Page 108 of The Wolf and the Chimera
The moment stretched.
“I-I wanted to tell you,” Ryder said in a rush. “I wasgoingto tell you, but you were so tired last night, then you were up so early—”
I scoffed. “You’ve hadweeks.”
He sighed, but I wasn’t done.
“Just tell me,” I said, “did you keep it from me because you think I was too delicate to handle the truth, or do you just notwantto bite me?”
Silence stretched between us. I scoffed and faced him, and my thoughts were utterly derailed.
In front of the open bathroom door, he stood with nothing more than a white towel slung around his hips. Water dripped from his long hair, onto his muscular body. I tracked the droplets’ trek from the wide planes of his chest, down the hollows of his abs, until they disappeared into the V of his hips.
When I forced my gaze to meet his, his eyes glowed with the presence of his wolf. Heat coiled in the pit of my stomach, and I took a step toward him, as if pulled closer by the magnetism of his gaze alone.
My chimera hesitated, and I remembered that we deserved answers.
“Which is it?” I demanded, though my breathy voice betrayed me.
“Neither,” Ryder answered in a low, gravelly tone. “You know it’s neither.”
“No, I don’t.” I crossed my arms and refused to let my eyes drift from the smooth planes of his face.
Gods, did he have to be so handsome?
“All I know,” I continued, “is that you didn’t tell me we aren’t evenofficialby shifters’ definitions.”
Ryder snarled and drew closer to me. “You’re mine—that’s as official as it gets.”
His possessiveness should’ve grated my nerves. It should’ve riled me, but all it did was stroke that intoxicating heat.
“It’s not,” I replied. “You haven’t claimed me. You never gave me the chance to claim you.”
He growled, and his eyes glowed impossibly brighter. He drew closer and closer, but I didn’t back down. I didn’t move an inch. He towered over me, until our chests brushed. I held his burning, amber gaze.
“Just the mention of it,” he whispered, “makes me want to sink my teeth into you. Makes me want toroarto anyone and everyone that you’re mine.”
I shivered.
With gentleness he reserved for me, he cradled my face with his callused hand. Unable to resist, I leaned into his touch.
“At first,” he continued, “I didn’t tell you because I was worried I would do anything to brand you with my mark. I didn’t want my control to snap.” His voice grew even softer. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”
I took a shuddering breath. “And then? When you realized you could never hurt me, what held you back from telling me?”
My fearsome wolf—the great and powerful future Leader of all wolves—sank to his knees and pressed his face against my stomach. I settled my hands in his damp locks and waited for him to continue.
“I was scared,” he said. “I’m still scared.”
I pulled his hair gently, until he lifted his face. When I studied his tortured expression, I kneeled in front of him.
“Of what?” I asked. “That I wouldn’t want to do it? That I would say no?”
“Yeah,” he admitted and studied every angle of my face. “But worse, I’m afraid you’ll say yes because it’s what youshoulddo.”
He read the confusion on my face.
“Because it’s the only way to protect you from the sorceress,” he explained. “I know you’ve been deprived of so many choices. I didn’t want you to choose this for the sake of survival. I want you towantit, Elle.”
