The alpha nodded once.
The witches got out of the car.
"You're Elise's coven," he said, voice a low rumble.
Briana nodded, squaring her shoulders despite the tremor in her hands. "And you're Nico's pack."
"What are you doing here?" the alpha demanded.
Delainey stepped forward, meeting his gaze even though her heart hammered against her ribs. "Wolves were stalking our house, and they kidnapped Elise and Nico. We need your help to get them back."
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Nico groanedand opened his eyes. Then he quickly closed them again, squeezing them shut, and willed himself to wake up from this terrible nightmare. When he opened his eyes a second time, the situation had not improved.
Fuck.
The last thing he remembered was something happening to his truck. Someone had thrown something at the windshield, shattering it, and then everything went black.
Now his wrists and ankles were tied, and he had the awful thought that Elise's coven might have kidnapped him a second time and stuffed him in their basement once more. But no, that wasn't it. They had let both of them go, let them get in the car, and let them drive away. Elise was slumped right next to him.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He angled himself towards her as best he could. It was a bit difficult, with all the ropes around him, but he managed to get both of his hands up so he could tilt her face up. There was a bruise blooming on one of her cheeks with a small slash of a cut between it, probably coming from some of the glass in the windshield. The pale skin under her eyes was bruised, and herblonde hair was a bit matted against her forehead from how she had been lying for however long they had been unconscious.
Nico was going to murder whoever haddaredto harm his mate.
He jostled her shoulder a little bit to try and wake her up. She made a sound of protest—not unlike sounds he had heard while trying to wake her up early in the morning other times this week. His mate was not a morning person. And then her blue eyes opened and darted around the room before finally snagging on him.
"Where are we?" Her voice was hoarse. "What happened?"
Questions he would like answered himself.
"Do you remember the crash?" he asked, studying her face for signs of confusion.
She nodded swiftly and then flinched. She tried to hold her hands up towards her head, only to discover they were bound.
"Who did that? What's going on? Was someone watching the house?" The questions came out fast, but he didn't think they were actually aimed at him.
Still, he answered, "I don't know."
Elise clutched his hand, and he could feel the heat of her magic surge inside him. Some of his aches started to fade away and disappear entirely.
"You don't have to do that," he told her, trying to pull his hand back. "I'm fine. Conserve your magic."
He could still feel that beating pulse of magic that sat in his chest—that way she had marked him as her own. And he refused to give that up, but he didn't need her to heal his bruises. He could handle a little pain.
"It doesn't work like that." She tightened her grip on his fingers. "And I don't want you hurting. Minor healing doesn't take it out of me. I've got plenty of magic, I promise. Besides, it'snot like I can magically teleport us out of this situation. I'd be conserving more if I thought it was useful."
He hadn't begun to consider magical solutions to the kidnapping conundrum. But he was a werewolf, and she was a witch; between the two of them, they had to be more than capable of getting out of here. He wanted to hug her, to pull her into his arms, and convince her that everything would be alright. Instead, he had to settle for kind of leaning against her and keeping her hands in his.
"I wish I had something that could heal you." He brushed his thumb across her knuckles. "Can you heal yourself?"
She shrugged. "Yes, but that does take more magic than healing someone else. And it doesn't really hurt that bad, I promise. It's okay."
He kissed her bruised cheek tenderly. It was all he could offer.
