Page 17 of The Wolf and the Chimera (The Witch and the Cowboy #3)

Elle

The estate’s hallways were eerily quiet, interrupted only by the soft patter of my and Ryder's footsteps. When we neared the intersection of halls that led to the library, Ryder jerked me to a stop.

“What—”

“Play along,” he whispered and pressed my back against the wall.

He chuckled against my lips. Despite my confusion, his warm breath sent a pleasant shiver through my body. Loud footsteps caught my attention, but Ryder eclipsed my vision.

“Why hang around a bonfire when I could be here with you?” he asked.

Ryder nuzzled my neck, then pressed a kiss to the spot where it connected to my shoulder. As his touch sent shockwaves down my spine, I gasped. His hands flexed their grip on my waist, and he groaned.

Giggles and shrieks filled the hall. Over Ryder’s shoulder, I spotted a gaggle of young, female werewolves tittering at us.

When they realized I noticed them, they ran past us in the direction of the bonfire.

Slowly, Ryder swallowed and stepped away from me.

As I tried to calm my racing heart with deep breaths, I wondered if my eyes were as glazed as his.

He cleared his throat. “Sorry about that.”

Considering the tingles still dancing on my skin, sorry wasn’t how I would’ve described my feelings .

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “They shouldn’t suspect anything.”

“Nope,” Ryder said. He shook his head as if to clear it. “Let’s move.”

He walked rigidly toward the library, and I wondered how he could regain his focus so quickly after something like that.

Probably because kissing for show is not that big of a deal, I thought. Especially not when he’s hooked up with a beautiful, powerful witch.

I quieted the petty thought. I had no right to be jealous, especially when Freya was in the High Witch’s clutches because of me. Really, it was no wonder why Ryder got no thrill from our kiss. I, the girl he was shackled to, was the reason the girl he had chosen was currently being held captive.

Was Freya the reason he and Walker butted heads?

When we reached the double doors of the library, I forced my thoughts back to the task at hand. Though I hadn’t been welcomed here, I couldn’t help but admire the beautiful shelves of books, and the stars that shined through the high-rising windows.

“Anything easily accessible won’t have what we need,” Ryder said. “We need to look for secret alcoves and passageways.”

“Right,” I said.

In the stark silence of the library, I perused the shelves for anything out of place. The books were organized both alphabetically and by genre. The eastern wall catered to fiction stories, whereas the western wall ventured into research on various places and topics. Not one book was out of place.

Beside me, Ryder ran his hands down the shelves and slid his gaze along the endless rows of books. Minutes passed, and we found nothing. My gaze drifted across the room to the Keeper’s desk. Considering it might be spelled, I was cautious to touch it, but time was of the essence.

As I approached the desk, Ryder warned, “Elle. ”

“We’re here for answers, aren’t we?” I asked.

He sighed and followed me to the wide desk. It was oddly mundane. Stationary, wolf statues, and writing utensils adorned the dark, wooden surface.

“Don’t touch it,” Ryder said. “There’s nothing useful on it.”

He wandered back to the shelves, but I hesitated.

I searched every groove of wood across the desk’s surface, but I couldn’t find a discrepancy.

My focus shifted to the drawers. Each was adorned by golden handles so shiny, reflections gleamed in their depths.

I crouched in front of them and ogled the obvious display of wealth.

The middle drawer’s handle reflected nothing.

No, I realized. It just doesn’t show my reflection.

Rows of ancient tomes were reflected on the handle’s surface.

I glanced behind me and found what I had seen before—a wooden wall adorned by nothing more than a painting of an older werewolf who shared Lyall’s harsh bone structure and empty-eyed smile.

Swallowing, I grasped the drawer’s cool handle and pulled.

The drawer’s handle clicked, and hinges groaned behind me. I stood and turned, then watched in amazement as the wall swung inward. Lights flickered on and revealed shelves of tomes.

“Gods,” I whispered.

Ryder was at my side in an instant. Shock slackened his jaw.

“I guess there was something on the desk after all,” he mused.

Together, we walked into the hidden alcove.

