Page 16 of Craved By a Wolf

“And then my head concubine, Iryna, will be chained on her knees and you and I shall watch as Lesharius, my commander, punishes her with his cock and when you are aching, my sweet, I shall unlace myself and make her swallow my shaft until you are begging for me to plant it between your thighs.” He stroked his hand down the flat of her stomach, edging towards that place.

She was learning something new about Ethyrian every second, and she wasn’t enjoying it. He had never shown this side of himself to her before. She hadn’t even had an inkling that he was this dark and perverse. How long would it be before she was the one strapped down on her knees, being punished by him and his commander?

She swallowed the bile that rose into her throat and made her decision.

Hella turned in his arms and he caged her against the wall, pressing the evidence of his arousal against her stomach. She tensed when he reached for her skirts, fisting them and dragging them up, his blue eyes so bright with hunger that they glowed in the waning light. Cool air kissed her bare thighs, panic lanced her, and she pressed her hands to his chest.

And pushed as hard as she could.

He stumbled away from her.

And she tipped backwards.

Over the wall.

And screamed as she plummeted towards the river.

Chapter 5

Finding the portal to Lucia hadn’t been easy, but MacKinnon had managed it. It had used up several of the charges in the token Abigail had given him, a small wooden skull-shaped disc that was firmly tucked in the pocket of his jeans. He checked it again, not wanting to be stuck in this mystical realm because he had lost the damned thing.

Although, it was a beautiful place.

Green. Ethereal.

White buildings rose like great sharpened bones from the dense forest of pines that were each as tall as a redwood, spearing a turquoise sky that sparkled with faint stars. The glade around him was vibrant, the grass threaded with violet and golden flowers that shifted in the breeze, releasing a sweet fragrance. Mossy boulders dotted the clearing, strange colourful birds landing on them to peck for insects or chirp at him before flying away into the trees. Water as clear as diamonds ran in a sweeping shallow stream to his right, rippling over crystalline boulders.

It didn’t seem real.

Even the light wasn’t right. It was warm—magical—and the air sparkled as if someone had tossed handfuls of gold glitter into it.

This whole place was like a dream.

Kin had never felt so out of place or so far from home. He kept his senses sharpened as he quietly moved along the riverbank, every step he took crushing blooms to make them release more scent into the thick air. He glanced off to his left, his gaze lifting beyond the treetops to the arch-shaped towers that rose beyond them, and the sensible part of him said to head that way, towards civilisation.

The cautious part of him warned to keep his distance.

He was a stranger in a land of fae, and he doubted they would welcome the intrusion. The few fae he had questioned in Geneva about Lucia and how to get there had all warned him to forget his mission. When he had told them that he couldn’t, that this was a matter of life and death, they had said it would be his death but had reluctantly told him what they knew.

One of them had left him with grim words about staying out of the shadows.

Whatever that meant.

Kin didn’t understand the warning, but he still found himself instinctively staying in the light, charting a course that followed the river. He had been walking for what felt like hours, avoiding areas where he sensed there were people. The urge to approach some of them was growing stronger as the minutes ticked by and he still hadn’t found Hella. Maybe they would be nice enough to point him in the direction of the nymphs.

Maybe they would gut him where he stood.

Or worse.

He barely bit back the growl that rumbled up his throat as fur swept over his forearms and his claws lengthened in response to the imagined threat to his freedom. Never again. No one in this world or the mortal one would shackle him. He would be no one’s prisoner.

No one’s entertainment.

So approaching the fae and asking them if they knew where the nymphs were or had seen Hella was out of the question. He couldn’t reveal himself. It was too dangerous.

But he was getting nowhere.

And it was getting dark.

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