Page 58 of Craved By a Wolf

As she felt him pass beyond the sphere of her spell.

Hella roused herself and hurried down the stairs and out into the street, an apology on the tip of her tongue.

Only MacKinnon was gone.

She sank to her knees on the cobbles, her heart heavier than ever as she thought about what she had said and how she had sounded. She pressed her hands to her chest, guilt whirling through her as she considered how she would have felt if their positions had been reversed and she had been owned by someone, how ashamed she would have been, and how much it would have hurt her to have someone else point it out in the way she had.

She stared into the distance.

Feeling empty, as if someone had just torn something out of her.

Sure she would never see him again.

And hoping that she would.

Chapter 18

MacKinnon was done with witches.

He leaned forwards on his seat, rested his chin on his upturned palm and watched the fire hungrily devouring the logs Gregor and the others had stacked in the centre of the clearing. He rested his left forearm on his knee and let his whisky dangle from his fingertips, lost in the dance of the flames.

Feeling as if they were devouring him too.

How many weeks had it been since he had last seen Hella? The answer to that was too many and every day was a battle against himself, against his need to see her. He cast his gaze down at his drink and stared at it, memories of her dancing through his mind to torment him. His eyes shifted to his wrist, to the faint scars that encircled it beyond the sleeve of his black Henley, and he sighed.

A few days after he had returned home, the shackles he had been trying to remove through a variety of means had simply fallen off.

It had startled him and he had stilled in the clearing, halfway between his cottage and the tool shed where Gregor had been waiting for him with the method of their next attempt to remove the restraints—a circular saw.

Kin had found himself staring at the silver cuffs where they had rested on the grass.

And a heavy feeling had grown in the pit of his stomach.

A reason they had fallen off his wrists.

Hella was done with him.

She no longer viewed him as a threat to her, no longer believed he would return to her, and had moved on with her life.

The fallen shackles at his feet had felt like a symbol of their bond, one she had set him free from, severing it and leaving him adrift.

Without her.

It had felt as if someone had taken hold of something inside him and broken it.

Kin had howled so long and so loud that everyone had come out to see what was happening, and Gregor and his little mate had ushered everyone back inside when Kin had slumped forwards and pitifully grabbed the shackles and clutched them to his chest.

A moment of weakness. That was all it had been. In that instant, it had felt as if a bond they had shared had been shattered and his only tie to Hella had been ripped from him, and his wolf had responded badly.

Was still responding badly.

He stared at the whisky, swirling it around, not interested in drinking it. He wasn’t interested in anything anymore. He had forgotten how to laugh. Couldn’t remember the last time he had smiled. Vaguely recalled saying something to Gregor a few days ago, but was sure he hadn’t spoken a word since then.

His wolf kept him quiet, lost in thoughts of Hella even when they tormented him. Was she out there, enjoying her life? With another male? Did she ever think of him? Did she feel this same choking emptiness that filled him? Or was she filled with joy because she was free of him?

Kin dropped his head to his palm and covered his eyes as despair engulfed him and had his wolf side howling, calling for his mate. Did she miss him as badly as he missed her?

The voices that had been filling the silence of the glen gradually quietened and he grew aware of everyone looking at him. He pulled down a breath and reminded himself that tonight was a celebration. Ewan was coming of age and it was a time for happiness, not misery. The young wolf had his whole life ahead of him, had reached maturity at a tender ninety-seven, ten years before Kin himself had become an adult. As his alpha, he should be the one making all the noise, turning this into the celebration it should be and teasing the wolf about his newfound desires, maybe even offering to take him to the fae town for a night to see if he could find a female to bed.

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