Page 26 of The Wolf and the Chimera
Elle was stunning. She was so obviously beautiful, she was impossible to ignore, but I hadn’t let myself imagine what it would feel like to have her in my arms. Her lilac and sandalwood scent had been a hit of a powerful drug, and the soft gasp she’d emitted when I pulled her closer had been a heady shot of whiskey. Even as I ran from her and the painful past she insisted on bringing up, I wanted more of her. It had taken all my self-control not to finish what we had started in that quiet stairwell.
It took a ridiculous amount of willpower not to run to her now.
The wind shifted, and I moved with it, so the deer wouldn’t catch my scent on the breeze. Sunlight filtered through the trees, which I maneuvered carefully around and avoided the exposed expanses of grass. My claws dug into the rocks and soil. Water rushed nearby. I crested a hill and spotted my prey below me.
A waterfall crashed into a pool of crystalline water, which trickled into a creek that continued through the valley below. Three deer, two does and a fawn, drank from the pool. They were oblivious to the predator above them.
I crouched to leap upon the nearest doe, but something stopped me. The waterfall’s roar was too powerful—magic amplified it. It thrummed in the air and raised my hackles. I searched for its source but found nothing out of the ordinary.
The musky scent of wolves caught the wind.
I spun and faced two familiar gray wolves. As they growled and crept closer, I bared my teeth. The wolves were large and strong, but I was an Alpha’s son.
They didn’t stand a chance.
Instead of giving me the fight I desired, however, the creepy twins shifted.
“We don’t hunt the waterfall,” one of them said.
What were their names? Micah? Kowan?
“It’s sacred,” the other one added. “Hunt elsewhere.”
Without further explanation, they shifted forms and vanished into the woods. I looked back at the magical waterfall, and it set my teeth on edge. I decided to hunt elsewhere, not because the creepy twins told me to, but because I didn’t want to eat anything that drank from those waters.
???
Elle
Because I wasn’t a dog who sat and stayed according to Ryder’s commands, I explored the chateau. Lots of it was gathering halls and residential wings, but I had traversed endless, white-walled halls and stumbled upon the library.
It was glorious.
Shelves and shelves of colorful books extended to the high, round ceiling. Overhead, light filtered through the stained glass, which depicted wolves running in the woods past a huge waterfall. A plush couch occupied the center of the space, and colorful lamps provided additional light.
I walked past one of several ladders and couldn’t resist the urge to push it past the shelves. In all my travels, I had never experienced a library that had rolling ladders. I pushed it again and giggled. Someone cleared their throat.
With flaming cheeks, I faced the library’s double-doored entryway. A female werewolf with salt and pepper curls and deep-set wrinkles around her mouth glowered at me. She straightened the broach on her gray cardigan, which was crafted into an odd, swirling shape I had seen stamped inside the covers of the books.
“This is not a playground,” she chided in a low voice.
“Sorry,” I said. My sheepish smile was genuine. “I got too excited. This place is incredible. Are you the librarian?”
She snorted and tapped her broach. “I am a Keeper.”
Keeper,I mused. The term sounded familiar. Dad had always taught me knowledge was power, which was why I knew so much about the various supernatural species and how they interacted with each other. I recalled what I had learned about Keepers.
“Of course,” I said. “Every Leader possesses a library of knowledge so vast, a Keeper is assigned to protect and care for it.”
This older woman, with her delicate frame and cotton clothes, truly was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Only the fiercest and most loyal of the Leaders’ followers rose to the status of Keeper.
“Exactly,” she said and stepped closer. “I am also responsible for navigating the endless knowledge of this place and helping the Sovereign utilize it. It’s why I know just how dangerous books can be.”
Her cold, unblinking gaze didn’t waver from mine. I recognized, however, what simmered under her bluster.
Fear.
As the chimera, it was something that wasn’t difficult for me to identify.