Dust, ink, and paper scented the air. Most of the shelves were stuffed with thick books, but the higher ones held rolls of paper so thin, I worried that with one touch, they would disintegrate.

Magic buzzed in the air and raised the hair on the back of my neck.

I searched the titles of the books, but none of the words were in English, Italian, Spanish, or any other language I recognized. One of them, however, caught my attention.

A chimera was emblazoned on its spine.

I balked at the creature on the binding, which so closely resembled my beastly form, from its glowing red eyes, lion’s head, goat legs, and bat wings, to its serpent tail.

I reached for the book, but the shelf was too tall for me to grasp it.

Ryder realized what I wanted and wordlessly grabbed the tome for me.

When he pried open its pages, dust plumed in the air, and we coughed. Once my throat was clear, I studied the unrecognizable symbols on the page.

“What language is this?” he asked.

I sighed in disappointment. “I have no idea.”

I peeled open the next page, and my spirits lifted. Notes—written in English—were scrawled into the margins.

“Creatures of incredible power,” I read aloud. Some of the ink had been smudged, and I squinted to read it. “Traces of their power and depictions of their beastly forms found in the earliest history of our world.”

Ryder pointed to another annotation. “Chimeras—the first known shifters.”

We balked at each other.

My mind raced. “But the High Witch and Lyall said I’m just a reincarnation of the sorceress’s power.”

Ryder turned to the next page, but nothing in English was written.

He turned to another, then another. This one included a diagram of a chimera shifting from its beastly form into its human form.

Ryder turned the next page, and it contained the same diagram, except a slew of faceless beings perched above the shifting chimera, each with strings attached to the beast and the human form.

“Because of their immense power,” I read from the margin, “they were targeted as vessels for the gods.”

“Elle,” Ryder whispered. “Your kind wasn’t always controlled by more powerful beings.”

At some point, chimeras were free .

My heart and mind raced.

What gods had targeted us?

Had Hermod, the roguish messenger-god been involved? Or, perhaps Selene, the moon goddess favored by many wolf-packs, had wanted to punish the sun-blessed chimeras out of an age-old rivalry with Helios? Had the Goddess of magic, Hecate, sought our power?

The questions piled on top of each other, none more answerable than the last.

I flipped to the next page, but it was empty of annotations. I turned to the next page, then the next. I flipped through the book until a drawing made my breath catch. It depicted a circle of predators—wolves, tigers, bears, hawks—circling the beastly form of a chimera.

“Tired of the meddlesome gods,” I read from the annotation, “and wary of the chimera’s innate power, the other shifters hunted them out of existence.”

“Other shifters?” Ryder whispered.

I found another line of English text near the bottom of the page.

“Once they were out of the way,” I continued, “the Blood Wars were waged, and the wolves emerged victorious.”

When I finished reading, the stark silence was oppressive.

“Have you ever heard of the Blood Wars?” I asked. “Or of any shifters other than wolves?”

Ryder shook his head.

I flipped through the last few pages of the book, but there were no more annotations or drawings.

Whoever had combed through it had either been unable to translate all of it or had been looking for specific information.

Ryder took the book from my hands and slipped it back into place, and I searched the shelves for any other relevant tomes.

“We need to leave,” he said.

I scoffed. “We just found out about secret species, war, and origins of my kind, but you want to leave? ”

Ryder tapped on his watch. “We need to get back before we raise suspicion.”

“Really?” I said and crossed my arms. “Or are you just afraid to uncover what the wolves did to the other shifters?”

“We don’t really know if they did anything,” he argued. “All we have is a few vague sentences and a drawing!”

“Exactly.” I stepped closer, until the heat radiating of his body pressed into mine. “We’re on the cusp of a real discovery, but you want to run.”

He scoffed. “I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“Is that your excuse for everything?” I asked.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” he growled, “but it’s kind of a full-time job.”

“Then quit!” I snapped. “I’d rather know the truth behind who and what I am than cower back to Lyall’s party.”

“We made a plan—”

“Do you really trust Kieran with this information?” I asked.

“You’re the one who insisted we should trust him—”

“Well, I didn’t know we would find anything this big.”

