by Amelia Jade
That sobering thought did absolutely nothing to improve his mood. Nor did it help him deflect the decision that he would have to make regarding Al. The worst offense a shifter could commit while in human territory was to kill a human. In all honesty, while Andrew didn’t want anyone to die, the ugly truth was, if Al had just gone and done that, it would have made everything so much simpler. If he’d killed a human, Andrew would have killed him. Easy, end of story.
But Al hadn’t done that. In fact, he hadn’t technically committed a crime. That was where the technicality—and Andrew’s frustration with the whole scenario—lay. If he’d come upon Al any later, he could have charged him with murder, and that also would have been sufficient to end him. Al was a shitty excuse for a wolf shifter—and that was saying a lot!—but Andrew had to play by the rules. Technically Al had assaulted her, not killed her, and even the assault bit was tricky to prove, since he’d done little more than shove her up against the wall. Everyone in their right mind knew what the shit-stain had been intending to. The first thing he’d had to do was stop the attack from happening. After he’d known he would have to deal with Al, but at the time, stopping the human woman from suffering any further was priority number one.
Now though, he had to decide what punishment to mete out.
“I hate this job sometimes,” he muttered, leaning back in his chair.
The office chair creaked, but it didn’t explode as his powerful bulk shifted position in it. He eyed the pile of plastic shards in the corner that were the remnants of several flimsy folding plastic chairs that were all he’d had to use at first. Now at least he could lean back while he contemplated what to do. Unfortunately, that was the worst part of it. As the Cadian envoy to Cloud Lake and the one who had witnessed the attack, it was entirely on Andrew’s shoulders to decide what punishment he handed out.
Did he end the wolf and remove his stain from existence? Or did he just beat him silly and send him back to Cadia? If it were anyone else, he would probably have gone with option number two. But Al was a different problem. Al was connected back in Cadia. He had friends in high places, the same friends who had forced Andrew into giving him permission to come here in the first place. So if he sent him back with instructions to imprison him there, he doubted the orders would ever even be carried out.
Al escaping punishment was not an option.
That left ending him then, didn’t it? Andrew unhappily looked up at the ceiling. He had killed before, and would likely do it again. But he’d had enough killing. Too many shifters had died when the rival shifter territory of Fenris had tried to invade Cadia. Thousands of them had perished. Andrew didn’t want to be responsible for more death, even if it was in regard to a scumbag like Al. Plus there were those connections to consider. If he killed Al, who knew what they would do to him once they found out.
“What to do…what to do…” he muttered, slowly spinning the chair around on its axis, watching the ceiling rotate above him.
It didn’t seem like he was going to get much sleep that night.
Chapter Four
Karri
“Well don’t you look wonderful,” she muttered to the bleary, puffy, and dark-colored eyes looking back at her from the little flipdown mirror on the car’s visor.
Karri hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. Now she was back at the office, anticipating another day of running the show. She wasn’t excited to find out how much fun that was going to be running on an empty stomach and no more than a couple of hours’ worth of sleep.
Not that the day before had been her first taste of handling things for the entire company. She’d done it on several occasions, when her father had been ill, or even away on a business trip. Not often, because he still preferred to handle things himself over the phone if need be. But the meeting hadn’t been something he could do over the phone, so he’d been forced to delegate it to her. Then an issue had arisen with one of their suppliers, and she’d had to leap into action, telling them that they had better deliver their products on time or her company was going elsewhere. It had been some hardball back and forth, but she’d eventually gotten them to agree to handle the added cost of hiring another driver to get the load to her facility on time.
She’d done well yesterday, and she knew it.
Which is why the instant she walked into the office and heard her father blasting someone she felt her shoulders droop. Today was just not the day. She wasn’t up for it, wasn’t interested in dealing with his bullshit. What the hell was he going on about now? Nothing had gone wrong on her watch, which meant something had gone wrong that morning, or far more likely, he was just being a douchebag and yelling at someone for something that wasn’t actually an issue.
Her father thought yelling encouraged his employees to do better work.
Her father was an idiot.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” he was shouting at full blast as she entered through the front door. He was down near the back, where her office and his was located, along with the other higher-ups in the company.
“What the hell is he on about today, Joy?” she asked one of the women from their finance department who was up there doing something that looked very similar to hiding.
“Oh, Miss Blaine. So good to see you,” Joy said, flashing her a nervous smile, hoping she wasn’t about to get yelled at for hiding.
“Relax, Joy.” Karri cocked her head, listening for a moment. “It sounds like he’s really gotten going on this one,” she remarked.
“Ah yes, Miss Blaine,” Joy said tentatively.
“What is he screaming about?” she asked, then held up her hand. “Also, who is he yelling at? Did something go wrong this morning?”
Joy shook her head. “Um, no. I think it’s—”
At that moment her father’s voice rose to another level.
“THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. WE CAN’T JUST GO AROUND SIGNING THINGS! WE’LL LOSE ALL OUR PROFITS. IF THAT HAPPENS, IT’S COMING OUT OF YOUR POCKET, MIKE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”
Karri jerked upright. Mike Mencine was the vice president of Blaine Enterprises, and a damn good man. They couldn’t afford to have him quit because her father was having a fit over something.
