Mate of Her Heart (5 page)

“Ev?  Lock the front door and don’t let anyone in but me.”

“Luke?” she questioned, pausing with her hand on the door.  Her voice was scratchy and her throat was raw from overuse.  And the sound of Luke’s voice made her belly clench.  After all the orgasms over the course of the day, her body lit right up for him.

“Did you hear me, Ev?  I fucking mean it.  Don’t open this door for anyone but me.”  He was angry.  Really angry.

She swallowed hard as she heard another vehicle arrive.  This engine was louder than Luke’s, and she didn’t know who was driving, but Luke was agitated enough that whoever it was couldn’t be good.

She looked at the deadbolt that her father had installed when she was fourteen after a group of teens from another town had jimmied the door lock and gotten in and partied, trashing the place.

“It’s locked, Luke.”

“Baby, if things get bad, go out the back and get in your car and get the hell away from here.  Got it?”

“Luke?” she asked, confused and scared.

“Baby?” he reiterated.

“I promise.”

She clutched the sheet tighter to herself, went to the window next to the front door, hooked her finger in the curtain and pulled it open enough to peer out.  She gasped in shock.

Luke stood on the front porch, facing the front yard and an SUV.  All four doors of the SUV opened and Vince, Rufus, Barry, and Taylor climbed out.  What the hell were Vince and his cronies doing here?  How had they known where she was?

“What are you doing here, human?”  Vince demanded.

“Protecting Eveny.” Luke widened his stance and slipped his hands behind his back.  She couldn’t see what he was reaching for in the darkness, but her gaze traveled down his legs and she saw a baseball bat and what looked like two police batons at his feet.  He was going to fight them?

Her heart began to race.  Fear and relief twined together inside her.  Relief that he had come for her, but fear at what he was facing.

Vince snorted and the other guys laughed.  “You’re only delaying the inevitable.  I have
permission
.”

Luke’s voice came out on a snarl.  “Fuck that.  Acksel did not give you permission to invite your asshole friends up here to join in.”

Vince laughed loudly.  “Fuck Acksel.”

“He’s your alpha.”

Vince snorted.  “When he finds out what I’ve done, he’ll be so torn up with grief that he’ll go berserk, and we’ll be waiting for him.  He’ll be crippled so badly by losing his only sister that he’ll be easy pickings.”

Eveny’s mouth fell open.  Was Vince saying he was going to rape and then kill her so that he could take over as pack alpha?

“If you want to be alpha, be a fucking man and go challenge him.  Only a pussy attacks a female when she’s most vulnerable.”  Luke said.

“You know nothing about us, human.  Leave now while you can.” Vince ordered.

“
You
leave now.  I’m not going to tell you again.”

She saw Luke pull two small canisters from his back pockets and make some motions with his thumbs.

“You ready to die, human?”  Rufus growled, cracking his neck.

“For her?  Absolutely.”

The four males were a few dozen feet away from the porch.  She didn’t know what they were doing at the cabin, but she could tell from the looks on their faces, illuminated by the SUV’s headlights, that they didn’t have anything good planned.  She didn’t understand how they’d come to find out where she was, but it seemed as if Acksel was involved somehow.

Luke’s hands whipped out from his back and liquid arced and splashed on the faces of Barry and Taylor, who had moved slightly closer.  They howled and went down, rubbing their faces and rolling on the ground.  He’d maced them.  She’d never seen mace work on wolves before, so it must have been a special kind.

While the two men were growling in frustration and temporarily blinded, Luke grabbed the two batons and she heard the hiss of electricity.

Vince shouted, “Get him, Rufus.”

Luke swung the batons, nailing Rufus in the head as he raced forward.  Rufus snarled and righted himself quickly, snagging one of the batons with his hand.  He jerked on the baton and Luke stumbled down the steps to the ground, rolling onto his back.  Her heart leapt into her throat and tears stung her eyes.

Rufus lifted the baton and swung it in a downward motion, attempting to stab Luke with it, but Luke lifted the other baton and thrust it between Rufus’s legs.  There was a buzzing sound, and Eveny could see small flashes of electricity.  Rufus froze with a strained grunting sound and then hit the ground.  Luke rose to his feet, jamming the baton further against Rufus’s crotch as Rufus grunted and his body jerked.

