by Amelia Jade
Ever since his talk with Andrew, Braden felt like a new man. It angered him that he needed Andrew to hit him upside the head for him to start to realize how terrible he’d been to Elle. In the end though, he was just glad that he’d finally started to understand what had gone wrong.
Part of him still insisted that there was a way that things should be done, but as he’d sobered up, Braden had started beating it forcibly with his newfound logic, hammering it into submission. He hoped. There was likely to still be times to come where he expected things that Elle wouldn’t be okay with, or interested in. But that was okay he told himself. She was allowed to feel and think differently, because she was a human.
Human. He’d always known that they were different, and didn’t see things the way he did. The things that just made sense in his mind didn’t make sense in hers. He recalled some more of his briefing about humans, information that had been given to him. At one point he’d been told that, if he found his mate, to realize that she wouldn’t feel the connection the same way a female shifter would.
He’d not understood what that meant before, but he did now.
Braden felt so different now. As if he’d entered a period of enlightenment, courtesy of Andrew’s harsh words and closed fist. Rubbing his jaw, he hoped that future enlightenment could be less painful though.
Don’t be so damned oblivious next time, and maybe it won’t! Nothing else was working on you, so stop crying about it.
He smiled, tapping fingers lightly on the desk in front of him, anxious for midnight to roll around so that he could run over to her house and show Elle that he can learn from his mistakes, that he can be the man she needs him to be. That he’s just sort of got a thick head sometimes. Hopefully it was enough. It had to be enough!
After all, it was all he could offer her.
Noises sounded from behind him. He jumped to his feet, turning to see what they were. Ever since the attack from Cadian Intelligence nearly a week before he’d been on edge while on duty. Nothing had happened whatsoever, but he knew it was only a matter of time.
While before he’d been willing to help Andrew out with advice and cleanup, he’d been apprehensive about actually fighting at the other shifter’s side. Now though, with the realization that he might not be moving back to Cadia, things had begun to change. The newfound respect he’d discovered he had for his boss had altered things some more. Braden had come to a few decisions about it all, though he’d not yet confided them to anyone.
Now might be the perfect chance he thought, as Andrew walked up to him. But the clouded, almost concerned expression on the gryphon shifter’s face made him hesitate.
“Something’s wrong,” he stated.
“Yes, I think so.”
Braden frowned. “You think? I don’t understand.”
“I still have friends back home. A lot of friends, some of whom are fairly highly placed. Understand?”
He knew that when he’d originally been assigned as the ambassador of Cloud Lake, many of Andrew’s enemies back home had seen it as a way to get rid of a problem child. Exile, essentially. But through hard work and a good head upon his shoulders, Andrew had built up the reputation of Cloud Lake to the point where the position of ambassador now had some decent clout back home.
Which meant that his political rivals had started maneuvering to remove him, hence the attacks from Cadian Intelligence, a shady organization to begin with. What Andrew was telling him now, was that despite the maneuverings, things weren’t quite as grim as they perhaps looked.
“I understand.”
“They’ve asked me to buy time. Which is what we did by hiding all evidence that the last party ever even arrived.”
“Exactly. Did it work?” He was hopeful that maybe they’d succeeded. That perhaps Andrew’s friends had managed to do whatever it was they were going to do.
“No.”
“What? Why not?” It should have at least bought them some time.
“There was a survivor.”
“No there wasn’t. Three came in the door. I disposed of the same three bodies.”
Andrew shook his head. “I know. But you just said yourself where we made the mistake.”
He thought over his previous words. “They never came inside,” he said heavily, realization dawning on him at last. “Someone was watching from outside.”
The expression on his boss’s face grew grimmer. “Not watching, Braden. Photographing.”
“What? Why?” He didn’t understand.
Andrew sighed. “They have pictures now of you killing the leader.” He paused. “Not me, Braden. You.”
“Oh. Fuck.” The oath came out in a hoarse whisper as all the implications began to sink home.
“Next time they’re not coming after me. Not just me, at least. They’ll be here for both of us. They have all the evidence they need to come here in force.”
Yeah. That was not good. Braden leaned back heavily against the desk, using it to support his weight as he let it all sink home.
“What do I do?”
“Stick around here. Don’t do anything crazy, or go anywhere alone. I’m putting all the guards on alert, plus anyone else I can trust. The embassy itself will be safe. But if you leave the property, I can’t be sure what will happen.”
Braden nodded.
“It probably won’t be long before whatever happens, happens. With the photographs as evidence I can’t stall by pretending they never got here. The only thing that will work in our favor is that they’re going to do this quickly. But Armen Cardiff will be doing it on his own, so we have that going for us as well.”
“Armen? And how do you know?”
Andrew smiled. “Like I said, I have friends back home still. One of whom goes by the name Garrin Richter.”
“As in Commandant Richter? Head of the Green Bearets?”
“Safe to say, no Green Bearets will be joining Armen if he comes to town.”
