Andrew

He’d come to a decision on what he would do with Al.

The paperwork was laid out before him, and all he had to do now was put his signature to it. One swift action with the pen to spread some ink, and it would be over and done with.

“They aren’t going to like this,” Gray said from where he leaned against the doorjamb.

“You think they’d like it better if I ordered his neck broken?” Andrew replied, frustration tingeing his voice slightly.

Gray pretended to think about it. “Probably not.”

The gryphon shifter blew air heavily. “Yeah, probably not. But it’s not like I can let him go unpunished, Gray,” he explained. “You should have seen the girl. Tiny slip of a thing, maybe weighed as much as your leg.”

The bear shifter looked at him dubiously. “I dunno about that, boss. Do you know how much my legs weigh? I’ve been working out you know.”

Andrew heaved a sigh. “Save me,” he mock-prayed, rolling his eyes at his aide’s sense of humor.

Gray was head of the trio of guards that were assigned to the Cadian Embassy, and he was actually a decent person. Andrew had made it a point to befriend him from the start, and the pair had quickly developed a solid friendship.

“Seriously though, Drew. He’s not going to take lightly to this. He’ll come back at you.”

Andrew didn’t react at the shortened form of his name. Few were allowed to use it, and even fewer still actually did, but Gray was one of those he was fine with using the nickname. “Maybe,” he agreed. “But I have to do it anyway.”

Gray gave him a long look, but in the end he nodded. “Yeah, yeah I guess you have to.”

With businesslike precision he signed the forms and handed them to Gray. “Thanks,” he said.

The bear shifter just shrugged and headed off to take care of the details. Once he was gone Andrew sank back into his chair and berated himself for the feeling of relief that although he’d decided on the punishment, he wasn’t the one who had to enact it. 

In the end, he’d decided to spare Al’s life. Whether it was fear of the repercussions, or just a general desire to avoid having to kill anyone else, he’d decided on something slightly less permanent. Al would be sent back to Cadia, but before he was, he would have all the major bones in both legs broken and then allowed to heal incorrectly. This procedure would render him unable to walk or do anything himself.

Given the healing abilities of a shifter, however, it was reversible. Once Al got home he could have the bones rebroken and set properly. But damage would be done and he would spend a few days relearning how to walk, as his body would have healed improperly. It was a brutally painful thing to do, but at least Al would live. Maybe he would come to the realization that he’d gotten off light.

There was a shout and some screams that echoed up from the basement and made their way down to his office, but they were cut off mercifully quickly. Al must have blacked out, he reasoned. Wolf shifters weren’t known for their sturdiness.

The morning had come and gone while he pondered what to do, and much of the afternoon had been wasted as well. But with the orders signed, he was free of any responsibility that attached him to the desk for the rest of the day. Which meant he could see to his other responsibilities.

“Tell Gray I’m going out to do some rounds,” he told Hector, the third guard who was currently lounging in the lobby.

“Of course, sir,” the guard said, rising and snapping off a salute.

Andrew returned it sharply, even if he technically wasn’t within the chain of command that Hector reported to. The guards were part of the Green Bearets, the military arm of the bear shifters of Cadia. Andrew had worked side by side with them in the war, and he greatly respected them. They were the real deal.

Outside he paused at the bottom of the steps, looking up and down the roadway. Few cars passed by, as there wasn’t much going on in this section of town. The old motel that served as the embassy was the theoretical “highlight,” but it wasn’t on anyone’s tour maps, that was for sure. The novelty of shifters in Cadia had worn off over a year ago. Now they were just considered part of the town, unless they caused trouble.

Which is exactly what he was setting out to ensure didn’t happen. Striking up a jaunty whistling tune, Andrew randomly picked a direction by flipping a coin.

Right it is.

His long legs propelled him along smoothly as he set out into the city. Walking his rounds was an almost daily part of Andrew’s regimen. He preferred to get out and among the humans of Cloud Lake for several reasons. First and foremost, was to build rapport. Relationships had been strained between humans and shifters following the Cadia-Fenris war, and he wished to try and repair them. During the conflict a number of the people he now called his friends had found their mates from among the human population of Cloud Lake, and Andrew had come to appreciate the strength and intelligence they possessed.

True, most of them were Turned and are now shifters themselves, but their personalities haven’t changed much. Becoming a shifter doesn’t automatically make you smarter.

Andrew wondered if he would ever find a woman one day. If he did, would she be a gryphon shifter, or would she be human? He didn’t really know if he cared at this point in his life. He’d made a lot of friends among the humans, and if he did find a mate among them, he would go through the mating ritual with her if she wished, to ensure she could stay by his side for his elongated lifespan.

Even as his thoughts jumped around some more, his feet carried him on a well-worn path through the city. He traveled the same route much of the time. Now he waved to some of the shopkeepers he passed, or other residents of Cloud Lake that he recognized. Andrew had made himself available to anyone who wished to talk to him since he’d been assigned his post, and a number of the citizens had taken him up on the offer, curious to see what a shifter was like up close and personal. Before the war, contact between the two had been even more strictly monitored than it was now. Many humans had never met a shifter before. He’d even walked in their Christmas parade last year.

His route took him to three specific places. Locations where he went not because he wanted to, but because he had to. With the increased presence of shifters in the city, and the continual arrival of new ones to replace those returning to Cadia, a brisk business had set up to cater to a shifter’s needs. Two bars, in particular, and the only strip club in town—there had been a second, but it closed after the withdrawal of many of the Cadian troops after the conclusion of the war.

