Chapter 31
Chapter
Thirty-One
The car ride to the pack house was pretty much silent. Even though she barely knew him, Elise was pretty sure it was out of character for Javi, considering what she had experienced in her short stay at the pack house and their discussion earlier that day.
The drive also seemed shorter than it had, compared to the night when Nico had kidnapped her or the day when he had driven her to freedom. But that might have just had to do with the fact that they were on the far edge of the city and much closer to pack territory.
Javi pulled his car into the garage. Elise wondered if there would be a day when she would be allowed to enter through the front door. They walked down the back hallway and ended up in a meeting room where Cole was sitting alone at the head of the table.
He looked good. Healthy. Alpha-like, probably.
Elise was glad to see that. She hoped all her work hadn't been for nothing.
And she really hoped the alpha had a sense of gratitude when people saved his life.
Otherwise, she had just surrendered herself to a potential enemy.
And she was in more danger than she had been even when Nico had first kidnapped her.
Javi closed the door behind them, leaving her and Nico alone with Cole.
"Please take a seat," Cole told her, and her alone.
She sat and Nico stood. Elise rolled her chair right in front of Nico as if she could protect him from anything Cole might throw at him. She didn't want to face down an angry werewolf, but right now she had no other choice.
Nico put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it once, as if to say that everything would be fine. She wasn't sure she believed that, but what was she going to do?
"You're very protective of him," Cole observed.
"I am," she agreed.
This felt like a standoff with words instead of guns, and she had to win. Or it possibly felt like the most high-intensity job interview she'd ever been through. She didn't want a job with the pack, but she did need this man's approval or something close to it.
"Do you know that he told me he killed you?" Cole asked, his eyes never leaving her face. He said it conversationally but clearly meant the revelation to drop like a bomb.
"I do," Elise said, and was very thankful that Nico had mentioned that little tidbit earlier, because if this was the first time she had learned about it, she probably wouldn't be keeping her cool.
"You're taking all of this extremely well."
She wanted to shrug but forced herself to stay still. "In our world, things are always a bit extreme. I'm glad to see you're healthy," she continued, and it was true. "I was doubtful there for a while."
"My pack healer can't explain what was wrong with me." Cole's jaw ticked. "Would you care to?"
He gave Nico a challenging expression, but Nico remained silent.
Elise had spent nearly a week trying her hardest to hide the reality of her identity.
Saying it out loud felt like a betrayal of that past self.
But Cole already knew she was a witch. Javi had been the messenger because it was better to be honest and prepare him than spring it on him now. Lying about this would doom them both.
Elise explained about how the silver had been embedded in him and how she didn't know the cause, but that she had been able to use her magic to get the silver out of his system.
"But no one knew you were a witch," he pressed. "Nico didn't know."
"That's correct." Just the facts, she told herself. She had to keep completely cool and calm. "No one knew when I started working on you. And Nico didn't know when he first kidnapped me."
Now he looked at Nico again. "When did he find out?"
"We didn't come back here for you to hurt him," Elise said, her voice firm. The coolness wasn't going to last for long if Cole started laying down threats.
"I am his alpha, and that is my right." Cole's words were ice.
"I'm his mate, and you're going to have to go through me." She didn't really know what the word meant, but Nico had been throwing it around, and now it was her turn.
Behind her, Nico made a rumbly sound of satisfaction, and a growl escaped from Cole's throat. Nico put his hand back on her shoulder.
Cole stared at them for several beats before relenting.
"I owe you a debt," he said, posture softening slightly. "You healed me and that you were held prisoner here. It was not done under my command, but I am still responsible for what happens in this house. But I can't give a witch free rein in my house, so you had better keep your magic to yourself."
"I can do that." She nodded, maybe a little too fiercely. It wasn't like she used magic all willy-nilly. And this was her only option right now.
"Good. I think Javi was going to make some dinner. Why don't you go to the kitchen while Nico and I have a chat?"
Elise wanted to argue. She didn't want to leave Nico alone with this man, especially when she could sense the anger simmering beneath the surface. But she wasn't a member of this pack, and Nico was this man's second in command.
"It's okay," Nico assured her with a trail of fingers down her arm that almost made her shiver.
Elise stood up and kissed Nico right there in front of his alpha before she pulled away. "You better come back to me with all fingers and toes attached or I am going to turn everyone in this pack into frogs," she promised, tossing a look at Cole for emphasis.
Nico smiled and kissed her forehead.
As she walked out of the room, she thought she heard Cole chuckle and say, "I like her."
In the kitchen, Javi was standing at the stove and stirring things in a large pan. It looked a bit like spaghetti. It smelled a lot like spaghetti, so she hoped it was spaghetti.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" She hovered near his shoulder, peeking into the bubbling red pot.
"Just take a seat." Javi nodded towards the benches along the counter. "Would you like some wine?"
"I think water might be a better idea right now." She slid onto one of the benches.
"No fun. Got it." But Javi offered her a bottle of water.
Then Reece walked into the kitchen and froze. "What the ever-loving fuck?" He sounded truly surprised.
Right, he thought she was dead.
Elise waggled her fingers at him at a loss for anything else to do. This man had hated her from the first, and that wasn't going to change when he found out who she truly was. What she truly was.
Javi plated spaghetti and put it in front of her.
"Cole said I could stay," she said before she took a bite. It was good.
"Cole must be out of his damn mind," Reece declared, his voice straining with just a hint of a growl underneath. His wolf was coming out to play.
Javi took a step closer to her, and she realized that he was ready to protect her in case Reece did something stupid.
Elise couldn't waste time being afraid of Reece right now, not when Cole was still in there with Nico and he might be doing terrible things to her boyfriend.
She'd been mostly joking about the frog thing, but she would figure out how to make it happen if she had to.
A few minutes and a few bites of spaghetti later, Nico came out. He looked a bit pale but otherwise okay, and she hoped he had just gotten yelled at, which was its own kind of torture, but one he could survive.
"I'm never going to be able to understand how you could date a witch," Reece said, shaking his head in disgust.
Ah, so he did know. That information was probably making it through the pack at light speed, but at least they wouldn't have to explain it to everyone.
Nico growled and took a step towards Reece, but Elise wasn't going to let that happen. Not right now. She scooted off her stool and got in front of Nico and then grinned at Reece.
"You should try it sometime," she said. "Maybe you'll like it."