by Amelia Jade
Braden smiled. “Who were they?” he asked with a gesture at the two corpses. “Oh, um, sorry I killed them. Didn’t mean to with the second one. Unlucky fucker landed on the damn knife. Really annoying.”
Gray shrugged it off. “Whatever; saving your own skin and Andrew’s was more important than a prisoner.” He frowned. “As for who they are? My guess is that those back in Cadia who oppose him, who want him out of power, have decided to stop playing political games and are going straight for the easy way out now.”
The big shifter blew air out loudly as he jabbed a needle into Andrew’s leg and then stood up. “Not that we’ll ever be able to tell.”
Braden nodded, but then made an inquisitive face at the needle.
“Adrenaline,” Gray explained. “Helps to burn off the tranq even faster. It’s not necessary, but it will speed things up.” He grinned. “Plus I get to stab Andrew with it. Great stress reliever,” he joked.
Braden laughed quietly, not wanting to agitate his bruised face. Then he sobered. “We’re going to have to step up security around here,” he said.
Gray nodded. “And start doing our primary job.”
The Embassy Guard was nominally there to protect Andrew. But considering that he was a gryphon shifter, the second-most powerful of races only after the dragons, that job had sort of fallen by the wayside. The Guards had taken it upon themselves to police the shifters in the city, so that the humans wouldn’t have to. They were able to do far more good that way, and they liked it.
“Agreed,” he said solemnly. It was time they reverted back to their roots. They were there to protect Andrew, and no little political piece of shit from Cadia was going to kill him. Not on Braden’s watch!
In his pocket, his phone started buzzing. He pulled it out.
Elle: Sure, does tomorrow afternoon work?
“Timing,” he said with a false chuckle. “It’s all about timing.”
Chapter Ten
Elle
“Yeah, you’re going to meet someone new tomorrow, aren’t you?” she said, blowing gently on Gwenevere’s tummy as she finished changing her. “Aren’t you!”
Her daughter giggled happily, her hands playfully pushing at Elle’s face.
“Yeah, you’re going to meet Braden!”
“Ayhayah,” came the enthusiastic response. Whether Gwen was agreeing with her or just making noises, she really didn’t know. But it was certainly cute.
“Yes you are!”
Gwen laughed happily again as Elle picked her up and held her close. “Yes you are,” she whispered, kissing her on the top of the head. “I think you’ll impress him. He’s gonna like you almost as much as he does Mommy!”
“Now, let’s go into the kitchen. Mommy is hungry. Om nom nom,” she said, miming eating as she nuzzled her face into Gwen’s, delighting the infant.
As she walked the short distance from the washroom to the kitchen her phone buzzed. “Who do you think that is?” she cooed. “Is that Braden? I bet it is!”
She put Gwen into her bouncy chair, strapping her in tight. The kid was at the point where she was going nuts with the thing, rebounding off the floor and if she wasn’t strapped in tightly, Elle knew she’d come flying out.
Pulling out her phone, she smiled at the confirmation that it was Braden.
Braden: Um, actually can I come over today, if that’s not an issue? I need to talk.
Her stomach dropped, just as the phone buzzed again.
Braden: That sounds really bad. Not how I meant it. Just…something happened here, and I need to talk to someone who isn’t a shifter about it. That make sense?
She frowned, feeling most of her unease slip away. It sounded like he’d had a bad day. Looking over her shoulder at Gwen, she thought about it for a nanosecond, then shrugged to herself. “Sure, why not,” she said aloud. It wasn’t like she was doing anything else that evening. If he was in need of her support, then she could be there for him.
Elle: Yeah of course. Everything okay? Come by whenever you can.
Braden: I’m fine, just…I don’t know. I’ll explain when I see you. I’ll be able to leave in an hour or so probably.
Elle: That’s perfect. Gives me time to feed the monster and maybe even do something crazy like put on real pants.
She’d been lounging in her pajamas up until that point.
Braden: Thank you. I’ll see you in a bit.
Elle whistled to herself. “It must be bad,” she said, turning to her daughter. “He didn’t even reply to my joke. I wonder what could have happened there?”
Gwen just continued to bounce around.
“Well aren’t you a big help,” she said with a laugh, returning to her earlier reason for coming to the kitchen: food.
A thought crossed her mind as she started to pull out the ingredients to slap together a good old-fashioned peanut butter and jam sandwich. Braden was probably going to be hungry when he got there. Should she make a real meal instead? Have a snack now and make dinner for them? It would probably help him calm down. He seemed quite agitated, though getting a real reading via text was rather hard to do.
After thinking about it for a minute or so she put away the sandwich fixings and instead cut up an apple. Dinner wasn’t that far off, and if she had a nice meal ready by the time he arrived, it would probably go over well. Elle knew she would instantly feel calmer with food in her stomach.
A meal it was.
***
The knock on the door was subdued, even a little underwhelming for a shifter. If she hadn’t been expecting him, Elle would have thought it was one of her friends instead. But Braden had texted her when he left the embassy.
It must be really bad, she thought, walking over to the door and pulling it open.
