elise shrugged. "It could be an hour, it could be a day, I don't know. I'm not familiar with werewolf healing, remember?"
He remembered all right. And they were out of time.
"Come on," he said.
"Are you going to tell me where you're taking me this time?" she asked.
"Away from here." He held out a hand. "Let's go."
Knowing that Reece, Javi, and Hugh were all in the house made his heart almost beat out of his chest while he snuck her down the back stairs and into the garage.
If one of them caught her scent, this was over, but fate seemed to be smiling down on him today. He managed to get her into his truck without one of the others sensing them.
There would be questions for him after this, maybe punishment. Nico did not give a fuck.
"Keep your head down," he told her, and she crouched in the footwell of the passenger seat while he drove down the driveway and out onto the road.
Once they were a few miles away and probably safe, he tapped on her shoulder, and she sat up and belted her seat belt.
"You're really letting me go," Elise said, and he heard the disbelief. "I was kind of afraid you were going to kill me," she laughed nervously.
"I could never hurt you." It sounded like a vow.
He could feel her gaze on his and risked a look at her.
There was heat in her eyes and the promise of what could never be.
If he wasn't driving and if this wasn't goodbye, he would have reached over and kissed her. Instead, he reached out and grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together. He focused onthe heat of her palm, the way their fingers fit together perfectly. And he tried not to count down the seconds until she walked away forever.
His inner wolf was howling as his heart broke with every mile that he drove farther from the pack house.
This was wrong.
He couldn't be separated from her.
She would be in danger.
He needed to protect her.
She was hismate.
Nico jolted in his seat, and Elise gave him a questioning look but didn't say anything.
His mate.
It was the word that had been nagging at the edge of his conscience for days now. His wolf had recognized her the moment he saw her in the zoo. It was why he couldn't resist taking her even though it was the stupidest thing he had ever done in his entire life.
