7. Elise

CHAPTER SEVEN

ELISE

T he last letter flickered on the “OPEN” sign, throwing eerie shadows across the empty parking lot. I drummed my fingers on the grimy counter and willed someone to show up. Anyone. I’d even take smarmy teens on their first road trip.

Before that N gave up the ghost and took me down with it through sheer boredom.

Everything felt that way, unless Nico was involved. Food tasted dull. Scents on the wind didn’t jerk my wolf’s tail. All I could think about was getting that next fix. Slipping my hands down his firm abs. Feeling him fill me with every inch of his hard, throbbing?—

The door to the repair shop whipped open, and I jerked upright. I twisted to the side, expecting another bored trucker looking for coffee and cigarettes to occupy their wait. Instead, Orion sauntered in, twirling a set of keys around his finger.

If he crashed through the back fence again...

“Well, well,” he drawled, leaning against the counter. “Look who decided to not grace us with her presence.”

I rolled my eyes and fought the urge to bare my fangs at him. “What do you want, Orion?”

“Just dropped off a car at the garage.” He grinned, making an obvious show of scenting the air. “And checking up on our wayward packmate. Missed you on patrol the other night.”

Heat crept up my neck as memories of Nico’s hands on my body, his mouth between my thighs, flashed through my mind. Nearly a week had passed since Nico crashed into my life, and I’d been... distracted.

My wolf paced restlessly beneath my skin, hungry for his touch. A part of me ached to curl up next to him, safe and protected from the world outside. Another part hungered for more than that—the chase, the fight. The chance to test ourselves against an equal, then celebrate our victory in sweat-drenched sheets.

I drummed my fingers to keep from ghosting over my markless neck. “I had something to handle,” I said flatly.

“Oh, I bet you did.” His grin turned positively shit-eating. “You know, Rafe told the pack not to discuss your dating life under pain of losing the frank-and-beans, but damn if you don’t reek of?—”

“Finish that sentence,” I growled, “and I’ll rip out your tongue.”

Orion held up his hands in mock surrender, but his smirk remained firmly in place. “Easy there, she-wolf. Just making conversation.” He paused, his expression sobering. “Speaking of Rafe, have you talked to him yet?”

I thought of the missed call on my phone, ignored in favor of Nico’s tongue buried between my thighs. “No,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Why?”

“Probably nothing,” Orion hedged, and alarm bells went off in my head. Orion never hesitated. “It’s just... Wyatt’s witch contacts learned of a coven in Denver that was killed. Like the one we were told to watch for.”

My blood ran cold. Even my wolf stopped her endless pacing and whining and snarling for our mate’s claim.

Enforcers. Bosses. Full-blooded members of the families involved in the massacre.

Was it him?

I hated that was my reaction. Not to declare innocence, not to have a ready alibi and drive to clear him with facts, but to question what a rogue wolf got up to in the hours I wasn’t with him.

Maybe he didn’t want to mate me with someone else’s blood in his teeth. A true gentleman, really.

I swallowed hard, forcing my voice to remain steady. “And?”

“That’s all I know.” Orion shrugged, though there was an uneasy look in his eyes. “I’m sorry for the family, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved it’s not our pack again. I’d rather live in a world where scents along the border are just passersby, not potential threats.”

“What do you mean, scents along the border?”

“Oh, right. On the patrol you missed,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.

He’d lose more than the frank-and-beans if he didn’t wipe that fucking smug grin off his face. I growled, letting my wolf flash in my eyes.

“Okay, okay.” He sighed, rolling his eyes. “I caught a whiff of something along the edge of Dusk Valley territory. Didn’t cross the borders, though, so I figured it was just someone passing through. But after learning we were supposed to keep an eye out for some rogue killer?—”

“So, you picked now to reveal this little tidbit of news?” I snapped.

“I told Rafe! Not my fault he said not to bother you. I figured you two have some text thread to talk shit like the rest of us.”

I filed that tidbit away for future havoc.

“With the deaths in Denver,” he continued with a grimace, “I feel like I can pack away that suspicion. For now.”

I hummed an agreement. Nico’s trail? The timing fit, and I didn’t like the idea of any other wolves sniffing at the edge of our territory.

I wanted to be angry at Rafe for the lack of alarm, but he wasn’t operating with the full deck. I kept the full truth from him. Any consequences would be on my shoulders.

