Holden's Mate

by Meg Ripley

Forcing past the wall the universe had tried to put up in front of her, Leah made her way to the dark little hallway at the other end of the bar. Framed photos of supposedly famous people who had been to the pub hung on the wall, but Leah didn’t recognize most of them. She glared at the smiling face of a woman just to the left of the restroom door as she pushed it open, wondering just why the hell she thought she was so important that she deserved to sign a photo and give it to the owners to display.

  The restroom was a decent one, considering the kind of establishment she was in. There was a small seating area near the door with faux leather chairs and mirrors, and bottles of perfumes and lotions lined a small counter. Leah breezed toward the sinks, turning on the cold water, longing to splash it on her face, but knowing it would just cause her makeup to run down her cheeks. She settled for washing her hands and wrists and carefully dabbing the cool liquid at her temples and on the back of her neck. She shut off the faucet and leaned against the sink as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

  Fine lines had started to scrawl over her skin at the corners of her eyes and near her mouth. They were what her mother would have called smile lines, but Leah felt they just made her look old. “I should be grateful to be old and wise, considering what I’ve seen and done,” she muttered to herself. Thirty might not have seemed so old if she hadn’t been thrown into the land of being single again. Looking for something positive to focus on, she noted that her pale blue eyes were still clear and bright, and she hadn’t seen any gray hairs yet. Though she definitely wasn’t twenty anymore, she couldn’t exactly write herself off as an old maid.

  “Just because Victor didn’t want me, that doesn’t mean no one else will. This is his problem, not mine.” Leah had learned back in high school that mantras and affirmations could get her through even the worst of times. When her powers were trying to take over her mind and body, making her feel as though she might be crazy, she only needed the power of a few positive words to help get her back on track. It was never perfect, but it helped. “There are plenty of fish in the sea, and I don’t have to go fishing for them until I’m ready. I can take all the time I want.”

  She could, and she would have to. She definitely didn’t have room for someone else in her life, and she didn’t want to burden someone with the heavy emotional baggage she was carrying around. It was dragging along the floor behind her like a sack of bricks, and it was going to take a little time to learn how to let go of it.

  Feeling slightly better and only a little dizzy from her cocktails, Leah made her way back out into the hall. Just as she was about to head into the main area of the bar, a man stepped in front of her. “Well, hello there, fine thing. Where have you been all night?”

  Leah blinked in the dim light. The man was tall, but she didn’t recognize the way the shadows fell on his face. He stank of liquor, as though he had been drinking far longer than just the evening, and his hot breath blew right in her face. “Excuse me.” Leah stepped to the right to get around him.

  He moved in front of her again, swaying a little as he steadied himself with one hand against the wall. “Where do you think you’re going, angel face? I’ve been looking for a pretty little thing like you all night, and I can’t let you get away that easily. My name’s Pete. Why don’t you at least let me buy you a drink?”

  Leah had dropped her gaze, unable to look at him any longer. Pete had such bad energy surrounding him, it overwhelmed even his stench. She’d had plenty of clients come to her shop looking for help, and they weren’t all good people. She was used to that. But this guy was of a particularly bad sort. She knew if she so much as laid a fingertip on him, she would see all the misdeeds he had committed. “I’ve had enough, but thank you.”

  “Oh, come on!” He stepped even closer now as she once again tried to get past him, and his voice had turned angry instead of cajoling. “You think you’re better than me or something? You have a problem with me, and you don’t even know me? You’re just like every other bitch in here.”

  Her eyes snapped up to his now. She could just see the glaze over his dark eyes that had been laid there by his alcohol consumption. Leah might have felt sorry for him and assumed he was just drunk and didn’t know what he was doing, but she had a strong feeling she wasn’t the first woman he had talked to this way. “Is that supposed to convince me? Get the hell out of my way, asshole!” She shoved past him now, no longer able to avoid physical contact as he tried to stop her. Leah’s arm slammed into the side of his, and she stumbled into the wall. Reaching out to catch herself, she knocked down two of the framed pictures.

