Page 101 of The Wolf King's Mate

ASPEN

Enzo was gonewhen I woke up. I don’t even know why I was surprised when I found the bed empty again, but I was.

I groaned at the ceiling when I realized the mattress was empty and cold, beside me.

I went to the trouble of making the bastard an incredibly simple dinner, and he still just?—

My arm brushed a piece of paper. It crinkled.

I frowned.

Grabbing it off the pillow beside me, I read the short message:

Thanks for the food, I owe you one.

Enzo

I read it again.

And again.

Finally, I crumpled it up and let out a sound of disgust.

I hadn’t minded making dinner for him. Sure, I’d been pissed at him—until I found him asleep in the kitchen. The man was clearly exhausted. The pattern of his arm hair had looked permanently embedded in his gorgeous face.

It hadn’t taken long to put together why.

He’d driven most of one night, only sleeping a handful of hours.

He’d been up late the next night during my… preheat. Which was a truly terrible name. I wasn’t a freaking oven. But it fit, so whatever.

We were up early the next morning and thoroughly wiped ourselves out during heat. And that same evening, he had taken off to hunt a rabid wolf or three. Or five. No one ever updated me about the specifics.

He hadn’t gotten back until after noon, and seemed to have been running in his wolf form the entire time he was gone. Based on the way his stomach was growling and he barely had the energy to walk from the kitchen to the bedroom, I had to guess that he hadn’t eaten much, if anything, while he was gone.

So yeah, I didn’t mind taking care of him. His exhaustion was partially my fault. I probably shouldn’t have started a fight with him after he met my parents, but it was too late to go back in time.

And besides, evenafterhe had some sleep and calories in him, he had ditched me again.

With a note so emotionless he could’ve left it for his brothers. Or my brother. Hell, it was close to the same thing he’d written on the card he’d given Silas.

Thanks for the food, I owe you one?

What kind of bullshit was that?

He wanted me to be his mate, didn’t he?

I rubbed my eyes.

Maybe I needed lessons on mating with someone without caring about them or something.

Or maybe I just needed… a distraction.

Yeah, that would do it.

On my phone, I had kept up with a list of things I wanted to do if I ever made it out of hiding. Casual sex was on it, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen. Going running in human form without perfume was one I could make happen. I itched to breathe fresh air through my lungs, without the stench of my perfume changing it.

I pulled it up for more. Some of them were a little ridiculous, but sometimes the small, ridiculous things felt like the most important:

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