“Hold that thought,” she said to Joy, walking down the hallway.
Karri wished she was heading the other way, back out the door to her car. That would be an infinitely more enjoyable solution, for her at least. Mike would understand, but he certainly wouldn’t appreciate it. Especially because it sounded like he was getting yelled at for the deal she had signed. A deal that had come in well under the figures her father had told her to aim for. Well under. So what the hell had gotten up his ass that morning?
In all honesty it was probably because he’d been forced to miss a day of work, and wasn’t happy about that. Then he was probably upset that she’d scored a better deal than he likely would have ever been able to get. It was ludicrous for him to take that out on Mike…but that was her father. Mike had simply filled out the forms and paperwork as she’d told him to.
Karri couldn’t leave him to be berated for that. What kind of boss would she be if that was how she treated her employees?
“Hi,” she said, coming upon them at last.
Her father paused in his rant, turning away from Mike, who flashed her a relieved and thankful look. Karri just looked at her father deadpan.
“What’s up?” She phrased the question as innocent and innocuously as she could, trying to make it sound like there was no reason to be mad, and that everyone should just drop it. Shockingly though, her father didn’t take the bait to let things cool off. Instead she saw his chest rise as he inhaled.
He’s going to drop dead of a heart attack one of these days, while yelling about absolutely nothing. Unbelievable.
“DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS?” he all but screamed, turning to face her and directing his rage at a fresh target.
“About what, Father?” she asked, already struggling to keep herself calm.
�
�THIS DEAL HE MADE WITH SAWNE? DID HE RUN IT BY YOU?”
Karri just stared at her father. Was he beginning to lose it? Could he seriously have forgotten that he was the one who’d told her to get it done and had sent her numbers that were the maximum they were willing to pay?
“Father,” she said calmly, slashing a hand across the air as he began to speak again. “Father,” she repeated more sternly. “Think for a moment here. Use your brain.”
Steam whistled from his ears as her father turned a shade of bright red she wasn’t sure she’d seen on him before.
Interesting. He can get angrier.
“WHAT?”
She shook her head. “Father, did you take any drugs for your sickness yesterday? Anything that made you extra sleepy or out of it?”
“Absolutely not,” he snapped instantly. “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, considering the fact that not only did Mike clearly not make that deal, since he’s not involved in sales in any way, but that you told me to have the meeting with Sawne, it would seem that if you weren’t on drugs, you might have some sort of mental disease going on.”
For a short moment there Karri thought her father was going to hit her. His hand twitched, and despite her best efforts she couldn’t keep her eyebrows from raising at the sign. Never before had he struck her, or anyone to her knowledge. But then again, how often did someone suggest he might seriously be going senile?
“And secondly,” she said, her voice cooling as she pressed her momentary advantage. “Why the fuck are you yelling at Mike for a deal that is at an incredible price? Did you read the details about it? I got them to agree to twenty percent less than the figures you told me to aim for as our best guess, let alone what you said our maximum was! This is a damn good deal,” she continued, her voice rising as the Blaine temper overtook her as well. “If you weren’t so pissed off that you had to miss a single solitary day of work, you might actually realize that!”
She gestured sharply for Mike to go at that moment, and the VP disappeared faster than a magician could have done it. That left just her and her father standing in the hallway, like opponents in some sort of battle scene. Without waiting for her father to work himself back up into another tirade, she stepped into her office.
Almost immediately she began to shake as the adrenaline rushed through her body. Never before had she confronted her father like that in public. Even in the few private shouting matches they’d had, she’d never gone up against him so directly like that. This was a first for her, and she already didn’t like it. He might be an asshole, but he was her father in the end. Yelling and screaming at him was not something she wished to have to do.
Why couldn’t he just be reasonable? Then this could have never been an issue, dammit, and he would have seen that I did a good job yesterday!
The door to her office opened to admit her father. Karri stood still. She’d never seen him look so angry before, and that was saying something.
“Don’t you ever disrespect me like that in front of people again,” he hissed icily, his voice brittle and hard. “You don’t sign deals like this. This is my company. I do the deals,” he snapped. “Got it? Stop trying to take over, or you’re done. I’ll give it to Liam.”
Anger exploded inside of Karri like someone had dropped a bomb.
“WHAT?” she snapped. “Are you for real?” Tears began to well up in her eyes. “Father, I’m sorry that I didn’t come out with a dick, and that that’s made me such a disappointment in your eyes. But I got that deal for way cheaper than you thought we could. If you would just stop being so blind to my anatomy and look at things neutrally, you’d see that I can be of help to running this company. I’m good at it!”
There might have been some compassion in his eyes, something from the dad part of his personality, and not the more neutral father portion. But they were at work and he quickly quashed it before it could bloom.
“Liam doesn’t cry when he yells,” he said with what sounded like disgust, and then left the office.
Fuck you.
