by Lynn Howard
Melinda’s eyes dropped to where Noah and Hollyn were linked then back to Hollyn’s face. “I just hoped…” But she trailed off and didn’t finish her thought.
“You hoped what?” Hollyn asked.
Hollyn could feel Noah’s anxiety because of their link. But she could feel it rolling from the rest of the Clan, as well. They were wary of this woman, wary of her sudden appearance.
“I’d hoped you’d join me in tracking down more of our kind. There’s safety in numbers,” she said, but something about her words felt wrong, strained…like a lie.
“How did you find Hollyn?” Carter asked, his tree trunk arms crossed over his chest. He’d stayed calm and collected since Melinda showed up, but Hollyn didn’t miss the tick in his jaw. Or the way Colton seemed tense and strung tight. And Luke, well Luke was as intense as ever, his eyes bright from the second he stepped onto his porch.
Melinda tensed slightly, just barely, but Hollyn caught it. “I, uh…I knew her parents.”
Lie. Total lie. In the thirteen years Hollyn had with her parents, she’d never met another Fae. They didn’t have Fae friends coming and going, no family, just them.
“Try again,” Noah said as if reading Hollyn’s mind.
“I did. When Hollyn was a baby. You just don’t remember me,” Melinda said to Hollyn.
“That still doesn’t explain how you found her,” Carter said, taking a slow step closer.
Melinda dropped her head and sighed dramatically. “I’ve been following you for years, Hollyn. I’ve kept an eye on you, tried to protect you.”
“Didn’t do too good of a job,” Colton mumbled under his breath.
“I was too late. I know that. I was…I was out trying to find more of our kind. When I got back, Hollyn was gone. The traffickers had gotten her and I didn’t know where she was.”
Tears glistened in Melinda’s eyes. She looked regretful. “I’m sorry. I should’ve been there to protect you.”
As a tear rolled down Melinda’s cheek, Hollyn released her hold on Noah and moved toward Melinda. “It wasn’t your fault. You had to stay hidden, too,” Hollyn said, laying a hand on Melinda’s shoulder. She trembled once with a held back sob. Well, shit. She hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings.
Melinda raised a hand and dashed away the tear. “I’m just so sorry, Hollyn.” She reached forward and waited for Hollyn to step in for a hug. She’d never been much of a hugger, but Melinda seemed to need one.
Hollyn let Melinda wrap her arms around her back and she patted Melinda’s back lightly. Her eyes met Shawnee who did not look convinced by Melinda’s show of emotion. She locked eyes with Hollyn and shook her head, just a quick side to side.
When Melinda loosened her hold, Noah pulled Hollyn back to his side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders protectively and possessively. “She’s safe with me,” Noah said. “You don’t need to protect her anymore.”
Was he politely telling Melinda to hit the road?
“But we need to find others of our kind,” Melinda said, reaching for Hollyn again.
Hollyn frowned at Melinda and shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. This is my family.”
“They’re not your family. They’re predators. Shifters. Why do you think they want you here?”
“Because they love me,” Hollyn said, jutting her chin out. “My magic chose Noah. We’re bound.”
“He hasn’t bitten you, has he?” she asked, her eyes wide and full of panic.
“Or course not,” Hollyn said.
“Then you’re not really his mate.”
“She’s my mate,” Noah said, his words laced with a growl as his arm tightened around her shoulder.
That look of disgust and disapproval was back and Hollyn had just about enough. “I’m glad you found me and I appreciate you watching out for me after my parents died, but I’m grown. I have a husband now, a family of my own. I’m not going with you, but I wish you the best.”
“Husband,” Melinda spat. “You didn’t marry him. And he hasn’t bitten you. He can’t. You both know that, don’t you?”
Any question she’d had about the risk of a Shifter’s bite was answered in that one statement from this woman. Hollyn felt defeated for a brief second. Part of her wanted to carry Noah’s scar, wanted that change in her blood, wanted any Shifter she encountered to know she belonged to an incredible man.
“I think it’s time to go,” Carter said, ever the diplomat.
