Xavior

We were cleaning up the last bit of our daily logs when I finally made a decision.

“So, my birthday is in a few weeks, and I’m throwing a party at my estate. I want to invite you,” I said.

“Sounds like there’s a “but” in that statement, Brantley.”

“Well yeah, your boyfriend concerns me. He seems the type that tries to take advantage of a situation.” The minute the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. I hadn’t told Greg that his boyfriend was cheating on him, and I didn’t want him fucking around at my place. I knew how my parties could get, and the last thing I wanted to do was watch as Keith did something to hurt Greg.

Greg got up and gave me a curt head nod, which was his impolite way of asking me to follow him into an interview room. When I walked in behind him, I closed the door.

“What did you mean by what you just said?” He asked.

“You know what my parties are like.” I waved my hands around as if that illustrated anything. “You heard what Vanessa said about them at dinner. My birthday parties are bigger than those.”

“So what you’re saying is that you’d be perfectly fine inviting me because, why? I won’t fuck anyone else because it’s your party?”

“That’s not what I meant,” I stammered.

“But you certainly fucking implied it. And you implied that Keith couldn’t control himself. You act as if my relationship and how it works is any of your business, and it’s not Brantley. So invite us, or don’t invite us, but don’t pretend you’re doing me any favors by making Keith out to be any less in control than you are. From some of the descriptions I heard, you two would probably be perfect for each other,” Greg spit out.

I stood there, stunned to silence. I hadn’t expected that comparison. I hadn’t expected Greg to know what Keith did or even be okay with Keith’s behavior. Maybe I missed something? Why would Greg be worried about infidelity himself if he allowed Keith to have affairs?

He walked past me and slammed the door open. I followed him back to our desks and watched as he gathered his things and put on his jacket. For once in my life, I didn’t have the words to fix my fuckup, and that annoyed me a lot.

The chance to say anything disappeared as the duty sergeant walked up to us, made a hand gesture that transferred files from her tablet over our desks, which brought up a case file with accompanying photos.

“You two are doing a pickup and return,” Sergeant Dominic said. Her hands worked at her device, assigning us to the case before we had a chance to say no.

“Give it to someone else,” Greg said in a flat tone as he adjusted his jacket. I looked at him with a bit of surprise. I didn’t expect him to turn this down. It didn’t seem dangerous, or maybe he wanted away from me more than I realized.

“No can do, Lyndon. You’re the on-call pair when the patrols are busy, and all of the other day shift folks have thumbed out for the day. You’re the last detectives on the floor.”

“Shit,” Greg said. “Fine.” He made another hand gesture that grabbed the data off his desk and transferred it to his phone. I grabbed my copy as Greg turned without a word, swiped the vehicle keys off the desk, and headed for the garage. I quickly followed.

Greg drove in silence as we went to the local shelter facility. It did intake for pretty much any sentient being looking for shelter, whether it was a familiar, goblin, fae, or human. It was covered in wards to keep those that stayed there safe.

“Do you…” I started, but Greg cut me off before I could finish.

“No. I don’t. I want to do this pickup, figure out where we need to go, then call it a fucking night before you say something else.” His smell was a riot of emotional turmoil. I’d hit a nerve. A big one. It made me wonder if something happened between Greg and Keith recently.

Greg parked the vehicle, and we walked into the welcome area. The minute we crossed the threshold, I felt a calming ward drift over me. I watched as Greg physically relaxed from the effects of it. His demeanor shifted as we approached the front desk.

“Evening,” he said as the woman looked up from her screen. “I’m Detective Lyndon, and this is Detective Brantley. We were asked to pick up and return a lost pup.” Greg’s smile was genuine. My anxiety about our conversation take a back seat to the job. Greg held up his shield, and I showed mine as well. The woman nodded as she recorded our badge IDs.

“I’m Angela. Come with me. Terrance has been eating non-stop since he came into the shelter. We found a matching snout print from a missing person’s report. I spoke with his parents. They are pretty worried. We told them we’d have him brought home.”

“No problem there. How old is Terrance?” I asked.

“According to the information we have, he’s five, and he’s feisty,” she laughed. We walked down several hallways that twisted and turned. The other unique thing about this building was that it didn’t run out of room. No matter how many beings, it would magically expand to hold them. If you were lost, it would always lead you back to the welcome desk.

Angela led us to a room where a dozen children were playing. All similar ages and sizes. It was fun to see as they chased each other and played tag.

“Terrance, I have some visitors for you,” Angela said. A little kid with dark brown skin, dark brown eyes, and stylized fade looked in our direction. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans that were a bit big for him, but his feet were bare. He came over and stood in front of us. “Detective Lyndon and Detective Brantley are going to take you home. Would you like that?” Angela asked.

Terrance nodded so hard I thought his head might pop off his shoulders.

“Have you had dinner yet?” I asked.

He shook his head, and Angela laughed again. “He’s had his weight in snacks already, but pups have to eat, I guess.”

“I have the same kind of metabolism,” I told Angela. I knelt to Terrance’s level. “I can eat enough food for six people in one sitting.” The kid’s eyes went wide.

