Page 159 of The Wolf and the Chimera
“They’re baiting you,” I told him. “Don’t let it work.”
“I get it now,” Kowan taunted, “after having her magic in my veins and her body underneath me, I would give up the chance to be Sovereign too—”
As he skidded to a stop, Ryder unleashed a growl that shook the chateau’s walls. Ahead of us, Melanie and Kieran echoed it.
“Keepgoing,” I hissed at my friends and my mate, but they were lost to their rage.
Dominance coated the hall, and I balked at Ryder.
How did he have anything left after his battle with Lyall?
An auburn-haired woman with blazing green eyes rounded the corner, and I realized it wasn’t Ryder’s magic that halted the twins in their tracks.
It was Kalli’s.
She walked with a limp, and bruises lined her arms. Her face was still bloody and mangled from Lyall’s attack, but she stood with the strength of a Sovereign wolf. The force of it brought Kowan and Micah to their knees.
“Go,” she ordered us. “I’ll deal with these two.”
“Mom,” Kieran whispered.
“Go,”she repeated.
“Come with us,” Ryder commanded.
Though her power didn’t lessen, the rage in her eyes softened. Ever so slightly, Ryder’s chin wobbled.
“Don’t stay here,” he pleaded. “Mom, come with us.”
Mom.
In all the time they had shared these past weeks, he had never called her that.
“Please,” Kieran added. “It’s too dangerous here.”
“No,” she said softly but firmly. “You two must leave. Your place in fixing this mess of a world is out there, but mine is here.”
“How?” Ryder asked. “How can you want to stay with him?”
Such raw, unchecked emotion lined his face.
Did Kalli know that whatever she said next had the power to destroy him?
“I’m the only one left,” she whispered, “the only one left with any chance of checking his power. Ihaveto stay.”
Kalli swallowed. “Fate has deemed that I am to be by his side, and that is where I will be.”
In that moment, I finally understood the she-wolf who had left behind a life and wolf and son that she loved. It hadn’t been mere fear of her abuser or the manipulation of a mate bond, but a sense of duty so heavy, she had been too afraid to look back on what she had lost.
Kalli’s gaze bored into her two sons.
“Wherever you go,” she whispered, “know that I love you.”
Her gaze flitted to mine. “Be safe, Queen of the Wild Things.”
There was no time to question how she knew the title Circe had given me.
There was only time to say goodbye.
