Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Nico was surprised when Elise rushed towards the bed and knelt at Cole's side, running her hand over his arm carefully, as if she was afraid she might hurt him further.
"How long has he been like this?" she asked, looking over him with the cool gaze of a trained professional, and not a human staring down a monster, though he'd seen the way she'd shuddered when she first spotted him.
"It's, uh … um …" Fuck, he was supposed to be thinking of excuses in the car, not sucking down Elise's scent like it was a drug. "He's got a medical condition. The hands and, uh … his face. But it's his abdomen where he was hurt."
His little vet nodded like that made sense, and Nico let out a relieved breath. It really was true that humans would believe in just about anything except the supernatural, even when it was right in front of them.
A pack elder had once said that it had something to do with the Enlightenment and philosophy—humans didn't want to seem like superstitious peasants. Whatever it was, Nico said silent thanks to those ignorant philosophers.
They'd taken off Cole's clothes and had left him covered with a blanket, though he would sometimes toss and turn and throw it off himself. Right now, he was covered up to his neck, though one of his arms was lying on top of it.
Elise carefully peeled it down until she found the bandage Hugh had so carefully applied.
She looked over her shoulder at him, and all that fear that she'd been exuding until now had dissolved into determination.
"Take all that stuff you stole out of the bag and put it in some kind of order. I need to know what I'm working with."
She turned back to Cole and started to undo the bandage. The smell of sick blood coated over Elise's natural scent. She sucked in a breath. "How long since this happened?"
"Three days."
"And has it improved at all since then?" Now she was all business.
"Cole's bleeding isn't as bad as it was when we got him here. But that's it. Can you help him?" He couldn't keep the desperation out of his voice. Cole hadn't roused at all when Elise—a stranger!—had touched him, another sign of just how far gone he was.
Even in sleep, the alpha was on guard—all wolves were.
Elise held her hand over his wound, but she didn't touch it. Her fingers twitched, and then she closed them into a fist. "What happened?"
"I don't know, I couldn’t stop it.” If he had, Cole wouldn't be in this position. Nico would have gladly taken the hit for him. It was his job to protect his alpha, to die for him if necessary.
And Nico was failing.
She studied the wound with a professional gaze.
"This almost looks like buckshot. He really needs an actual doctor.
I am not qualified for this. I know some first aid, and I can rebandage this, but whoever did it in the first place did an okay job.
You need someone who knows your, uh, human biology and anatomy.
I could make things worse." She was looking at him with those big pleading eyes that made him want to give her everything.
Nico had to tear his gaze away from hers. "You're all he's got. Make it work."
Elise's soft expression hardened, and it didn't look natural on her face. "Fine. I can at least clean this without making anything worse. Give me some gauze and saline." She held her hand out flat, fingers splayed, and gave him an expectant expression.
He wanted to see her in her element. He wanted to see the competence that he glimpsed under the surface when she wasn't under duress.
She splayed her fingers wider. "Now, Nico."
He sprang into action. There was a bottle of saline and gauze near the top of his bag of treasures, and he handed them over before starting to sort through everything he'd stolen.
He'd barely started when someone tried the handle on the door.
"Nico, are you in there? Why is this locked?" Javi shouted through the door. He tested it again. "Come on man, let me in."
Elise looked up from where she was cleaning Cole and pursed her lips. She glanced at the door and then back at him, expression full of life. She gestured towards the door as if to say you deal with that.
He'd known the shit was going to hit the fan.
He just hadn't expected it to happen so soon.
Nico went to the door and leaned against it.
The lock wasn't anything special, and Javi would be able to break it with little more than a twist of his wrist. The house was in the middle of pack territory; it was their safest space.
There was no reason to add extra locks to the interior doors.
Until now.
"I'm in here," Nico said. "All's good."
Javi took a deep breath. "Are you alone? I can smell—"
"All's good," Nico repeated before Javi could say something too shiftery. So far, Elise seemed to buy the excuse he'd given for Cole's appearance. He didn't need to blow it now.
"Dude, let me in." Javi slammed himself up against the door, and Nico had to put all his weight against it to keep the thing closed. He braced in an awkward position, back against the door, half twisted, with one hand flat against the wood.
"Do you need to go out there and deal with that?" Elise asked, surprisingly sharp.
No way in hell was he leaving her alone with Cole unconscious and vulnerable. "Just keep working," he said.
"Who the fuck is that?" Javi demanded.
"Don't worry about it. Cole left me in charge."
"You don't think I'd question Cole too?"
He heard a knocking on the large window opposite Cole's bed.
It opened up onto a gabled roof that he sometimes used as a makeshift balcony and quick route out into the forest behind the house if Cole didn't feel like using the balcony.
Right now, Reece was knocking against the glass, more shadow than man, nothing more than a broad shadow illuminated by moonlight.
Fuck.
Seeing Reece threw him off enough that Javi was able to bust the door open behind him.
Elise let out a yelp as Javi bounded across the room and flipped the latch on the window to allow Reece in.
Javi was bristling with energy, his brown skin gleaming with a hint of sweat and his dark hair held back with one of those stupid thin headbands he used when he worked out.
Reece was dressed for work in thick jeans and a plaid shirt that strained against his broad shoulders.
