Page 28 of The Wolf and the Chimera (The Witch and the Cowboy #3)

Ryder

As Kieran, Bo, and Melanie chatted, I tapped my fingers against the rickety, wooden table.

For hours, we had trained in a gym Imogen and Lee had led us to.

Lee had tried to goad me into wielding my dominance, but I had refused.

Despite what Circe had told me I needed to do, something in me recoiled from honing the dominance in my blood.

I had long ago accepted the responsibility of an Alpha’s power. Dad had drilled into me that the ability to wield one’s will over their pack should never be taken lightly.

I wasn’t ready to accept the burden of such power over all wolves.

After hours of conditioning and hand-to-hand combat, Kieran had declared his stomach would implode unless he ate something. Melanie and Bo had quickly seconded his opinion.

The Guardians had led us into the kitchen, where platters of meat, cheese, crackers, bread, and fruit were spread across a vacant table.

They sat at a table across the room and spoke quietly among themselves.

Considering I couldn’t discern their conversation, they were clearly aware of werewolf hearing.

Through tall windows, the afternoon sun painted the sandstone floors in light. Pitchers of water and wine sat on the long, kitchen counter. After our group had guzzled down most of the water, it had magically replenished itself with a small flash of light. The food had magically reappeared as well.

My friends had ogled at Circe’s tricks, but they only frustrated me. It was impossible to know if my mate had yet taken a break from her training.

If she’s surviving it.

Circe didn’t seem to care as much about Elle’s life as she did about making sure she was strong enough to defeat the sorceress. She didn’t care about Elle—she cared about the chimera.

“You all right?” Kieran asked.

I jolted into the present, and realized claws had formed on my tapping fingers. I jabbed one of them into a square of cheddar cheese, popped it into my mouth, and nodded.

“Peachy,” I grumbled.

Kieran rolled his eyes. “If I’m this much of a worrywart when I find my mate, you have my full permission to slap me.”

Melanie snorted and swigged from her glass of water.

“Oh, yeah?” she teased. “What if this mate of yours is as handsome as Elle is pretty?”

Handsome?

Kieran stiffened, and Melanie’s smile dropped. Her gaze darted to mine and back to her friend’s.

“Shit,” she muttered and cleared her throat. “Shit, Kieran, I forgot.”

Though witches and vampires treated sexuality as fluid, werewolves were family oriented. Mating with the same sex didn’t lead to pups. In the best circumstances, it was tolerated but stigmatized, and in the worst, it led to exile.

Red crawled up Kieran’s neck, and he stared at the floor like he wanted it to swallow him whole. My kid brother suddenly looked as young as he actually was.

A terrifying thought occurred to me. “Does Lyall know?”

Without meeting my gaze, Kieran shook his head.

Of course not, I realized.

If he did, there was no way he would want to transfer my dominance to his son. His whole reason for doing so was to keep the Sovereign reign in his bloodline. If Lyall was desperate enough to toy with the gods’ will, there was no telling how he would react to Kieran’s secret.

Under the table, someone kicked my shin, and I realized I needed to say something. As I floundered for words, Melanie and Bo glared daggers at me.

How did I say that I didn’t care about this information—that it didn’t change my view of Kieran—without accidentally coming off like a prick?

“So,” I said, “all that staring at Elle was just to get under my skin?”

As Kieran lifted his head and chuckled, the tension between us dissipated.

My brother shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Relief clear as day on their faces, Melanie and Bo smiled at each other, and our lunch continued without another hiccup, though my mind continued to drift to Elle.

Eventually, Bo asked us to accompany him to Circe’s library, but I couldn’t take another second of waiting.

Determined to find my mate, I found that Lee’s grim expression mirrored my worry.

I wondered if the man would be able to get past his disdain for me to help find his daughter, but footsteps flitted down the hall, paired with a lilac and sandalwood scent.

Mate.

As Elle stepped into the room, my wolf rushed to the surface and drank in the sight of her. Sand littered her braided locks and pale blue tunic, and her posture bowed under the weight of her exhaustion, but she was otherwise unharmed. As her gaze met mine, her eyes glittered with red light.

Now that Elle’s chimera was free, I understood better why courtships between mates were so short. Though I had wanted Elle since the day I laid eyes on her, the need I now felt was nearly impossible to ignore.

As if snapping out of a daze, Elle broke my stare and turned toward her mother. She painted on a pleasant smile.

“Mom,” she greeted and gestured toward her sandy, slightly frizzy hair. “Want to help me fix this mess?”

Imogen laughed. “I thought you’d never ask.”

As Elle bypassed me to grab a plate of food, I stood frozen. I had known she was embarrassed about last night, and she had practically run from me this morning, but was she really not going to speak to me?

My question was answered when she toted her lunch out of the kitchen and followed her mother toward the residential wing without another word.

