Drake Maddox had gone to get a drink because work was overloading him again. Perhaps he shouldn't have taken over his mentor's position when he retired but, at the time, he thought it was better to be in charge of requests than be a lackey.
All he had ever wanted was to be able to choose things for himself. That had been a luxury he hadn't had growing up.
No dreamwalker did. They made up 0.01% of the population and things tended to go one of two ways. Either the parents used the child's abilities for their own personal gain or they sold them off to someone else who would.
Drake was in the second category. His single mother had wanted a life of luxury after being dumped so he was sold to an underground organization when he was only three years old.