Page 83 of Craved By a Wolf

Her smile grew a little and she tapped his chest with her fingers. “Flattery will get you everywhere… but I know for a fact these non-flaws have irritated you plenty of times, and they irritated my teachers and superiors at the coven far more than that.”

A sigh escaped her lips, drawing his gaze to them and his thoughts to kissing her again.

“I was a fast learner. I mastered spells beyond my years, impressing them in that way at least… but my attitude didn’t impress them as much. I had no interest in doing as I was told and preferred to do what I wanted. When they tried to train me to be more like them… to be different… I acted out. The more they tried to control me… the wilder I became.”

“You don’t like people trying to change you.” He didn’t want to count the number of times he had tried to do such a thing to her. He regretted them all now and vowed he wouldn’t try to change her again or impose his will upon her in any way.

He was done with that kind of behaviour.

He would rather things continued like this, with them both enjoying each other’s company and growing closer.

She pulled a thoughtful face and then her features relaxed. “Would you like it?”

He shook his head.

“Everyone at the coven kept trying to change me, and it made me feel like I wasn’t good enough.” She brushed her fingers through the short hair on his chest, her gaze growing distant, and he cursed himself for his part in trying to change her. “I couldn’t wait to get out of there. As soon as I was old enough, I left, and I never looked back. I have my business now and my independence, and I’ve made something of myself.”

She made them sound like kindred spirits. Both of them had fought to free themselves of what had been a prison to them. Both of them had been determined to be strong and make their mark on the world, proving their worth even if it was only to themselves.

Both of them had overcome a difficult childhood, but it had shaped them. It had hardened him and made him aggressive towards anyone who would seek to chain him and control him.

And gods, it had done the same to her.

The bonds she feared weren’t physical though. They were emotional. She feared letting someone get too close to her, afraid they would try to change her or perhaps that they would leave her alone in this world.

And she feared him placing a claim on her because she viewed it as a shackle, a way of controlling her.

Changing her.

“I would never change you, lass.” He let the words tumble from his lips, sure they were a mistake but he needed her to know where he stood and that she was wrong about him. “Anyone who tries to change you is wrong. I’d never change a thing about you.”

Her cheeks pinkened and then she got that look in her eyes, the one that said she wanted to call him on something and he knew what it was, so he pressed a finger to her lips to silence her.

“A mating mark isn’t a way of controlling you, Hella. It’s far from it.” He tipped his head back into the pillow and sought the right words, the ones that would convey how he felt whenever he thought about his mark on her nape or about fated mates. “If you consented to be my mate, the mark would signify that we were bound… aye… but more than that, it would show the world that I’m taken. Wolves would know the mark is mine.”

“And that I’m yours.” She sounded upset, so he lowered his gaze to her. Only there wasn’t anger in her eyes. There was a softness that warmed his soul.

He sighed. “Aye, they would know you’re my mate, but they would knowI’m yours. What you said, lass… about owning… I think you’re right. I might be the one to mark you, but you’ll be the one to own me.”

She already did.

She owned him. Heart, soul and body.

“Why don’t the men end up with marks on their napes?” She looked irritated by the thought the marking was one-sided.

He took pleasure in correcting her. “They do. Gregor, my second in command, bears his mate’s mark on his nape. When they mated, she bit him so hard he needed stitches. I’d never seen Siobhan so terrified or Gregor so embarrassed when she came screaming into my home to get me.”

Hella cast a look he could only describe as pure longing at the side of his neck and the hairs on his nape rose, making it tingle with awareness and causing an ache to bloom deep in his chest.

For a heartbeat, he thought she would say something, perhaps admit that she wished she had fangs so she could mark him too, but then she closed her eyes and turned her head and rested it on his chest.

MacKinnon sighed and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tucked against his side and listening to her breathing as it changed, growing softer. When she had been still for some time, he angled his head away from her and looked down at her face.

Her beauty hit him hard.

Together with the fact she was sleeping in his arms.

Trusting him.

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