Page 9

I gave Wrage three days and he’d still yet to spill the proverbial beans about the petrylle.

He’d missed work because he’d been that hungover, and I wanted to give him time to recover and regain his bearings.

He’d still never mentioned anything. No messages from his brother had graced my phone screen either, and I assumed he was giving me time to confront Wrage about his silence.

To be honest, considering that we’d gone the rest of the week without him mentioning this, according to Wrex, terrible situation happening within the petrylle community, it really bothered me, but I wasn’t sure how to appropriately proceed.

During our third meeting, I’d asked him if there was anything new in the petrylle community that he wanted us to discuss and potentially address.

He’d smiled and said no, but continued talking about his first point from the inaugural meeting: that petrylle wanted to be seen as more than muscle and wanted access to other jobs other than construction and other work that dealt with their physical strength.

By the time I was powering down my Switch after a Saturday morning of gaming, I’d decided that enough was enough.

I needed to know what was going on, from either one of the brothers.

Calling Wrage first, I figured I’d give him a chance to explain why he hadn’t shared it with me or with the other board members.

Helping Orbs with their injustices was exactly what we were there to do and it was more than bothersome to know that something bad was going on without anyone speaking about it.

Wrage didn’t answer and I left him a voicemail asking to talk, that I’d heard some grumblings about something happening among the petrylle.

I gave him multiple hours to get back to me, and he hadn’t gotten back to me as afternoon was transitioning into evening.

The yearning to acquire this knowledge was what enabled me to dial Wrex’s number next.

But I hesitated. I couldn’t keep denying my attraction to Wrex.

While I’d initially been attracted to Wrage as well, seeing him show obvious interest in Francyn had killed any and all sexual desire for him and had immediately transferred to Wrex.

Something about the grey rocky skin and their adorable little horns…

I snapped myself out of it and pressed dial on my phone. Wrex was a co-worker by association and I needed to keep that in mind when he started stripping off his clothes whenever I closed my eyelids. Even though all I wanted was to see him fall to his knees and wrap those plump lips around my co—

“Wallace?”

Wrex’s voice blared into my ear, ruining my fantasy with a snap back to reality. Mortified, I put on my best professional air and tried to regain control over myself.

“Wrex, hi. Sorry about that. I was expecting the voicemail to pick up like it did when I tried your brother.”

Yeah, that was good. Crisis averted , I thought, mentally wiping the sweat from my brow.

“Oh, interesting.” Wrex cleared his throat. “I’d see if he was around if I were home. I’m out at the moment. ”

“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting.” Shit, was Wrex on a date? Had I interrupted a hookup that Wrex was trying to engage in? Thoughts of Wrex stripping down came back to my mind like they’d never been shooed away, and I had to do double time to block them from my mental palace.

Even more so because I wanted to be on the receiving end of the hypothetical date and hookup.

“Not at all,” Wrex countered. “What’s going on?”

“I was trying to reach out because Wrage still hasn’t mentioned any petrylle issues that have been occurring. So I was hoping you could shed some light on what’s been happening.”

Wrex took a huge inhale, annoyance evident and clear. “What the hell, Wrage. That’s really annoying to hear because I was just berating him last night about bringing it up.”

“I kept asking without mentioning you, just in case, but he’s not bringing it up.”

“You’re more than welcome to blame me, I can take it.”

Oh, I bet you can take it beautifully . Chastising myself and shaking my head, I tried to put all horny thoughts back in their horny jail cells where they belonged.

“You had mentioned getting together to discuss the issues threatening petrylle and I’d really like to learn what they are so we can move forward with finding a solution.”

Wrex sighed. “I’m not sure you’ll be able to handle this particular problem, but I appreciate your tenacity.” He paused, and I was doing my best to remain as neutral as possible, even if my dick was harder than his skin looked. “Are you busy tonight? I can wrap up my errands and head on over.”

“Oh, um, sure!” I cleared my throat of my previous excitement. So much for staying neutral. “I mean, yeah, that works. Do you have a place in mind?”

“Batty’s Bar on sixty-seventh, if that’s alright. I know the owner and he won’t berate us. ”

“Sounds great.”

“I’ll see you in an hour then, Wallace.”

“Looking forward to it. See you soon, Wrex.”