“Oh my God,” she gasped as she caught sight of him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he reassured her.
“But you look terrible!”
His face was a misshapen lump of bruises, swelling, and scabbed-over cuts.
“I look better than an hour ago,” he said with a weak smile, speaking through clearly swollen lips.
“I take it this is what you wanted to talk about?” she asked, reaching out to take his hand and pull him inside. She winced again at the roughness of his hands, lifting them so that she could see how they were split and covered in other cuts as well.
“Yeah, kinda,” he said.
“Who the heck did you get in a fight with?” she asked, not really sure what else to do or say as he removed his boots. His shirt was clean, so she suspected he’d spent some of the time showering and changing.
“Ah, honestly, I don’t know.”
She frowned. “Were you…drunk?” Dating an alcoholic was not something she was interested in doing again. Although her ex hadn’t been the abusive sort as per the stereotype, the lifestyle just sort of threatened to suck her in to it, and she’d eventually fled, not wanting to live that sort of life. If Braden was a heavy drinker too she’d have to end things now.
“What?” he asked in surprise, wincing as the reaction to her question tugged his face in numerous ways, probably pulling at a bunch of cuts. “No, no not at all. I meant that I literally did not know them. It was a pair of the shifters here on visiting passes. Not one of the Guards or anything.”
“Oh,” she said, relieved about all his answers. “Well, come sit then.” She went and wet a cloth. Several of his cuts had opened at one point or another after he’d cleaned up and he had some dried blood on him. She set to washing it while he sat on the couch and took her attention with stoic stillness.
“Why?” she asked as she gently worked the cloth into the dried blood.
“I…don’t entirely know.”
She frowned. “You must have a guess, at a minimum.”
“Yeah, but you aren’t gonna like it any more than I do,” he said grumpily.
“I’m listening.”
Braden bit his lip and looked away. “If it’s true, then it’s jus
t starting,” he whispered. “It’s only going to get worse.”
Elle paused her ministrations, peering to the left so that she could look him straight on. “It can’t be that bad,” she scoffed.
“Certain parties back home are trying to assassinate the ambassador so that they can put one of their own in his position.”
She froze, the cloth pressed to his face while she tried to parse out whether he was telling the truth or yanking her chain.
“Holy shit. You’re telling the truth,” she said at last, stunned.
“I would never lie to you.”
Elle could feel the honesty in that statement. It hit her like a wave, washing over her and soaking her in its truthfulness. She’d never heard such conviction before, but it was obvious that Braden believed that when he said it.
“Um, okay.” She had no response to either of his last two statements. “That sounds bad.”
Despite it all, Braden laughed. “It does, doesn’t it?”
She resumed cleaning him up, eventually pronouncing him “as good as you’re gonna get”.
“So this,” she said, gently touching his face. “This was done fighting assassins?” she asked fearfully.
“Yeah,” he said heavily. “You could call them that I guess.”
“What happened?”
“We were in the lounge. Bunch of us Guards, just relaxing with nothing to do. Then there was the sound of yelling from Andrew’s office.”
As he talked, she could see his eyes lose focus as he was transported back to the moment, reliving it all over again. Elle reached out and laid a hand on his arm for support, but he didn’t even so much as flinch.
“None of us wanted to deal with an angry Andrew, figuring he was upset over something we did. But, I volunteered to go check it out, so I did. As I got close, I heard him yelling at two shifters. Turns out they did something in town and had gotten written up by the police.” Braden paused and looked over at her with a wry smile, though his eyes were still looking at something unseen. “He doesn’t take very well to those types of things.”
She smiled. “I bet.”
“Anyway,” Braden continued, “I stopped just out of sight of the two he was tearing a strip off of, waiting for him to be done.” He paused, consternation on his face. “It happened so fast. They just sort of went after him. One of them pulled a knife, and then Andrew was down, and I was in the room, and we fought.”
He shuddered and she gripped his arm tighter, unsure of how else she could support him. With a slow, deep inhale of breath the big shifter laid his other hand atop hers, giving it a squeeze.
“It was close,” he said at last. “Too close.” He frowned. “This isn’t the first time either.”
She listened as he described the attack the weekend before, and how he’d interrupted three shifters clearly plotting something.
“You sure lead an interesting life,” she remarked. “All of you do. There always seems to be something going on with you folks.” Her mind was taken back to what had happened to Rachel and Angela during their courtships with Embassy Guards. “Should I be worried?” she asked suddenly.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “But I can’t be sure. I ensured I wasn’t being followed today when I came here; that was part of the delay. But there is definitely the chance of it.” Braden looked down, looking at his feet. “I, um, I understand if you don’t want me around you and your child anymore.”
There it was. An out. He was giving her the option to have him leave, and never come back, or at least not until things had been figured out at the embassy. She’d seen it coming the moment he started speaking. What Elle didn’t know was how she was going to answer him.
“I never said that,” she started, then stopped for a moment, thinking. “But I also have to consider Gwenevere’s safety. I can make my own decisions, but she’s just an infant. As her mother, I need to protect her. That’s half my job,” she said fiercely.
