Page 37 of The Wolf and the Chimera (The Witch and the Cowboy #3)

Ryder

Kill, kill, kill…

The wolf’s words filled my once supple and sighing mate with fear. Too lost in her taste and scent and touch, I hadn’t registered what he had said. I didn’t care.

He would die soon.

He had died the moment he interrupted the sanctitude of our claiming—the moment he’d caught a whiff of my mate’s exquisite, lust-flooded scent, still hanging in the air amid the bitter tang of her fear.

He scared her, and now he’s going to die.

I squeezed my mate’s knee as a wordless promise to her that once this mongrel was gone, she would have nothing to fear, and she could sink her lovely teeth into my flesh. She could bind me to her as I had bound her to me.

Shifting midair into my wolf form, I lunged off the bed. The wolf cursed but remained frozen in place by my dominance. I landed in front of him and bared my teeth. His fear mingled with my mate’s, and I luxuriated his terror.

There would be no mercy for him.

“Ryder!” my mate trilled. “Ryder, stop!”

I paused. Her command chafed me—did she want this other wolf?

As I studied his round, green eyes, a sensation of familiarity drifted through the feral haze of my anger.

Had I seen him before?

Was he here to challenge me?

I snarled, and the werewolf shook. Preparing myself for a killing blow, I crouched, but my mate—clothed in nothing but a flimsy, white sheet—dove between us. I froze, petrified that I had almost leaped upon my enemy and harmed her instead.

“Wait,” she begged. “Think about what your brother said—the Handmaidens are here. He’s warning us, Ryder. They’re here for me.”

Handmaidens…

The words tugged at my memory, but my rage was a wild, confusing thing. I couldn’t see or think or act beyond it.

“Come back to me,” she whispered. “I need you.”

As I stared into her eyes—chocolate brown mingled with flickers of red light—her words freed me from the confines of my anger, and reality tumbled back.

In an instant, I shifted, barely noting the twinge of pain.

I picked Elle up and pulled her behind me, then stifled the power that roared in my veins and demanded blood.

I pointed a claw-tipped finger at my brother’s face. “Start talking, or I really might kill you.”

Kieran took a heaving breath. “They somehow got here through a ripple.”

“Is Cordelia here?” Elle said.

She tried to bypass me, but I gently pushed her back.

“For my sanity,” I said gently, “please get dressed.”

It didn’t matter that I now remembered my brother wouldn’t care to see Elle naked. With the rush of the claiming so fresh, my wolf’s possessiveness wouldn’t abate.

“This is the only time you get to go full cave-man on me,” she warned but dug into the dresser.

When she found a handful of clothes, Kieran wisely spun toward the wall, and Elle hurried past him, into the bathroom. Kieran didn’t face me again until the door clicked shut. As he spoke, I found some jeans and hastily threw them on.

“Cordelia isn’t here,” Kieran said. I trusted Elle could hear him with her chimera’s ears, “but there are five Handmaidens, and they brought golems and a few pet leeches.”

I sneered. Five Handmaidens was a powerful force, but on top of that, the witches had crafted beings of earth and sand to life to fight alongside them and gathered their bloodsucking lackeys.

I had faced golems the night of the Bloodmoon, when my pack had helped Freya’s coven defeat Josephine.

I wasn’t eager to battle the creatures again.

Vampires, on the other hand, I was always excited to kill.

Elle stepped out of the bathroom, and my breath caught. She had gathered the coils of her hair into one long braid down her back. The collar of her shoulder revealed the mark on her shoulder. Where I had bitten her, my pack’s signet now decorated her lovely flesh.

A small, unbreakable knot adorned her smooth, brown flesh. It was the perfect signet not only for the strength of pack, but also for the strength of my devotion to Elle.

As I stared, Elle’s breath caught. Part of me wanted to leave the Handmaidens and their pets for the others to face, so I could finish what we had started, but I couldn’t abandon them and neither could Elle. Through the murky connection we now shared, her resolve was palpable.

“I’m ready,” she said. “Take us to them.”

Kieran led us out of the room and down the winding halls of Circe’s home. Instead of heading to the coliseum, we pivoted toward the front of the house. As we walked, light and magic distorted the world. Walls shifted from stone to wood to ice, and back again.

Had the Handmaidens stolen Circe’s focus so thoroughly that the ancient witch struggled to control her own realm?

We neared the spacious entryway. Sunlight and storm clouds poured in from outside.

My mind flashed back to the last time the Handmaidens had come for my mate, and she had given herself up to save Cadence.

No matter how grateful I was for the young witch’s survival, I couldn’t bear to lose Elle again.

“No self-sacrificing,” I warned my mate and squeezed her hand.

She met my gaze. “Don’t worry. I’ve got other methods of defending myself and my pack now.”

Despite the monsters we were about to face, I smiled.

Kieran threw the door open, and my expression morphed into a snarl. Across the tundra, the Guardians battled vampires, who moved with matching speed and dexterity. Despite the sun that loomed over us, they remained intact, though their ashy pallor was stark in the light.

“How are they not crumbling to ash?” I muttered.

My attention was stolen by the two partially shifted werewolves who fought back-to-back against a group of golems. Melanie struck one of the creature’s chests and yanked out its stoney heart.

Its sandy body became dirt on the wind, and Kieran raced to help his friends.

The Minotaur tore through some of the creatures with ferocious bellows, and smaller beasts with green scales and wickedly sharp tusks helped the Guardians take out vampires.

“Those are the creatures from the maze,” Elle whispered.

Her eyes glowed red and focused on Circe, who blazed with light across the expanse of the tundra. Witches in blue velvet cloaks surrounded her, each of whom launched spells of darkness, earth, water, and fire.

