9. Archie
ARCHIE
The second the auction wrapped up, I was off the stage.
I didn’t excuse myself or wait for the captain.
I stepped into the crowd and put my wolf’s nose to work because he could track a scent through a room better than I could.
He caught Walter’s trail, and I followed it out of the ballroom and down a quiet hallway lined with framed photos of people I didn’t recognize.
The trail ended at the door of the men’s room. I put my hand against the wood and breathed in my mate’s scent. It was stronger here than in the ballroom where it had competed with so many other human scents.
My heart was pounding hard, as though I’d just finished practice, and inside me, my wolf was on his feet. I could feel his muscles straining as he urged me to open the door.
Take it easy. Walter’s human and we met once. I was worried my mate wouldn’t remember me and even getting him to agree to a coffee wasn’t a given. If we scare him, he’ll run and we’ll lose him. This time for good.
We had to take this slow.
Yes, yes, slow. But I didn’t believe him. He was agitated and ready to mark our mate.
Walter was at the sink. He had his hands braced on the edge and his head was down. There were droplets of water along his hairline as if he’d splashed his face.
He looked up as I walked in, and our eyes met in the mirror. Neither of us said anything, but his eyes were still gray. I’d wondered many times over the years if they still were, which was silly, but I’d had a lot of time and a lot of thoughts.
“Hi.” I almost added Walter but didn’t want to startle him.
He turned around and his scent overpowered me. I needed to lean on the sink, but my beast helped me stay upright.
“It’s you. You’re the guy from the hardware store.” He let out a breath. “And you’re also the one whose face is on the screen out there. Archie.”
I grinned. “I am.” I cleared my throat. “I’m both of those, the same guy.”
He nodded. “Right.” And he nodded again. “Okay, that’s a coincidence. I looked you up for the piece I’m writing and thought, wow, he looks like…” He glanced at his clenched hands. “And tonight, you walked past me and I almost tapped you on the shoulder.”
Walter pressed his lips together. “Sorry. I don’t usually talk this much.” He jerked his head at the tablet. I write things for a living because it’s easier than talking.”
“You’re a reporter.” Now I understood the tablet.
“Mmmm.” He wiped his palms on his pants, reinforcing that he was awkward or uncomfortable. He looked up, and our eyes locked on one another.
He knows who you are, so what’s the holdup? My wolf had a lot to learn about human interaction.
“Can I ask you something? It’s going to sound strange.”
“Ask me anything.” I extended my arms. I’d be disappointed if this was a hockey question or if he wanted one of my team members’ autographs.
He hesitated. “I went back to the hardware store.” He kept his eyes on my face.
“My uncle and I came to your town a few weeks after we met, and when I had time, I told myself I needed sandpaper. But you weren’t there, and you were the reason I went, not because I had the urge to sand down anything. ”
Spots of pink dotted his cheeks, and I took deep breaths because standing a foot away from him and not holding him close was becoming harder by the second.
Oh gods, he’d felt it, or felt something. Maybe not the mating bond or even a connection, but he’d sensed something between us and he went looking for me. I’d convinced myself that he didn’t know I existed. It was a chance encounter on a cold day, but he’d remembered it.
“There was an older man there instead, and when I asked about you, he got upset and wouldn’t tell me anything.
” Walter explained my pops had said I’d left town and wouldn’t say any more.
He had to go into the back. “I felt bad asking him and wondered if saying you left was a way of telling me you were dead.”
“That was Pops. I was in the store that first day when you came because he was sick.”
“I never understood why he’d reacted like that, and it stayed with me for years.”
My dads had sat Pops down after I left and explained why I’d pretended I was just leaving for the weekend. I’d hugged him tight, and he joked that he’d see me in a few days, but it’d been two years before he came out east to visit. I still carried guilt about that.
No one ever told me Walter asked about me. Of course they didn’t. They were too scared, not just for them but that if they talked, they’d get Walter killed and me grief-stricken. My mate was still alive, but I’d been grieving.
“He didn’t tell me you were there.”
Walter shrugged. “Why would he? I was just some guy visiting town, but I’ve felt bad for that man for eight years.”
“He's fine and still working in the store. He was here visiting me last month.”
He asked why I’d left so suddenly and why my grandfather was so upset, and I said it was a family issue.
That was an easy lie that any human would understand.
I couldn’t tell him the truth without admitting to the existence of shifters and that being with him would endanger his life.
Not that he’d fallen into my arms, but he hadn’t said hi and bye.
Telling him my Alpha with an uppercase A threatened to kill him and still would if we got together was a long way off. Perhaps I’d never have to tell him if I could get Garrick out the way.
“Family problems. Okay, I get it.”
But he was a reporter, and if he had the instinct most journalists did, he probably heard the hesitation in my voice, though he didn’t push me for details
“I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”
“It was a long time ago.” True, but that sentence didn’t convey the pain I carried.
He smiled, and my wolf pushed me to do something, anything other than letting him go. What I wanted was to close the space between us, press my face into Walter’s neck, and breathe him in until I stopped hurting.
But underneath the scent that was Walter was another smell, and it was woven into his suit.
It belonged to another man, a human. I got a hint of cologne, shampoo, and dry-cleaning fluid, not that a human could pick up the latter.
My wolf went from straining to get out to growling, saying he’d hunt the guy down.
This was the best night of my life, but it was also the worst. Walter was a grown man with a career and a life. He went and built that life with someone who wasn’t me.
“Are you okay? Did you have too much wine?”
I was swaying, and he grabbed my wrist. Our first skin-to-skin contact and it was after discovering he had a man in his life.
“I’m fine, but I should get back. The team’ll be looking for me.”
His smile faded. “Oh, right.”
I’d found my mate, and now I was pushing him away because of another man’s scent. But I needed to find out the truth before I tore my world apart for the second time.
I just didn’t know how.