Hector
“Now this is the life!” Gray crowed as they flopped down on some of the ultra-comfortable couches in the combination lounge and kitchen of the embassy.
“Gonna retire on us and walk away into paradise?” Hector teased, finding his own seat.
“Hell no,” Gray assured him. “I love my job. I just also love not having to do my job.”
“So how is this any different than normal?” he said, ducking the half-hearted swing Gray launched at him. “Am I right?” he asked, turning to the third member of their party.
“Yeah,” Martin rumbled, a tight smile creasing his face as he nodded in agreement.
Hector eyed him, wondering not for the first time how much longer it was going to take Martin to feel at home. He’d been a member of the guard detail for long enough that he should be starting to feel comfortable enough to at least joke with them. Unless he wasn’t the joking type? That would be terribly boring. Both he and Gray were trying their best to include him, and Martin seemed to be making an effort. It was just slow going. Very slow.
“So if I don’t do my job, then how is it that I’m senior to both you two?” Gray taunted.
“Because you’ve been slacking at the job for longer than either of us?”
Gray considered the answer, then shrugged. “Okay, I’ll allow that.”
The two of them shared a laugh, while Martin’s smile grew tighter. But at least it stayed in place. That was progress at least. Maybe by the time their mini-leave was up they’d get a true laugh out of him.
“We have a full forty-eight hours or more of freedom. What do you wanna do with it?” Gray asked.
Hector considered his answer. They had been relieved of duty while Andrew, the Cadian ambassador to Cloud Lake, traveled back to Cadia for some meeting or another. Something boring. Whatever it was, he’d chosen to walk to the outskirts of Cloud Lake under their protection, and then fly back. Which meant the three of them were off duty until he returned, anywhere from two days or more hence. Freedom was right.
“Tonight, I’m thinking we hit one of the bars, indulge a little too much, and try not to make complete fools out of ourselves.”
Gray grinned. “Sounds good to me. I’m sure Kelly will just love that, but I’ll spend all of tomorrow and whatever other time I get with her to make up for it. Do you think a booking at that new massage and whatever place that opened up will help?”
“I’ve heard of that one,” Martin said. “I know the owners actually. Stopped to say hello one day while patrolling as they were putting some stuff inside.”
Hector’s eyebrows went up. That was the most he could recall hearing from Martin in one go.
“That was nice of you,” Gray said, and he could hear the cautious encouragement in his friend’s voice as he tried to get more out of the other man. “Would you recommend it?”
Martin nodded.
So much for being more talkative. Hector wondered if he’d just used up his chatty quotient for the day. Or maybe even the week. The effort must have taken a lot out of him because Martin looked away, taking himself out of the conversation for the meantime.
“Yeah,” Hector said, glancing over at him, wondering for the thousandth time how to make him more comfortable so that he could just be part of the gang. He was nice enough when he spoke; it was just that he rarely talked. “I think that will do,” he said to Gray. “Maybe a couple’s massage and let her get her hair done. Women love that shit, especially when you pay and surprise them.”
“Yeah. And Kelly certainly deserves it, she’s amazing to me. Did I tell you about how the other day, when you were out on call and had to wake me up several hours early, when I came home, she’d ordered pizza for me and had it waiting?”
Hector could see the love in his friend’s eyes, and he found himself distinctly envious, wanting nothing more than to be able to experience what Gray had with his mate Kelly. The two of them were an amazing pair, perfectly in tune with each other. He’d seen them together numerous times, and there was no better way to describe their relationship than “in sync.” They thought similarly, felt similarly, and acted similarly, so that they just sort of flowed easily as one. It was a beautiful synchronicity that Hector wanted so badly to have for himself as well.
“How is Kelly doing anyway?” he asked.
“Good!” Gray said, always happy to talk about his mate. Brag about her was more correct, but if there was anyone who had deserved a mate more than Gray, Hector wasn’t sure. He was glad his friend had found someone as awesome as her, and was willing to put up with it. For now.
“Yeah?”
“Yep. Closing in rapidly on the due date. Few more weeks at most, and the little guy will be here.”
“Awww, that’s cute. Have you decided on a name yet?”
Gray beamed. “Actually, yes!”
Hector’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? I know you were struggling to come up with something.”
“True,” Gray admitted. “I wish one of us could have been like ‘I like this,’ because I’m sure the other would have just agreed. But nothing was coming to us. But it did.”
He sat there and just stared at Gray, not willing to give him the satisfaction of asking again what it was. Eventually Gray caved and rolled his eyes.
“You’re as much fun as he is,” he joked, pointing at Martin, who was just sitting there listening to them.
“Well that’s a compliment if I ever heard one!” Hector said, lifting his chin in Martin’s direction, letting him know he had his back. Martin tilted his head in return. The two of them just looked at Gray and waited.
“Fine,” he caved with mock anger. Almost immediately though the smile returned. “We’re going to name him Kayven.”
“Kayven,” Hector repeated, testing the name out. “I like it. Going to use her last name?”
Gray coughed. “We’re still discussing that one.”
Hector laughed. It was a longstanding joke that nobody knew Gray’s last name. Not even Kelly. Truth be told, the longer it went on, the more Hector began to believe Gray that he truly just did not have a last name. He was simply “Gray,” that was it. There was no need for anything more.
“You want him to just grow up being Kayven?”
Gray shrugged. “Sure. Once he’s old enough, he can decide what he wants to do.”
“Could make his life growing up difficult.”
