Holden's Mate

by Meg Ripley

  I watched two squirrels tangle through tree branches, feeling complete delight at seeing them in their natural habitat. Several times, Julie or Emma called out to me to catch up. They wanted to keep a good pace so their heart rates stayed elevated, but I just wanted to appreciate everything my gaze fell across.

  As we walked, our footsteps were quiet on the well-worn dirt path. We didn’t make much sound, so when I heard a strange noise, I stopped immediately. It was a sort of whining chirping sound. A bird, maybe? Whatever it was, it sounded distressed.

  “Guys,” I whispered to my friends.

  They walked a few steps back to where I’d stopped.

  “Do you hear that?” I asked. “I think there’s a hurt animal.”

  Emma took a step away. “Don’t animals attack when they’re hurt?”

  “Only if they think you’re going to harm them further,” I said, trying to locate the sound.

  “Here,” Julie said.

  I walked to where she was holding back a patch of tall grass. There, sitting hidden in the brush, was a white ibis. As it made the distressed sound again, I became more concerned; this was bizarre behavior for a bird like that.

  I crouched down and got on my knees, making soft cooing sounds in attempt to let the bird know it was okay. I slowly moved closer, not wanting to scare it. Emma was right about one thing: if this bird were afraid of me, it would at least peck my hand if I tried to touch it.

  I watched it for several minutes. Its wings were tucked around it as I would have expected, so perhaps it hadn’t hurt its wing. Could it be sick? I moved my hand closer until I gently touched the bird’s head, and to my surprise, it didn’t attack me or flinch.

  “Addie! What are you doing?” Emma hissed. “That thing is going to eat you.”

  “Shh,” I said. “Ibises don’t eat people. It’s fine.”

  The bird let me run my fingers over both wings; those couldn’t be the source of the problem, then. It then made a sound and fluffed its wings, and I noticed that it tried to stand, but couldn’t. I carefully lifted one wing, and when I lifted the other, the bird pulled back.

  Then I saw the problem: one of its legs was twisted in an unnatural way. It must’ve landed badly or something had hit it and broken its leg. Even if it could fly, the bird needed help. It might sit there for too long and end up starving or being attacked by something else in its vulnerable state.

  I stood up and took out my phone.

  “What are you going to do?” Julie asked.

  “The same thing you would do if this was an injured person.” I dialed the number for the ranger station located closest to our location. Good thing I’d thought to bring the map. Not only did it have trails and other places of interest marked, it had a list of numbers to call if there was a problem.

  When someone answered, I explained the situation.

  “I’ll send someone out to you right away,” the man on the other end said. “Will you stay in the area to guide our ranger to the injured animal?”

  “Of course,” I said. “I couldn’t possibly leave this bird alone to be attacked.”

  I gave as much detail as I could about our location, then hung up and waited. I tried to find bugs and berries to feed the bird, but it wouldn’t take anything. We heard an ATV in the distance and watched for the ranger.

  When the vehicle came into view, we waved to get the ranger’s attention. Two rangers rode in the ATV, wearing their khaki uniforms.

  “Hi there,” one of the men said. “Were you the ones who called about an injured bird?”

  I opened my mouth to answer yes, but nothing came out. I stared at the other ranger, and he returned the gesture, both of us standing there in complete shock.

  “Owen?” I nearly choked on his name.

  “Addie.”

  I looked into the eyes of my high school boyfriend. It’d been four years since I’d seen him. He looked the same, but somehow, even better. He’d always been gorgeous with his black hair and blue eyes, but he’d gained some muscle over the years and the stubble across his chin was not something he’d had during our high school years. He looked much more mature. And, if I were being honest, he was downright hot.

  “Good to see you,” I said. What else could I say? It wasn’t entirely a lie, but he’d broken my heart. If I’d had to choose any person in the world to run into, he would have made the list, but wouldn’t have been high on it.

  “You, too.” He nodded slowly. He seemed to be thinking hard, but didn’t say anything.

