But for now, she had to be happy with what she’d found. She wasn’t alone anymore. She no longer felt as if she was going against the world on her own, and that was already worth a lot.
“So, what’s this about the chimera?” Chiara asked.
“He’s cursed,” Gareth said. “No one knows the details, but there are lots of different rumors. What most of us believe is that he came into his full powers, but he couldn’t find his mate. There are some mythological shifters so strong that they need love to balance their power. Otherwise, they go insane from it.”
“A mate,” Chiara repeated softly. Was that how Jared thought of her?
Because she knew that there was a strange connection between them. They’d instantly clicked, in a way she’d never experienced before.
Jared nodded slowly, his beautiful, sky-blue eyes gleaming as his fingers gently trailed along her own.
She felt a sudden wave of warmth running through her—not just the heat of attraction that had sizzled between them from the first moment, but something deeper, gentler.
She’d trusted him right from the start, the way she hadn’t been able to trust anyone before.
“Fortunately, griffins don’t go insane. But Gareth was so powerful that eventually, with no mate bond to protect his soul, the power literally ripped his mind apart.”
Chiara grimaced as she thought of the chimera’s power. She’d felt how strong he was. Was he really the right ally for her? If he’d gone insane, how did she know he wouldn’t turn against her?
“Don’t worry,” Jared hastily assured her. “He’s sane—mostly. It’s the part of him that’s a shifter that was torn apart. That’s also why he hides himself in shadows. He can’t control his shifting anymore.”
Chiara remembered the swirling shadows. She hadn’t been able to make out much. There’d been a serpent’s tail, part of a lion’s body, a dragon’s wings—but never for more than a few seconds.
Even imagining it made her feel dizzy. And what did it feel like for Gareth to have no control at all over his shifting body?
“Even so, he’s still powerful,” Jared reassured her.
“And he knows a lot.” Ginny gave her an encouraging look. “He’ll help you.”
Chiara sighed. “I hope so. I’m sick of getting kidnapped by dragons. If we can find this new elemental dragon, and your friends can stop whatever’s behind Zane...”
“They will,” Jared said earnestly. “Dragons are strong. And my friends are all good people. They’ve all got human mates, too. They know what’s at stake for the human world.”
“Who would have thought that one day, I’d be glad that shifters exist...” Chiara shook her head at herself.
Not long ago, she’d thought that all shifters were monsters. And now here she was, sitting in a kitchen with two shifters, eating cake.
“That reminds me... Are you a shifter too?” She gave Ginny a curious look.
Ginny didn’t really look like a dragon, but then, Chiara was slowly starting to learn that much about the shifter world was very different to what she’d imagined.
Ginny giggled softly, then shook her head. “I’m a mouse shifter.”
“A mouse shifter,” Chiara repeated, giving her a wide-eyed look. “Really? That’s a thing?”
A moment later, Chiara clapped her hand over her own mouth. “Sorry. That was really insensitive, wasn’t it? It’s just that the first shifter I ever saw was a werewolf. And I’ve spent the past few months thinking that all shifters are monsters.”
“It’s all right. I’m not offended.” Ginny smiled. “I can’t say that as a child, I didn’t dream of being a dragon instead... But sometimes, even a mouse can be useful. And no one really cares about mice. I don’t have evil dragons coming after me. That’s worth a lot.”
“The last time we had an attack on Sky Home, Ginny managed to squeeze into a ventilation shaft and ran to warn the chimera,” Jared said. “The fire dragon and Autumn, the earth dragon’s mate, were trapped underground together with Ginny. Only a mouse could make it out of there.”
“Oh, I can see how that’s useful.” Chiara eyed Ginny with awe.
Werewolves, griffins, and dragons—and now mouse shifters, too. Would the supernatural world ever stop surprising her?
Then Chiara grinn
ed. “It’s probably a good thing I’m not a mouse shifter, because as soon as you said that, I realized that as a kid, I would have broken into every candy store I came across.”