“Eight million volts, asshole,” Luke said, dropping the baton and rising to his feet.

The two wolves that he’d maced were still blinded, rubbing at their eyes and trying unsuccessfully to get to their feet.  “That just leaves you, Vince.  Be smart and take off.  She’s mine.”

He’d said she was his!  Even in the middle of the fight, she smiled.  He might not understand what she was going through right now, but he was protecting her. And doing a good job of it.  Hope sprang inside her that Luke would make it through the fight and she could be with him.  Now that he was here, she wanted him even more.  He’d come to fight for her and was willing to go up against four of her brother’s best fighters to do so.

Vince growled and Eveny saw his fangs elongate.  “Acksel will never allow her to mate with a human.  He would kill her first.”

Eveny’s breath caught in her throat at the statement and then she shook her head.  Acksel would be pissed off, but he wouldn’t kill her or Luke, he’d just shun them.

“He can try,” Luke said.

Vince roared in fury and launched himself at Luke.  Eveny gasped, her hand tightening on the curtain as she watched Vince and Luke grapple.  If Vince shifted, he would tear Luke apart.

Terror swamped her.  She could see Vince’s eyes shining in the headlights from the SUV and knew that he was going to shift.  She yelled for Luke and he shoved away from Vince and raced for the porch, grabbing the other baton with one hand and picking up the baseball bat with the other.  He spun and swung out with both hands, but Vince was right behind him and knocked the baton and bat out of Luke’s hands.

Luke punched Vince in the face; and Vince stumbled back and then threw himself forward and caught Luke in the stomach with his shoulder.  They went to the ground together and Vince straddled Luke and began to punch him.  She saw Luke get hit once.  Twice.  Three times.  Then Luke kicked his legs and managed to pin Vince.  He put his hands around Vince’s throat and pressed his knee into his stomach, leaning forward with all his weight.

She saw the claws sprout from Vince’s fingertips and Luke cursed loudly as Vince raked his claws down Luke’s arms.  But Luke didn’t let go.  When Vince dug his clawed hands into Luke’s sides, he bellowed in pain but kept squeezing.  Eveny moved to open the door but Luke seemed to sense what she was about to do.

“Eveny.”  He said her name loudly with an even tone that told her if she stepped outside that he would be furious.

She was as helpless as a human right now, and even though it warred with every protective instinct in her body to stay inside while Luke fought for her, she listened to him.  The heat-cycle prevented her from shifting, which was her only hope in a fight against a male.  She wouldn’t do anything but get in the way or distract Luke.  Rufus was still unconscious from the electricity.  The two other wolves had crawled towards the SUV.  She didn’t know if they were trying to escape or looking for something to help with their blindness from the mace, but as long as they kept out of the main fight, then she didn’t care what they did.

Vince tossed Luke off himself and Luke rolled on the ground and came up into a fighting stance.  He was bleeding down his arms and from his sides.  She could see the wetness staining his dark shirt.

Vince howled and shifted, his clothes ripping away in the process as his human form twisted and broke until a large gray wolf stood before Luke.  Vince had shifted into his form during a fight, which told Eveny that Luke was beating him and Vince was going to cheat.  It was unfair for a wolf to fight a human.

She pressed her palms against the window as tears filled her eyes.  What hope did Luke have?

The wolf charged, and at the last minute, Luke leapt to the side and Vince passed by him, his claws digging into the dirt as he tried to round on Luke but missed.  Vince snarled and bolted towards Luke, leaping into the air and landing on top of him, knocking him to the ground.  There was a cracking sound and Eveny feared it was Luke’s neck, but then she saw a brilliant red light and heard a wolf’s pain-filled howl.

Her eyes widened as Vince’s fur caught fire as Luke pressed whatever the red glow was against Vince’s body.  Luke shoved him away and the wolf rolled to the side, a flare sticking out of his side.  The flames died quickly and Luke stood slowly and turned towards the SUV.

“Get out of here and take your friends with you,” Luke said, his voice filled with fury.  She’d never heard him sound so commanding.