It was a little early for the strip club to be busy, so he altered his route slightly and headed toward the first bar. Andrew would walk this route twice, once in the late afternoon, and once later at night. If he caught any of the shifters misbehaving, he was on-site to deal with it instantly. Many of the business owners appreciated his tactics.

As he approached the first bar, he heard shouts from inside, followed by a deep growl.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” he complained. “What the hell is going on this week? Was it a full fucking moon or something?”

His strides lengthened as the shouting increased in volume. He reached the bar, noting the propped open door, and plunged inside, wondering just what the hell he was going to find.

“Hey, Riley!” he snarled at the first face he recognized.

Another fucking wolf shifter.

“Oh shit,” the drunk shifter said with a hiccup, staggering back from the doorway.

“Yeah, ‘oh shit’ is right. What the hell are you doing, you moron?” Andrew was in no mood for excuses or further shit. He didn’t wait for an answer, crossing the distance between the two before the wolf shifter could react and grabbing him by the back of his neck.

The wolf mewled and bent his head to the side, exposing his neck to the gryphon shifter almost immediately.

“Pathetic,” Andrew spat, though he was grateful the wolf shifter had submitted to him without putting up a fight.

Not that gryphon versus wolf was a fight.

“I’m sorry,” Riley began, but the tightening of Andrew’s fingers on his neck cut him off before he could say any more.

“Stay quiet,” he ordered, turning to survey the bar. As he moved his hand dragged the wolf shifter with his arms. “Did he cause any damage?” he asked the two humans who had been nervously facing off against the shifter.

“Not really. A broken table and chair, a shattered pitcher,” the one said, gesturing directly behind Andrew.

“How much?” he asked, not even bothering to look.

“I dunno, hundred, maybe hundred-fifty,” one of them replied after a moment’s consideration.

“Give them three hundred,” Andrew ordered.

This time Riley didn’t argue. He painfully reached into his pocket and removed the cash. No sooner had Riley’s fingers released the money did Andrew start hauling the shifter toward the door, ignoring the painful yelps his charge was emitting.

“Shut up,” he ordered as they increased in pitch. “You brought this upon yourself by getting too drunk and trying to be violent. This isn’t Cadia. You were warned about what might happen.”

He moved outside, and then without it seeming like any effort he lifted Riley clear off the ground by the back of his neck. Then he shook him vigorously. The wolf shifter’s head snapped back and forth, and Andrew knew it would hurt him, but not permanently.

“Now you get your ass to the embassy right now. If I hear that you delayed, or anything, you’re done. I’ll snap your neck myself,” he snarled, pushing his face right up to Riley’s. “I am not in the mood for any games. Got it?”

Riley nodded, terrified.

“Good. Now get out of my sight,” he said and tossed the wolf shifter to the side.

“Hey! Watch it!”

Andrew spun at the sudden words. He recognized that voice! To his chagrin, he realized that when he’d turfed Riley, he’d thrown the tall lithe shifter right into the path of the same human woman from the night before.

This time though she was in the light, and he could make out all her features. His eyes lit up as he took in the sight of her. She was short, like he’d known, perhaps five feet in height, and incredibly thin. The night before he’d wondered if she was in fact a minor, but now he knew better. It was evident in her poise, the way she held herself. There was nothing childlike about it. This was a woman. A woman unlike any he’d ever encountered before.

Andrew knew it right then and there. His gryphon reared inside of him, wings extending wide as it shrieked triumphantly.

Mate.

The word was branded invisibly upon her, knowledge that only he knew. Chains lashed out in his mind, wrapping first around his wrist and then around hers, striving to pull them tight. Others dragged at his legs and torso, urging him closer to her. He could taste it in the air, though she wasn’t wearing any perfume. Perhaps it was the light waft from the purple sports drink she had in her hand, he wasn’t sure, but whatever it was, he would forever associate it with this woman.

Even as the immaterial chains dug deeper, Andrew stood firm, refusing to be controlled like a puppet. He didn’t know this woman, and she didn’t know him. That meant it was not okay for him to do what he longed to so badly. Instead, he dragged his eyes away from her short, yet intoxicatingly desirable figure.

It was hard. Her bright blonde hair came down to the small of her back, though it was currently held up in a ponytail so as not to bother her while she ran. Naturally thick yet maintained eyebrows and a slim, pert nose highlighted a pair of the most vibrant blue eyes he’d ever seen.

Eyes that were currently looking at him not with the instant interest he felt for her, but a much more realistic mix of irritation and disgust.

Right. Stop staring; she doesn’t feel what you’re feeling.

Andrew had never felt it before either, but he at least knew what was driving his gryphon wild, and so it would be up to him to corral it, to force it to understand that things didn’t work the way it wanted them to.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, his arm reaching out to swiftly drag Riley out of her way. With a careless, almost wayward flick he sent the wolf shifter tumbling down the sidewalk away from both of them. The wolf shifter yelped and cried out, but Andrew never noticed. He couldn’t stop staring at the woman.

How had he not noticed this the night before? It was unbelievable. His mind played back the memory of their meeting, and he realized that she’d been on one knee. Their eyes had never met, nor had he seen her face in the dark.

But now… Now he knew.

The only question was, how was he supposed to convince her?