I hung up before I could make more of a fool of myself.

Standing up, I stormed into my bedroom and went to my closet to pick out my outfit.

My heart was pounding like a drum possessed as I searched through my wardrobe.

I kept telling myself that this wasn’t a date date.

If anything, it was a work date. In fact, it was entirely work related. This was business, not pleasure.

That didn’t mean my dick was listening, considering it hadn’t gone down at all since the first time I’d heard his deep voice on the other end of the phone. I just hoped that it would stop this blatant disobedience whenever I made my way to the bar.

Batty’s Bar was more of a happening establishment than I’d been expecting.

When Wrex had first proposed it, I’d been expecting a dive bar with limited clientele.

This place seemed to be fairly popular amongst the young adult demographic, considering that many of them were drinking beer and crafted cocktails both outside the bar at the provided area as well as inside.

Sauntering up to the host stand, I was about to ask for a booth in the back while I waited on Wrex to arrive, but I happened to spot him already waiting for me in the back at one of the booths.

I politely told the host that I was there to meet a friend and made the short walk until Wrex started coming into view.

He’d thought similarly to me, choosing one of the last booths in the corner of the bar, with no one on either side of him so we wouldn’t be disturbed or overheard with ease.

As I approached, he stood up, revealing his outfit.

Wrex was wearing a teal crop top that showed off his abs and a pair of, by the looks of them, really tight cut off denim shorts.

Another crop top? Was he trying to kill me?

“Wallace,” He said with a smile, making a sweeping gesture to me. “You look great.”

It was nice of him to say, even though I was only wearing a cobalt blue button up and a pair of slacks to match.

Mentally I made sure to add shopping spree to my to-do list. I’d been stuck in politician chic for so long that I didn’t really have any “fun” clothes.

And with my new lease on life, that’s exactly what I needed.

“Thanks.” I said with a smile and a nod, laughing nervously as I took my seat opposite him in the booth. When he joined me, I asked, “You want a beer?”

Wrex smiled wide. “Are you trying to get me drunk, Mr. Watson?”

A genuine laugh rolled out of me, untouched by my nerves or lust. “I just know I could use one.”

“Sure,” Wrex chuckled. “I’ll join you.”

We ordered our beers, a raspberry gose for me because I could only tolerate sour beer while Wrex got some run of the mill IPA, and we clinked our bottles together in a cheers before relishing in our respective alcohol.

“So,” he said with a huff, setting his beer down on the table. “Wrage never mentioned any troubles concerning the petrylle.”

I shook my head. “Do you know why he’d do that?”

Sighing, it was Wrex’s turn to shake his head. “The only thing I can think of is it scares him. But in my opinion, that’s all the more reason to mention it.” He paused, looking like he was suddenly very uncomfortable. “Is every species represented on the board?”

“Of course.” I solidified. “Every creature species deserves to have a voice.”

“I couldn’t agree more, but…” Wrex sighed, his hands fi dgeting with his beer bottle. “Maybe Wrage never said anything because of the caeboros on the board.”

My eyebrows knitted themselves into curious knots. What the hell did the caeboros have to do with why Wrage would withhold hardship within the petrylle community? Clearly something more nefarious was going on than I had first expected.

“Why would that matter?”

Laughing a bit, he picked up his beer. “You’ve never heard of the rivalry between petrylle and caeboros?”

Perplexity found its home amidst my features, darkening my usual brightness. “Rivalry? This is the first I’ve heard of it. Why, how bad is it?”

“Bad enough.” After taking another generous sip of his beer, Wrex rolled his shoulders and continued. “The troubles plaguing the petrylle at the moment is there’s an unusually large number of us going missing.”

“Missing?” Alarm caused my voice to shrill and increase in octave. “For how long?”

“As long as a few weeks, as short as a few days ago.” Wrex nodded. “That’s why I was so adamant about finding Wrage at the karaoke bar that night. I’d just heard of another petrylle being reported missing earlier that morning.”

That explained why Wrex had looked like a pissed off man on a mission that night. But it didn’t exactly paint a picture on this alleged discourse between petrylle and caeboros.

“That’s awful,” I nodded. “But what does it have to do with caeboros?”

“Caeboros would be the first culprits, given our history with them. They’re more likely to be behind the kidnappings.”