Taylor, who had been hiding inside the SUV, came out slowly, his head ducked down in deference and his hands at his sides.  He didn’t speak, but moved swiftly to Vince’s body and lifted him, carrying him to the SUV.  Barry roused Rufus and helped him to stand.  She didn’t know if they could see with the mace in their eyes well enough to get back to town, and she actually didn’t care.

When the SUV pulled away, she slipped to the floor in relief and let the tears fall.  She’d been too keyed up to actually cry, and she shook with residual fear.  Luke could have died.  The last words that she would have spoken to him would have been, “I promise.”  Not
I love you
or
I want you to be mine
.

“Baby?”  Luke knocked on the door.  “They’re gone.  Let me in.”

Her whole world centered on the sound of his voice and her wolf howled in her mind.  Luke had rescued her.  Saved her life.  And he was here now and, yeah, she was still in heat.  Her body flooded with heat immediately, all fear washed away as a tide of powerful need rolled through her.

This wasn’t her plan.  Her plan had been blown sky high when those wolves showed up.  She was relieved that Luke had saved her, but she wasn’t ready to talk to him about her heat-cycle.

What would happen if she opened the door?

What would happen if she didn’t?

Chapter 6

Luke watched the SUV pull away.  The tires spun on the dry ground and rocks spit behind them as it lurched forward in their attempt to flee.  He’d never seen wolves act so frightened before, but they sure did seem to be scared of him.  Which was a good thing.  He didn’t want them to regroup and come back up here with reinforcements.

The smell of burnt fur and skin hung in the air and he looked at the place where Vince had been.  He wasn’t sure if the wolf was alive or dead, and he didn’t care.  He had successfully defended Eveny and even managed to live to tell the tale.

He looked down at himself.  He couldn’t see much in the darkness, but the spill of light from the cabin window was enough to illuminate the blood on his arms.  They hurt like a bitch, as well as his sides, and some other places on his body he was sure had cuts and bruises.  He didn’t want Eveny to see him beat all to hell, but he needed to get into the house and make sure she was okay and then clean up.  He hoped there was a medical kit in the cabin.  It hadn’t occurred to him to bring one.  Probably because the pessimistic part of his brain didn’t really think he’d survive against four wolves.

He picked up the weapons and put them back in the bag.  One stun baton was dead and needed to be recharged, but the other was almost full.  The mace cans were empty, but he still had two flares and the baseball bat.  He didn’t expect any wolves to come back tonight, but if they did then he would be prepared for them.  Knocking on the cabin door, he told Eveny that the males were gone and she could open the door.  He could hear her crying but she didn’t answer him.

He knocked again.  Called her name.

When she got quiet, he knew that something was wrong.

“Baby?  I’m bleeding all over the front porch.  Let me in so I can clean up.”  He figured appealing to her desire to take care of him would work.  And it did.

The door cracked open.  She looked exhausted.  She licked her lips.  “Just to clean up?”

Frowning, he said, “What’s wrong, Ev?”

“You, uh, you can’t come in, Luke.  Not to stay with me.”  She opened the door and stepped away.  “The bathroom is back there, but then you have to go.”

She was trembling from head to toe.  Her eyes were bright gold, like coins, and her skin was flushed and dewy with sweat.  He took a step towards her and her voice came out guttural and animalistic.  “Don’t, Luke.  Please.”  She moved until a ratty couch was between them and clutched at the sheet that was draped around her.

He couldn’t very well deal with her while he was bleeding, so he decided to clean up first and then he’d get her to talk.

“You happen to have a medical kit?”

“Under the sink.”

“Don’t even think about leaving, Ev.  I’ll be back to talk in a few minutes.”

When he flicked on the bathroom light, a bare, yellowed bulb illuminated the small room.  He grimaced at his reflection in the mirror.  Although she had let him in, he was surprised that she hadn’t tried to help him.  It made him wonder what the heat-cycle was doing to her.

The medical kit under the sink was in a large fabric tote filled with much more than he expected.  He knew that wolves didn’t really use doctors or hospitals, and they healed quickly, but that didn’t mean they didn’t get injured.