  Finally, I broke the silence. “So, this ibis is right over here.”

  I pointed to where the patch of grass hid the bird, and the other ranger went to it immediately. Owen hesitated, then followed him over.

  I stood back to let them do their jobs. After a few minutes, Owen picked up the bird, and I was impressed. He must be very good with animals if he’d gained that much trust in such a short time—and from an injured bird, at that. He tucked the ibis under his arm and carefully got back into the ATV.

  “Thank you for calling us,” the other ranger said.

  “You think it’ll be okay?” I asked Owen.

  He nodded. “We’ll have our vet take a look. I think it’s just a broken leg.” He stroked the bird’s head. “She’ll be up and flying in no time, thanks to you. If you hadn’t called, she would probably have been attacked.”

  “That’s what I was worried about.”

  He pressed his lips together and nodded again. “Good to see you, Addie.”

  “You, too.”

  I watched them drive off, feeling a bit saddened by the exchange. Emma and Julie turned to me with wide eyes.

  “Let’s hear it,” Emma said.

  I let out a slow sigh, then resigned myself to reliving this painful story one more time.

  3

  Addie

  “From the first day we met, it was like magic,” I said. We started walking again, more slowly this time so they could listen to my tale. “I was lost in my giant, new high school and dropped my books while I was trying to find my class. There were so many people that I kind of freaked out a little. I was picking up my books and he stopped to help me, and he ended up walking me to my class, even though it made him late for his.”

  Owen had shrugged when the bell rang. “It’s the first day. They won’t care.”

  “Thank you again.” I held up my schedule. “And for pointing out my next class.” I smiled and dashed into the classroom. I’d sat quickly and glanced back to the door, surprised to see him still standing there.

  He smiled at me and my face grew hot. He held up a hand to wave, his smile spreading even wider, before he finally walked away. When class ended, I’d looked up and down the hall for him, but didn’t see him.

  I knew where to go next, thanks to him, and when I got to my next class, he slid into the seat next to me. My heart jumped.

  “Glad you didn’t get lost on your way here,” he said. “I’d hate to think I’d miss out on one minute of being this close to you.”

  “He did not say that!” Julie said and they both giggled.

  “We were only fourteen,” I reminded them. “And his brother used to teach him to say all these cheesy lines. It didn’t matter, though; I fell for all of them. And he meant them, too. Those things only come off as cheesy when the person saying them isn’t sincere.”

  “Okay, okay,” Emma said. “So, it was love at first book drop. What happened next?”

  “We would talk before and after class. Usually, he would walk me to my next one. Then, one Friday, he handed me a note with his phone number and he asked me to call him over the weekend. I called that day after school, and he asked me to go to the mall with him that night.”

  “The mall?” Emma asked, flabbergasted.

  “Yeah, the mall. Hello? Fourteen,” I said.

  “That’s where we spent, like, all of our Friday nights, Em, and you know it,” Julie said. They’d gone to a nearby high school and had been friends before co
llege, where they met me.

  “Ignore her,” Julie said. “Did he hold your hand as you walked around?”

  “Of course,” I said. “He bought me an Orange Julius and everything.”

  “This story could only be cuter if you’d shared a container of fries from the food court,” Julie said.

  I pressed my lips together and stifled a laugh.

  “You did, didn’t you!” Julie said.

  “I feel like I’m stuck in a teen drama,” Emma said.

  Julie shoved her lightly.

  “We shared fries and a slice of pizza,” I said. “And that was it. From that moment on, we were inseparable. We talked on the phone all night, went to the mall and roller skating and all those things we used to do when we were young teens.”

  “So cute,” Julie said.

  “Yeah, cute,” Emma said. “So where did it all go wrong?”

  “Well…” I blew out a hard sigh. “We dated for years. All through high school. We went to proms together, homecomings, all of that.”

  “Wait a minute!” Emma grabbed my arm and turned to face me. “Was he your first?”

