Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Alistair grimaced as his neighbor two stations down raised his voice a little louder, probably to be heard over the sound of the machines.
He was singing, or what Alistair hoped was supposed to be singing, otherwise, he couldn’t figure out what the caterwauling was all about.
The yeti wasn’t a good singer. He couldn’t hold a tune and kept pitching to hit high notes that ended up sounding like he was screeching instead.
His immediate neighbor, an orc with long hair pulled into a bun, made a face at Alistair in commiseration.
He then offered him two cotton balls for his ears.
Technically, that wasn’t allowed. They needed to be able to hear if something went wrong.
But cotton wouldn’t do much to block his hearing, only muffle the worst of the yeti’s screeching so he could get through the day without a migraine.
He nodded his head in thanks, stuffing them in when he was sure the foreman wasn’t looking.
It was his last day on this contract, so he wasn’t really worried about it, but he wanted a good word put in when he finished.
It had only been a few months since he started at Charmed Away, and he still wanted to make a good impression on his boss.
Isaac was right, she went above and beyond to make sure he felt comfortable.
She was a good person to work for, and he didn’t want to disappoint her.
An hour later, someone tapped him on the shoulder. He recognized the goblin behind him, the person who had been training while Alistair had covered for him. When he noticed Alistair’s stuffed ears, he cocked his head curiously.
“Are the machines too loud?”
Drawing the cotton out, he shook his head. “Not the machines. It was–”
The yeti started again, this time with a rendition of a famous siren that he had no hope of mimicking. Those high notes were going to be the death of him.
The goblin’s eyes widened in horror, and he made gimme hands in the direction of Alistair’s cotton balls. “Give me those! He still has several hours left!”
Alistair bit back a chuckle and handed them over wordlessly, slipping past the goblin and heading for the foreman’s office. He needed the man to sign off before he could head back to Charmed Away.
After knocking and waiting to be invited in, Alistair stepped into the draconian foreman’s office, breathing a sigh of relief as the door shut behind him and blocked out most of the noise coming from the wannabe pop star on the warehouse floor.
“Omahl at it again?” the foreman asked blandly.
Alistair grunted in agreement. While a few people working the floor had been kind and inviting the last two weeks he’d been here, the foreman wasn’t one of them.
He stayed in his office most of the time and only came out to bark at people or go to meetings.
He was feared by many of his employees, which Alistair wasn’t a fan of, but since he kept his comments to the job only, there wasn’t much anyone could do about it.
Alistair made a mental note to mention it to Morana though.
She was adamant that any maltreatment toward her employees be reported to her right away.
The foreman hadn’t said anything to Alistair directly, but Alistair wasn’t a small man, and he’d been told by Isaac he had a bit of a resting bitch face.
He was intimidating to some people. Alistair wasn’t sure the draconian would be so polite to the next person.
“My replacement has arrived and is on the floor,” Alistair reported in lieu of commenting.
The foreman nodded without even lifting his eyes off his paperwork.
He snagged a file from the pile nearest him, flipping it open and signing his name on it before handing it to Alistair.
“There’s your paperwork. Tell your boss I’m glad she sent someone useful this time.
I would’ve had words if she’d tried to repeat the crap she pulled last time. ”
Alistair’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
He scoffed, yellow eyes finally flicking up to look at him. “Sending that cripple when I specifically stated I needed someone capable of doing the job. It was a huge waste of time having him come here. I’m glad she’s learned to hire more competent workers.”
While he didn't know exactly who the foreman was talking about, Alistair was sure whoever Morana sent was more than capable of doing the job. She was always careful about who she sent where. There was more to the story, but Alistair didn’t think it was a good idea to press the foreman about it.
No doubt, he’d lie and only piss Alistair off more.
He already felt the flex of his magic burning against the magic blockers, sending bolts of pain through him.
He needed to walk away before he lost his temper and did something rash.
He did so well keeping steady most days.
Only when he was pissed did the blockers truly bother him.
“We’ll be in contact with a survey–” he began, forcing out the words he was trained to use whenever he finished a contract.