He turned on the shower and stripped, getting under the tepid water to rinse off the blood and clean his wounds.  He had no idea if wolf claws were dirty or not, but he decided to err on the side of caution and used an anti-bacterial wash from the kit to clean the marks.  Vince had raked his claws down both of Luke’s arms and gouged his sides as well, so Luke knew he would wind up with scars.  But he’d wear the scars with pride because they meant that he was strong enough to protect Eveny.

When he was free of blood, he turned off the shower and got out, patting his skin dry and then securing the towel around his waist.  He put Neosporin on the claw marks on his arms and laid thick gauze pads on them, securing them with tape.  Then, to protect the bandages, he wrapped them in wide, self-sticking gauze.  Both arms were now covered with flesh-colored bandages from bicep to wrist.

He tended the wounds on his sides in the same manner, but just taped them well instead of wrapping bandages all around his midsection.  He finished by placing a small bandage over a cut on one eye and swallowing four aspirin.  Tomorrow he’d be sore as hell, but tonight he was going to ignore the aches and pains and take care of his woman.

He’d never been so nervous in all his life as when he opened the bathroom door and stepped out into the cabin’s main room.  Eveny stood where he’d left her, using the couch to put a physical barrier between them.

Her eyes landed on his arms immediately and he could see the shine of tears in their golden depths.

“I’m going to be okay, Ev,” he said in a low voice as he walked slowly towards her.  He bypassed her and went to the front door and threw the lock.  The sliding bolt echoed in the room in a final way.  He was staying.

“You have to leave, Luke.”  Her voice was still low and growly, and he liked it.

He turned from the front door and faced her.  “No.”

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the sheet she held against her body.  A body he’d wanted to touch for years.

“Luke, it’s not safe.”

He cracked his neck as anger wove through him.  Hadn’t he just proven that he could take care of her?  “Really?  Because those assholes came here to rape you, Ev.  Males from your own pack.  From where I’m standing, it seems as if you’re safer with me than alone.”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head.  “No, it’s not safe for you to be here with
me
.”

Before he could tell her that he would be able to handle whatever her heat-cycle threw at him, she made a pained sound and doubled over, clutching her stomach.

Tired of the couch between them, Luke stormed over to her and picked her up in his arms.

She struggled weakly at first as he strode to the bed, but then she seemed to melt into him, pressing her face against his neck.  He felt the gentle scrape of her teeth against his flesh and he shuddered.  Laying her down on the bed, he sat next to her and put one of his hands on hers as they continued to clutch the sheet to her body.

She tensed and gritted her teeth together.  Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she said, “Please, Luke.”

“Please, what?  Leave you in pain?  Unprotected?  Your father is an idiot for thinking you’d be safe.  And don’t get me started on your brother.”

She went still and opened her eyes slowly.  “What about Acksel?”

Luke shook his head.  “He’s the one who told Vince where you were.  Vince called his buddies to join him, but Acksel caused the problem.  This might have been a safehouse, but Acksel compromised it.  Their best intentions involved you getting gang-raped, and judging from their chatter about Acksel’s grief, I don’t think they intended to let you live.  I’ll deal with him after your heat.  Right now, you’re going to drop that death grip on the sheet and let me take care of you.”

“Luke.”  She licked her lips and he wondered if she was thirsty.  Before she could say anything else, he went to the refrigerator and opened it, looking for something cold to drink.  There wasn’t anything inside.  He settled for filling a glass with water from the sink, and then wet a clean dish towel.

Joining her on the bed, he put the towel in his lap, hooked his hand behind her neck and lifted her gently so she could drink.  She gulped the water until the cup was empty and then he settled her back on the bed.  Pressing the towel lightly against her skin, he tried his best to cool her down.

She exhaled softly when he pressed the towel to her neck.  “Thank you.”

“I will always take care of you, Ev.”

Her eyes drifted to his.  “No, I mean thank you for coming for me and protecting me.”

“I will always do that, too.”

He tried to untangle her fingers from the sheet, but she tensed.  “You still need to go, Luke.”

“Not going to happen.”

“You don’t understand what this means.  You have to go so I can do this on my own.”

“I’m not going anywhere.  I want you, Ev.  I want to take care of you.  Not just for your heat, but forever.”  He felt as if he were standing on the edge of a mountain, unsure whether his next step would be safe or send him plummeting to his death.  “I’ve proven I can protect you.  I can help you with this, too.  I love being your friend, but I want every part of you.  Forever.”

