Page 24 of Craved By a Wolf

MacKinnon wobbled on his feet, labouring for air as the darkness swept up on him.

He had sworn no one would ever hold him again.

He lifted his bleak gaze to Hella and stared into her eyes as they widened.

And now his fated female had him chained.

Chapter 8

The wolf exploded towards Hella, his golden eyes holding a feral light and his fangs enormous as he snarled at her. She stumbled backwards, hitting the low bookcase again, her heart shooting into her mouth. The chains snapped tight and he grunted as the momentum yanked him backwards, away from her. He turned on them with a savage growl, desperately attacking them, and she fought to catch her breath and calm her racing heart.

The ground beneath her shook with each violent lunge of his body as he battled the chains, his muscles bunching beneath his dark grey Henley, bulging with each fierce tug he made. The edges of the metal cuffs bit into his wrists, spilling his blood down his hands and all over the floor.

Hella stared at it as it splattered across the floorboards, her mind full of his grunts and growls, the desperate sounds tearing at her together with the sight of so much blood.

“Stop!” She jerked towards him, her hands flying up, desperation flooding her now.

He turned on her with a vicious snarl that peeled his lips off his fangs, his expression savage as he lunged for her again. She reared back, fear sweeping through her as he turned his wrath on her for a moment before he returned to fighting his bonds.

“Calm down,” she murmured, hoping the soft tone would soothe him, even when something inside her called her stupid. There was no calming this wolf down. She had set fire to his rage, ignited this wild and dangerous side of him, and he was the one paying for it. Blood rolled down the chains as he heaved backwards, straining to break the chains, and she shook her head and whispered, “Stop. You’re hurting yourself.”

Mother earth, if she had known he would react this way to being chained, she never would have done it. Her stomach churned as she slowly approached him, fearing the moment he noticed her closing the distance between them, aware he would turn his rage on her again and this time she was close enough that he might actually strike her.

“Calm down.” She held her hands up, feeling sick as he didn’t let up, his violent attempts to break free shaking the ground beneath her feet. When he turned his claws on himself, shredding his top and catching his skin beneath it as he ripped it from him, panic and guilt had her lurching a step towards him again. “If you calm down, I’ll—”

She had wanted to say she would release him, but he twisted and launched at her, and she staggered backwards, narrowly avoiding his claws as they slashed through the air in her direction. She fell, landing on her backside, and stared up at him, her breaths coming so rapidly that she felt dizzy.

The wolf breathed faster too, the crazed look in his eyes relaying his panic as it mounted.

“Just calm down. Breathe.” She didn’t dare stand up, not while he was glaring down at her, liable to strike her if she moved. “Like this.”

She fought to breathe calmly and evenly, denying her need to keep on panting for air, battling the panic that closed her throat. For a moment, she thought it was working and his breathing was growing more even, and then he twisted and snarled, wrapped the chains around his hands and pulled on them, every muscle in his body straining with effort.

Calming him down before releasing him wasn’t going to work. She could see that now. Something about being chained had triggered this reaction, and that revelation only made her feel worse. This wolf had done nothing wrong. He had saved her in the river, preventing her from drowning, and she had repaid him by tricking him into lowering his guard so she could chain him.

And why?

Because he had declared she was his one true mate?

She felt like a fool, was sure she should be stronger than this, but something about that scared her. Too many men had suddenly decided she belonged to them, were trying to strip her freedom from her. It had rattled her and she had reacted badly, stealing his freedom instead.

She should have considered the consequences of her actions.

The wolf breathed faster, his panic a palpable thing now, sucking the air from her lungs as guilt rushed through her. He attacked his cuffs, clawing at them and cutting himself in the process, and she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Hold still.” She summoned the counter-spell that would remove the shackles, quickly working through the incantation in her mind.

But not quickly enough.

The wolf cast her a bleak, wounded look and then staggered and dropped hard.

And passed out on her floor.

The shackles disappeared, exposing the damage he had done to his wrists, the deep lacerations that continued to spill blood on the wooden floorboards.

Her eyes widened as he shifted, transforming into a large black wolf, but it wasn’t the sight of him changing that shocked her.

It was the scars that littered his body, cutting through his fur. The long pink streaks arched over his back, all of them heading in different directions, and a few cut over his muzzle too.

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