Orion’s work phone beeped at his belt, and he glanced at the screen. “Duty calls.” He patted the counter and made his way toward the exit, turning back to wink at me over his shoulder. “Oh, and thanks for recommending Brielle’s cleanup and staging services to those flippers. She’s been raving about the extra business.”

I blinked, momentarily confused. Then I remembered—a couple discussing their plans to gut and divide some of the old houses and target the remote worker rental crowd. “Right. No problem.”

As soon as Orion was out of sight, I ducked into the back room and grabbed my jacket. “Taking my break,” I called to no one in particular as I slipped out the back door.

The cool air wrapped around me, clearing some of the fog from my head. I took a deep breath, trying to sort through the jumble of emotions swirling inside me. Guilt, fear, anger, and underneath it all, a fierce protectiveness I didn’t want to examine too closely.

Movement at the tree line caught my eye, and I froze in place. A flicker of shadow. A rustle of leaves that didn’t match the breeze. My wolf perked up, nose twitching as she caught a familiar scent on the breeze. Cedar and espresso.

Nico.

I followed the clues—a bent branch here, a disturbed patch of leaves there—until I found him. He sat nude on a fallen tree, gloriously nude and utterly unashamed. Shadows danced across the hard planes of his muscular body. My mouth went dry at the sight.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” I said, even as I moved toward him.

Nico’s hands came to rest on my ass, drawing me between his spread thighs. He grinned, wolfish and wicked. “And miss the chance to see you in that sexy gas station uniform? Never.”

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t stop the smile tugging at my lips. “It’s hardly my best lingerie.”

“You could make a potato sack look good.” His fingers dipped beneath the hem of my shirt, tracing lazy circles on my lower back. “Besides, I like a woman who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.”

The innuendo in his voice sent a shiver down my spine. But as much as I wanted to lose myself in his touch, something in his expression gave me pause. There was a tightness around his eyes, a tension in his shoulders that hadn’t been there before.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, running my fingers through his now-trimmed hair. “You look... off.”

Nico’s cocky grin faded, replaced by something more serious. He rubbed at his chest absently, as if trying to ease some unseen ache. “I don’t know. I just... I needed to be near you.”

The admission sent a pang through me. My wolf whined, sensing his distress. I cupped his face in my hands and forced him to meet my gaze. “Your wolf’s restless,” I observed. It wasn’t a question.

A flicker of something—fear? shame?—passed through his eyes before he looked away. “Maybe. It’s hard to tell sometimes. The lines get... blurry.”

I chewed on my lip, hesitating. Part of me wanted to wrap him in my arms and tell him everything would be okay. But I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling in my gut. The timing was too convenient; his restlessness too concerning.

“Orion told me some news,” I said carefully, watching his reaction. “A coven of witches in Denver was killed. Like the ones in the file Wyatt shared.”

Nico’s eyes snapped back to mine, suddenly sharp and alert. “And you trust this information? These... sources?”

“At one time? No.” I couldn’t blame him for his suspicion. Past Me would have scoffed at the idea of working with our enemies. “But after everything that happened with my father, and Jude mating Asher... It’s not perfect, but everyone seems more interested in coexisting than drawing blood these days.” The words felt strange on my tongue, but I couldn’t deny the truth of them. “As much as I hate to admit it, it’s... nice. Not waking up wondering if today’s the day I’ll have to light another packmate’s pyre.”

Nico’s jaw clenched, and I could practically see the wheels turning in his head. I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what I had to ask next.

“There’s something else,” I said. “Orion caught an unfamiliar scent along our border during his patrol. It didn’t cross into our territory, but...” I trailed off, unable to voice my suspicions.

“You’re wondering if it was me.”

I nodded, hating the hurt that flashed across his face. “Was it?”

Nico snorted, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. “Please. Do I really seem like the type to respect boundaries?”

Despite everything, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Fair point.” But my amusement faded quickly as another thought occurred to me. “But... would you even remember if it was you? You said there were gaps in your memory.”

The humor drained from his expression. He was quiet for a long moment, his fingers tightening on my hips. “No,” he said finally, his voice barely above a whisper. “I wouldn’t.”

The admission hung heavy between us. I wanted to reassure him, to tell him it didn’t matter. But we both knew that would be a lie.