???

Elle

As I tore into my lunch, Mom began the tedious process of uncoiling my long locks of hair.

Though I sat in a foreign chair in a cozy but unfamiliar room, the mundane activity made me feel lighter and younger.

Mom had always done my hair, and it had always been a time for us to talk or sit in comfortable silence.

Dad was able to pry laughter out of me no matter the circumstances, but Mom gave me space to think.

As I crunched on crackers, I studied my reflection in the wooden dresser.

Exhaustion showed in my dark under-eyes and sagging posture.

Behind me, a fire crackled in the hearth.

As Mom worked on untangling my gnarly braids, her fingers were nimble.

Comfortable with letting me stew, she didn’t meet my gaze in the reflection.

My thoughts hung on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t know how to word them. We had never talked about boys. Life on the run with your parents allowed little time for them. The other thing I needed to talk about…

“I think my chimera hates me,” I blurted .

Mom raised a brow but kept working.

“Your dad would tell you it’s impossible,” she said, “because no one could hate you.”

“Well,” I said curtly and set down my plate of food on the nearby table, “I didn’t come to Dad about this, did I?”

She gave me an icy look, and I softened my tone.

“I’m too old to just hear how great I am,” I murmured. “There’s too much at stake. I need honesty.”

“Okay,” Mom agreed. She met my gaze in the reflection. “Whatever you’re resenting your father for, you need to let it go.”

“Why is this turning into a conversation about Dad?” I asked.

“Because,” Mom said, “he has not slept well since the three of us were separated. If you want honesty, honey, you need to give it in return. Icing him out after so long waiting for you…it’s killing him.”

As I mulled over her words, silence stretched.

“I don’t want to rely on everyone else to protect me anymore,” I admitted. “I don’t want you guys or my friends or my-my Ryder to risk themselves to save me again and again without me having any way to save them.”

Mom released a soft breath. “What happened that day on the yacht is not your fault, Elle.”

But I lost my pendant.

I had worn it that night I snuck out to go to that beach party.

I opened my mouth to confess the full, ugly truth, but like a wave of energy, Dad swept into the room and flashed me a grin. My unspoken words sank like stones in my stomach.

“I brought you dessert,” Dad said and handed me a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries.

As I smiled in appreciation, guilt gnawed at me, but I shoved it into the back of my mind.

“So,” I said and met Dad’s gaze in the reflection, “does Circe have any decent books here? ”

Dad’s face lit up, and he launched into a run-down of all he had read, which inevitably led to debates about our favorite books and authors.

Like putting on a broken-in boot, slipping into the past was easy.

For a small pocket of time, I didn’t think about the sorceress or my inner beast or my amber-eyed werewolf.

Part of me, however, tracked the minutes and hours I spent in that chair.

No matter how easy it was to tuck my problems under the rug, they would come to light eventually.

Judging by the way Dad’s eyes flitted to mine then quickly away, he also recognized this temporary ease between us was just that—temporary.

???

Late that night, I returned to the room I shared with Ryder. Dad had once again offered to let me stay with him and Mom, and like a coward, I had considered it.

But I didn’t want to be a coward anymore.

Besides, my inner beast missed her mate, and so did I.

When I reached for the door handle of our room, he beat me to it and wrenched the door open. I breathed in his woodsy scent and drank in his hulking form. Wildness shined in his amber eyes, and his shoulder-length hair was askew, as if he’d run his hands through it a dozen times.

“Hi,” I said quietly.

For a moment, I thought he might complain about how I had ignored him earlier or chastise me for spending hours with my parents. I steeled myself.

His lips tugged upward. “Hi, Ellie.”

The tension in my shoulders dissipated, and I pulled him in for a hug. His strong arms wrapped around me and pressed me closer. Beneath my ear, his heart thudded.

When he eventually pulled back, he gave me a slight push on my shoulders and turned me in a circle. His smile broadened.

“Your hair looks pretty,” he complimented.

Like a school girl, my face heated. He led me into the room, and I gathered pajamas to change into for bed. As I did so, I realized something.

“Tomorrow,” I said, “I want to tell you all about my training.”

While he made the bed, he released a soft laugh.

“Good,” he said, “because I’ve been trying my hand at patience here, but I’m so curious I’m almost biting off my tongue.”

I echoed his laughter and joined him in our bed. My chimera stirred, but I pushed aside her lust to say what was on my heart.

“I don’t want any secrets between us,” I told him.

As the weight of my words settled on him, Ryder stiffened then strode around the bed and pressed a kiss to my lips. Though his touch was soft and sweet, my fingers itched to explore his body. When he pulled away, we were both breathless.

“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you,” he whispered. “Nothing.”

When we laid in bed, he pulled me to his side, and I fell asleep in his embrace.