by Lynn Howard
Throwing her arms over her head, Hollyn went back to dancing and acting like a fool with her friends until closing time rolled around. Her feet ached, she was covered in sweat, but damn she’d had fun.
All the guys from Big River, Eli, and her Clan brothers piled through the door just in time for last call. They weren’t there to drink; they were there to get their drunk mates home and to make sure Noah and Hollyn were okay when they left.
“That was so much fun,” Callie said, dipping under Micah’s arm to press against his side. “You guys should’ve totally come earlier and danced with us.”
“I wanted to come get jiggy with it, but Lola told me we were forbidden,” Reed pouted, pressing a kiss to Lola’s temple.
“Did you behave?” Gray asked Nova as she pulled her purse strap over her shoulder.
“Believe it or not, I did,” Nova said with a wink.
“No problems?” Carter asked Noah.
“Nah. It was a little on the slow side, so they pretty much had free run of the place,” Noah said as he began wiping down the bar top and washing glasses.
Well, shit. Hollyn couldn’t just stand there and watch him work. If she helped, they’d get out of there quicker. And just like on the nights when Hollyn and Shawnee worked, the others jumped in to help them get all their closing crap done faster.
“Hollyn has a fan,” Nova said, tilting her head to look up at Gray.
“Oh yeah?” Gray asked, raising one brow at Noah. He assumed it was a male.
“Not like that,” Nova said, putting her hand on his cheek and turning his face toward her. “This chick showed up and asked for the pretty girl with the tricks.”
“The fire,” Hollyn said as she put away the clean glasses.
“Huh?” Nova said.
Did Hollyn look as drunk as Nova? She didn’t feel that drunk. Definitely not as bad as her first night at Big River when she’d told everyone her secret.
“She asked for the girl with the fire,” Hollyn said.
“The pretty girl,” Nova added. “You think she has a crush on you?”
“Really? That’s the first place your mind goes?” Hollyn asked. They were done behind the bar and the rest of the group had already wiped down the tables, stacked the chairs, and swept and mopped the floor. There wasn’t much else to be done.
“Of course it does. I told you she’s a perv. All her books are about sex,” Emory said.
“Romance,” Tristan, the super quiet guy from Big River, said as he stood with his arm around Peyton’s shoulders.
“Yeah, yeah. Romance, too. But a lot of sex,” Emory said, her eyes wide.
Hollyn chuckled as she followed everyone out the door and waited as Noah locked the door.
“Why would she ask for the girl with fire?” Micah asked. “Why’d she phrase it like that?”
“’Cause I blow flames?” Hollyn said with a shrug.
“She didn’t say the girl who blew flames. She asked for the pretty girl with the fire,” Noah said as he turned back from the door.
Hollyn rubbed at her arms and shrugged again. “No idea.”
“Do you have a rash or something?” Micah asked, his intense gaze where Hollyn was rubbing nonstop.
“No. It’s just that…” Hollyn was going to explain it was that weird staticky feeling, tell them it felt like when your foot falls asleep. And then puzzle pieces began to slam into place one after the other. “The girl with the fire,” she muttered.
The woman hadn’t asked for the girl who did tricks, didn’t say she blew flames, she’d asked for the girl with the fire. And the pins and needles sensation had escalated with her presence and had barely faded since she left. Was that woman a Fairy? Had she been in the presence of another Fae woman and run her off?
But…
If she was Fae, wouldn’t she have been more careful with her wording? She wouldn’t have wanted to out Hollyn, especially if she knew Hollyn was an Elemental Fae with the gift of fire. And why was she there to begin with? Why was she looking for Hollyn? In general, Fae tended to steer pretty clear of each other. They were too damn endangered to risk being in the same place at the same time. Someone could easily snatch or kill both of them and that would be two less Fae on the planet.
“Are you going to be sick?” Nova asked. “You just went super pale.”
“She was Fae,” Hollyn said, flicking her eyes up to Noah before searching the area.
“Who?” Nova asked, oblivious in her boozed up state.
