Page 98 of The Wolf and the Chimera
She was just my mom.
“Why?” I asked.
I remembered her reasoning, but I wanted to hear her say it. After struggling to control my shift all day, I wanted to know she still believed in me—that she always would.
“Because as soon as I saw you,” she said, “I knew you’d be fast enough to ride any wind and brave enough to ride out any storm.”
“Dad yelled at me,” I reminded her quietly. “He said I should be getting better at this by now—”
“He shouldn’t have,” she said and brushed my hair again, “but he’s under a lot of pressure, and no matter how badly we try to be perfect, we aren’t. That’s why we work as a team to take care of you. We always will.”
She smiled, and I snuggled deeper into her embrace.
As quickly as the memory had consumed me, it spat me back into the soul-sucking cold of the darkness. With disgust shining in her eyes, Freya waited for me.
“So pathetic,” she mused. “I sacrificed myself to save you and Walker and my coven, and you’re too scared to even practice wielding your dominance.”
“I know,” I murmured. “Iknow,Freya.”
“Do you wish to be human?” Freya crooned. “Like your pretty mate does?”
I tried to back away from her, but there was nowhere to go. The darkness rooted me in place with an icy grip.
“If she had her way,” Freya continued, “Ellewouldbe human, and you know what that means? She never would’vemet you. That’s herdream,Ryder. A world without magic and mates and you.”
Freya prowled closer. Unlike the vitriol in her words, her pale, freckled skin and lavender scent was so familiar.
“You can’t even blame her,” she whispered, “not when you’ve hated humans all this time for their choices.”
“Stop,” I said. “Stop it, Freya.”
“Humans don’thaveto be Alphas,” she said. “Humans aren’t assigned predestined mates. Humans don’t lose their mommies to fate.”
Freya clasped my face, and any lingering warmth leaked from my body.
“I know,” she continued in that soft, deadly voice. “I know how ungrateful and jealous andpatheticyou are, just like I know that deep down, you were glad it was me who got left behind.”
I shook beneath Freya’s touch and the weight of her words.
“You’re glad you got to save your mate instead,” Freya whispered, “even though you didn’t even want her. Even though you’re still too scared to claim her.”
“No,” I countered. “I didn’t know, Frey. I didn’t know you didn’t come with us.”
“But you didn’t scent me on Arion’s back,” she said. Her voice grew stronger. “You didn’t spot the cracks in my astral projection.”
Freya drew even closer, until her breath fanned across my face.
“I know the truth,” she whispered. “You can lie to everyone else, but I know the truth because I know you.”
My stomach sank with dread, but I couldn’t stop the question from tumbling from my lips. “What?”
Freya’s eyes were so bright, and her freckles were so familiar. Heat emanated from her body. In the cold, empty darkness, she was the only thing tangible. She was real.
“You couldn’t forgive me,” she continued in that deadly,soft voice. “You couldn’t forgive me for hurting you, or for handing your mate away. You wanted me to be left behind. You thought Ideservedit.”
Under her touch, I trembled. Her words echoed into the darkness, so loudly they hurt my ears.
“No,” I argued, “no,Freya—”