  “Yes,” I admitted. “And I was his.”

  “This is the cutest story ever,” Julie said. “I’m quite jealous.”

  “And then he broke my heart,” I said.

  “I knew it,” Emma grumbled.

  “No!” Julie said in a whiney tone. “He’s so cute! How could he?”

  “He got into a college out of state and wanted to get away from everything. So, that summer, when he told me his plans, he said he wanted to end things. He thought a long-distance relationship would be too difficult to maintain, and that it would hinder our studies.”

  “Boo,” Julie said.

  “I know,” I said. “It was horrible. I cried for weeks. Then I swore off men.”

  “Until Sam,” Emma said.

  “Yeah well,” I said. “I should have sworn him off, too. Jerk.”

  “Let’s not have a Sam moment, please,” Julie said. “You’re done with him, and let’s stay done.”

  “Yes, please,” Emma said.

  “I think part of the reason I ended up staying with him for so long was because of Owen,” I said. “I just wanted to be dating, you know? After four straight years of being with the same person, it was weird to not have a boyfriend. But, I have no desire to talk about or think about Sam.”

  Except that now that he’d been brought up, my mind drifted toward Sam. It had been a complete disaster of a relationship. I’d expected something like what Owen and I had. A relationship that was fun and easy with someone enjoyable to be around. Owen made me laugh. Sam made me worry. He was so intense, I had never been sure where I stood with him or what was going on in his mind. The year we dated was fraught with frustration and confusion.

  If being in a relationship was going to be like how things had been with Sam, I never needed to be married. I didn’t want that kind of drama surrounding me all the time. In a relationship that was meant to last a lifetime, I would need someone more like Owen. Well, like Owen but with enough dedication to want to attempt something as common as a long-distance relationship.

  Maybe Owen had set the bar too high. After Sam, I started to wonder which one was a more accurate representation of what marriage would be like. The best I could hope for was something in the middle.

  “Maybe this will be good,” Emma said. “Maybe you can remember a relationship other than Sam and can actually have someone who’s good for you.”

  “I think the bigger problem is, I never really got over Owen.”

  They stopped and looked at me.

  “After he broke your heart, you still have feelings for him?” Julie asked.

  I shrugged. “That’s the only thing he ever did to hurt me, though.”

  “Well, it was a pretty big thing, don’t you think?” Emma said.

  “It was,” I admitted. “It’s just hard to hate him when all my memories are good ones.”

  “And when he’s that hot,” Emma added.

  “Not helping,” Julie said, nudging her.

  I scrunched up my face as if I were in pain. “The worst part is, he looks even better now.”

  Emma sucked in a breath. “Oh. Sorry.”

  “You should date him,” I said to Emma.

  “Are you crazy?” Emma said. “First of all, no. Second of all, he’s your ex. Third of all, you just said you still have feelings for him! I may not be the best friend in the world, but I’m not that evil. Or stupid.”

  “No one’s dating Owen,” Julie said.

  My face fell into a frown. No one was dating Owen, and none of us ever would be. He probably had a girlfriend anyhow. Maybe even a fiancé. I didn’t want to be hung up on anyone, especially not my ex from high school who I hadn’t seen in over four years. It was about three and a half years longer than it should have taken me to get over him. Yet, here I was, my heart still racing from our brief encounter, my mind still full of his face and voice.

  I shook my head. No. “Okay, stop.” I held up my hands and we all stopped walking. “I can’t do this. If I’m going to get over him, I can’t think about him. Or Sam. Or any other disaster in my life. I want to enjoy the fact that I just earned a degree after four years of very hard work, and so did the both of you. We made it through college, and we’re ready to start our new lives. I’m not going to do that being stuck in the past. From this point forward, I am in love with no one!”

  Julie pumped her fist in the air. “Down with love!”

  Emma raised her eyebrow at us. “Um, how about not ‘down with love’ so much as, yay for strong women who don’t need a relationship or a man to feel whole!”