“That woman, the lady who asked for me. She was Fae. That’s who I’ve been feeling this whole time. I just…it’s been so many years since I felt another Fae’s presence, I’d forgotten about it.” Hollyn rubbed her hands up and down her arms some more. If the lady was gone, why did she still feel her magic? Was that normal? Did it cling to people? She didn’t know and had no one to ask.
Big River tensed and guided their mates to their waiting trucks. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Peyton said, pulling her arm from Tristan’s grasp. “I can take on every single one of you and you know it. Don’t treat me like I’m fragile. I’m staying until she gets in her truck,” Peyton said, jerking her chin toward Hollyn. “It’s either that or Cujo is going to lose her shit.”
It was definitely time to go. Until she knew what the woman’s motives were for tracking Hollyn down, she wanted to keep a good distance between them. And since she had no idea whether the woman’s magic was clinging to her or if she was still close, watching them from the shadows, blocking the Shifters from being able to scent her, she didn’t want to stand there exposed.
Hollyn slipped her hand into Noah’s and winced when his grip was a little too tight. “Ease up there, big boy,” she said, smiling up at him in hopes of easing the anger now burning bright in his amber eyes.
It didn’t matter how wide she grinned or how much she teased him; he could feel her fear burning hot in her veins.
****
Noah laid on his side, raised up on his elbow, his head propped in his hand, and watched Hollyn sleep. He’d barely gotten more than a few hours and that had only been thirty minutes here and fifteen minutes there. He couldn’t sleep, especially with his bear pacing and growling in his head.
He’d started doing that when Noah had felt the fear coming from Hollyn like a punch in the gut. It took everything in him and a lot of bartering and negotiating to keep his skin. His bear wanted out. He wanted to track down the person sniffing around his mate and destroy her.
But that wouldn’t happen. For one thing, they had no idea if this woman was friend or foe. Two, she was a Fairy; no way would he be a part of their elimination on this planet. And three…Noah couldn’t hurt a woman. He just couldn’t. Even when Tammen and Deathport had attacked Big River, he couldn’t fight back against the lioness. And when Shawnee’s former Pride attacked, he again couldn’t fight back against the females. He’d taken so many lashes and bites, but he never once struck back.
Hollyn sighed in her sleep and rolled onto her side. A few minutes later, her lashes fluttered and her eyes opened.
“Are you watching me sleep?” she asked, closing her eyes and folding her hands beneath her face.
He grunted.
When her eyes opened again, she kept them on Noah. “You’re still worried about last night,” she said, as her magic flowed between them. Again, he just grunted and dipped his head once.
Hollyn rolled onto her back and lifted her arms over her head, her palms going flat against the headboard as she stretched. The movement made the blanket slide down and reveal one of her perfect tits. He couldn’t help himself; he reached one hand forward and cupped it, tweaking her nipple between his finger and thumb once before pulling his hand back.
She rolled her head to look at him with a soft, sleepy smile. “I figured you’d be tired after last night.”
In Noah’s frantic, freaked out state, his bear’s possessive need, and Hollyn’s drunken horniness, they’d screwed on just about every piece of furniture Noah
owned. He was tired, but it wasn’t from making love to his mate.
His face softened the same time his dick hardened as she dragged the blanket lower, revealing her other boob. He wanted her. Then again, he always wanted her. But they had some things to discuss first.
“Did you recognize that woman?” he asked.
Disappointment was evident in her face the same time it hit him in the chest. She covered back up and shook her head on the pillow. “No. Never seen her before.”
Noah grabbed the blanket and pulled it back down. Just because they had to talk didn’t mean he couldn’t have the perfect view during the conversation. She smiled up at him, her eyes sleepy as she shook her head.
“I don’t think I want you at the bar for a while,” Noah said.
“I thought we already discussed it was the safest place for me,” she said, pushing up onto her elbows.
As her boobs swayed and jiggled, Noah almost lost his train of thought.
“I put in a call with Aron. He’s sending Brax and Daxon to hang out for a while. They’ll be here tomorrow.”
