Page 51 of The Wolf and the Chimera (The Witch and the Cowboy #3)

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “Elle, I didn’t know what they would try to do—I’m so sorry.”

“Bullshit,” Kieran growled. “You knew exactly what Lyall planned! We all did.”

As he realized what I hadn’t yet divulged to the others—what I wasn’t sure I would ever want to talk about—Bo swallowed a sob.

“He had my family,” he whispered. “He said he’d kill them unless I flipped on you. He would’ve killed my baby sister.” His voice broke on the last word.

“Then why are you helping us now?” Melanie asked.

Hope and sorrow warred in her watery gaze.

Bo cleared his throat. “They escaped in the evacuation.”

“You should’ve come to us,” Kieran argued. “When Lyall threatened your family, you should’ve come to me.”

Kieran had been skipped over by the dominance in his blood, but he had earned the loyalty of his trio. He was their Alpha.

“I’m here now,” Bo said.

Beyond Bo, Ryder gasped in pain, and my heart squeezed again. My chimera mirrored my worry.

How long could my mate hold out against a Sovereign injected with an extra boost of power?

The others heard that gasp too, and the friend group shifted back into a trio of warriors.

“Lyall is dosed with Elle’s magic,” Bo said, confirming what I knew. “It’s the only reason he’s facing Ryder—so far, it’s given wolves longer endurance, more strength, and deadlier speed, plus immunity to silver. We don’t have much time. ”

“We need to tell Ryder,” I said. “It’s not a fair fight—”

“There’s no stopping two Sovereigns going head-to-head,” Melanie countered, “fair or not.”

I bristled. “I don’t care about ancient wolf nonsense—”

“All we can do is clear a path for escape,” Kieran said.

He wasn’t entirely wrong. Even if Ryder won, we would still need to escape—Lyall had spoon-fed lies about us to his pack.

They believed me to be capable of attacking Kalli, and Ryder was nothing more than an outsider to them.

He was Kalli’s bastard son, whose strings were pulled by his mate bond to a monster.

Ryder wouldn’t possess the dominance to force them all to concede, not after he defeated Lyall.

If he defeats Lyall.

Already, Ryder’s lip was split, and blood seeped from the tattered remains of his shirt. Though he moved swiftly, Lyall remained grinning. Where blood stained his skin, no wounds lingered. With every breath he took, my magic healed him.

If we needed to clear a path for escape, we would, but I wasn’t leaving my mate behind. I didn’t care what wolfish social decorum forbade interference.

Lyall had stolen my power to harm my mate.

He would die by any rules I saw fit.

With the silver blade in my hand, I lunged around my friends and raced toward the fight.

As a thick arm banded across my waist, Ryder’s eyes widened in horror, and Lyall landed a brutal kick to his leg.

Ryder tumbled to the ground but righted himself before Lyall could pounce on him.

I clawed at the arm that held me and kicked at the towering form to no avail.

When I pressed the silver blade against Bo’s tan arm, he hissed.

“The lab,” Bo pleaded, “we have to get into the lab—we can’t leave Lyall with your stolen magic.”

Flesh sizzled and popped. I lifted the blade from Bo’s arm and grimaced at the hideous, blistered burn I had left.

Lyall and Ryder fought like true animals. More and more guards slipped around them. Ryder was too occupied with Lyall’s attacks to stop them or even slow them down.

“Incoming,” Kieran muttered.

Bo released me, and I stood frozen by indecision.

Not indecision, I realized.

I just couldn’t accept what needed to be done.

My mate needed me, but…

Micah and Kowan’s ravenous gazes flashed in my mind. Their strength had been impossible to overcome. The more power they gained, the deadlier they would become.

The more people they can hurt.

I studied my mate. Though wounds marred his beautiful form, he fought like it was an art. He moved with fluid grace and untampered determination.

He had learned to put his faith in me, so I would put my faith in him.

My chimera didn't want to take her eyes off her mate, but I sensed her agreement.

We couldn't leave our power in Lyall's hands.

As guards attacked Kieran and Melanie, I tore my gaze off my mate and focused on Bo’s dark eyes.

“Where’s the lab?” I asked.

“Closer than you think,” he said and moved past me, toward the frosted glass door beside the metal countertops.

I muttered a curse.

When I had asked Lyall what lay beyond the door, his reply had been quick.

Nothing, he had claimed, just safe methods of disposing of your power.

Like most things Lyall said, it had turned out to be bullshit. Knowing Lyall, however, it made sense that the lab was attached to this room. No other eyes or cameras would have had access to the power he hoarded.

I yanked on the cool metal handle of the lab door. It didn’t budge. I noticed the flashing red light and key card above it .

“We need a keycard—”

Bo flashed a silver card over the scanner, and a green light flashed. As I followed him inside the narrow lab, overhead lights flickered to life.

Bloodied and breathless, Melanie and Kieran flanked us. No guards followed them.

