Page 97 of The Wolf and the Chimera
“I deserve better than you,” Freya whispered and drew closer. “Just like Elle deserves better than a wolf who never wanted a mate—who had forsaken the thought of mates and spat on the greatest gift of his kind.”
Shame threatened to swallow me whole.
For most of my life, I had laughed at the thought of true mates. I had cursed the other half of my soul without ever meeting her and given my heart to a witch instead.
Freya was right. I didn’t deserve a mate.
I didn’t deserve Elle.
As Freya disappeared, I sank into the darkness and drowned in my despair.
???
Elle
By the time I came upon my parents, thirty minutes had passed, and the bleeding in my wing had finally stopped. My shoulders and back ached with every ravaged breath I took. Blisters stung my feet, and sweat dripped into my eyes. Forcing myself to focus, I studied my parents.
They stood on a raised platform made of the same roughly hewn stone that formed the maze. Though their mouths opened and closed, no sound slipped from their lips. Something shimmered around them. Cautiously, I approached the barely visible barrier and pressed my hand against it. Thrumming with magic, it was as solid as stone beneath my touch.
It’s some king of forcefield.
Desperate to rescue my parents and get to my mate, my beast seized control and beat my hand against the barrier. It didn’t budge. Completely out of control, I punched the forcefield and winced.
Shaking their heads, my parents lurched closer to thebarrier. I inspected my shaking hand and bloodied knuckles and cursed. My gaze, however, caught on something beneath me.
Before the platform, an imprint of two massive paws was embedded into slabs of gray rock. As fear seized my heart, the sweat on my skin became ice.
Anticipating the beast’s mental attack, I blocked my chimera from forcing a shift.
“Wait,” I told the beast. “Maybe it’s a trick or a trap—maybe we’re not supposed to shift at all.”
Inside, the beast growled. It didn’t need words to convey its message. I gathered clearly from its frustration that it thought I was full of horseshit.
On the countdown above me, the seconds ticked by. Each passing moment brought my parents and Ryder closer to danger.
How long would it take me to find Ryder?
I studied my parents’ worried faces and swallowed.
If I shift,I warned my inner beast,you can’t completely take over.
Jumping on the crack in my resolve, my inner beast snatched control. Terrified, I resisted the change. Between my tenseness and my tired muscles, the pain of the shift was blinding and so slow, every pop of bone and crack of flesh reverberated through my being.
Gods,I thought.Why does it have to hurt so badly?
My beast grumbled in frustration, as if to say,it doesn’t.
When the change was complete, I didn’t bellow triumphantly or lick my long, ferocious teeth. I sagged to the ground, drained of strength and will.
I didn’t rise.
???
Ryder
“Ryder,” Mom cooed and placed a kiss atop my head. “Do you know why I named you that?”
We sat in my twin bed with a book on our laps. As Mom had read, I’d barely paid attention to the plot, though I hadn’t complained of boredom. I savored these moments when I captured her attention completely. In the confines of my cozy bedroom, she wasn’t an alpha female.