Braden felt his spirits buoyed for the first time. The Green Bearets were drawn from the ranks of the bear shifters of Cadia. They trained hard, and were considered one of the elite military organizations of the shifter world. Knowing that this Armen fellow wouldn’t be able to draw upon their numbers to assist him was huge.
“That doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet,” Andrew cautioned. “We’re going to have to fight before this is over. Armen has enough intelligence assets to come after us on his own. It just means we have a fighting chance of coming out of this alive. But he’ll have something up his sleeve. I suspect so far what he’s been doing is testing us, seeing who will stand with me, and who he can convince to stand aside.”
Andrew’s smile became a grin. “Unfortunately for him, he’s not had any luck on that front. Apparently I’m more likeable than he is or something.” The gryphon shifter shrugged innocently.
“We have your back,” Braden told him.
“I know.” Andrew patted his shoulder several times. “I know. Thank you. It means a lot.”
The two men just sort of stood around for a moment, uncomfortable with the display of emotion that had just passed between them. Thankfully they were saved by the front door opening with a bit of excess gusto.
He spun, preparing for a fight. Andrew had said they wouldn’t wait long, and it had already been a week, but that timing just seemed too ridiculous. He sighed in relief as he recognized the people in the doorway.
“What kind of shit have you gotten yourself into now?” Maximus Koche called across the lobby, razzing Andrew lightly as he and his four brothers entered the lobby.
“Maximus,” Andrew said, striding forward to shake the eldest Koche brother’s hand. “Thank you for coming.”
The big shifter, a rival in size with Braden, snorted, the sound more akin to a vehicle backfiring than anything else. The man was built like a tank, and he sounded like one too.
“Like we would miss a chance to ruin the day of some uppity twit from Cadia. Come on ‘Drew, we were born for that.
”
Braden smiled and joined the group, shaking hands. He knew them all, Maximus, Kassian, Gavin, Kean, and the youngest, Pierce. They’d all stopped by the embassy here or there discreetly, and he’d been to several gatherings at their illegal community on the north end of town.
It was no surprise to him that they’d agreed to come and help Andrew out. It was Andrew’s coverup of the presence of the Koche brothers and a few others that had brought Cadian Intelligence down on Cloud Lake in the first place. So of course when push came to shove the Koches would be here. Braden felt his confidence grow again. He wondered who else Andrew had called upon to come help them.
“Do you think if we stop them, that it will end?” he asked, interrupting the various conversations going on.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“Maybe,” Andrew said. “The answer is maybe. If we can eliminate them all, leave no survivors, and pretend like they were never here, we can probably convince most of the politicians back home to sweep it under the rug. The majority of civilians in Cadia don’t even know that Cadian Intelligence is an organization. They’ve never heard the name. If we can eliminate their leaders, then new ones will have to be appointed.”
“Who appoints them?”
“The head of Cadian Intelligence has full rights over all his staff,” Andrew replied.
“Well that doesn’t help,” Kean muttered unhappily. “Armen will just put more of his lackeys in place.”
Braden sensed something in Andrew’s cryptic reply though, which caused him to dig deeper. “And who is in charge of appointing a head of Cadian Intelligence?”
The gryphon shifter smiled wickedly. “The Cadian Council. In the event of less than two-thirds majority, however, the king of Cadia shall have the deciding vote. And I can tell that, while we might not have a two-thirds majority in our favor, we definitely have enough to block those who would favor another Armen.”
The assembled shifters began to nod eagerly.
“So if we can kill Armen, then King Daxxton will be able to appoint someone he wants to the position.”
“Exactly. And that person can then give the rest of the organization a facelift.”
Braden absorbed all that information as it was given. “Nothing else matters besides getting Armen then, does it?”
“No,” Andrew said. “We need to ensure that he goes down with his ship, or he’ll just come back with more support.”
“What do we do?”
Andrew stepped back and motioned for them to follow. “Braden, go grab Gray and the others, then meet us in the lounge. I have a plan.”
He started to do as told, then stopped as another thought crossed his mind. “What about all the shifters here on passes? What do we do about them?”
The ambassador looked around. “Haven’t you wondered why it’s so quiet? I had Gray send them home earlier today. While you were pulling yourself together they all went back to Cadia.”
“Oh. That was smart.”
Andrew chuckled. “Every now and then, Braden. Every now and then. Now, go get Gray. We have a long night ahead of us.”
He nodded and headed for the stairs, taking three at once as he raced up to the second floor.
It was time to plan out their defense of the embassy, and the way of life for those who had chosen Cloud Lake as their home. He’d never expected to be involved in a fight like this, but with the people all around him, Braden knew he could never say no. This was one of those moments that represented a crossroads in life. No matter what he chose, it would have an impact for as long as he lived.
Braden just hoped that would be more than the next few days.
Chapter Twenty-One
Elle
The anticipation was killing her.
Not literally of course, but she’d already woken Gwenevere once through her incessant pacing and talking to herself, or when she’d dropped the glass into the sink because her shaky hand simply couldn’t hold it any longer. Why couldn’t it be twelve thirty already! She wanted him here, so that they could hopefully work through everything, and get back to being the happiest that they’d ever been with each other.
