Braden

“I just don’t get it.”

He was speaking to nobody in particular. Which was a good thing, considering that there was nobody around. Not that anybody was willing to listen to him in the first place.

“What did I do wrong?”

He wanted to ask Elle that. To try and understand where he’d erred, and why she’d lost it so completely on him, to the point that she’d kicked him out. In hindsight, leaving without putting up more of a fight had been a mistake. Braden should have fought a little harder, even if it was just to show her that he didn’t want to go. What was done was done, however, and now he had to try and find a way to unfuck the situation.

“I’m trying.”

The bottle sloshed in his hand as he waved it around, trying to ward off his demons with a simple hand gesture.

Braden wasn’t an alcoholic. He rarely drank. But after five days, he had decided to get good and drunk. Turns out when you don’t drink often, that’s not too hard, even for a shifter. Now he was in the lounge, moping around on his own, wondering what the hell to do next.

Five days. One hundred and twenty hours since she’d kicked him out, give or take a few. In that time, she’d refused to see him. He’d tried. Every day, he tried to ask her to get together, to help him understand what he’d done wrong. Every day she’d refused. Now he was out of options, and out of ideas.

He looked at the bottle. It was empty. “And I’m out of booze too.” His eyebrows came together as he attempted to concentrate. At what point had he finished off the bottle? Braden couldn’t even remember drinking the rest. That was probably not a good sign, but he didn’t really care.

“More,” he muttered, scanning the shelves on the other side of the bar. Leave it to shifters to install a well-stocked bar in their embassy.

Getting up, he stumbled backward, nearly dropping the empty glass onto the floor.

“Get it together, B,” he said, making fun of his own name. “Can’t even stand up to go get some more alcohol.”

Incensed by that statement, he rose to the challenge, plunking the empty bottle on the counter and walking unsteadily around it. After a bit of a struggle he managed to get the cap opened and took a long swig.

“Ooooh, that one burns!” he exclaimed, the amber liquid trailing fire into his stomach.

He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, but all that did was set the world to spinning.

“I think I’ll just sit down right here.” He slid to the ground, his back against one of the cabinets.

Half a bottle of alcohol, several painful burps, and possibly even a nap later there was a sound from the doorway. “Fuck off,” he yelled listlessly, lacking the energy to put any real force into his voice.

Footsteps sounded, and moments later a familiar face peered over the bar.

“Why are you sitting on the ground behind the bar?”

“Why are you leaning over it?” Braden smiled, proud of his profound question.

The blurry face laughed. “Because somebody told me to fuck off, and I wanted to see who it was.”

“Well, ta-daaaa. It was me! Now fuck the hell off.”

“No.”

Braden stared upward, trying to glare at whomever it was. “I know you.”

“I fucking hope you know me,” the voice said, moving around the bar until the body it was attached to was standing right in front of him. “After all, I am your boss, you drunk idiot.”

“’M not an idiot,” he protested half-heartedly.

“Yes, you are. Do you have any idea how long you’ve been in here drinking?”

Andrew. It was Andrew who was talking to him he realized in a sudden burst of clarity.

“Uh, like three hours?” It was a guess, it could have been one, it could have been six. Braden had no idea.

“Try three days.”

“What? That’s fuck’in’mposble!”

A hand reached in and snatched the bottle from his grip. He tried to resist, but it was like a child fighting against an adult. The other person was just far too strong for him.

That’s because Andrew is a gryphon shifter. If he wants to kick your ass, there isn’t much you can do about it.

“Go ahead,” he said. “Do it. End me.”

“Is that why you think I’m here?”

There was the sound of rattling glass. A lot of it. Far more than two bottles worth. How much had he drunk?

“Why else would you be here?”

There was the sound of water pouring from the tap.

“I don’t want any water.”

“It’s not for you,” Andrew said from where he was hunched over the sink.

“Good. Cause I dun’ want it.” He closed his eyes. “Now go away.”

Ice-cold water splashed all across his body, soaking his shirt and shocking his system. Braden yelped in surprise and shot to his feet. The sudden motion was too much for his system to handle. A bucket was shoved into his chest and he clutched it tight to him an instant before he vomited.

“What the hell was that for?” he croaked, leaning against the bar for support.

“To wake you the hell up.” His boss’s voice was barely restrained fire.

“Just let me be miserable.”

“You can be miserable. Nobody gives a fuck if you’re miserable,” Andrew snarled. “But you missed two shifts and you’re well on your way to missing a third. That’s unacceptable. If you don’t snap out of it, I’m sending you back to Cadia in disgrace.”

“No!” he shouted. If that happened, he’d never be allowed back. He’d never be able to fix things between him and Elle, so that she could join him there.

“Give me one good reason why not.” He opened his eyes to see Andrew standing in front of him, motioning with one hand. “Come on. Tell me what the hell is going on.”

“It’s Elle.” That was all he could manage before his stomach sent him a last-minute warning it wasn’t done.

“Elle? I thought things were going good between you two. What the hell did you do?”

He spat into the bucket several times before replying. “That’s just it! I didn’t do anything. She was telling me she wanted a job. I told her not to bother, I’ll cover it. It wouldn’t be worthwhile anyway, since she couldn’t get a job in Cadia for quite some time.”

Andrew didn’t reply for several moments, but Braden could see his jaw working as he clenched and unclenched it furiously.

“You two are moving back to Cadia?” he asked at long last.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t we? She’s my mate, that’s where my place is.”

“Hooo boy. Let me guess. You didn’t run that by her at all first, did you?”

“When I told her is when she flipped out!”

Andrew ran his hands through his hair and started laughing so hard he couldn’t speak.

“What, you think this is funny?” Braden growled, standing up straight as blood started to race through his system.