Melinda turned only her eyes to Carter before looking back to Hollyn. “I’m glad to see you’re safe,” she said, then gave Hollyn her back as she made her way to her car.
It purred to life easily. It was one of those expensive Mercedes with shiny wheels and an almost silent engine. Melinda looked back at Hollyn, her brows raised in question. She was giving Hollyn a chance to change her mind. She didn’t need to bother. Lifting her chin, she stared Melinda down until she turned back in her seat and pulled out slowly, the dings of gravel hitting the bottom of the fifty thousand dollar car surprisingly satisfying.
“That was interesting,” Hollyn said, turning back to the Clan once Melinda’s car disappeared around the bend.
“How the fuck did she find you? She never answered that question,” Noah said. “She said she’d been following you but lost you after the traffickers took you. So how did she know you were here? How did she know to look for you at Moe’s?”
“Can she follow your magic?” Carter asked.
“Possibly? I mean, I’ve felt her in the area for a few days now.” The thought of being able to locate others of her kind through her magic was intriguing.
“I don’t like this,” Colton said. “It’s just a little convenient. If she’s been looking after you all these years, why introduce herself now?”
“Kind of what I was thinking,” Shawnee said.
Luke Shifted back, but didn’t bother hiding his nudity. “She’s fucking trouble,” he said as he walked across the gravel with such ease, like the gravel wasn’t biting into his bare feet.
Hollyn and Shawnee both averted their eyes as he passed, but she’d caught an eyeful. Apparently, all bears were hung. Two growls came from Noah and Colton.
“What?” Hollyn asked as innocently as possible. Wasn’t her fault her Clan was full of good looking guys, or that Shifters had no problem with nudity.
“I’m back to saying it’s not a good idea for you to be at the bar,” Noah said.
“And I still say it’s the safest place for me. Hell, even old John took up for me. I don’t think anyone would just stand by while some asshole drags me away kicking and screaming. And Melinda isn’t a threat. I didn’t detect fire magic on her, so there’s no way she could win if she turned out to be some nut job or something.”
“She’s right, Noah,” Shawnee said. “If you leave her here, we’ll all be at work.” Shawnee raised her hand the second Noah opened his mouth. “And I’m not staying behind. Even if I did, the two of us against we don’t know how many? You like those odds?”
“No,” Colton answered for Noah.
“And no way am I hanging out in Big River when the babies are there.”
“She’s fucking trouble!” Luke yelled from his cabin. It was muffled, but Hollyn heard it.
Something about Melinda did rub Hollyn the wrong way, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Maybe it was just the shock of meeting another Fairy. Or the feeling of another’s magic on her skin. Whatever it was, Hollyn didn’t like the thought of being alone.
Noah dragged a rough hand down his face, smoothing his beard before dropping his hand by his side. “Fuck.” She hated that she’d caused him so much trouble since she’d stepped onto his porch. But to her defense, she’d never asked to be there. She had no desire to leave now, but originally, the thought of being shacked with a group of Shifters she didn’t know from Adam seemed like a nightmare.
It had become a dream. Hollyn couldn’t ask for more than the love she got from these people. Even Luke’s outburst from
inside his house gave her the feels. Dude didn’t talk much, but he cared about her, cared about her safety.
“She’s right, Noah. She’s safer at Moe’s. One of us is usually there at some point. You’ll be by her side all damn day. And all you got to do is call one of us if there’s more than you and Shawnee can handle,” Carter said.
Colton growled deep and low at the mention of his mate fighting without him there to watch her back.
Noah’s anger and worry was causing Hollyn’s heart rate to race, just like Noah’s. She followed the thread of magic and focused on Bear’s energy, focused on his calmness. Now that Melinda was gone, Bear had gone back to observing, watching over Hollyn, watching over his mate.
“I can feel that,” Noah said, surprising Hollyn enough she started.
“Feel what?”
“Whatever your doing to my animal.”
“Can you pull from his energy?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Can you feel his calmness? He’s fine now that Melinda’s gone. I was trying to focus on him because you’re about to give me a heart attack,” she said and smiled to soften the words.
