Page 73 of The Wolf and the Chimera
I snapped.
As I surged to my feet, a guttural roar tore through my ragged throat.
Strength coursed through my veins like a drug, and pain burst from between my shoulder blades. As I bellowed at the Minotaur, I let the agony fuel me. Though the leathery wings in my periphery weighed enough to make holding them off the ground almost impossible, I gritted my teeth and flared them.
My vision sharpened, allowing me to track the slight widening in his eyes. Scents flooded my nostrils—sand, sweat,fear.
The Minotaur was afraid.
He was afraid of me.
That wild, angry beast inside me bellowed.
“Good,” I spat. “I amnotanother victim. I amnotjust another chimera.”
I took a step closer, and the Minotaur recoiled. From deep within my chest, I growled in victory and fixed my gaze upon the distant, shimmering window atop the coliseum and bared my teeth.
“Iam Elle Riley.” Booming with power, my voice shook the coliseum’s blood-stained walls. “And youshouldbe afraid.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Ryder
Through the looking glass, Elle’s eyes blazed red with power, and my wolf thrashed against Circe’s hold. As my wolf beheld my fierce, daring mate, dominance sang in my blood and roared in my ears. My power staved off Circe’s will like a snake shedding dead skin.
As my howl shook the walls of the domed room, Circe spun to face me.
Elle’s enraged, righteous face was a portrait behind her. Her parents stood frozen at Circe’s sides, but across the room, Kieran, Melanie, and Bo shook free from her spell. As their faces contorted to allow their canines to elongate, their howls joined mine.
Only Elle’s parents stopped me from leaping upon the witch. Neither me nor my wolf would put them in the crossfire. I partially shifted, and my voice was garbled by my humanoid jaw. The command in it, however, was clear.
“Take me to her.”
In a flash of light and sickening tunnel of magic, we reappeared on the hot, sandy floors of the coliseum. Though my vision swam, I rushed to Elle’s side. Blood crusted her nose, but her magic had already healed the wound.
Instead of experiencing an overwhelming need to protect her, I wanted to relish her strength. I wanted ourenemies to look upon us and know we were not to be challenged.
I wanted them to know she was mine, and I was hers, and the world would burn before we were ripped apart.
I placed Elle’s hand over my heart, which beat in time with the pulse thrumming under her skin. In the moment the Minotaur had towered over her, I had seen beneath all her carefully crafted masks. I had seen the hurt and rage and fear and how it had boiled over—how deep down, it had honed her not into a victim, but a warrior.
A warrior whose beast was finally freed in a realm without the sorceress.
“We will make them pay,” I vowed.
“We will,” Circe agreed, and I snarled at the witch.
Elle and the other wolves replicated the sound.I realized Circe had portaled them and the Guardians into the coliseum. Elle’s parents suddenly gasped for breath and reached for the blades strapped to their sides. The Minotaur inched toward Circe, but Elle glared at the beast, and it hesitated.
“Do you really want to be her favorite toy?” Elle asked the creature.
It grumbled and angled its body toward Circe, but in an offensive stance.
“Incredible,” the ancient witch whispered. Her smile was dreamy. “After so many centuries, here you finally are. The Queen of the Wild Things.”
I growled. “Do you want first blood, mate? Or should I draw it?”
Like a true predator, Elle cocked her head and sniffed her prey.