We stood at a standstill. Only our ragged breaths filled the cramped hush of the alcove. Ryder checked his watch again.

“Three more minutes,” he said, “then we have to go back.”

I grinned in triumph and scanned the shelves. Unfortunately, it turned out we had argued over nothing because none of the other books were annotated and all of them were in ancient, unrecognizable languages. At the three-minute mark, I sighed in defeat.

“We’ll keep looking another time,” Ryder promised.

“When?” I asked. “The next equinox?”

Frustrated with our circumstances and myself for lashing out at him, I followed Ryder out of the alcove. Once we crossed the threshold back into the rest of the library, the wall slid into place. I glared at the portrait of Lyall’s ancestor and wished for more time.

Ryder took my hand and squeezed. “I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. You deserve to know the history of your kind, Ellie, and no matter how ugly it is, I’d like to know the real history of mine.”

With one touch and a short assurance, Ryder smoothed over the sharpest edges of my fear, but as a different worry rose up, I pulled my hand from his. His jaw clenched in frustration.

“Stop doing that,” he grumbled.

“Why?” I asked and headed toward the double doors of the library. He weaved around the sitting area behind me. “There’s no one watching.”

“So, we’re back to pretending we hate each other when no one else is around?” he challenged.

I swallowed. “I wasn’t aware that had ever changed.”

“Yeah, well, it did,” he said, “somewhere between you calling me an ass and helping me resolve things with Kieran, things stopped feeling so pretend.”

My heart clamored, but I walked resolutely down the white hall toward the bonfire without meeting Ryder’s gaze.

“You honestly still hate me?” he asked quietly. “Because if this is you genuinely trying to turn me down, I’ll back off.”

“I don’t hate you,” I whispered. I don’t think I ever did.

Ryder took my hand and gently tugged me to a stop.

“Then why can’t this be real?” he asked.

As he gazed down at me, his amber eyes bored into mine and a lock of hair fell over his forehead. I fought the urge to smooth it back.

“Because it’s not real,” I said. The words tasted like a lie. “It’s just wolf magic and your honorable need to protect me pushing us together.”

“Ellie.” Ryder’s forehead dipped until it rested against mine. His hands circled my waist, and my breath caught. “My thoughts about you are not as honorable as you think.”

A delicious, terrifying buzz lit me from within, and it had nothing to do with magic. His hands trailed up my sides to caress my face.

“And yeah, we’re mates,” he continued, “but that’s not why I need this to be real. That’s not why I want to kiss you right now.”

My heart thundered so loudly, I wondered if the partygoers outside could hear it over the music.

“You didn’t seem very happy about what happened between us earlier,” I argued quietly.

“Because kissing you shouldn’t be for show.” His thumb brushed over my lower lip. “It should be like this.”

He dipped his head closer and closer to mine, giving me plenty of time to pull away or protest. I did neither. Instead, I reached on the tips of my toes, until our breath mingled in the small space between us.

Ryder pressed his lips to mine, and thoughts of anything—my fears and worries and concerns—were eclipsed by the heat of his touch. Without hesitation, I kissed him back. His lips, so soft compared to all his hard edges, moved in tandem with mine.

When his tongue drove into my mouth, I gasped and pulled him even closer by the collar of his shirt.

His gentle grip on my face never strayed, though part of me wished it would.

Eventually, when both of us panted for breath, and I was certain my heart was going to beat out of my chest, we broke apart.

Ryder stared at me with such reverence, his gaze was almost headier than his kiss.

Almost.

“There you are!” Kalli called.

I jumped, but Ryder steadied me with a hand on my waist. As we faced his mother, who stood by the doors that led to the party, he tucked me under his arm. Kalli studied our swollen lips and Ryder’s especially messy hair and smirked.

“Oh, to be young and mated,” she teased. For a heartbeat, her smile saddened, but she quickly replaced it with a grin. “Come on! It’s time to share the legends of the pack. I promise you won’t want to miss it.”

As we strolled back to the party, I couldn’t help but share a smug grin with Ryder. Our excuse for sneaking off had proved to be exceedingly effective.