As if Elle’s voice had jarred our assailants from focus, their hungry gazes shifted toward her. An eerie quiet settled over the tundra.

Circe’s voice boomed. “Get to the ripple!”

The battle launched back into action, and this time, half the Handmaidens’ forces came crashing down on us.

I shifted my hands into claws and allowed my canines to elongate.

My clawed feet dug into the ice and snow for traction.

Beside me, Elle’s eyes blazed with magic, and wings spread from her back.

As her hands grew claws, she raised her chin and growled .

“Go for their hearts,” I told her as the golems and vampires attacked.

I lunged at the nearest earthen beast and yanked its stone heart from its chest. As the golem dissipated, a vampire with sickly gray skin and a bloodstained smile tried to knock me down with a swift kick.

I crouched and evaded it, then leaped upward and grabbed its head.

I twisted, and the creature’s neck popped.

Before I could rip out its heart and truly kill the leech, something jumped on my back.

The vampire’s slender form was strong, and I couldn’t shake it off me.

Elle roared, and light swelled. Though I expected the vampire who dug its fingers into my skin to become ash, it cackled.

“Don’t you get it?” the female vampire crooned. “The High Witch fed us your blood, and your light can’t hurt us! Nothing can.”

Faster than an asp, Elle struck. She tore her claw-tipped fingers into the vampire’s back and yanked out the creature’s heart. As the female vampire choked on her own vile blood, Elle shook her head.

“I beg to differ,” she whispered.

Gods be damned.

Though I wanted to bask in her power and ferocity, more creatures attacked.

Elle and I fell into a rhythm of striking and kicking and defending.

I forced myself to ignore the minor injuries she suffered because I couldn’t be distracted.

Though we stayed alive, we failed to move any closer to the ripple.

I risked a glance ahead.

Amid the swirling storm of magic, Circe’s light flickered. The ancient witch was powerful, but she couldn’t hold off five Handmaidens forever.

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

With keen, glowing eyes, Elle studied the battlefield and nodded.

“Clear me some space,” she said low enough that the cacophony of battle covered her voice to everyone but me.

She twisted and raced backward, and I considered how to carry out her demands. Though we’d eliminated many of our enemies, there were still too many for me to force them back alone.

Unless…

I thought of how these creatures wished to take my mate from me and how willing they were to destroy anyone and anything to get her. The dominance buried in my chest stirred, and my wolf growled, but I hesitated. I couldn’t let my power stifle my friends.

Freya always talked about visualizing her magic as a tangible thing. Surely, I could do the same to control my dominance. Though I had never tried to target its power on anyone, it was an extension of me. I could shape it however I wanted to.

Wasn’t that what Circe and the Guardians had wanted me to learn?

Better late than never.

The golems and vampires pushed forward in a desperate attempt to get past my claws and fangs and reach my mate, who now stood several feet behind me. I bared my teeth and willed my dominance to stop them in their tracks but imagined containing it to those closest to me.

Raging against my control, my dominance blanketed the battlefield. For a heartbeat, everyone and everything was still.

I panicked, and the dominance snapped back into me like a rubber band. Even more frantic and bloody than before, the fighting resumed. Vampires and golems attacked me with renewed force.

I couldn’t let them get to Elle.

Letting my wolf guide my movements, I focused on the well of dominance that heated my chest. After the exertion of controlling the entire battlefield, it was slightly calmer.

I imagined reaching into my chest and extracting the power.

When my blood roared with the effort of containing it, I sent it at my assailants and imagined wrapping them in its fury.

They stiffened, but the rest of the battle resumed.

My chest tightened from the effort, and my breath caught, but I forced myself to focus.

Back, I commanded. Move back, back, back.

Like puppets on strings, the creatures lurched backward. Despite the chilly wind, sweat dripped on my forehead.

Elle’s feet stomped across the snow.

“Lift your arms!” she commanded.

I did as she asked, and suddenly, I soared over the tundra.

Elle’s wings beat furiously, and wind whipped my face. We teetered and dipped, and I steadied my core to try to make myself easier to carry. Though the flight wasn’t graceful, and my stomach dropped each time she wobbled, Elle flew toward Circe.

“Run!” I commanded the other wolves and the Guardians.

As we neared Circe and the Handmaidens, Elle cursed.

“I haven’t figured out the landing,” she muttered.

Her arms shook from the effort of carrying me. We darted toward the ground too sharply, and she flapped her wings like crazy to keep us from crashing into the icy ground.

“Let me go,” I told her. “Next time you dip toward the ground like that, let me go, then land yourself.”

Her reply was breathless. “Are you sure?”

We were nearly upon the Handmaidens, and I didn’t want to be carried through their frenzy of magic like a sitting duck.

I nodded. “I’m sure.”

Elle took a deep breath, and we darted toward the ground. As soon as she released me, my stomach hollowed, but I forced myself to stay present. The blindingly white ground raced to meet me, and I tucked my body and rolled.

When I stood, the two nearest Handmaidens twisted to face me. The flap of Elle’s wings told me she was still in the sky, so I focused on my enemies.

Purple lightning crackled on the dark-haired witch’s skin, while the other red-haired witch wielded water. The snow beneath my feet melted, and lightning darted from the dark-haired witch’s fingertips.

I dove out of its path, only to land on more water and be forced to leap again.

Thunderclouds blotted out the sky, and power shook the ground.

As I dodged the Handmaidens’ attacks, light flared, and magic hummed.

Too consumed with staying alive, I couldn’t reach for the dominance inside me. I glanced toward the horizon.

More blue-cloaked figures loomed.

This is just the first wave of their attack, I realized.

Though we had stood a shot of escape before, the hope in my heart splintered into desperation. As I leaped and lunged, I searched the sky for my mate.