  Her assailant had her by the wrist, and he slammed her into the wall she had just clung to for support. “Nobody gets away with treating me like that!” Pete’s face was in hers now, his stench so vile she thought she might vomit all over the front of his stained leather jacket.

  Flashes of imagery flickered behind her eyes: an older man with a belt in his hand, a stolen CD player, a bruised woman in a bed. Leah struggled to get away, but his grip only tightened. Empty beer bottles, some sort of drug paraphernalia she didn’t recognize, men passed out on a filthy floor. It was all right there in front of her as though she had lived it herself, and her stomach lurched.

  Suddenly, the man was brushed aside like a feather. A new man had stepped into the hallway, and he had the asshole’s jacket bunched in his fists. He turned his head to look at Leah, his eyes haunted and fierce. “Is this guy bothering you?”

  Leah’s eyes widened, and she pressed herself against the wall in an effort to stay as far away from the altercation as possible. She nodded dumbly.

  “Get out of here,” the new man growled. His dark hair, the curls combed back neatly, was a burnished mahogany in the light of the bar. His jaw was square and firm, and he jutted it out toward the other man as he shoved him away from Leah.

  Pete took a few steps backward, but he charged forward again. “Who the fuck do you think you are? You trying to nail this bitch or something? Cause I saw her first!” He shoved his palms at the bigger man’s chest, but the feeble attack made no difference.

  The man stood firm, tipping his jaw down to look straight-on at Pete, and there was such a ferocity in his countenance that Leah thought he might explode. “Didn’t you hear me the first time? Get the fuck out of here. She doesn’t want to talk to you.” His voice was deep and firm, like someone out of an action movie.

  Pete staggered away, but he still had a sneer on his face as though he thought he had won. “Yeah, well, you can have her. She ain’t gonna put out, anyway.”

  The big man took one more step forward, and Pete went skittering out the front door. Several of the patrons laughed and returned to their drinks, and it was only then that Leah realized they had been watching the whole thing. She still stood with her back against the wall, and she slowly straightened as the stranger turned to her.

  “Are you alright?”

  Her lungs didn’t work. Leah tried to say that she was fine, thank you, and move on to her table, but no part of her body would cooperate. Air was stagnant in her lungs, and even her eyes refused to blink as she took him in. He still looked angry, but there was an air of concern about him that made her feel as though she was the only person in the room. The noise, the lights, even that awful jukebox faded into blackness as he spoke to her, and yet she couldn’t quite seem to respond. She was too focused on the amber stubble that clung to the strong line of his chin, the width of his shoulders, the subtle scent of his cologne that pulled at her to lean forward and force her lungs to work again just so she could inhale him.

  “Hey, are you alright?” he repeated, holding out a hand.

  Leah’s eyes drifted down to his open palm, and without thinking, she set her hand on it. The visions were more than just flashes of imagery overlaying what she actually saw with her eyes. Leah was no longer in the bar. The pictures were vague and nonsensical, just quick pulses and feelings that melded into each other and mixed with emotions. Though she was norm
ally a passive observer—as she had been when she’d touched Pete—Leah could tell she was a part of these visions. She didn’t understand what was happening, and she knew it couldn’t be this man’s past, because she was in them. The two of them were together, but in places other than the bar. It made no sense, and she blinked her eyes to bring herself back to the current moment.

  “Yeah,” she finally breathed, fighting hard to bring herself back to the current moment. “I think so.”

  “Can I do anything for you? Do you need a glass of water or anything?”

  Feeling the corners of her mouth turn up, she tried to force the smile to go away. She had just been assaulted by a nasty drunk in a bar. There was no reason to smile. But something had changed, very drastically, and she felt her face soften in a way she hadn’t felt in years. Something as simple as an offer of a glass of water shouldn’t have affected her so much. But she knew it was something that went much deeper than that.