The head of the ambassador’s guards leaned forward and a growl filled the room, resonating from deep within his powerful chest. “I think he’ll be okay.”
Hector smiled. “When he’s younger, sure. But once he gets older, you’re going to have to let him fight his own battles. Otherwise you’ll just make life worse by coming to the rescue every time.”
Gray rolled his eyes. “I know that, Hector. I’m not going to baby him. Except when he’s a baby.”
Martin sighed painfully at the joke.
“Hah! I knew it,” Gray said, snapping his fingers and pointing at Martin. “He likes puns!”
“Untrue,” Martin said, though he failed to elaborate.
“Gray, nobody but you shares your undying love for puns,” he stated. “Not even Kelly.”
The other shifter just laughed.
“So Martin, you’ve been here a few weeks now. Met anyone?” Gray asked slyly.
Martin coughed to cover what looked sounded like surprise, and then glanced back and forth between the two, as if he thought they were crazy.
“Um no. Not met anyone. Not yet.” He fell silent. Again.
“I see. Well, we’ll keep asking,” Hector said, “Because I feel like even if you had, you wouldn’t tell us.”
Martin shrugged.
Typical.
“And you?” Gray asked. “How are things going with you?”
“You know exactly how well they’re going,” he said sourly. “Which is to say, they’re not.”
Gray frowned. “I thought you said she was it?”
Hector shrugged. “I thought so too, man. My bear went absolutely crazy for her the night you brought her here with Kelly. We even had a good time, talking and laughing while I calmed her down and what not. But like I told you, she hasn’t been talking to me. Maybe it was a false alarm?”
“At all?”
“I mean, she replies. But it’s always the same ‘I can’t, I’m busy’ routine. So I’ve just stopped asking. It’s clear she’s trying to avoid me.” He slumped back into the extra-wide couch, his good cheer evaporating at the reminder.
“Have you considered that maybe she really just has been busy when you’ve asked her?” Gray pushed, not letting the topic die.
Hector glared at him. “Why yes, I actually have. But the fact is, she doesn’t say ‘This is when I’m not busy, how about then?’ It’s always just that she’s busy and can’t. That’s how I tell the difference at least.”
“Maybe,” Gray said hesitantly. “When was the last time you saw her? Tell me it wasn’t the night at the embassy after I had to fight Jacen, was it?”
He grimaced at the question. Jacen had been the biological father of Kelly’s child. He’d come from another shifter territory, and everyone had thought him dead. Things hadn’t gone so well upon his arrival, and Gray had ended up killing him when he’d tried to steal his child from Kelly’s stomach via cutting her open. It hadn’t been a pretty situation at all, and Rachel had gotten sort of caught up in the middle of it.
“No,” he said, which was truthful. He had seen her since then, though not in the way Gray meant.
“Great! That’s a start. When was the last time you saw her?”
“Two nights ago,” he said quietly.
Gray frowned. “But you were on duty then.”
“I know.”
“You skipped out on your post?”
Hector flipped him off. “Fuck you. You know I would never do that. Don’t even joke. No, she was at the strip club where Martin and I had to go.”
“Oh.” Gray said. Then his eyes widened as the implications grew. “Oh. Was she, umm…”
“I don’t know,” he said. “But she had on an outfit similar to some of the other working girls there. And she was standing up on the VIP lounge stage, watching it all go down.”
“Oh,” Gray said again.
“Yeah.” Hector wasn’t sure what else to say.
Martin spoke up, much to his surprise. “She wasn’t working there.”
He lifted his eyebrows questioningly.
“I saw you staring,” Martin said in explanation. “It wasn’t hard to pick her out. She had a sash on her that read Bridesmaid. I’d guess she was there for a bachelorette party.” Then he fell silent again, rising from the couch and moving to the sink, getting himself a glass of water.
Martin was weird like that. He preferred water over beer.
“Oh,” Gray said once more, looking back and forth. Then he and Hector shared a shrug, both of them baffled by his insistence on drinking water by the gallon.
“So why don’t you ask her to see you again?” he prodded once Martin had returned.
“I dunno. I’ve given her plenty of chances?”
“Come on, try again,” Gray said forcefully. “Ask her straight up if she wants you to stop calling or not. That’s the easiest way to go about it.”
Hector shook his head and stood up. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” He walked over to the phone—most shifters eschewed cell phones, preferring to talk face-to-face—and punched in her number, which he’d forced himself to memorize.
It rang several times, and he was prepared to put the receiver back down and tell Gray that he’d told him so.
“Hello?”
He nearly dropped the phone in surprise.
“Ah, hi, Rachel?”
“That’s me.”
“Hi,” he said, trying to get his shaking voice back under control, overwhelmed by the sudden nervousness flooding his system.
Stop it, he commanded himself. You are a trained shifter. You’ve fought numerous battles, you were even part of the war, where you served with distinction. One phone call with a beautiful woman is not going to get the best of you. Now get it together and get it done!
“Hi,” she replied, sounding weirded out.
“It’s Hector,” he gritted out through clenched teeth, still struggling to maintain his composure.
“Oh, hi Hector!”
Was that excitement he heard? Or just false cheer she’d injected into her voice?
“What’s up?”
Just go for it. Ask her already. Hector inhaled, rolled his shoulders several times and steeled himself to ask the question.
“I was just wondering, if you, um, maybe had some free time, and wanted to get together soon?”
There was a lengthy pause, and he began to look toward Gray with an “I told you so” look on his face. But before he could, Rachel responded.
“Okay. I think I would like that. When are you free?”
Holy. Shit.