Page 92 of Craved By a Wolf

His strides slowed as he approached the small rundown white house and he saw the door was open. His senses stretched outwards, sharpening until he could hear and smell everything.

And his stomach dropped.

He could smell Hella but the scent was faint.

Tinged with an acrid note.

Fear.

He hurried to the door and growled when he saw it wasn’t just open, it was hanging off its hinges. Ice skittered down his spine as he stepped into the room—a room that looked as if he had gone at it in a rage. He didn’t think the place was a mess because she had packed up and left in a hurry to avoid him, because she kept everything of value in her precious carpet bag. Not only that, but books and broken glass littered the floor. She wouldn’t have left those tomes behind or broken so much of her vital equipment and ingredients bottles if she had been packing to leave. She would have been careful with them.

The table had been tipped over too, so the top faced him, and the armchair had been toppled and dragged closer to the door.

She hadn’t left by choice.

He drew down a deeper breath, catching her scent and a hint of masculine musk that was familiar.

Nymph.

He growled low as rage curled through his veins.

The king had found her.

Chapter 27

Hella was in the deepest sort of shit. She had been so hurt and angry when she had been walking through the Geneva fae town after exiting the portal that she hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings.

And she had walked right into a trap.

She hadn’t noticed the nymphs in her temporary home until it had been too late. This time, Ethyrian wasn’t playing around either. The second she had stepped into her home, a spell had activated, freezing her in place. Meaning the nymph had hired a witch to do his dirty work. Guards had rushed in before she could figure out the counter-spell and she had ended up with a very fancy new pair of bracelets.

The kind that stripped her magic from her.

Not only that, but she was no longer a guest in the ivory tower of Ethyrian’s castle.

She was now a certified prisoner, slumming it in a dank cell that was more than a little smelly. Water dripped somewhere in the distance, the constant plip-plip-plip driving her insane, and something kept skittering around in the dark and she hoped it didn’t try to eat her, because she had no way to defend herself.

She cursed the silver cuffs that were tight around her wrists, not the one-size-fits-all that the nymphs had used on her before. They had been tailored specifically for her.

She cursed Kin too.

Hella rubbed her bare knees and hugged them as she sat on the damp, thin mattress someone had slung on the stone floor for her. She had never had her heart broken before, but she figured this was what it felt like. She couldn’t even muster the energy to yell and scream until the guards got annoyed enough that they came to shut her up.

For a moment there, everything had been perfect.

Or as close to perfect as it had ever been.

She’d had a good, somewhat growly and possessive, guy she could have probably smoothed the rough edges off to upgrade him to great. She had been having mind-blowing and earth-shattering sex. And for the first time she had signed up as the small spoon in a cuddle-fest that had given her the best sleep of her life.

And she had felt loved.

And that was the real kick in the lady balls.

She didn’t remember ever feeling so loved.

Her family had pushed her off onto the coven as soon as they were able and had never wanted her back for the holidays, and it had made her feel as if she didn’t deserve love, as if she was going to go through her life without finding someone she loved who loved her in return.

And then Kin had come along.

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