He tossed the wet towel aside and rested his fingers on the edge of the towel around his waist.  His cock had gone shamelessly hard the moment that she was safe.  Her eyes trailed down his chest and landed where his fingers played across the material.

“No,” she hissed, her eyes darkening.

“Tell me why.”

“Because I might scratch you.”

He shrugged and looked at his bandaged arms.  Scars from her?  Not a problem.  “I’ll live.”

“I might bite you.”

“I like your fangs.”  It was true.  The first time he’d ever seen her get upset and her fangs came out, he thought they were cool.  And sexy.

She sat up slowly and released the sheet.  It pooled at her waist, revealing her large, firm breasts which were tipped with tight, hard nipples.

“If you make love to me, Luke,” she whispered, “I’m going to let you come inside me.  If that happens, then I
might
become pregnant.  But you will
definitely
become my mate.”

Clarity washed through him.  He reached for her hands and she grasped his.  “If it were easy to mate with a human then we would have done this earlier, right?”

She nodded.

“You’ll lose your pack if you mate with me, because I’m human.”

She blinked and tears slipped over her cheeks.  “Everything.  I’ll lose everything.  The pack will shun me and Acksel will be forced to mark me so that no other pack will want me.  And my dad will have to turn his back on me and pretend that I’m dead even though I’m not.  We’ll have to leave town.  You can’t buy the bar because Acksel will forbid the pack from going there and there’s not enough human business to keep it afloat.  You won’t be able to see your grandma unless she comes to visit us.  My dad will never know his grandkids-” her voice choked off and he hugged her tightly in spite of the ache in his arms.

He didn’t want her to lose her family.  “I’m a selfish prick,” he said, sighing as he pressed his face into her neck.  “I didn’t know what mating with me would mean to you or your family.  I’ll help you with your heat and not come inside you, and then I’ll walk away so you don’t have to choose between me and your family.”

It might kill him, but he wanted her to be happy, and he knew she’d be happiest with her family.

She reared back like he had struck her.  “No!”

Now he was confused.

“No, what?”

She shook her head almost violently.  “I want you to be my mate.  There isn’t anyone else that I want in the world besides you.  My wolf wants you.  She won’t accept any other males.”

His heart rejoiced to hear that she wanted him to be her mate.  But mating with him came at a terrible cost to her.  “But your family?  Your pack?”

“It’ll be painful, but I can’t spend the rest of my life being miserable because of a stupid wolf law that says we can’t mate outside of our own kind.  My dad will be sad but he’ll understand.  He’ll want me to be happy, even if I have to leave.  And he and I will figure out a way to stay in touch, I just know it.”  She took a deep breath.  “I just wanted time to talk to you about everything.”

He brushed her hair away from her face as he thought about what she was saying.  “You wanted to go through the heat alone so we could talk things out for the next year?  And then what?”

He was mildly amused by her plan.  That was
so
Eveny.  She liked to have all her ducks in a row before she did anything.  That she would want to have time to prepare him for the consequences of their mating told him how much she cared for him.

“Then we’d be ready.”

“I love you, Ev.  I’ve loved you since we were kids.  If you want my help, I swear on my life that I won’t come inside you.  When you’re through the cycle, we can talk.”  He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.  “I don’t need the year to think, sweetheart.  I know I can’t shift.  I know I’m only human.  But if you’ll have me, I’ll be the best mate to you.  I’ll never regret anything that happened to see you be mine forever.”

Her voice trembled as she stared at him.  “You want to be mine?”

“I’ve always been yours, Ev.”

“There isn’t any going back, Luke,” she said, sliding her legs around and going up on her knees.  She shoved the sheet away and knelt before him, completely naked.  She was so aroused that he could smell the sweet scent of her and it made his mouth water.

“I don’t want to go back.  I never want to go back to when I couldn’t have you.  After I touch you, baby, there’s nothing on earth that could keep me away.  Be mine.”

“Yes,” she hissed, leaning forward and pressing her mouth to his.  Her lips hovered above his as she whispered, “Make love to me.  Come inside me.”