Naughty Elf: Evan (Santa’s Naughty Elf Mates)

2. Holden

Chapter 2

Holden

Water sprayed out of the faucet in bursts and then the whole cabin rumbled before it went completely dry. Nothing.

“Dammit.” The old pipes had either frozen, rusted through, or gotten clogged by something. It was always something . I’d only been in this place for two months, but it seemed like something was breaking or disintegrating every day. I’d just fixed the last hole in the roof, and now it looked like I’d be doing some major plumbing work.

I shrugged on my parka and filled the water kettle with ice, then put it on top of the woodstove. It would take a while to get enough water for a cup of instant coffee, but time was all I had these days.

Time and ice.

When I made the decision to move out to Joyville, I knew I’d be isolated. That was the whole reason I chose this tiny mountain town with a population of fifty year-round residents. Fifty-one if you counted me.

But subsistence living was also very different from the life I’d lived in the burbs. There was no hardware store down the street that carried everything I could possibly need, and online deliveries didn’t arrive on my porch every morning.

Once everything was repaired, I could probably get away with only going into town once or twice a month but so far, I’d been making the trip almost daily as new repairs and problems continued to come up. The cabin I bought was probably state-of-the-art at one point. A point many years before I was born. Now it was just a giant log cabin of endless projects for me to tackle.

I put a few more pieces of wood in the stove and then went out back to grab some more from the woodshed. My wolf wanted to run and hunt, but we didn’t have time for that. As much as I liked camping, I really liked running water, so getting the plumbing dealt with was my priority for the day.

This evening, buddy. We’ll go on a night hunt. I glanced up and looked at the position of the sun. I think it’s gonna be a full moon tonight, so you can go as far and wide as you want.

My wolf loved being in Joyville. He’d never had the open space and freedom to hunt anything he came across the way he did out here. I was happy to give him that, but now he had a new bug in his bonnet about us finding our mate.

It was a nice idea, and I didn’t want to be the one to break it to him that the chances of us finding a mate in a town as small as Joyville were slim to none. Then again, I was told the summer brought tourists in for camping and fishing tours, so there was always a possibility.

I didn’t have high expectations, but I wouldn’t rule anything out.

Besides, there were lots of packs that roamed the mountains. At some point, maybe I’d give up on the hope of finding a mate and just allow him to have fun with the wild packs. It wasn’t a generally accepted practice for wolf shifts to fraternize with wildlife, but there was no sense in us both being alone for the rest of our days.

I ended up spending longer than I expected in town, but the hot bread sign was on at the bakery, and I couldn’t walk past it without stopping for a sandwich. And then I decided to stock up on groceries and bottled water in case I couldn’t get the plumbing figured out before bed. In the end, my quick trip ended up taking most of the day.

Even though it was early in the afternoon when I was finally on the winding road back to my house, it was dark under the canopy of thick trees and cloud cover and felt like night was about to fall.

When I came up on the intersection to go over to Joyville, I saw a person walking along the side of the road. He was huddled over and looked almost like a child which didn’t make sense for this area. I wasn’t aware of any families living with small children, and we weren’t in the tourist season.

Despite my disinterest in interacting with people, I couldn’t drive past the kid without making sure he was okay, so I pulled over slightly ahead of him and rolled down the passenger window.

He approached and glanced inside.

“Hey there, kid. Are you okay?”

He nodded and cleared his throat. “I’m looking for a town called Joyville.”

“Well, you’re in it.” Trees and snow pretty well summed up the entire town.

His jaw dropped and he looked around. “But where’s the…joy?”

I chuckled, having asked myself that same question a few times since moving here. “I don’t think people come here for joy. They come here for isolation and quiet. That’s what you’ll find here. Where are you specifically going? Can I take you to someone’s house?” I didn’t know a lot of my neighbors, but there were a few prominent families that were most likely to know where this guy belonged. He wasn’t as young as I had initially feared. Probably mid-twenties, if I had to guess. Just on the smaller side. Way smaller.

My wolf was particularly interested, urging me to let him out so he could get a closer inspection. No way, bud.

Revealing ourselves to the townsfolk was not a good idea. There were a few other wolves in the community, but they kept to themselves as much as I did, and I didn’t get the feeling that the humans were aware of their presence.

“Um, I don’t know.” Tears welled up in the young man’s eyes, and he curled in even tighter in his thin jacket.

Fuck. This guy was gonna freeze to death. “Is there a place I can take you? Do you have any friends out here?”

He shook his head. “I got a ride from the train station in Silverthorne, but he was going away from Joyville and just dropped me off here. I didn’t realize how cold it would be.”

“Yeah, and it’s just gonna get colder when the sun goes down. Why don’t you get in, and I’ll take you to my place? You can make some phone calls or figure out what you wanna do from there.”

He leaned in farther through the window and stared at me for a moment before nodding his head. “Yeah, okay. Thank you.”

As soon as he was inside my truck, I cranked up the heat and lowered the radio. Damn Christmas music had been playing for a month already, and we still had three weeks left until Christmas.

“Oh, that’s my favorite song.”

I looked at him with a grimace on my face. “It is?”

He nodded and sang along. “Yeah, I sing it a lot when I’m working.”

Ooooohhhkay. I turned the radio up, but not loud enough to drown out his voice. It was high-pitched and almost tinkling as he sang along to every word, lulling my wolf with the sweet sound.

“What did you say your name was?”

He startled as if he’d forgotten I was here. “Oh, forgive my manners. I’m Evan. Evan Elv… Um, Alvin.”

“Evan Alvin? You must’ve gotten teased a lot when you were a kid.”

His brow furrowed and he looked forward. “Yeah, I did. How did you know?”

I chuckled and shrugged. “Kids can be assholes. And a rhyming name like that is easy pickins.” I turned to him and waited for him to glance my way before I smirked. “Ask me how I know.”

He smiled. “How do you know?”

I didn’t want to do it. I hated using my full name, so I never shared it with anyone. Ever. But he seemed like he could use a laugh, and I was feeling generous as I sighed. “I’m Holden. Holden Burns.”

Evan cocked his head, confused. “What’s wrong with that?”

“My mother’s maiden name was coffee, with a K. She really wanted to keep that name in the family, so she gave me her maiden name as my middle name.”

It took him a minute before his eyes went wide. “No way.”

“Fraid so. Holden Koffee Burns is my official name, but don’t repeat that. I never tell anyone that story.”

“Oh.” I glanced back at him and saw that his cheeks were especially rosy. “Why did you tell me?”

I turned into my driveway as I considered his question. “I have no idea.”