Page 143 of The Wolf and the Chimera
“Do you expect me to take yours?” I countered.
I raised my palm and beckoned my chimera. Medea’s hold on my power eased enough for me to summon a claw and slash it through my hand. My blood dripped onto the dark stones.
“We’ll bind our deal with the only currency you respect,”I said. “Blood.”
In the darkness, Medea’s grin was blinding, and I wondered if I had made a horrible mistake.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Ryder
With my nose dripping blood and my ears still ringing from the hit I had taken, I stared at the pink-haired she-wolf across from me. Breathing as raggedly as I was, Kieran moved to my side and studied his friend. Like us, she was battered but whole.
Her hair seemed impossibly bright in the shadowy room. The dropped ceiling domed high above, but in the flickering light, blood spattered its pale tiles. Despite how fiercely Melanie had fought, her round, blue eyes made her look even younger than she was.
“Thank the gods you two arrived when you did—”
Kieran interrupted his friend. “How do we know?”
She frowned. “How do we know what?”
“How do we know,” he said slowly, “that you aren’t a traitor?”
Part of me hated the crack in his unwavering loyalty, and part of me was grateful to have him onmyside. I hadn’t even thought to question her allegiance. Melanie’s lower lip wobbled.
“I’m not Bo,” she spat.
“How do you know what he did,” I asked, “if you’re not in on it?”
She sighed in exasperation and pointed to the wall ofscreens to her left. Each of them showed different angles of the chateau’s lowest levels.
“He wouldn’t answer my texts or calls,” she said, “so I decided to jailbreak this place without him. When I got here, I saw him bring Elle in on the cameras.”
Her name derailed me from my interrogation completely. I scanned the screens until I found her, and my heart stuttered.
She wore—
She wore a claiming gown.
The pale yellow fabric hugged her sleeping form and billowed into a skirt that tumbled off the sides of the narrow cot. Golden light poured through the needle embedded into her delicate arm, through a clear tube, and into an obsidian box. Wolves in hospital gowns milled around her, and Lyall lurked like the vermin he was in the corner of the sterile, brightly lit space.
I didn’t realize I was growling until Kieran placed a hand on my arm and spoke.
“Besides,” Melanie continued. Her smile was devious. “Why would I have already disconnected half the cameras if I was loyal to Lyall?”
Hurry,that wolf had instructed,she’s going to destroy everything!
Though I wanted to believe Mel, I couldn’t relent, not until I was certain we could trust her.
“How did you break into this place?” I asked.
“I work on Lyall’s tech,” she reminded me. “I told the guards the Sovereign wanted me to check for information leaks. When they balked, I threatened to run to Lyall. I promised them he wouldn’t be happy about his orders being questioned. They weren’t hard to convince.”
I considered her words and searched for any reason to doubt them. Her heart beat steadily, and she didn’t smell of fear, only anger and hurt, and pain.
“Luckily,” Melanie continued, “there were only a couplewolves in here when you broke out of your cell. When they tried to call for back-up, I knocked them out.”
“Lessfortunately,” Mel continued, “two more guards stormed in here while I was handling the others. The cowards ran, then returned with back-up.”
