Page 114 of Craved By a Wolf

And that had led to her growing convinced that he no longer wanted to be her mate.

She had started watching him more closely whenever they were together, seeking a sign that he wanted to claim her or proof that he was enjoying his freedom. He had his mate, but no bond to tie them.

Meaning he was free to come and go as he pleased.

He could leave her.

It turned out that life without MacKinnon was one she didn’t want to live.

She was all in with this and it frightened her. She had never been in love like this. She had never felt so dependent upon someone else, as if they were the source of her light and life and without them she knew only darkness and emptiness.

MacKinnon’s brow furrowed and his fingers paused against her cheek. “Lass? What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, the same response she gave him whenever he caught her feeling down and doubting everything.

He frowned at her when she brushed his hand away from her face and walked towards the stairs, unpinning her hair at the same time to let it tumble around her shoulders. She paused at the bottom of the stairs, her hand on the newel post and her heart hurting.

“Maybe you should go without me,” she whispered, hating how defeated she sounded and how her heart ached at the thought of him leaving her, even if it was only to go to a celebration at his pack’s home.

And that was another thing.

He kept saying that she would meet his pack soon.

But he never took her there.

They always ended up distracted by each other and staying at her home, and then the next morning he would go back to his pack without her.

“Go without you? Nay, lass. Why would I do that?” He came up behind her and she remained facing away from him, struggling to pull herself together and vanquish the voices in her head, the ones that mocked her and made her doubt him. “Tell me what’s bothering you. You used to speak your mind so freely. Now I can barely get you to say two words to me.”

He reached for her and then dropped his hand to his side.

Was silent for seconds that felt like hours as they ticked past at an excruciatingly slow pace.

His voice was rough and low as he asked, “Do you no’ want me anymore?”

“No! It’s not—” She spun to face him and her shoulders sagged, the sudden surge of strength leaving her as her gaze collided with his and she caught the hurt in it.

She was no good at this. She had never managed to make a relationship work, and she had a sinking feeling this one—the first and only one to mean everything to her—was going to go the same way. She looked into his eyes and then clenched her fists. He was right. She used to speak her mind so freely. She never used to mince her words.

Not until he had tied her heart in knots.

She shook her head. He hadn’t just tied it in knots. He had stolen it and held it in his grasp, and she was terribly afraid he meant to crush it. She was afraid he would never give her what she had come to realise she wanted from him during the last few weeks. She had witnessed Fenix with his mate, and Fenix’s new friends with their mates, and a hole had grown inside her.

A hollow yearning for the one thing Kin wouldn’t give her.

“Why don’t you want to claim me?” The words leaked from her, trembling and sounding weak to her ears.

His demeanour changed in an instant, his frown melting away into a look that wrenched at her heart as his gaze softened. It lasted only a heartbeat before his eyes turned gold and hardened, his dark eyebrows knitting above them, and he startled her by suddenly fisting the front of his shirt.

“Dinnae want tae claim ye?” he growled and tightened his fist. “Whatever gave you that impression? Is that what this is all about?”

She backed off a step and then realised what she had done and stood her ground, tipping her chin up and squaring her shoulders, facing him in the way she should have done the moment she had discovered what she really wanted from him.

How deeply she loved him.

“You said so yourself. You said you’d never claim me,” she snapped back at him.

His face darkened and he looked as if he might rage and break everything in her shop, and then he drew down a deep breath and huffed and his shoulders relaxed. “Aye, I did say that, but no’ because I dinnae want to claim you. I said it because you were afraid and I needed you to know you had no reason to be fearing me.”

---