Christmas Chimera by Zoe Chant

Author:Zoe Chant [Chant, Zoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-12-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Riding Colton was nothing like riding a horse. He was roughly horse-sized, so Jo thought it should be, but it really wasn't. There was something much more predatory about the way he moved: the way he crouched to launch himself upward, and the way that once he left the earth, his feet moved through the air like a predator chasing something down, not a prey animal running. His wings strained far more than they'd done when he'd flown alone, and Jo's heart hammered in her chest at the feeling of his great muscles bunching and releasing as he reached for the skies.

Then all at once he was fully airborne and comfortable, the change unexpected and remarkable. She buried her face in his mane, a little afraid to look down and hiding it by inhaling the scent of him. Somehow he smelled like himself both as a chimera and a human: warm, comforting, a little wild, like the wind was always caught in his hair. Jo held on, suddenly and strangely feeling safer than she ever had in her entire life. She didn't know how that could be with a near stranger, with a man who shifted back and forth into a mythological animal, but it was true.

And it was true that although they would only know each other a few days at most, his absence would leave a hole in her heart that would never heal.

It was that, of all things, that made her lift her face from the thick warmth of his mane. If this was the only chance she had to experience life with Colton Drew, to experience the kind of life he could lead, then she didn't want to miss a moment of it.

Wind tore tears from her eyes as soon as she lifted her head, and her cheeks went numb almost instantly, but it was worth it. They flew north just above the treetops, Colton's feet loping along like he leaped from one tree to another. They were still climbing, following the line of trees to the lowest place between the mountains—off to her left, now; to the west, but not very far west. Jo twisted to look over her shoulder, and from just this little extra height, she could see how the mountains stretched far to the south of them.

A little extra height, she thought, and laughed. A lot of the trees they were flying over were Douglas firs, which grew to over seventy feet tall, even in the cold mountains. They were much higher than they'd been, in other words. No wonder she could see for what felt like forever.

Colton clearly knew where he was going, but Jo had no sense of their speed. It seemed fast; it was certainly faster than either of them could walk, even if there wasn't deep, heavy snow to fight their way through. She glanced back once more, seeing that their camp site had long-since been left behind, and then she hid her hands and face in the thick heat of Colton's mane again, and didn't look up until he finally landed.

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