The draconian made a shooing gesture, scowling at him. “I remember. Just go. And don’t get in anyone’s way on your way out.”
Stifling a growl, Alistair turned on his heel and marched out, letting the door slam shut behind him. He heard the draconian’s squawk of protest but didn’t wait around for a confrontation. He didn’t stop moving until he was in the parking lot and well out of sight of others.
Leaning against his car, he pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, drawing in deep breaths to steady himself.
He didn’t take kindly to anyone making comments about people with disabilities.
The number of military members who ended up broken and needing accommodations to function was astounding, and he’d hurt anyone who said his brothers and sisters in arms were a waste of time.
The magic blockers felt hot and still burned despite having walked away from the situation. He dropped his hands with a sigh, fishing out his phone instead. There was only one person who could talk him down right now.
It rang twice before Isaac answered, his tone already worried. “Al? What’s wrong?”
Drawing in a breath, he let it out again. “Nothing. Someone just said something that pissed me off.”
“Okay…” Isaac trailed off, and Alistair could practically see his brain working as he decided which way he wanted the conversation to go. The longer he stayed with Isaac, the more he agreed with his past self that his brother was too damn smart for the military. He would have been wasted out there.
“Alright, do you want to vent, or do you want a distraction?” Isaac finally asked.
“Distraction,” Alistair answered promptly. If he vented, it’d only piss him off all over again, and he didn’t want to end up walking back inside to punch the draconian in the nose.
“No problem. So we got a new intern, and I was hopeful for a few hours that he would be smarter than the rest. He was so self-assured, you know? He handled simple tasks like coffee runs and picking up mail without any trouble. It wasn’t until I gave him a real task that I realized he was bluffing about most of what he said he could do. ”
“What’d he do?” Alistair asked, closing his eyes and lifting his face to soak in the sun. He still felt cold with the stupid blockers on, so he soaked up the warmth as often as he could.
“I sent him to get us copies, and when he didn’t show up with them for a meeting, I went looking for him and found him in the copy room, absolutely covered in toner from head to foot, sobbing on the floor. I mean accidents happen, but who responds to an accident by curling up in a ball and crying?”
Alistair snorted. He could just imagine Isaac drawing on every ounce of his patience to deal with the intern. His brother had the patience of a saint, but even he had limits. And if someone was inconveniencing his mate, that patience was nearly non-existent.
“What did you do?” he asked, finally feeling the pain dissipate and his shoulders come down. He slipped into the driver’s seat of his car, rolling the windows down so he could feel the wind as much as he was able during the drive.
“What could I do?” Isaac asked, exasperated. “I sent the intern home, called in maintenance to fix the machine, and went back to the meeting without my copies. I ended up just emailing it all to the people who needed it.”
He listened to his brother talk about his job with fond exasperation the entire drive back to Charmed Away, and by the time he pulled into the parking lot, he felt a little better. He sighed when he looked at the building, a muscle twitching in his jaw.
“Al?” Isaac queried.
“It’s nothing,” he responded. “I just need to tell Morana about some concerns I had with the last contract, and I’m worried about keeping my mood stable.”
Isaac hummed thoughtfully. “You’re not still wherever you were having the concerns, right?”
“No. I’m back at Charmed Away now.”
“Okay, good. Then let’s do a quick meditation before you go in. Help you get your head back in the right place before you have to explain it all. Alright?”
He felt bad for agreeing, knowing he wouldn’t actually follow through. Meditation didn’t work the way it used to. Since the loss of his connection to his magic, the act of meditating made him feel… empty. He faked it for Isaac, because he didn’t want his brother to think he didn’t care.
While Isaac talked him through a meditation, Alistair let his eyes shut and focused outward instead of in.
He felt the breeze on his face, the sun on his skin.
It wasn’t the same as the connection that he used to have, but it was a reminder that he was still here.
He’d come home where many hadn’t. He tried to be grateful for that.
He didn’t want to live shattered. The people he’d lost would have been pissed at him if he did.
He wanted to get better. For them and for his kids.
He just needed more time. He could be kind and give himself that.