Noah pressed the heel of his hand to his chest and rubbed, like he was trying to feel his bear. Slowly, he shook his head. They were different entities living inside one body. She’d have thought they’d feel each other’s emotions, not just hear each other’s thoughts.
Hollyn stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist, tipping her head back to look into his eyes. “Then feel mine,” she said softly, meaning it for his ears but knew the Clan could hear her.
Under her hands, Noah’s body began to relax and his heart slowed. A small smile tipped up his lips. “You’re amazing,” he said as softly as she’d spoken. He lowered and sipped at her lips, just a sweet kiss full of affection.
****
Noah kept stealing glances at Hollyn as he drove them to Moe’s. Every day she did something else that surprised him, and he’d truly believed nothing could surprise him anymore. He’d seen the worst of people, the best of people, and everything in between. Yet, there she was, connected as fully to his animal as she was to him. Only she could calm his beast, only she could calm Noah.
“I love you,” Noah said. “You know that, right?”
Hollyn smiled over at him. “Of course I do.”
Every day. Shit. Every minute, his heart grew for this woman. And so did his fear. Something about Melinda wasn’t sitting right with him. He should’ve been excited for Hollyn, excited that she’d found someone of her kind, but Melinda looked at Noah and his Clan like demons. Or bugs under her shoe. And she’d wanted to take Hollyn away.
But there was more. He just…he couldn’t figure it out. Why did it feel like this woman was the key to ending all this bull shit for Hollyn? Maybe she was telling the truth and had been looking after Hollyn all those years. But she hadn’t been able to keep her out of the hands of the traffickers. Some protection she was.
His mushy feelings quickly turned to anger as Noah ran through the entire conversation, and the fact she’d never answered how the hell she’d found Hollyn. Even if she had been following Hollyn all these years, she’d said herself she’d lost her after the traffickers took her. Hollyn had no idea if Melinda had been able to follow her magic as some kind of beacon.
Too many fucking questions and what ifs and not enough answers.
Noah pulled his truck onto the gravel parking lot and killed the engine. He stared at the front door, leaning his head against the rest.
“Talk to me,” Hollyn said, turning in her seat and resting her cheek on the passenger side rest. “I can feel you freaking out. Just get it out of your system.”
Noah rolled his head to look at her. “Get it out of my system? You think talking it out will make it go away?” he asked. He didn’t mean to sound so asshole-ish, but he couldn’t control the anger in his tone.
She raised one brow and pressed her lips into a thin line and Noah felt a wave of heat hit him square in the fucking chest the same time her eyes flashed to that dark midnight color. He winced and raised both brows at her. “Did you just try to fry me?”
“Did you just become an asshole to me?” she threw back at him.
Hollyn shoved from her seat and stomped up to the bar’s door. She didn’t turn to see if he followed, just waited with her arms crossed under her boobs. Okay. That was fucking cute. He knew if he told her he kind of liked when she got pissed, it would just piss her off even more. But yeah. She was even hotter when she was all riled up.
Inhaling through his nose and blowing it out through his mouth, Noah tried to calm his heart rate. He tried to focus on how seeing Hollyn all huffy made him feel. He focused on how cute she’d looked on the drive when she nodded her head along to the music and danced in her seat as if she couldn’t care less if anyone passing by saw her.
She turned and looked at him over her shoulder. Her black irises bled to sapphire and she had a faint smile on her lips. The heat was gone, both from his chest and her eyes.
“Is that something you can do to anyone?” Noah asked as he unlocked the bar door.
“Nope. Just you. Aren’t you lucky?!” she said. There was still a crap ton of attitude, but Noah could feel her softening toward him through their connection. The longer he was bound to Hollyn, the more he was growing to love that shit. There’d be none of that fine shit if he asked her if something was wrong. He’d just feel it, whether it was hurt or anger or whatever.
Noah watched her ass sway as she moved toward the bar. When she looked back and caught him, he shrugged. “What? Couldn’t help myself,” he said.
That broke the last of the ice. Her smile widened as she shook her head. “And they call Nova the perv.”