“I know,” he said quietly, and she felt his legs tense.
“I didn’t say go.” Her hand tightened on his arm, holding him in place.
Braden froze in place, waiting for her to say more.
“You’re already here, so even for the moment, you may as well stay.” She smiled. “Besides, I have dinner cooking in the oven for both of us.”
“Is that what smells so delicious?” he asked. “I’ve been wondering that since I got here.”
“I’m glad you think so.” Then he fell silent, leaving it up to her to continue the conversation.
“I’m going to have to think it over,” she said at last. “I want you around. I like you, Braden Fields. I don’t want to push you away. Especially if I can help in any way, even if it’s just as a sounding board while you try to figure it out. My friends are mated to your fellow Guards. If you’re going into harm’s way, then that means they are too. I’m not sure I can watch that happen without doing anything.”
She didn’t feel nearly as confident as she sounded. What the hell was she thinking anyway? These were shifters, not humans! Braden was talking about two groups essentially going to war with each other. She had no place in the middle of that. None whatsoever. Elle couldn’t defend herself if one of them came at her, let alone ensure Gwenevere’s safety.
But what was she supposed to do? Just sit back and watch her friends—she included Hector and Noah in that list—risk life and limb while she politely told Braden “No thank you, please leave me alone until this is all over”? That wasn’t her style at all. She needed to do something, to be involved somehow. To help.
“Would you like me to let you have some time to yourself then?” he asked. “To think it over in peace?”
Elle reached up and grabbed his chin, mindful to not squeeze too hard, and turned it to face her. “I already told you that I’m making you dinner. You don’t get to back out of that so easily.” Her hand lingered on his jaw long after he’d swung his head in her direction.
He nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I’m just…my mind’s all over the place right now.”
She glanced at the wall. “We’ve got ten minutes until it’s ready. Let me see if I can help you focus on me.”
Without waiting for a confirmation she leaned in and brushed her lips to his. Braden flinched in surprise, but she didn’t let him pull away. Instead her grip on his jaw tightened perceptibly, enough that he froze, allowing her to complete the kiss. It took him several noticeable seconds, but just when she was beginning to lose hope his muscles relaxed and he moved into the kiss.
Elle made a soft noise, sharing her delight that she’d made the right choice. After that, all was lost as she let herself be swept away by the shifter as he came alive in her arms.
Chapter Eleven
Elle
“Dinner was delicious,” Braden said, patting his full stomach.
Across the table Gwenevere finished slopping up the last of her bits and started making noises, followed moments later by a big yawn.
“I get the feeling she’s ready for bed,” he remarked. “I guess we have something in common.”
She smiled. It was obvious that Braden was trying to interact with her child, but he seemed unsure of himself. Perhaps he didn’t have much experience with children? He could be unsure of how to act/react, of what he could do. This was, after all, the first day they’d met. Elle forced herself to realize that she couldn’t judge him on his actions on day one. Just because he was extremely confident in most other aspects of life didn’t mean he was an expert on kids too.
“Do I have to put both of you down for a nap then?” she teased, rising from the table to start cleaning.
Braden beat her to the punch however. “Why don’t you take care of the little gal? I’ll do the dishes,” he offered. “Just tell me what to do with the leftovers, which I’m surprised there are.”
She smiled, nodding in acceptance. “There are a couple of plastic containers in the cupboard above the microwave. Toss it into one, and then you can have a meal for
work if you want.”
His eyes lit up. “Are you sure?”
Elle laughed. “I wasn’t expecting there to be any leftovers, so yes, go right ahead. I’ll just make a little less next time. I didn’t realize how filling it was.”
“Scalloped potatoes, chicken, and lots of cheese? Oh, very filling,” he confirmed with another tap of his stomach. “But don’t go thinking you need to make less now. Leftovers are always okay.”
“Yeah yeah,” she said, sticking out her tongue playfully. “I’ll keep that in mind. Now, start cleaning. I run a tight ship around here!”
Braden gave her a little bow and then started cleaning the table and running some hot water. Oh what I wouldn’t give for a dishwasher!
In the meantime she busied herself with first cleaning up Gwen, and then putting her down for a nap in her crib. The poor little kid was so tuckered out, she passed out in seconds. That happy jumper thing was such a godsend sometimes. She loved it, but it wore her out quickly. All of which hopefully worked in Elle’s favor, so that she and Braden could relax onto the couch and spend some time together, just the two of them.
“How’s it going?”
She spun at the soft-spoken question. Braden was standing there in the doorway, his frame silhouetted by the light from outside, his features masked in the shadows from the darkened bedroom.
“Um, fine,” she said, her heart thudding.
“Good.” The voice had dropped several notes, becoming thick and…and…manly. There wasn’t a better word to describe it. It was the tone that men took when they were trying to get a woman in the mood. The command voice, as she’d come to think of it.
Normally it didn’t work on Elle. But perhaps that was because she’d never had the right person speak to her like that.
“Are you okay?” Braden asked, taking a step into the room.