“Lyall trusted you enough to give you access to this?” Melanie asked.

“I stole it,” Bo said.

In addition to a sink, Bunsen burners, test tubes, and other ordinary equipment, two obsidian containers, and a silver safe lined the white countertops. As Kieran and Bo grabbed the containers, I winced.

“Careful,” I warned. “Without a wielder, my power acts as some kind of bomb if it escapes that container.”

“That’s what you were threatening Lyall with,” Kieran realized and swallowed.

The others turned to leave, but the silver safe caught my attention.

Whatever was inside, Lyall hadn’t wanted anyoneto have access to it but himself and his most trusted allies. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have hidden its contents away in safe made of silver.

“What’s in there?” I asked Bo.

“I really wasn’t that trusted,” he insisted. “I don’t know.”

“Incoming,” Melanie warned.

Wielding her claws, she ducked out of the lab and clashed with another guard. Still, I couldn’t make myself move. Drawn to whatever was inside, my chimera stirred under my skin.

“Kieran,” I said, “any idea about the passcode?”

“Elle,” he countered, “we really need to go—”

“I want nothing more than to get Ryder and leave,” I said, “but something inside me is screaming to open this.”

I met his gaze, and Kieran cursed. He sat the obsidian container on the counter and rapidly prattled numbers and letters to me, which I typed with equal speed. He didn’t dare touch the safe. A small red light flashed, and the safe remained locked.

A male guard as large as Bo crashed into the lab. As he snarled, rage contorted his animalistic face.

“Traitors,” he growled.

Bo met him fist for fist and claw for claw, but blood seeped from a wound on his thigh. The enemy wolf noted it and landed a brutal kick. Kieran turned and helped his friend.

“Zero." Kieran ducked and swiped. "Five, three, zero."

As they fought, I continued to type, to no avail. The enemy wolf shoved Bo so hard, he crashed into the far wall. Kieran leaped on the wolf’s back, slashing his torso to ribbons, but the wolf didn’t abate. Reaching, he dug his claws deep into Kieran’s back.

“Zero, Five,” Kieran rasped.

As I typed in the last two digits, the light on the safe flashed green, and Bo tore the enemy wolf off Kieran. Blood and gore seeped out of the wolf’s stomach, and he did not rise. Kieran offered his friend a grateful nod.

Melanie popped into the room and grimaced at the dead wolf but quickly focused on us. Though a bruise bloomed on her cheek, most of the blood spattering her clothes didn’t appear to be hers.

“What is taking so long?” she demanded.

“We got into the safe,” Kieran explained.

Swallowing my bile, I opened the safe’s door and frowned. Kieran and Bo stepped over the dead wolf and crowded behind me.

“What the hell?” Melanie breathed.

On the safe’s glass shelfs were two obsidian, round objects.

“Are those bombs?” Kieran asked.

“I think—” Bo said, “I think they’re hand grenades.”

I studied the small, round objects and their metal tabs. Cursing under my breath, I picked one up, and familiar warmth flared in my palm, followed by a wave of dizziness.

“That bastard,” I whispered. I set the grenades on the counter. “These aren’t just grenades—they’re made with my power.”

With shaky hands, I handed them to Kieran.

“I would carry them myself,” I explained, “but Lyall made them with inlaid bronze. It’s chimeras' weakness, like silver is to wolves.”

“Are you sure we should take them?” he asked.

"I'm not leaving him with any part of me," I replied. “Let’s go."

Bo hesitated, then steadied me with an elbow as I stepped over the fallen guard. Bo and Kieran grabbed the two obsidian containers from the lab, and Melanie picked up the one from the room I had been contained in.

As I reached the battered doorframe, my blood turned to ice.

Wounds covered Ryder. Tatters of flesh hung from his torso, and one of his ankles was bent at an awkward angle. Though Lyall’s hair was ruffled, and his once crisp shirt was bloodstained, he was otherwise unscathed.

“The wolfsbane is slowing Ryder’s healing.” Melanie swallowed. “And I think your power is strengthening Lyall’s.”

“We have to do something,” I whispered. “ We have to do something!”

I raced toward my mate but hit an invisible wall of power and stumbled backward.

Holding the grenades with one hand, I pounded my fist against the invisible wall with my other.

A scream tore free from my throat. Kieran tried to pull me back, but I just kept throwing myself against the invisible forcefield. One goal drove my chimera and me wild.

I have to get to him.

Kieran cursed.

“This really is a formal challenge,” Melanie murmured.

“It’s pack magic,” Bo said slowly. “The Sovereigns are in a formal challenge—no one and nothing can intervene. ”

I turned to Bo. “But—but you got across.”

“Because I wasn’t trying to stop the fight,” Bo said.

Sobs racked my body. Everything I had done—everything I had sacrificed—was for nothing.

Now, when it mattered most, I was powerless.