Mate of Her Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the doorway, the morning sunlight accentuating the golden hue of his skin.  He was a weight-lifter and boxed in his spare time, and the sun seemed to caress his broad shoulders and highlight the tautness of the t-shirt that stretched across his chest.  Her mouth watered as she let her eyes roam quickly down his body before her eyes snapped up to meet his.
    Luke was here.
    And she wasn’t ready to talk to him.
    Well, her body was.  But her brain had stalled out.
    What the hell was she going to say?
     
     

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
    Luke opened the door to Eveny’s apartment after knocking once.  He frowned when he saw a small suitcase just off to the side, along with a cooler.
    “Oh!”  Eveny came from the hall carrying a box and a pillow, stopping short when she saw him.  She stared at him as if she had never really seen him before.  Her eyes flitted up and down his body before meeting his again.
    “What’s going on, Ev?” he asked, shutting the door and leaning against it.  Unhappiness settled over him.
    She sank her top teeth into her bottom lip and shifted from foot to foot.  “I’m going away for a while.”
    Surprise shook him.  “You’re leaving town without saying goodbye?”
    Shaking her head, she said, “No, I was going to stop by your place and say goodbye.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “Away,” she said, her voice tinged with guilt.
    His suspicions were confirmed.  “It’s your heat, right?  You’re going into heat.”
    Her mouth dropped open and her head cocked to the side.  “How did you know?”
    “I’m not stupid, Ev.  I’ve grown up in the same town with a wolf pack.  I don’t know everything, but I do know some things.  At some point, every female disappears.”  He didn’t want to say it, but it tumbled from his lips before he could stop it.  “And they almost always come back with a mate.”
    Her eyes widened.  He wanted to be mad at her for thinking he was an idiot, but he wasn’t.  He was just incredibly sad.
    He closed the distance between them and took the box from her hands, putting it on the counter.  The lid was closed and it felt heavy, but he didn’t know what it contained.
    He put his hands on her shoulders as his heart pounded in his chest.  “Are you done with me, Ev?  Are we not friends anymore?”
    She reared back like he’d struck her and tears sprang into her eyes.  “No, Luke, never!”  Her bottom lip trembled and she stood still for only a moment and then threw herself into his arms.
    “I’m going through my heat alone, Luke.  My dad is letting me stay in the family cabin for the duration.”
    He inhaled the sweet scent of her coconut body wash and his body tightened.  He tried to clear his thoughts, but all he wanted to do was push her to the floor and fuck her brains out.  Make her promise never to leave.  “The one in the woods outside of town?”
    “Yeah.”  She looked up at him, her hands twisting in the back of his shirt.
    He looked down into her beautiful face and her soft, gray eyes.  “Why didn’t you say anything before today?”
    She swallowed hard.  “I wanted to tell you all week.  But Jerry kept me busier than usual, Acksel wanted to have breakfast every day before work, and you were working longer hours at the bar.  I couldn’t tell you about my heat over texts.  I was afraid if I told you by text that you’d want to talk in person, and I wasn’t ready to answer your questions.”
    He brushed the hair away from her face and kissed her forehead.  “You’re still not,” he guessed.  Eveny had a particular way of doing things, and if someone tried to rush her, she would get flustered and angry.
    She shook her head and a tear escaped from the corner of her eye.  He brushed it with his thumb.  “You can tell me anything, Ev, you know that, right?”
    She nodded and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She sighed deeply and hugged her arms around his waist.
    “When I