My Heart's Passion by Elizabeth Lapthorne (good books for 7th graders txt) 📗

spewing everywhere, she made a 180 degree turn, coming perilously close to a number of trees, and headed back out of the forest.

Driving as fast as she dared, she headed back down to the main freeway, as far away as possible from the strange sensations that Samuel and that wolf had invoked in the forest.

Chapter Two

Samuel stared at the retreating car. Strangely, he felt relieved and sad at the same time. Since first catching sight of Chloe Dennison at her cousin and his brother’s wedding, she had been invading his thoughts and his mind.

This unnerved him on a number of levels. His gut screamed in warning that she was his One, his mate. No matter how hard he tried to push that thought away, it crept back to haunt him at the most unusual times, mostly just before he closed his eyes to sleep at night.

It also unnerved him from the knowledge that she alone could change his well-structured world. Samuel freely admitted he loved his life. He had his freedom in his own small cabin, yet with the vibrancy and love of his family so close at hand when needed. Largely he lived as he pleased, and while he worked hard and well, he still retained plenty of time to party just as hard and still do the things that pleased him.

If his three brothers were any indication, when one mated and fell in love, one became a blindsided sap. Samuel loved his brothers, and liked and respected their respective mates. Yet surrounded by so much mush and happiness, he couldn’t help but wonder if they had all lost their minds.

Any woman who could mess with his well-ordered and much loved world posed a problem. Yet even knowing this, Samuel still found himself entranced with Chloe, wondering what it would be like to have her wild in his arms, to scream for him and arch into his body…

Musing so long on his human thoughts, the wolf instincts of Samuel’s current form finally kicked in.

He raised his head to the full moon, drawn in by her glow and beauty. The scents of the forest seemed to suddenly come back to life, and his mind was easily, thankfully diverted.

Contemplation could come later. Right now he simply had to follow the rabbit as it darted across his peripheral vision and chase it down.

Bounding off, Samuel felt relieved to let his wolf side take over his human one. Mooning over Chloe Dennison was not how he wanted to spend his evening.

* * * * *

Chloe pulled up to Dominic and Mary’s small cabin. After drinking the last of the herbal tea in her thermos and eating her last granola bar, she had come to her senses.

She had been a moron.

Sure, it had taken her the best part of forty minutes hell-for-leather driving, twenty minutes of munching and drinking almost-cold tea, and another hour driving back, but at three a.m., who the hell was counting?

Deep inside herself, she had known since her conversation with Mary that the Rutledge men were…different. Seeing it up close and personal wasn’t a cakewalk, but neither was she a swooning southern belle from some cheesy, cheap novel. She was a mature twenty-six, had held any number of jobs, and was a capable, efficient modern woman.

What was a little fur between friends? It wasn’t as if she would be seeing much of any of the Rutledge brothers. She was here for some quiet contemplation. She needed to make some goals, sketch out some plans.

Like most other women, she had always assumed she would graduate from school, get a job, meet some nice young man, get married, and have kids and work part-time to put them through a decent college.

Instead, she had worked through a large number of jobs, unable to settle down in one area. Mary insisted it was because she hadn’t found her passion, hadn’t found her niche. Chloe, in return, insisted it was because she simply didn’t have a long attention span and got bored easily. What was the use of settling down in one job when so many had such appeal?

Chloe knew she needed to reassess her goals, make some plans for the next five years. She needed to find where her passion lay, and find something she could happily settle on doing for the next few years.

In any event, she couldn’t turn around and drive the long distance home, certainly not because she got a little scared seeing Samuel turning into a wolf. Mary would never have sent her here if the men were dangerous when they turned.

A few howls and a bit of a shock was a small price to pay in return for a long weekend in seclusion, with nothing more stressful than reading and self-reflection on the menu.

Chloe picked up her small backpack, with her necessities and a few half-read books, and opened the car door. A long, hot shower and a long night of sleep would restore her brain capacity. The following morning was soon enough to unpack the trunk and get her larger bag, also filled with books and a few changes of clothes. Mary had insisted on filling her fridge and cupboards with food, so she hadn’t bothered to bring more than her favorite chocolate bars with her.

Crunching her way up to the front door of the cabin, she pulled out the spare keys Mary had lent her. Fiddling around in the moonlight, she found the correct key for the front door.

Inserting it in the door, she was briefly surprised when it didn’t turn the lock. Remembering Mary’s warning of how the lock sometimes stuck, she jiggled the key around, leaning on it to give it more pressure.

When neither maneuver budged the key even an inch, she swore under her breath. Chloe stepped back under the bright light of the full moon and checked the other two keys. Neither of them would open the door, so the first key must be correct.

Trying once more, jiggling the key with as much