Page 101 of The Wolf and the Chimera
I had slicked my braided hair into a bun atop my head and dabbed gloss on my lips. Every swipe of liner and mascara had made my heart beat faster in my chest.
Dad had been too far away to hear the local boys invite me to the beach party.
I tucked my pendant under my dress and climbed out the window of our motel room.
Just once,I thought,I only want to pretend to be truly human once.
When the party turned out to be just a group of teens awkwardly swaying to music and getting sloppily drunk, I didn’t admit to myself that my great rebellion wasn’t worth the trouble.
No matter how many beers I drank or shots I downed, I didn’t get drunk. Without the liquid courage everyone else enjoyed, I didn’t know how to talk to people my own age.
When I got back to our condo that night, I sobbed with disappointment.
I didn’t notice my pendant was gone until the next day, when we were already back on the yacht. My self-loathing and pity and sorrow had eclipsed everything, including the inkling that I had forgotten something vital.
The world shifted again, and I stared into the ruby eyes of my chimera.
“That was you,” I realized. “You were trying to tell me I had lost the pendant.”
Pressure built in my head, and I gasped in pain. My chimera hissed and snarled and whined.
Let me in,the beast seemed to beg.
With an exhale, I did.
Memories flashed through my mind, of being trapped and shoved and caged. Before I could ever fully manifest, a spell washed over me, cutting me off from half of myself and forcing me into darkness.
Endless, mind-numbing darkness.
This is what it was like for my chimera,I realized,to be spelled and stifled for all those years.
As I was thrust back into the memories of my chimera, tears slipped down my face. Murky images of the world flashed by, and I recognized them from childhood.
My chimera was with me, I realized,watching the world through my eyes.
As time went on, however, the memories became more and more hazy. The shadows that caged me pressed closer. They smelled like hatred and fear and pity.
They were even worse than the spells that kept me contained, and for years, I slept to escape them. I didn’t try to fight the magic that confined me to the girl’s body, nor did I stir when the sorceress whispered wicked things.
But then, a face appeared, and suddenly, the world was bright again.
Ryder’s amber eyes caught the glorious sunlight and burned with possessiveness as they met mine. Though the girl loathed me, he didn’t. Hewantedme, and he wasmine.
I had never been wanted.
Over and over, I fought to get to him—to claim him—but my human counterpart kept me in my cage of despair and contempt. She didn’t fight to lift the spell that bound me to the darkness.
When the pale-haired witch confined us all to eternal rest, part of me relished.
At least now the girl will know my pain,I had thought, andso will the invader.
Though I never spoke to the sorceress, I sensed her stewing consciousness.
Then, he was there.Again.And stretching my four legs after so long in the endless oblivion had been a balm to my soul. I had loathed the sorceress’s presence, but at least I had gotten to roar and run and rage.
When we emerged through the ripple, I had only wanted to escape the basement of that hunter’s lair—to feel the kiss of wind on my wings. In all the years of wretched darkness, I had never experienced such a thing.
The girl had let them confine me before I could.