He knew Andrew was a gryphon, that he didn’t stand a chance in a fight versus him. That didn’t mean he was just going to stand there and take his bullshit!

Eventually the other shifter calmed down enough to reply. “Yes, I think it’s hilarious actually.”

“Okay smart guy, what the hell do you think is so funny?”

“Go clean the toilets.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. The toilets in every room. Go clean them until they shine.”

“Fuck that. I’m not a janitor.”

Andrew grinned. “You are now. I changed your job description.”

“I didn’t sign up for that.”

“As the ambassador, I can decide whatever I want.”

“Are you nuts? None of us are going to do that. You should have brought it up before deciding that!”

Andrew just stared at him. Waiting.

Eventually the exchange penetrated into the deeper layers of his brain, revealing to Braden the point his boss was trying to get across.

“Oh.”

“Doesn’t feel too good to just be told you’re going to have to do something without having a choice, does it?”

Braden started to respond, but Andrew held up a hand. “I’m not done yet. You need to understand something.”

“What’s that?” he asked grumpily, not enjoying the lesson so far.

“Elle is a person. A living, breathing person. She has her own wants, her own desires. They are going to be different than yours. Because she’s not you. Nor is she a shifter. She is human. I know you got the crash course on ‘This is how humans are different than shifters’ before you came here, so don’t act like you don’t know it.”

“I did. But what else am I supposed to do?”

“Don’t ask me, you boneheaded child! Ask her. Does she not matter to you?”

“Of course she matters to me! She’s my mate.”

“Then her opinion should matter to you as well.” Andrew snorted and pushed off the bar, spinning as he walked to the other side of it, pacing back and forth along its length. “Braden, listen to me, and listen to me closely.”

He put the bucket down, walked over to the sink, and splashed more cold water across his face, cupping his hands together to dribble some into his mouth to rinse it out. After doing this for several minutes he took off his wet shirt and used it as a towel, drying his face as best he could. Only then did he walk over and stand near Andrew.

“I’m listening.”

“Elle. Is. Not. A. Shifter. She doesn’t think like we do, and she does not have the same customs we do. Nothing that you’re used to is going to work with her, okay? She’s not going to want to just give up her human life to come live a shifter lifestyle.”

“So I have to go live like a human?”

The fist came out of nowhere, striking him with blinding speed. Braden flew backward, tripping over the bucket, slamming into the bar and throwing up his hands over his head as bottles of booze cascaded down around him. Some broke, others just bounced off his body parts and rolled across the floor.

“Ow.” His jaw was already starting to swell.

“Don’t be a fucking asshole,” Andrew said icily. “You aren’t an idiot either. Have you ever in your life heard of the word compromise?”

He nodded, rubbing the left side of his face.

“Then use it. You’re going to have to figure this out as you go along. On top of that, you’re going to have to talk to Elle, figure out what she wants. Then tell her what you want. From that, you’ll come to a compromise. A mixture of both. She’s got a shifter as a child, you dumbass. She doesn’t want to leave our lifestyle behind. She’s going to want to expose that kid and any other shifter children she might have to their heritage.”

Braden hadn’t thought of that. “That’s a good point.”

“I know it’s a good point!” his boss roared, sounding fed up with him. “Now pick yourself up out of the pile of puke, get changed, and start acting like an adult! The woman is crazy about you, but you need to show her that you know how to act in a relationship. She is your equal, you buffoon. Not your property, your conquest, or anything else. Treat her like you would want her to treat you. Is that so hard?!”

He looked around, noticing for the first time that when he’d fallen, it wasn’t just booze that had splashed on him. The combined smell of alcohol and vomit was…unpleasant, to say the least.

“Come on.”

A hand hung in mid-air in front of him. A moment later he clued in that Andrew was offering it to him. Clasping the wrist of the other shifter, he allowed himself to be hauled to his feet, liquid and other unmentionables dripping to the floor around him.

“I’ll clean this up.”

“No, don’t bother. Go get yourself cleaned up. Your shift starts in twenty minutes. Can you sober up by then?”

Blinking in surprise, Braden glanced at the clock on the far wall near the door. It was almost quarter to four in the afternoon. Had he really lost track of three days?

“How long have I been like this?”

“It’s been five days since you came back and started acting all pissy,” Andrew supplied. “I know, because I’ve dealt with complaints every day from the others.”

“Fuck.” The simple word conveyed so many emotions at the moment. Embarrassment. Anger. Regret. Sadness. Frustration. All of it just sort of poured out of him into that one expressive word.

“Go shower already. You fucking smell,” Andrew said, backing away from him.

“What about this?” He swung an arm at the destroyed bar and remnants of his stomach.

The gryphon shifter’s face twisted upward maniacally. “Oh, don’t you worry about that. I know a shifter who lost a bet. I’ve been waiting to call this in. It’s perfect.”

“They’re going to blame me for it though, you know that.”

Andrew snorted. “That’s your own fault. Now go shower. And take your shift to think about how you might fix things with Elle.”

He nodded. “I think I can manage that. I understand now. Sort of. I get it, on the intellectual side of things, I guess you might say. My brain grasps the concept. It’s going to take some getting used to. It’s something that will need constant work from me.”

His boss smiled tightly. “Sounds like you’re getting there then. Good job.” Then he pointed at the door. “Now seriously, get the hell out of here, I’m not joking about you smelling.”

“Right. I’m gone.” He headed toward the doorway, any remaining alcohol in his system burning off as he forced his system into overdrive.

It was time to fix things.

Braden was halfway up the stairs when he heard a roar from the lounge.

“GRAY, YOU PIECE OF SHIT EXCUSE FOR A POKER PLAYER. GET IN HERE AND PAY THE PIPER! I’VE GOT A JOB FOR YOU!”

Oh hell.