It’s what she wanted to say to him, to scream out loud enough for all fifty people working there to hear. She wanted to tear into him, to call him out on the sexist, misogynistic bastard that he was. The tears weren’t something she could control. They always came when she found herself extremely mad. They weren’t an impediment of her judgment or ability to do her job. All they did was get in the way of her eyesight. Why the hell did that have to seem like it was a weakness? She knew it was quite natural.
Slamming her bag down onto her desk, she practically fell into her chair already feeling defeated, and the day had only just begun.
Her eyes moved over to the calendar on her screen. It was only Tuesday.
Well isn’t this a wonderful start to the week. What else can I expect to happen?
After work she decided she was going to go for a jog, to try and destress. She probably wasn’t dealing with what had happened the night before properly, but it was the only way she knew how. Karri Blaine might hate to admit it, but sometimes she was as stubborn as her father.
Chapter Five
Andrew
He’d come to a decision on what he would do with Al.
The paperwork was laid out before him, and all he had to do now was put his signature to it. One swift action with the pen to spread some ink, and it would be over and done with.
“They aren’t going to like this,” Gray said from where he leaned against the doorjamb.
“You think they’d like it better if I ordered his neck broken?” Andrew replied, frustration tingeing his voice slightly.
Gray pretended to think about it. “Probably not.”
The gryphon shifter blew air heavily. “Yeah, probably not. But it’s not like I can let him go unpunished, Gray,” he explained. “You should have seen the girl. Tiny slip of a thing, maybe weighed as much as your leg.”
The bear shifter looked at him dubiously. “I dunno about that, boss. Do you know how much my legs weigh? I’ve been working out you know.”
Andrew heaved a sigh. “Save me,” he mock-prayed, rolling his eyes at his aide’s sense of humor.
Gray was head of the trio of guards that were assigned to the Cadian Embassy, and he was actually a decent person. Andrew had made it a point to befriend him from the start, and the pair had quickly developed a solid friendship.
“Seriously though, Drew. He’s not going to take lightly to this. He’ll come back at you.”
Andrew didn’t react at the shortened form of his name. Few were allowed to use it, and even fewer still actually did, but Gray was one of those he was fine with using the nickname. “Maybe,” he agreed. “But I have to do it anyway.”
Gray gave him a long look, but in the end he nodded. “Yeah, yeah I guess you have to.”
With businesslike precision he signed the forms and handed them to Gray. “Thanks,” he said.
The bear shifter just shrugged and headed off to take care of the details. Once he was gone Andrew sank back into his chair and berated himself for the feeling of relief that although he’d decided on the punishment, he wasn’t the one who had to enact it.
In the end, he’d decided to spare Al’s life. Whether it was fear of the repercussions, or just a general desire to avoid having to kill anyone else, he’d decided on something slightly less permanent. Al would be sent back to Cadia, but before he was, he would have all the major bones in both legs broken and then allowed to heal incorrectly. This procedure would render him unable to walk or do anything himself.
Given the healing abilities of a shifter, however, it was reversible. Once Al got home he could have the bones rebroken and set properly. But damage would be done and he would spend a few days relearning how to walk, as his body would have healed improperly. It was a brutally painful thing to do, but at least Al would live. Maybe he would come to the realization that he’d gotten off light.
There was a shout and some screams that ec
hoed up from the basement and made their way down to his office, but they were cut off mercifully quickly. Al must have blacked out, he reasoned. Wolf shifters weren’t known for their sturdiness.
The morning had come and gone while he pondered what to do, and much of the afternoon had been wasted as well. But with the orders signed, he was free of any responsibility that attached him to the desk for the rest of the day. Which meant he could see to his other responsibilities.
“Tell Gray I’m going out to do some rounds,” he told Hector, the third guard who was currently lounging in the lobby.
“Of course, sir,” the guard said, rising and snapping off a salute.
Andrew returned it sharply, even if he technically wasn’t within the chain of command that Hector reported to. The guards were part of the Green Bearets, the military arm of the bear shifters of Cadia. Andrew had worked side by side with them in the war, and he greatly respected them. They were the real deal.
Outside he paused at the bottom of the steps, looking up and down the roadway. Few cars passed by, as there wasn’t much going on in this section of town. The old motel that served as the embassy was the theoretical “highlight,” but it wasn’t on anyone’s tour maps, that was for sure. The novelty of shifters in Cadia had worn off over a year ago. Now they were just considered part of the town, unless they caused trouble.
Which is exactly what he was setting out to ensure didn’t happen. Striking up a jaunty whistling tune, Andrew randomly picked a direction by flipping a coin.
Right it is.
His long legs propelled him along smoothly as he set out into the city. Walking his rounds was an almost daily part of Andrew’s regimen. He preferred to get out and among the humans of Cloud Lake for several reasons. First and foremost, was to build rapport. Relationships had been strained between humans and shifters following the Cadia-Fenris war, and he wished to try and repair them. During the conflict a number of the people he now called his friends had found their mates from among the human population of Cloud Lake, and Andrew had come to appreciate the strength and intelligence they possessed.