Page 82 of The Wolf and the Chimera
Red crawled up Kieran’s neck, and he stared at the floor like he wanted it to swallow him whole. My kid brother suddenly looked as young as he actually was.
A terrifying thought occurred to me. “Does Lyall know?”
Without meeting my gaze, Kieran shook his head.
Of course not,I realized.
If he did, there was no way he would want to transfermy dominance to his son. His whole reason for doing so was to keep the Sovereign reign in his bloodline. If Lyall was desperate enough to toy with the gods’ will, there was no telling how he would react to Kieran’s secret.
Under the table, someone kicked my shin, and I realized I needed to say something. As I floundered for words, Melanie and Bo glared daggers at me.
How did I say that I didn’t care about this information—that it didn’t change my view of Kieran—without accidentally coming off like a prick?
“So,” I said, “all that staring at Elle was just to get under my skin?”
As Kieran lifted his head and chuckled, the tension between us dissipated.
My brother shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?”
Relief clear as day on their faces, Melanie and Bo smiled at each other, and our lunch continued without another hiccup, though my mind continued to drift to Elle.
Eventually, Bo asked us to accompany him to Circe’s library, but I couldn’t take another second of waiting. Determined to find my mate, I found that Lee’s grim expression mirrored my worry. I wondered if the man would be able to get past his disdain for me to help find his daughter, but footsteps flitted down the hall, paired with a lilac and sandalwood scent.
Mate.
As Elle stepped into the room, my wolf rushed to the surface and drank in the sight of her. Sand littered her braided locks and pale blue tunic, and her posture bowed under the weight of her exhaustion, but she was otherwise unharmed. As her gaze met mine, her eyes glittered with red light.
Now that Elle’s chimera was free, I understood better why courtships between mates were so short. Though I had wanted Elle since the day I laid eyes on her, theneedI now felt was nearly impossible to ignore.
As if snapping out of a daze, Elle broke my stare andturned toward her mother. She painted on a pleasant smile.
“Mom,” she greeted and gestured toward her sandy, slightly frizzy hair. “Want to help me fix this mess?”
Imogen laughed. “I thought you’d never ask.”
As Elle bypassed me to grab a plate of food, I stood frozen. I had known she was embarrassed about last night, and she had practically run from me this morning, but was she really not going to speak to me?
My question was answered when she toted her lunch out of the kitchen and followed her mother toward the residential wing without another word.
???
Elle
As I tore into my lunch, Mom began the tedious process of uncoiling my long locks of hair. Though I sat in a foreign chair in a cozy but unfamiliar room, the mundane activity made me feel lighter and younger. Mom had always done my hair, and it had always been a time for us to talk or sit in comfortable silence.
Dad was able to pry laughter out of me no matter the circumstances, but Mom gave me space to think.
As I crunched on crackers, I studied my reflection in the wooden dresser. Exhaustion showed in my dark under-eyes and sagging posture. Behind me, a fire crackled in the hearth. As Mom worked on untangling my gnarly braids, her fingers were nimble. Comfortable with letting me stew, she didn’t meet my gaze in the reflection.
My thoughts hung on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t know how to word them. We had never talked about boys. Life on the run with your parents allowed little time for them. The other thing I needed to talk about…
“I think my chimera hates me,” I blurted.
Mom raised a brow but kept working.
“Your dad would tell you it’s impossible,” she said, “because no one could hate you.”
“Well,” I said curtly and set down my plate of food on the nearby table, “I didn’t come to Dad about this, did I?”