  “No. Thank you. I—I’m just going to go back to my table now.” Her breath was slowly working again, and she stepped gingerly past the man who had saved her. Leah couldn’t feel a drop of alcohol in her system anymore; adrenaline had driven it away and replaced it with something else. She slowly slid her hand out of the warmth of his and stepped away.

  Autumn and Summer were both sitting up straight, their eyes unblinking as they watched her return to their table. When Leah said nothing, Autumn tipped her head. “What the hell was that?”

  “I don’t even know,” Leah breathed. She smiled down at the tablecloth, feeling giddy. “This guy tried to hit on me, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. And then…and then…”

  “That hot piece of ass stepped in and saved you?” Autumn gave a low whistle. “Girl, he must have been sent straight from Goddess herself. I saw how he was built.”

  “You should ask him out,” Summer insisted. “He has good aura. I can see it all the way from here.”

  “What? No way.” Leah laughed uncomfortably. The feeling of awe and wonder that had filled her when she had been face-to-face with the man was slowly beginning to fade, and she was returning to reality. She didn’t know why he had set her off-kilter like that, and it wasn’t even worth thinking about. “He did what any decent man should have done. It doesn’t mean he’s interested.”

  Autumn tipped her head, weighing Leah’s argument. “Maybe, but I think he would have been less likely to step in if he hadn’t had his eyes on you all night.”

  “But he hasn’t,” Leah countered. Her mouth was dry, and she wished she had taken the stranger up on his offer. But what might a glass of water have led to? Conversation, questions, who knew? Or maybe it would have been nothing more than a kind gesture.

  “I’m pretty sure he was before, and I know he certainly is now.” Autumn quirked her eyebrows, pleased with herself.

  Leah worked her jaw, finding it almost impossible not to turn around and see for herself. But her back was to the other side of the bar where the man had been sitting, and she wasn’t about to give either him or Autumn the satisfaction. “That’s only because he’s concerned about me.” Even concern sounded more intimate than she wanted it to. “It’s just been a weird night, and he’s not my type.”

  “You mean because he’s not married to you and cheating on you? Because that type hasn’t seemed to work out very well so far.”

  Even Summer giggled at that one. “She’s got you there.”

  “No, that’s not what I mean.” Leah felt her cheeks flush hotly. Why, of all nights, did something like this have to happen? She wasn’t ready to deal with men at all unless their interactions stayed strictly business. It was too soon to be thinking about anything romantic, and her friends knew that just as well as she did. But she had to admit that the guy was irresistible. He’d coming swooping in like a knight on a white horse to save her. Leah had never thought of herself as weak, but her knees certainly had been when he’d turned those burning blue orbs on her. For a moment, she imagined what it would have felt like to reach out and touch that wide chest of his. He emanated warmth, safety, and something else that she wanted to discover more about. “No,” she said again, clearing her throat and pushing aside the image. “I mean, he’s just not what I would be looking for. His hair’s too long, for one thing.”

  “Sounds like an excuse to me,” Summer rolled her eyes.

  “It’s not an excuse. I just want to make sure that I get exactly what I’m looking for—when I do decide that I’m looking,” she quickly amended. “I’ve never liked guys with long hair. And what kind of a person must he be if he’s spending his free time in a bar?”

  “So are you,” Autumn pointed out. “And it’s not like his hair is that long. It’s only a few inches. Now if he was walking around with a ponytail or a man-bun, I would agree with you, but you don’t have a leg to stand on here.”

  “Let’s talk about something else,” Leah suggested. “Something a little easier.”

  The twins shared a look but complied, changing the subject to more mundane matters like how difficult it was to get white sage at certain times of the year or the new pet store that was going in right next to The Enchanted Elm.

  Try as she might to focus on their conversation, Leah couldn’t help but wonder if her knight in shining armor really was keeping an eye on her. She liked the idea of someone who was looking out for her, but it was ridiculous. She had been officially divorced for less than a day, and this wasn’t the time for such thoughts.

