Hector
“Shut up,” he snarled at the shifter he was escorting down the sidewalk. “Another peep out of you and I’ll…” his words trailed off as the memory of Rachel popped back into his mind.
He shook his head, trying to get the image of her out. But it wouldn’t go anywhere. All he could see was her schoolgirl costume. The white shirt, plaid skirt, and thigh-high stockings should have been a dead giveaway. But paired with the fact she’d emerged from the VIP lounge to look at the show, it was an open and shut case as far as he was concerned. Rachel worked there as a dancer.
He didn’t like it, but it was her choice. Maybe that was why she’d been ignoring him, ever since that night they’d met several weeks back. She was always busy whenever he’d contacted her to try and arrange getting together. Either he’d had the single worst timing in the history of courtship, or Rachel was giving him the polite runaround until he got the hint that she wasn’t interested. It was the latter, of course, it always was. And now he knew why.
The prisoner he was taking back to the Cadian embassy suddenly bolted.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” he swore, taking up the chase.
His escapee didn’t get all that far before Hector caught up with him, tripping him to the ground and falling on his back, driving the shifter to the ground. Hard. Something cracked under impact and the shifter, whose name he’d forgotten, cried out in pain.
“Quit your whining,” he growled, yanking him to his feet roughly. “You brought it upon yourself, dumbass. You knew the rules, you broke ‘em. Then you tried to escape? What did you think I was going to do, chase after you and ask you politely to stop?”
The other shifter just glared at him sullenly, not responding.
“Real mature,” Hector snorted before driving a forearm into the back of his head and getting him started down the road some more.
This time he went without a fight, holding one arm tight across his body. Normally Hector would help out one of his kind, resetting the bone, or maybe it was his shoulder. He didn’t know, and this time didn’t care. Criminals weren’t treated the same, especially ones who tried to run from him, like this one had.
Once again the image of Rachel standing there came to him, unbidden. He could practically see her, pixie-cut pastel-pink hair and all, standing right in front of him. The shirt was oversized, to accommodate her bulging waist, but she’d somehow pulled it tighter around her top half. Most of the buttons had been done up, but enough were open to give a glimpse of the swells of her breasts.
Maybe it was just him, but she’d seemed like the most gorgeous woman in the entire place.
“Everything okay?”
He turned to regard the speaker. Martin was new to the embassy guard detail, fresh from the shifter territory of Cadia. He’d replaced Charles, one of the three original guards that had been assigned there. Along with Hector and the senior guard Gray, the trio had guarded the Cadian ambassador, along with the embassy itself.
Humans weren’t allowed in to Cadia, and very few shifters were allowed into Cloud Lake. The shifters maintained an embassy of sorts there, to better facilitate contact between the two species. There were only ever two or perhaps three dozen shifters in Cloud Lake at any given time, but with a population of just over thirteen thousand, including the surrounding countryside, that made them a rather noticeable minority, their oversized frames notwithstanding.
“Yeah,” he replied, giving Martin a nod of thanks for hustling his own charge up the street quickly to ensure Hector was okay. “Just a wiseass thinking he can get the drop on me. Nothing I can’t handle.”
Martin didn’t say anything. His eyes swung away and he continued pushing his own captive down the street, back toward the embassy. Hector watched him go for a moment, wondering how much longer it would take for him to feel like he fit in. It wasn’t like he could blame the guy. The original trio had been quite close, sharing in many adventures together. But Charles had gotten homesick, and requested a transfer back to Cadia. Martin had been his replacement. He’d only been there for two weeks now, and Hector knew it would be a while yet before he truly fit in.
All it would take was time. Time and a bit of effort from him and Gray.
The rest of the walk was uneventful, and they took their two prisoners and tossed them into one of the cells constructed in the basement of the embassy, designed especially to hold shifters. Thankfully they were rarely used anymore, but the occasion did rise where someone got too drunk and started trouble.
“Sleep it off, boys. We’ll see how you feel in the morning,” he said, and slammed the door closed with a loud clang of metal on metal.
Beside him Martin flicked the lights off and they headed down the short corridor and then closed the blackout door behind them.
“Well, that was fun,” he remarked.
Martin didn’t reply.
Hector glanced at him, but Martin seemed lost in his own world. So he shrugged and went to the front desk, relieving the tired Gray, whom they’d had to wake up when the call came in.
“Shhdrmme,” he muttered unintelligibly and disappeared into his quarters.
Although Gray and his mate Kelly now lived outside of the embassy, every other weekend he still slept in his old quarters there. The passes issued to Cadians visiting Cloud Lake had recently been upped to two weeks from a single week. Thus, every other weekend there was a new crop of shifters arriving, as well as the old crop partying up their final days around the humans. In other words, the most trouble tended to occur on those particular weekends. One of the three guards was always on duty. The other was on call, and the third—today it was Gray—was the backup. They were in talks to bring on some more guards, especially now that Gray had a mate who was very, very close to giving birth. More time off spent at his house was absolutely necessary.
Hector sat in the chair at the oval desk that was placed at the center of the lobby, designed to greet anyone who entered, and put his feet up. The night shift was often extremely uneventful. Even on the double cohort weekends, as they’d taken to calling them, they rarely had to do much. It had been a month, if he recalled correctly, since the last time they’d had to respond to a call like this one.
At first they’d been responding almost every night. Andrew, the Cadian ambassador, had put a stop to that by coming down like a ton of bricks on anyone who violated the rules. He didn’t take any shit from anyone. Several shifters had been sent back crippled, and one had even gone back in a body bag. Things had calmed down after that, and they’d only gotten better as the time went on.
Now he often did his job in little more than name only. Or in extenuating circumstances, such as the ones where he’d met Rachel. That had been back a month ago when Gray had been working things out with his mate Kelly. His friend hadn’t known it at the time, but the biological father of his mate’s child had shown up. The two had ended up fighting, and when it got serious, Kelly had effectively taken shelter in Rachel’s house until the fight was over and she was safe.
Gray had brought Rachel to the embassy to both use her as a witness, but also to ensure that she was safe and well looked after. When two shifters do battle outside your house, it can be a frightening experience. Hector had been there to help Rachel calm down and relax in the wake of it all. They’d talked for several hours over food. He’d learned little of her, their conversations relegated to unimportant things only. But he had felt an undeniable connection to her, and an urge to learn more.
Unfortunately, his attempts to arrange a date, or even just a hangout with no implications whatsoever, had been stonewalled. Always, Rachel had been busy, with some meeting or another. He couldn’t believe that she was so busy, but she always seemed to have an excuse to not see him. After a while he’d stopped calling, not sure what to do. She always answered, and was polite enough to pretend like she was checking her schedule, but she’d always inevitably have some sort of conflict when he was available.
Hector sighed and crossed his feet as he leaned back in his chair. He’d seen a lot by volunteering as a guard in Cloud Lake back when the embassy had first been established, nearly a year ago now. Met new people, established a life and friends. But one thing was still missing, and now that he had everything else, he found himself wanting it more. Wanting her more.
A mate.
If only he could find her.