“You called a babysitter,” she said, sitting all the way up and pulling the blanket all the way to her damn chin. She was cutting off his view of her body as punishment.
“I called in backup,” he said, pushing up to a sitting position. He didn’t bother to cover up as he climbed from the bed. They had two hours before they had to be at work. He decided to hold off on the shower until after they’d hashed all this out. Pulling on a pair of sweats, he sat on the edge of the bed and pushed some hair away from Hollyn’s face. “Just until we figure out who that woman is. And where the traffickers are. And until the whole fucking deal is over.”
“So…forever,” she said, narrowing her eyes on him as she leaned her back against the headboard. “I’m a hot commodity, Big Boy. There will always be someone out there searching for someone like me. It’ll never be over. You sure you want to deal with that for the rest of your life? You sure you want to constantly feel the pain and fear I feel every single fucking time something like this happens?”
He hated every emotion flowing from Hollyn into Noah. He hated that she doubted his commitment to her. And he flinched a little at her use of the F word. It was the first time he’d ever heard her drop that bomb. If everything else she’d said hadn’t pissed him off, he might’ve actually smiled at how cute it sounded coming from her rose petal lips.
“Are you seriously doubting my feelings for you?” he growled out, turning to fully face her.
She chewed on her bottom lip and shrugged.
“Seriously? You feel me just as much as I feel you. Has anything ever made you feel anything that would indicate I don’t want you for the rest of my damn life? I don’t care if there are monsters hiding under your bed every night. I’ll fight for you and with you and keep you safe. Never fucking doubt that or me again.”
He pushed to his feet and stomped out of the room. He had to Shift. He had to run for a few minutes to expel some of the angry energy and anxiety over the newest bull shit. But he wouldn’t leave Hollyn alone.
As he stepped to the front door and looked onto his front porch, he realized he wouldn’t be leaving her alone. Luke was sitting on the top step, just like he was every single morning.
Luke glanced back at Noah as he opened the door. “Need to run,” he ground out as his bones began to pop and Shift.
“Go,” Luke said, turning back to stare at the woods some more. “I’ve got her.”
Bear exploded from Noah before he was passed the trucks. His big paws slammed onto the gravel and then took off like a bullet, putting distance between him and Hollyn. Even this far away, he could feel her regret, her sorrow, and that fucking fear that gutted him. He hated it. He wished he could take it away, make it disappear. He wished they could disappear.
But she was right. No matter how far they went, no matter how much time passed, no matter where they lived or what was going on in their lives, there would always be someone who’d see her as a trinket, a prize, something to get rich from instead of seeing the beautiful, funny, strong, vibrant woman.
Twigs and leaves crunched and cracked under his paws, animals scurried away and hid in the brush. They didn’t need to worry; Bear wasn’t hunting. He was thinking, trying to come up with some way to keep his mate safe.
Short of wrapping her in bubble wrap and locking her in a padded room, there was no way to keep her out of harm’s way.
Maybe the best thing to do was draw all the fuckers out, get them all in one place, and eliminate each threat head on. But how? He refused to use Hollyn as bait, but someone already found her. And he had no idea whether she was a threat or not.
Another Fae, a female Fairy in the area, and she’d found Hollyn. Could she be helpful to Hollyn? Or would it just raise the stakes having two in such close proximity? Maybe she could help keep Hollyn safe and they’d all keep both women safe.
Too much. Too much shit at one time. At least when they’d fought Deathport, Tammen, and Horine Pride, they knew what to expect. It was one threat, one group with a stick up their asses. Now?
Too much.
Sorrow and shock hit Noah in the heart, making him stumble. His bear lifted his snout in the air and inhaled deep. A new scent. Not Clan. Not Pack.
Bear made a wide turn and ran full force back to the territory, back to Hollyn, back to his mate. Someone made her sad. Someone hurt her.
Mine, Bear growled in Noah’s head.
Feet pounding the ground, Bear pushed harder to get to their mate, to get to Hollyn. Hurry, Noah urged in Bear’s head.