He needed to stay sane. I needed to protect my pack. Far too much hurt waited where those roads crossed.

“Do you know why anyone would want a bunch of witches dead?” I pressed.

Nico shook his head. “The Bassani family had a few on the payroll—all the families did—but I never worked with them directly. Witches were always... unpredictable.”

Wasn’t that the truth. Wyatt kept one close, but I didn’t trust her. Didn’t trust any of them after some of our own were hunted down by humans using witchery to erase their scents. Selling off their vials and trinkets to idiot humans was irresponsible at best, and downright... cannibalistic at worst.

My wolf growled within me. She hated this waiting for the next shoe to drop, especially when it came to the safety of our pack. If anything happened to them, I’d?—

His hands moved up my back, tugging me closer. The heat of him was a balm to my inner beast. My pulse slowed. The tension melted from my muscles. I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent, cedar and espresso and wildness.

Mine.

My mate. My responsibility.

No matter what he’d done.

“So,” he said after a moment. He traced idle patterns on my back, and I didn’t move an inch. “Dinner tonight? I promise not to burn the beans this time.”

I made a face, stomach turning at the thought of another night of camp food. “I can’t. I need to do something for Tara, anyway.”

Nico’s lips quirked in a forced smile. “What, you’re not dying for the best campfire treats in town for the eighth night in a row?”

“If I never see another fire again, it’ll be too soon,” I deadpanned.

He laughed, but his scent flooded with disappointment. “I get it,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant. “Even my wolf is sick of canned goods and takeout.”

The unspoken question hung in the air between us. I could feel his eyes on me, searching for any hint of my thoughts. My wolf paced restlessly, torn between the desire to claim him openly and the fear of what Rafe would do when he found out my dirty secret.

“Nico...” I began, searching for the words in the branches overhead. The answers wouldn’t come, so instead, I tilted my neck to the side. Baring my markless throat. “Are you even ready to be integrated into a pack?”

He went still beneath my hands, his expression closing off. The warmth in his scent turned to ice, but he didn’t speak.

He couldn’t say he was safe to be around people. And I couldn’t pretend I didn’t understand why.

I sighed, resting my forehead against his. Things were getting more complicated by the day. Even the forest seemed to mirror my unease, with dark clouds rolling across the sky and the wind picking up speed. It would be so much simpler if I didn’t have to answer to anyone else.

If I were alpha.

The thought sent a jolt through me. It wasn’t the first time the idea of challenging Rafe had crossed my mind. But every time, I shoved it away, terrified of the implications.

If I challenged Rafe and won, I’d be killing Violet’s father. Robbing that little girl of the chance to know her dad, all because I was too weak to step up when I should have. The guilt of it threatened to choke me.

I closed my eyes as memories of my father’s reign of terror flashing through my mind. The violence, the bloodshed, the way he’d twisted the pack to serve his own selfish desires.

But what if I became just like my father? What if the power corrupted me and turned me into the very thing I despised?

My wolf snarled and paced under my skin. She hated the insinuation. She wanted to prove me wrong. She wanted to lead our pack to greatness.

I didn’t want Rafe to die.

Nico’s arms tightened around me. He nuzzled against my neck, his breath warm on my skin. “You’re thinking too loud,” he murmured.

I let out a shaky laugh, grateful for his steady presence. Whatever else was going on, however tangled our fates knotted together, Nico was my mate. Whether or not I wanted him to be. And as long as I had him, I had to believe we could handle whatever was thrown at us.

“Sorry,” I said, pulling back just enough to meet his gaze. “Occupational hazard of being me, I guess.”

“Lucky for you, I like running overthinkers off their tracks.” His lips twitched in a ghost of innocence as his fingers toyed with the button of my jeans. “Want to talk about it?”

I grinned down at him as the first fat drops of rain splattered across the ground. Tempting. So very tempting. My body already warmed at the thought of his fingers working me free of tension. And sharing my burdens? He could wring out all the words he wanted so long as that talented tongue was involved.

“I should get back to work,” I said reluctantly. “Try to be a good boy while I’m gone, okay?”

Nico’s eyes darkened with heat. He dragged me closer, his lips brushing against mine in a whisper of a kiss. “I most assuredly will not,” he growled.