Renard blinked, startled, then looked away.
"You tried to influence me."
"You are one of my best detectives," came the soft answer.
"That's not it. You know what I am, Sean. I know what you are. Maybe not the name, but I know you're a wesen."
Green eyes filled with a burnished golden color, the only confession to his creature side the taller man gave him.
"And you used the coins to do what? Push me off track? Stop?"
Renard shook his head slowly. "No, I would never have you stop."
Thinking back, Nick knew that much was true. His captain had never told him to drop a case. He had sometimes even helped him along to a degree. All those little gestures, and the looks, and the remarks… he had known right from the beginning. He had probably known about Marie, about Nick's heritage, everything.
Because he knew.
Because he was involved in this to a degree Nick had yet to understand.
A dark thought rose inside him.
"Did you know about my parents?" he demanded, voice harder, colder.
Renard shook his head. "No."
The truth. Nick knew it was the truth. The presence within him, the gentle touch that had seemed like someone looking over his shoulder when there was no one around, was wavering. Unsure. Filled with trepidation.
The coins had stripped Sean Renard of everything and right now, in this very moment, Nick was the one with the upper hand.
No lies between them.
Whatever he did now, it would change their interaction, their relationship, forever.
"What did you use the coins on me for then?"
"I wanted you closer, Nick." The words sounded almost hesitant.
Closer.
Closer as in… closer…?
Renard was standing in front of him, dressed all in black, tall and imposing and powerful and still so lost and alone and apparently defeated. The echoes of the loss the coins had made him go through was vibrant and real in his eyes. Nick could see him fight it, he felt the last slivers of their whispers, and he realized that there was more. So much more.
Not just the physical attraction, though that was very powerful. Strong and unquestionable. Sean Renard was an attractive, handsome man. Nick had given him more than one look. But getting involved with anyone at work, let alone a superior officer, was dangerous.
Tonight, all those good intentions had gone out the window. Tonight he was looking at not only Captain Renard, he was also looking at Sean, and he was looking at the creature this powerful man was. And Nick knew that the creature wasn't a lightweight either. Whatever was hidden underneath he human façade, it was very, very strong.
It didn't scare him, though.
Weird. Strange. And so… real. He wasn't afraid of falling. He had no idea what he was facing, if it was really a benign thing, if it was a manipulative bastard, if it was parts of both. He trusted in his instinct, like Marie had told him. he trusted the predator the Grimm was to recognize danger.
"You didn't need the coins for that," he said calmly.
Renard stared at him, surprise and shock and disbelief warring with him.
Nick closed the last distance, placing a hand flat against Renard's chest, stretching just a little to make up for their size difference. It didn't give him much on the other man.
"I want the truth, Sean," he said, voice level, dropping just a little as if delivering a threat. A promise. "I want to know who you are, what you are."
Renard opened his mouth, but Nick's expression silenced him.
"Not now. Right now I want you to understand that the coins are not important. They won't give you what you really want. Their power if poison. You protect Portland. So do I. I'm a Grimm. And you want me. You tried to make me yours with the coins, right?"
Something hot seemed to flash through the golden eyes, something filled with hunger. Nick felt himself respond, like a primal part of him echoing the lust and hunger, wanting it just as badly.
"You never needed them. All you needed was to let me know."
"You're not that easy, Nick," Renard said roughly.
"No, I'm not. And you wouldn't want me like that anyway, right?"
Renard smiled briefly, shaking his head. He was still standing completely still, not touching Nick, as if he was afraid it would break this moment.
"No. You never bent to my will, Nick Burckhardt, not even with the coins. You defy everything."
Nick grinned. "Grimm's can't be controlled," he said softly. "We don't have a master."
Something flashed through Renard's eyes and he knew he had hit bull's eye right then and there.
"I read a lot," he added.
"Apparently."
"What a Grimm can have is… a relationship."
Like Marie had had with the steinadler. Farley Kolt had been in love, had been engaged, with a Grimm. Nick knew they would have made it work. The idea of that had launched a whole new set of questions about his family tree that he would have to dig into one day.
But not right now and not today.
Renard's eyes turned more orange, intense and burning.
"I want to trust you, Sean. I want to give you what you thought you needed the coins for. You know, all you had to do was ask."
"I'm your superior officer."
Nick smiled humorlessly. "Outside work, you're a wesen and I'm a Grimm. Not the perfect constellation either. But I believe that we can make this work." He let some of the hardness of the Grimm bleed into his voice. "All I'm asking for is the truth. All of it. I'm asking for everything of you."
The strange sensation in his head grew, like something was trying to establish itself there. Nick inserted a virtual wall and saw Renard wince.
"The truth," he demanded.
"You're mine," Renard blurted, sounding almost as breathless as back in the parking garage. "Mine to have, mine to protect, mine to mate. Never anyone else's."
Gray eyes widened. "Why?" Nick demanded, thoughts whirling.
"Because you're perfect. You always were. I only needed you to realize your true nature, your powers, and you would become mine."
"Since when?"
A tremor went through the taller form and for the first time Renard allowed himself to touch Nick, a gentle brush of hesitant fingers over his side.
"Since you came under my command."
Nick hadn't seen that one coming. He had been with the Portland PD for how many years?
The pressure in the back of his head, never painful, just there, like a guardian keeping an eye on him…
"You… that's you," he whispered.
"Yes."
"How?"
"My kind… we choose a mate… because they fit. Perfectly. Absolute perfection. And you were that one for me. We connect ourselves psychically, to better guard the mate."
Total honesty.
"Mate as in…? Bedpartner?"
"Only if both parties agree. Otherwise, it's a partnership. The mates are needed for… balance."
Nick studied him. Balance, huh?
"You can read my mind?"
"No. It's an awareness of you. Enough to keep me… sated." Renard looked almost embarrassed. "I do want you, Nick. I always have. Because it's hard not to touch what is perfect in my eyes."
Yes, total honesty.
"But if I wouldn't want that closeness?" Nick prodded.
Hands clenched into his shirt, almost like a reflex, and there was a deep pain shooting over the haggard features.
"You would always be mine, under my protection, never to be harmed. I would never force myself on my mate; you're too precious to lose. I need you more than I can ever tell you."
And since the coins hadn't given Renard what he had so obviously wanted from his detective… Under the influence, hungering for a mate that was more than just a presence at his side, the other man had tried, and failed.
Nick stepped back and raked a hand through his hair. Renard was watching him, an expression of fear and imminent loss on his slightly too pale features. Nick gazed at him, feeling his Grimm side war with his human side, the attraction to the man Sean Renard was dampened just a little by the fact that he was a powerful creature who had acted behind the scenes.
Green eyes met his gaze. Renard looked like a wounded animal. The Grimm had the upper hand right now, able to deal the final blow to the hurt soul, shatter the final shields and take the man down completely. Destroy him. The coins had weakened him, had made him vulnerable to attack, but Renard had let Nick in, knowing fully well who and what he was.
tbc...