  “And that!” I said, raising my fist high to match Julie’s. “Here’s to focusing on our careers!”

  If you enjoyed this preview of Alpha’s Second Chance from the Werebears Of The Everglades series, you may download the entire story HERE. Available with Kindle Unlimited.

  Sneak Peek of Playing With Fire

  Dragons Of The Darkblood Secret Society

  Playing With Fire

  I've always done my best to work hard and stand apart from my father's shadow, but it seemed like he was setting me up to fail. When he assigned me a new client, Adventure Isle—a run-down amusement park in the middle of nowhere—I knew I'd have to find the investor of a lifetime to succeed.

  I was looking for a man with more money than sense. What I found was a man who had no money at all, but he did have a beautiful daughter, Shayne. A beautiful, ball-busting daughter that I wanted from the second I laid eyes on her.

  She controls his money, but she controlled my heart from just about the moment we met. She called herself Mary and I never had a chance.

  But just when I find myself in her bed, exactly where I want to be, she gets the call. Her father is dead; killed by a dragon.

  And things are about to get a whole lot more complicated when the woman of my dreams learns that I'm a dragon, too.

  1

  With a long sigh, Jason Cross dropped into the brown leather chair at the furthest end of the lounge, loosening his tie with one hand and tossing a folder aside with the other. Before the next breath, a waitress appeared at his side with a drink in hand.

  "Thank you, Mia." He gulped it down with a single swallow and signaled his need for another.

  Mia’s sharp eyes flickered over his strained face and she nodded, sauntering back to the bar at the same deliberate pace she always used. She did not work for tips and she couldn’t be fired, so she moved through life at her own speed. But she knew everybody’s drink, knew when to change it up, and knew when to lend a sympathetic ear.

  "Hard day?"

  Vincent Ryder helped himself to the seat across from Jason. Artist, speculator, investor, inventor, and general man about town, Vincent was a renaissance man who didn’t wait, or ask for, invitations. The constant smirk on his lips gave him an air of arrogance, but Jason wouldn’t call Vincent an arrogant
man. He always backed up his big talk and he was a good man to have in your corner, so Jason was one of the few who didn’t find his smirk intolerable.

  "Yeah, you could say that," Jason said.

  Vincent reached for the discarded folder. "You have a new project." It wasn’t a question and he didn’t wait for Jason to invite him to have a look. He flipped through the first few pages, went back to the beginning, read them again, and then blinked at Jason.

  "Exactly," Jason said.

  "Why am I looking at a Ferris wheel and three children eating cotton candy?" He tilted his head. "This photo is at least twenty years old. Is that Ferris wheel still standing?"

  "It’s twenty-five years old, and apparently, yes, it is."

  Vincent frowned. "You couldn’t pay me to get on a Ferris wheel that old."

  "Of course not. No one wants to ride anything that old. Keep looking. It gets better."

  Vincent returned his attention to the folder, his frown becoming so deep it was almost comical as he studied the accompanying glossy photos. "Has your father gone crazy? This place should have been closed a decade ago."

  At least a decade ago. Most of the rides were dilapidated; most of the booths had been boarded up. The remaining booths held "treasures" from a previous generation—knock-off toys and cheap stuffed animals that were losing the war with time. Frankly, the place looked more like a set from a horror movie about a theme park than a place anyone would want to take their family to.

  "I don’t know. Maybe. This is apparently a completely legitimate account. What he was thinking when he took on the client, I can’t tell you."

  "Maybe it’s some sort of hazing ritual?"

  "After over a year in the company? It feels more like he’s setting me up for failure."

  "Why would Damian want you to fail?"

  The question brought him up short. Growing up in his family, the choice to become an investment banker really wasn't a choice at all. His great-grandfather had started the firm and the males of every generation to follow had just been funneled directly into the company. His cousins and brother took positions with perfunctory titles and almost no actual obligations, but generous compensation packages.