“Really?” Terrance said in a soft voice. “What are you? Are you a shifter too?”

“Kinda. I’m a dragon,” I said. Terrance’s eyes grew wider.

“NEAT!” He exclaimed. I looked up at Angela and winked. If only all kids were this easy to impress.

I offered my hand, and Terrance took it. I looked up at Greg, and he nodded. “We’ll let you know what the outcome is once we’ve reached his house.”

“Thanks,” Angela smiled at Greg. “He’s a good pup. Just make sure if you feed him, you have him go to the bathroom about twenty minutes later. Longer than that and you’ll have a mess on your hands.” She walked to a cubby and grabbed a pair of shoes. “He probably won’t wear them, most shifters don’t, but just in case.”

“Noted. Thank you,” Greg said. He was still calm, but the silence settled back into place once we were all in the vehicle.

We stopped at my favorite burger place and ordered a dozen burgers. Greg was still quiet as we all ate. Terrance and I polished off all but the one Greg had.

“I like these, but the meat is a little weird,” Terrance said as he took another bite.

“Well, they are a combo of soy and animal-based protein, harvested and grown, so we don’t have to hunt and slaughter animals any longer,” I explained.

“Oh. I didn’t know that.” Terrance shrugged. “Still better than squirrel.”

“You’ve eaten squirrels?” Greg asked.

“Um, no.” He sighed. “My Dad takes us all out to hunt in a pack in the woods. If we catch something, we have to eat it. It’s rude not to. That’s what my Dad said. I catch one. I let it go. They taste weird.”

“That makes sense,” I said. I knew that city packs still had hunting rights in the forests. They stuck to small game, like squirrels and rabbits. They made sure they didn’t leave an animal to suffer and never took more than necessary to teach pups to hunt. Some packs still did it. Others had moved away from the tradition by using scenting games instead to fulfill the same need.

We got back into the car after encouraging Terrance to take a bathroom break. The address was over an hour away from the shelter. I was surprised he’d gotten that far on his own. When he spoke up, I realized he was paying way more attention to us than I expected.

“Are you sad?” Terrance asked from his seat in the car.

I looked at Terrance, but he was looking at Greg. I looked at Greg and darted my eyes toward the kid. I thought maybe if Greg talked with Terrance, it might help. It might help me too, since I was the one in trouble.

“Something like that,” Greg said.

“Is it because you can’t shift?” Terrance asked. I thought that was an odd way of asking if Greg was something other than human, but he was five. It was a kid logic that made sense.

“No.” Greg glanced at Terrance and tried to smile. “Are you sad, Terrance?”

“Yes,” Terrance said though he didn’t smell sad, he smelled like he was planning something. Greg seemed to catch on and played along.

“What are you sad about?” Greg asked.

“That we didn’t stop for ice cream yet. We always have ice cream after dinner.”

I tried hard not to laugh as I was pretty sure that wasn’t true. Greg smiled in my direction, and right then, I would have bought the kid all the ice cream he ever wanted for putting a smile on Greg’s face.

“We have time to stop for ice cream, I guess. Since that’s what you do after dinner,” Greg replied.

I double-checked the files to make sure that he didn’t have an allergy first. My sister’s brood was famous for pulling tricks like that, and I had learned. Terrance made a complete mess of the ice cream, and we spent more time in the bathroom cleaning him up than it took him to eat the ice cream. Between the cleansing spell for his clothes, along with soap and water for his face and hands, we managed. When he let out a satisfied burp, we all laughed.

“Feel better?” Greg asked with a smile. The enthusiastic nod belied the sleepy eyes the kid had.

Terrance was asleep in his seat when we pulled up to a ranch-style house painted blue and white. Greg got out and went to knock on the front door. When I looked at Terrance again, there wasn’t a five-year-old on the back seat but a medium-sized bulldog. As if the house door opening was a signal, Terrance sprang fully awake and had his face pressed to the window.

I smelled happiness and a deep longing from him. When a person as tall as Greg answered, and a shorter person appeared next to them, Terrance started scratching and whining to get out. I got out, jogged around the vehicle, and opened the door for him. He bolted out of the vehicle, into the yard, and up the stairs into the arms of his parents before either adult could take a step toward the vehicle.

Greg shook hands with both of them as they thanked him, then closed the door. Greg walked back to the vehicle with a smile on his face, though he wiped at his eyes a bit. I couldn’t blame him for being a bit emotional.

“So, what happened?” I asked when Greg got back into the vehicle.

“Terrance caught a scent when they were doing some shopping. He bolted, and they couldn’t find him. When they reported him missing after looking for him for the better part of a day, they came home and didn’t leave in case Terrance showed up. They were hoping he would remember his way home. It’s been two days since he took off.”

I shook my head. “He’s a good kid. I’m glad he’s home.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

We didn’t talk on the way back to headquarters. When we parked in the garage, Greg went toward his personal vehicle, and I called out to him. “We okay?”

“Yeah, Brantley, we’re okay. See you tomorrow.”

I didn’t believe that, but I let it go because there wasn’t much I could do other than make it worse.