Page 149 of The Wolf and the Chimera
I strained my ears. Our rubber suits scuffled against the narrow, metal walls, and our masked breaths mingled, but I couldn’t detect anything trailing us.
I opened my mouth to ask how far we were from my mate, but an achingly familiar voice snared my attention. If I hadn’t been listening so intently, I would have missed it.
“Yeah,” Kieran agreed, interrupting the distant voice.
I emitted a low, warning growl.
Without hesitation, he and Melanie stopped. Quiet stretched across the ducts, and I wondered if I had imagined Elle’s voice. In the surveillance room, she had been renderedcompletely unconscious by whatever sedative Lyall pumped into her body.
Movement scuffled, and a low, male voice spoke. Though I couldn’t discern his words, I recognized the deep timbre, and my hackles rose.
Lyall.
Slowly and carefully, I crawled closer. Silent as shadows, Melanie and Kieran followed me. No matter how carefully I moved, our breaths seemed unbearably loud.
Through a vent, I caught a glimpse of my bloodied, but unbroken mate. She still wore the yellow claiming dress, though it was torn and stained crimson. Her skin was ashen, and her limbs shook, as if the container she held above her head was impossibly heavy.
"You won't unleash it—not with your bastard mate still on the loose," Lyall said and swallowed. True fear lined his face and rounded his eyes. "Every second that passes undoubtedly draws him closer to you.”
Elle didn’t balk. She didn’t drop her chin an inch as she unflinchingly held the Sovereign’s gaze.
“Maybe I willput it down,” Elle threatened. “Maybe I’ll drop it before my mate reaches us.”
Without waiting another second, I summoned claws and shredded through my suit, then through the vent itself. I dove through it, welcoming the metal that bit into my skin.
As I landed in a crouch in front of my mate, muscles and fur stretched across my shoulders. My jaw cracked and elongated, allowing room for my lupine teeth. As my feet grew claws and muscles and fur spread along my legs, I ripped off the remainder of my hazmat suit and bared my teeth at Lyall.
Already partially shifted, he grinned. “Finally.”
???
Elle
As Ryder and Lyall fought with the speed and strength of Sovereigns, horror and awe mingled.
My mate had come.
He had come for me.
In humanoid forms, the two wolves grappled. Their shirts had ripped from the muscles that stretched underneath them, and their jaws had elongated to allow for brutal, sharp teeth. Claws had replaced their fingernails. As they swiped and parried and lunged and clawed, they moved so swiftly, their forms blurred in my vision.
That,however, could’ve been from the exhaustion and weakness that plagued me.
I threw the container onto the countertop and took heaving breaths to clear my head. Without the bronze in my hands, some of my strength returned, and my chimera stirred.
Ryder shoved Lyall out of the room with brutal force, and I lunged for him.
“Wait—”
Rough, male hands held me back. I sucked in a breath at the touch, which grazed one of the many wounds that covered my arms.
“Sorry!” Though the voice was muffled, I recognized it as Kieran’s and faced him.
Lifting the mask from his face, Kieran offered me a grim smile. Legs hung out of the hole in the ceiling, and a she-wolf leaped, landing in a crouch. When Melanie pulled off her mask, blood stained her pink hair.
“You should see the other guy,” she promised.
From the hall, Ryder flung Lyall into the narrow door, and it cracked under the impact. Growling, Lyall twisted and raked his claws down Ryder’s bicep. My heart lurched, but my mate roared and shoved Lyall through the door. Wood splintered, and I shielded my eyes from the debris.
