Elle
“Well, in Cadia humans have a hard time getting jobs,” he stammered. “It’s not impossible of course, but it will take time. Like, possibly years.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Her words were coated in venom.
How could he say something like that so nonchalantly? As if she were okay with it?! They’d never discussed such a situation. Did Braden just expect that she would up and leave everything she knew behind to go somewhere that she’d never been, with someone who’d left there to come to Cloud Lake? How did that make any sense!
“Um, I’m confused.”
“Obviously,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “That’s because you only think for yourself, and not anyone else.”
Anger flared up in his eyes, but Elle didn’t back down. Her blood was boiling now, his arrogant presumption having lit the fuse on her temper.
“That’s a lie and you know it.”
“Oh yeah? Explain to me then how you just figured that I would be willing to move back to Cadia with you? That I would just leave everything I’ve built here and come live with you in the middle of nowhere? In what world? Did you ever ask me if I wanted to do that? No! You just assumed that, because you were the man, that I’d follow you wherever you went! Wrong, mister. Not happening.”
The huge shifter reared back in surprise, whether at her vehemence or at the fact that she wasn’t willing to move to Cadia, she didn’t know. Nor did she care.
“You don’t want to move to Cadia?”
“NO! I DON’T WANT TO MOVE TO FUCKING CADIA. WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT?” she screamed, the noise somehow not upsetting Gwen. She continued in a lower tone. “How could you even suggest that?”
“Because you’re my mate,” he stated bluntly, uttering the term with such clarity, as if he’d just told her the sky was blue. “That’s what happens when two mates find each other. They settle down.”
“Wow.” He literally did not get it. At all.
Elle did, however. There was no malice in his words, or in the way he seemed to assume she would just come with him. Not even a controlling aspect. The presumption went deep, to something in the core fundamentals of who he was, and the world he’d grown up in. She could see that now, as he spoke.
“I may be your mate—and we’re definitely going to discuss that later—but first you need to understand something, Braden. You do not get to just make decisions like that for me. I take it that back home, the women go to live with the men.”
“Exactly. When two mates find each other, it’s generally acknowledged that once they’ve gotten to know each other to a certain degree, the female will go and live with the male. You are my mate, Elle. You can debate it all you want, but trust me, I know. I wasn’t going to break it to you just yet, because I know you humans require longer to accept these sorts of situations.”
“So you just dropped it on me in the middle of a fight?” she snapped.
“I didn’t know how else to explain it. You’re my mate. You come and live with me. That’s what happens.” He inhaled deeply before speaking. “What did you think was going to happen?”
“I’m not sure,” she replied. “I figured that maybe we’d, I dunno, talk about it? But beyond that? Well, I talked to the other women, all the ones who live on the north side of town. The Koches and the like. They all said that you would probably be welcomed there. So we could move in to that community.”
Braden smiled, though the look failed to reach his eyes. “I see. So we’re allowed to move where you want, and make these sorts of decisions and start asking people if it’s okay. But if I do, we get in a huge fight. Got it. Do you not see how hypocritical of you that is?”
“That is not the same damn thing and you know it. I simply asked if you would be welcomed there if we moved in. I made no assumptions or anything of the sort. You, on the other hand, assumed I’d be moving with you, simply because you told me so.”
“Either way, you never mentioned any of it to me.”
“Fair point,” she conceded. “I didn’t. I was planning on it though, which I think is more than you can say. And I was planning on doing it by asking you about the future, and where you saw things going. That way we could have a discussion about things, share each other’s ideas.”
He bristled. “My idea is that you move into my house in Cadia.”
Elle snarled. “No, Braden. That’s not your idea. You didn’t want that. You assumed that I was going to do that. There’s a difference, a rather large one. In the first scenario, you present it as an option, and tell me that’s what you prefer. In the second, you tell me that ‘this is what’s happening.’ Do you see the difference? In one I have a choice. In another, I’m being told what to do.”
“So I worded it poorly,” he said, digging in stubbornly. “I don’t see why that has to result in a fight.”
“It has nothing to do with your wording! It has everything to do with the mindset behind it, Braden. You need to understand that I will want to voice my own desires, and then come to a decision with you. Not have my decision made ahead of time by you.”
She stood up. “And until you can understand that, until you can see why what you said really bothers me, I think you should leave.”
His jaw dropped open. “Are you kicking me out?”
Elle closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before responding, trying to keep her voice from cracking. “Yes.” She failed, her voice breaking midway through, but she got the word out anyway.
Braden shot to his feet. “Wow. Fine. Okay. I’ll leave.”
He walked over to the door, pulling his boots on in silence. Without even doing up the laces he stood and walked through the door.
“You can come back when you’re ready and willing to treat me like a real person, with real desires and opinions, not simply someone who will do as you want.”
The door closed without him saying anything. The instant the latch clicked all of Elle’s strength evaporated and the tears came, flowing down her cheeks, falling onto her shirt and rapidly soaking it.
Everything had been going so well up to that point! Now it wasn’t entirely clear whether there was even still a relationship. The fact that Braden hadn’t said a single thing on his way out left her feeling distraught, nearly sick to her stomach.
There had to be a way they could work this out, to come to an understanding.
Wasn’t there?
Beside her a red cube bounced off the plastic play station and went tumbling across the floor. Elle watched it bounce repeatedly until it came to a stop. Was it an omen? A sign that she and Braden weren’t compatible? Maybe it was. Maybe she was the blue sphere, and he was the red cube, determined to do little more than bang against each other, but never quite fitting.
Gwenevere began to cry. Elle went to her child, picking her up and holding her, even as she joined her in tears.
“I don’t like that idea either,” she whispered, wondering what to do next.
She never felt so lost.