Her phone buzzed and she looked at it again. It was Laura. She’d become quite close with her upstairs neighbor, though Laura hadn’t quite become a part of her crew. But nonetheless she still considered her a good friend, and she’d stayed up late texting back and forth as she waited for Braden to arrive.
Now that they were down to the final minutes before he should be at her place, she was extra grateful for the support.
Laura: What about now?
She grinned despite herself. It was starting to feel like Laura was more eager for him to arrive than she was! Which was nigh impossible of course, but it helped her feel less ridiculous about her own levels of trepidation and excitement for his arrival.
Elle: Nope, not yet. Any minute now. He’s usually here twenty-five to thirty minutes after he finishes a shift. Might be a few more today, ‘cause he’ll wanna shower. I hope.
Laura: He’d better shower!
She laughed and sent a smiley face as a reply, acknowledging the truth of the statement. After all, she’d taken the time to shower. And shave! It might be a little premature, but Elle had decided to go with her gut, trusting her feeling that something inside Braden had changed. If they could just have a conversation where he was open to the idea of doing things differently, everything would be better!
The minutes continued to pass, with Elle growing more and more impatient. Twelve thirty-five came and went. Then twelve forty-five. Her phone went off, bringing up the clock on the screen along with the notification of another text.
12:58
It was Laura again, not Braden.
Laura: Anything?
Elle: Nope. Nothing at all.
She didn’t even bother to look at the text back. Instead she sent one to Braden, asking him where he was, and how much longer he expected to be. It wasn’t like him. The few times he had been late, he’d always told her that something came up, and that he’d text her as soon as he had an idea of how much longer. Those had been on regular days, before they’d fought.
Shouldn’t he be more on top of things today?
Laura: Well, I’ve got another feeding likely to happen in the next half an hour. Want me to bring Lana down with me? I’ll watch Gwen if you want to go over to the embassy.
Elle had the best friends. Seriously the best. It was one in the morning and here Laura was offering to watch her child so she could go try and figure out what the hell had happened to her…her…whatever the hell Braden was to her!
Her first reaction was to turn down the offer. There was no way she could let Laura do that for her. There were limits to any friendship, and she didn’t want to test them. She would stay home, wait a little bit longer for Braden to show up, then send him a text telling him not to bother, because she was going to bed. That would be the best way to handle the situation. Going all riled up, marching down to the embassy, and tearing a strip off of him was not the mature thing to do. It would feel good to unload on him like that, but it certainly wouldn’t help the situation. Which is why she was going to decline her friend’s offer.
Elle: Are you sure?
Laura: On my way.
“Bless your heart,” she said softly, her brain already moving on to getting ready to leave.
What she meant by that, was it was letting her anger at being ditched flow freely. Very freely.
“I can’t believe that he would do this to you!” Laura said, waltzing in through the door a few minutes later.
“Oh, he’s going to regret it now. When I get there I’m going to ensure that he never forgets about me or anyone else ever again.”
“You go girl,” Laura said sternly. “Give him a piece of your mind.”
“I’m gonna give him the whole damn thing. It’s more than his pigheaded brain can handle, but that’s just fine with me this time. He’s not getting out of this that easily!�
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She and Laura exchanged fist bumps—high fives were a bad idea with two sleeping children, though Lana didn’t look like she was quite as asleep as Gwen.
“You’re way too amazing to be left hanging like that.”
The smile Elle flashed her was anything but happy, more predatory than anything. Like a shark opening its mouth just before it swallows its prey. Elle was on the warpath, and Braden was about to pay.
“I’ll be home when I can. I’ll text you,” she said, hurriedly tugging her winter jacket and boots on. Her blood was up. She didn’t want to waste another minute.
If she did, rationale would start to kick in, and she might have to admit to herself that if she was truly mad at Braden, she would simply cut him out of her life.
Not go chasing after him in the middle of the night under the guise of yelling at him, something that could be accomplished over the phone.
No, she wasn’t willing to admit that. Not to herself.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Braden
They were as ready as they were ever going to be.
Braden inhaled deeply and then exhaled, focusing on the rhythm of his breathing, trying to keep it smooth and steady. The attack could come at any point. Based on what Andrew had told them, in terms of when the previously unknown member of the Arrest Party, as they were calling it, arrived back in Cadia, the earliest a response team could arrive had been about eight hours earlier.
That was if they had been ready and waiting to go the instant the photographer arrived back in Cadia. Considering that there would have been time necessary for him to report in, and then a response team to be assembled, a more realistic arrival had been about midnight.
Now all they were going to do was sit around and wait. The supplies that had been intended to feed the nearly two dozen shifters who had been in Cloud Lake under a visiting/vacation pass would keep the eleven of them stocked for quite long enough. Braden knew their enemies couldn’t take very long to execute their attack. Andrew had told him that his friends back home would be able to put an end to things. It was just going to take time. Armen and his lackeys needed to act sooner rather than later, else they ran the risk of being shut down before they could finish dealing with Andrew.