His red hair was mussed, and his dark eyes were angry.
Then both betas turned their attention to the woman at their alpha's bedside.
"Who the fuck is that?" Javi demanded.
Reece stalked forward and got between her and Cole, getting in her space until she was backed up against the wall and he was only inches away from touching her.
Elise hadn't seemed that short until Reece towered over her.
But Reece even had a few inches on Nico, and he liked to use that height to intimidate. But Elise didn't shrink away from him.
She had no idea how much danger she was in.
Nico didn't think. He sprang at Reece, putting himself between Elise and his fellow beta.
He used himself as a barrier, wedging his body between the beta and the vet, ready to shield her from fists …
or claws. He spoke quickly, as if the explanation could possibly help.
"She's a vet, she works at the zoo. And I brought her here.
You don't touch her." He reached back and blindly swiped his fingers against her arm, as if he was reassuring himself she was alright.
To his surprise, she brushed her fingers over his hand, squeezing lightly, before she let her own arm drop.
Reece glared at him. His eyes had gone wolfish, shifting from brown to a glowing yellow, and Nico caught a hint of fang before Reece took a deep breath and got himself under control. "Cole said no doctors."
"She's not a doctor. I just went to the zoo to get supplies. I found her there. We need the help. The witches would probably call this fate or something."
Behind him, Elise coughed, and he realized he shouldn't have said that. But humans understood the concept of witches, even if they refused to believe in magic. He hadn't given the game away.
Yet.
He had to be more careful.
Javi came around the bed and flanked Nico, getting close enough to Elise to breathe in her scent. His nostrils flared for a moment as he leaned close.
Nico wanted to growl. That scent was for him, damn it. And he'd tear Javi's throat out if the guy did more than smell. But Javi didn't seem to think anything of the way Elise smelled, or if he did, he wasn't showing it.
"Cole won't be happy about this," Reece insisted.
"If she helps Cole, I'll be ecstatic when he skins me." Nico wasn't joking. He'd take any punishment, if his alpha would just wake the fuck up.
"I'll skin you for bringing in an outsider," Reece reached out and clamped his hand around Nico's throat, and his eyes glowed yellow as his wolf rose closer to the surface once more. His grip was tight enough to make black spots dance in Nico's eyes.
It was a challenge. It was beyond every line of acceptable. And if Nico hadn't been trying to keep his species a secret from Elise, he would have shifted right there and done real damage to Reece.
Instead, he tore himself out of his grip and shoved the man backwards. Reece almost went sprawling over Cole's prone form but righted himself at the last second. He clenched a fist around the bed frame and jerked himself back up as he regained his balance.
Reece growled and breathed deep.
Elise threw herself in front of Nico and put a hand on his chest and shoved her other hand out like that would do anything to keep Reece back. His little warrior. "I don't know what the fuck is going on, but that man is unconscious. You do not fight in this room."
She sounded just like Mark when he was in the middle of an intense healing.
Maybe all healers were like that, even if they were human.
To Nico's shock, the glow faded from Reece's eyes, and he looked away from Elise. Javi whistled low but didn't say anything.
"What do you need?" he asked the woman in front of him.
Elise looked pissed, and she wore her anger well.
Her cheeks had gotten a little flush, her hair was falling out of its tie, and her shoulders heaved up and down.
"Let's get an IV running. Did you grab saline?
Hopefully you grabbed an IV kit too. Have you given him anything for this?
What have you done other than bandaging the wound?
" She sounded more like an angry general than a kidnapped woman.
"We were able to get some water into him yesterday. And a bit of Tylenol. That's it." That was Javi.
Elise nodded. "That won't hurt him, at least. The saline will hydrate him, which should help in general. But I need you all to back off while I take a look. Got it?"
Javi and Reece looked to him, and Nico nodded. "She knows what she's doing." He hoped.
Elise muttered something, but even with his superior hearing, he couldn't quite make it out.
He found the bag of saline and the IV kit and handed it over. Elise set it aside and then stood. "I need to wash my hands." She held them up. "Bathroom?"
Nico nodded towards Cole's en suite on the other side of the room, the door cracked open an inch.
She nodded and walked that way.
Javi and Reece took the opportunity to pounce. "What the fuck, man?" Reece said. "She's a fucking human. What are you thinking?"
He couldn't tell them he wasn't. That he'd seen Elise and knew he had to take her.
This was possibly the most reckless thing he'd ever done.
But they were his fellow betas, his equals in the pack, and he had to say something.
"I'm thinking Cole is going to die if we don't do something.
Or has one of you managed to track down Mark? " He raised his eyebrows.
"Hugh's out looking," said Javi.
"Until we have Mark back, we have Elise."
"You trust her with Cole?"
Yes.
He didn't say it out loud. The instinct was almost too strong. He didn't understand it, but he felt it deep in his veins. "She's the best we got."
"She needs to be supervised every second she's here," Javi said.
Nico nodded. That was just common sense.
"And when Cole wakes up, he decides what we do with her." Reece's voice was hard. He crossed his arms like he was waiting for a challenge.
"Cole is our alpha," Nico said, and those words sounded like he was agreeing.
Their alpha was a fair man. He wouldn't want to harm someone who'd helped him.
When Cole woke up, Nico would make damn sure he saw it that way.