“Hey, I just checked out my mate’s ass. I didn’t write about it.”
Noah worked side by side with Hollyn, getting everything ready, stocking the cooler, prepping the kitchen. Just before he unlocked the front door for the public, he caught Hollyn chewing on her bottom lip, a far away look in her eyes.
“What’s up?” he asked. He didn’t feel much coming from her, just the usual she’d been feeling from day one.
“Do you ever regret it?” she asked after a few moments of her staring at him.
“Regret what?”
“Mating with a Fairy? Not being able to mark me? Mating with someone with so much freaking baggage.”
“For one thing, it’s not your fucking baggage. No woman should have to worry about that shit,” Noah said, turning and moving closer to the bar. He leaned over the top and reached for her hand, threading his fingers through hers and pressing his palm to hers. “And why the hell would I regret mating with a Fairy? Why should it matter?”
“Because you can’t mark me.” She sucked that bottom lip between her teeth and Noah reached up to pull it free, rubbing the pad of his thumb across it.
“I get to mark you constantly instead of once.”
Her lips slowly pulled into a smile. “Perv,” she said, attempting to pull her hand away.
He tightened his grip and pulled her closer to the bar, leaning forward to press a kiss to her lips.
“Never for one fucking second think I could ever regret being with you,” he said before kissing her once more.
It was time to get the day started. Old John would be there soon and he’d throw a fit if the door was locked. He’d do his usual and prop himself on the bar, drinking the day away, only ordering an appetizer when he was close to falling off the barstool.
Hollyn nodded when he glanced back at her. It was time for yet another fucking day at the bar. Another day where he spent every waking hour serving drinks to Shifters. But as he winked at Hollyn when he passed to round the bar, he realized how much it no longer sucked. As long as Hollyn was working beside him, he didn’t mind being there so much.
Chapter Twelve
Hollyn lie in the crook of Noah’s shoulder, playing with his fingers on the arm wrapped aro
und her. She’d mentioned a few times about not having a family, but she’d yet to tell him why. It was time. It was time for him to know why she’d wanted to run away when Aron told them he couldn’t locate the traffickers. She needed him to know why she needed to protect them so badly.
“You still awake?” she whispered into the dark.
“Mmhmm,” he said sleepily.
Maybe now wasn’t the time. They’d gotten home a little late and spent the last hour touching and tasting each other.
“What’s wrong?” he asked when she was still mulling over in her head whether she should bring up something so heavy before bed time.
“Nothing,” she lied and turned to lay her cheek on his chest.
“You realize I can tell when you’re lying,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
She smiled against his chest and sighed. “It can wait until tomorrow,” she said, keeping her voice quiet to preserve the peace of the dark, comfy bedroom.
Noah moved beneath her, then the room was lit up by the lamp on his nightstand. Hollyn squinted against the brightness after lying in the dark for so long.
Positioning Hollyn so that she was on her side, Noah turned on his pillow to face her. “Tell me,” he said.
His hair was in need of a cut and sticking up everywhere. His beard was messy from their make out session before they’d made love. But his eyes, his eyes held so much love and warmth she just wanted to swim in their depths.
Hollyn reached forward and softly touched his beard. It looked like it would be coarse and scratchy, but he took such good care of it that it was almost as soft as his hair. For some reason, petting him as if she were petting him and his bear, calmed her racing heart.
“I told you that I haven’t had a family in a long time,” she said, raising her eyes to meet his. He nodded, but didn’t say anything. “I haven’t had anyone since my thirteenth birthday.”
Sadness hit her hard as she allowed her mind to go back to that time, to that day, to the last time she’d see her parents alive again.
“My parents were like I am now, always moving, always hiding. You know how rare it is for two Fae to be together, but they’d found each other. And then I came alone. As you can imagine, the fact I was born from two full-blood Fae terrified my parents. I didn’t just have Fae blood, I was an Elemental Fairy with a gift of fire.” A tiny smile pulled at her lips. “They figured out my gift when I burned my mom’s nipple when she was breast feeding me.”