  4

  Holden grumbled to himself as he fiddled with the numerous straps that kept Finn in his car seat. The child turned his blue eyes up at his foster father and growled right back.

  “You might think it’s amusing,” Holden told him, “but that’s only because you don’t have to mess with these awful machines. It would be much easier to just fly out and catch our dinner in the woods.” He buckled the last strap, handed Finn his favorite stuffed bear, and climbed into the driver’s seat.

  He’d had plenty of practice driving, but he wasn’t sure he would ever get used to it. It was a strange sensation to guide a big machine around amongst other big machines and trust the other drivers, who of course, didn’t always do what they were supposed to do. Holden had driven past accidents before, and he wondered how humans could pay so little attention when they were responsible for something the size and weight of a car.

  “Maybe when you’re old enough, I can take you outside and let you exercise your wings.” Holden glanced in the rearview mirror for a moment before returning his eyes to the road. He and the other men had been lucky that the babies seemed to favor their human forms. Having not been in charge of raising the younglings back on Charok, he couldn’t say if this was natural for them or a biproduct of spending their entire lives on Earth, but he was grateful, either way. Finn and the others were enough of a handful as they were, but it was something else completely when one of them sprouted a tail or extended a claw. That being said, the clan had agreed to watch each other’s children as much as possible—versus relying on a sitter—to avoid a scandal.

  Finn gurgled to himself in response and mashed his gums against the ear of his bear.

  “I wish you could know what it’s like to have fresh food instead of all this packaged crap you’ll see at the store. They shove all the vegetables in cans and the grains in boxes, but that’s only after they mix them with sugars and chemicals.” He shook his head as he turned a corner. “It’s disgusting, but that’s the way humans want it to be.”

  Humans, in general, were unappealing. But the one he had seen the other night at The Parlor had been completely different. He’d noticed her early in the evening, but he hadn’t said anything to his friends. Holden preferred to study her quietly, glancing at her occasionally and never making his interest known. His eyes had constantly drifted back to her, and he couldn’t quite explain why. Even when she had gotten up and gone right past their table, he hadn’t said a word. She pulled at his soul, and for a moment, he had
wondered if she had felt the same way when she’d stopped in the middle of the floor on her way to the restroom.

  But it wasn’t until that drunken asshole attacked her that he had found himself taking action. Holden hadn’t even had a moment to think about it before he was on his feet and striding over, eager for blood. It had been far too easy to dispatch the thug, and part of him wished it had been more of a violent exchange. How he would have loved to sink his claws into the man’s flesh and make him feel pain for what he had done.

  Things had changed, though, when the man had gone running out the doors and Holden could focus on the woman once again. He’d still been angry, but his worry for her had crept in as well. Maybe he had been too forceful, because she’d still looked absolutely terrified as she tried to speak with him. Holden hadn’t even thought to ask her name, and he’d been kicking himself ever since.

  He pulled up to the grocery store and heaved a heavy sigh. “Here we go, Finn. I get to load you down with all the processed food you can imagine, and nobody will think twice about it. Except me.” He carried his son into the store and settled him into the cart, annoyed at the way it rattled as he pushed it down the aisle. “Seems like I spend more time strapping you into things than letting you run free,” he said with a frown.

  Holden paused in the aisle of boxes he had come to know as cereal. He didn’t much care for the stuff himself; it was dry and powdery, and he couldn’t see what appeal it had. But if he was going to be stuck on this planet, then he needed to get used to every aspect of it.

  As he scanned the brightly colored boxes, a silky voice spoke next to him. “If you’re looking for baby cereal, I’m afraid you’re in the wrong aisle.”

  Holden turned to find the owner of the voice. She had long blonde hair that swung around her shoulders and vivid red lips. The woman lidded her eyes and stood with one hip cocked in what Xander had told him was part of the human mating ritual. He didn’t quite get it. “I’m not.”