***
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 just 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.