Voices carried to him on the wind, male voices, female voices. Carter, Luke, Colton, Shawnee, Hollyn…and who? Who was that last voice? Was she a threat? Noah didn’t feel fear coming from Hollyn, still the sorrow, still the shock.
The second Noah burst through the trees, Luke Shifted and ran toward him, cutting him off before he got too close.
“She’s safe, brother,” Carter called over the distance. Colton stood close, his eyes bright, never leaving the woman standing in front of Hollyn. It was the dark-haired woman from last night. This was the Fairy. She’d tracked Hollyn to Moe’s, then found her at home.
He’d been running. Noah had been running through the woods when she’d showed up. What if it’d been someone else? What if he hadn’t gotten back to her in time? He was an idiot. Selfish. He’d put his own needs ahead of Hollyn’s safety.
Bear paced back and forth along the tree line, his eyes on Hollyn, on the woman, while Noah begged for his skin back.
Need to talk to her. Need to find out what’s going on. The longer he went without permanently marking Hollyn, the further out of control his bear was spiraling.
Luke’s bear growled a warning, but he didn’t move, didn’t get out of Noah’s path. He wouldn’t let him do something he couldn’t take back. Noah begged his bear, his eyes going to Hollyn. He could feel her calling to him, beckoning him forward without saying a word.
She needs me. She needs us, Noah told his bear.
With a huff of frustration, Bear released his hold and let Noah take his skin back. But he made it as slow as possible, forcing Noah to suffer every fucking step.
Chapter Eleven
Hollyn stared at Noah in panic as his bear paced the tree line, his bright gaze going back and forth between Hollyn and Melinda. She needed him to stop, needed Noah the man, not his bear. Needed him to understand.
“Mate,” Hollyn called out. Melinda’s head whipped around, her eyes wide in surprise. Last thing she expected to hear, apparently. “It’s okay,” she said, forcing a smile and trying to block her emotion from Noah while trying to calm his animal.
Slowly, Bear gave Noah his skin back. By the time it was over, Noah knelt on the ground, his fists against the packed dirt, panting through the pain as a sheen of sweat broke out along his body.
Hollyn took a step away from Melinda and toward her mate. He pushed to his feet, his hand immediately moving to c
up his junk and hide himself from the newcomer. Turning on her heel, Hollyn ran up the stairs and into the house and grabbed Noah a t-shirt and a pair of sweats. She carried them out to Noah and handed them over, using her own body as a shield while he dressed.
And then she took him by the hand and guided him over to the only Fairy she’d ever met beside her parents. “Noah, this is Melinda. This is who I’ve been feeling all this time.”
Luke padded over to them, still in his bear form. He slowly positioned himself until he was standing between Hollyn and Melinda. She might not have noticed it, but Hollyn knew Luke didn’t like the stranger close to Hollyn, to his Clan sister.
“She’s a Fairy, like me,” Hollyn said, unable to hold back the excited smile.
Noah’s eyes were narrowed on Melinda. He didn’t trust her. Hollyn could feel it, feel his fear of this woman. He still stuck his hand out to Melinda, wrapping it around hers when she slowly slipped her hand into his.
“You called him mate,” Melinda said when she pulled her hand back. “He’s a Shifter.” She didn’t pull her eyes from Noah as she spoke, and something like disgust flashed through her dark as night eyes. Hers did the same as Hollyn’s, changing with her emotions.
That didn’t sit well with Hollyn. She didn’t know this woman enough to care about her opinion, but Melinda was looking at Hollyn’s mate as if she wished he’d disappear. There was no fear in her eyes. Why the hell wasn’t Melinda scared of Noah, or any of Blackwater for that matter. They were Shifters. She was a Fairy. She should’ve been terrified. Yet, she’d wandered right onto the territory and straight to Noah’s door. She didn’t even react when all three men and Shawnee stepped onto their porch to see what was going on.
“Because he’s my mate,” Hollyn said, turning a frown on Melinda. She was excited to meet someone of her kind, but she’d be damned if she let a complete stranger disrespect the love of her life.
Hollyn moved closer to Noah and took his hand again, threading her fingers through his and stepping into his side.