Claimed by the Alpha Daddy (Stonybrooke Shifters) by Leela Ash (2)

 

“Hey, baby, you’re looking real good today. When are you coming by my dorm?”

Valerie Waters gritted her teeth and pushed through the crowd of shifter boys blocking her way in the halls of Stonybrooke University.

“Oh, come on! You’d change your tune if you knew how powerful we are.”

“I highly doubt that,” Val mumbled.

She was getting sick of these jokers. They had been giving her shit for the past three semesters; they had first noticed her in their philosophy class, when she had been stupid enough to speak up in class and gain the praise of their professor.

Ever since then, they had been hounding her about the same time every day, waiting outside the classes they knew she had in the Stevenson Hall. It was really getting old, but there was nothing she could do about it. They hadn’t done anything really serious. They were just an obnoxious group of guys who didn’t seem to want to rest until she agreed to sleep with one of them. And that was never going to happen.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going? Ren, here, wanted to ask you out on a date!”

“Ren’s not going to ask me anything!”

She ignored their cries of protest when she walked past and refused to look at them, making her way into the lecture room and finding a seat as far away from the door as possible. They lingered there until the professor arrived, then went on their way. It was stressful having to avoid them, and truthfully, she didn’t have any clue what their fixation with her was. She probably looked like an easy victim.

And truth was, she had a hard time feeling very confident. She had run away from the foster care system when she was about sixteen years old. Fortunately, Val was intelligent enough that she received the credits she needed for her diploma early. From there, she had gone to college, paying her own way and working her ass off at three jobs to be able to do it.

But that had gotten too overwhelming for her, so now, at twenty-three years old, she was going back to school to finish her degree.

Thing was, she had fled her home state and headed out west, until she found herself in Stonybrooke. She didn’t have a lot of money, and had just barely managed to get an apartment in a rundown complex that most people made fun of. The owner was one step above being a slum lord, but only because when she had complained about there being no heat that winter, he had dropped off a space heater for her. Not only that but the place was infested with pests; rats and roaches and every once in a while, she was pretty sure she had seen a bedbug. But she invested all her money into keeping the place as clean as she could keep it, and she had faith that once she finished her degree, she would find something better.

She was embarrassed to admit where she lived, but it was what she had to do to make it on her own. She had never had anybody to rely on, and being in Stonybrooke’s worst part of town was still better than being out on the streets. She had to work harder than most other people to achieve the same things, but she had managed to do it and she would continue to work her ass off until she achieved her goals, whether groups of stupid shifter boys wanted to harass her or not.

When class was over on time that day, Valerie felt relieved. Usually, if it ran late, she would have to literally run to the bus station to get over to the little record store she worked at so she wasn’t late. It was the best of her three jobs, and if she was late one more time, she would be fired.

“Hi, Randall.”

Randall nodded at her from the cash register and Val hurried to the back, eager to clock in and get to work. There was a new shipment of records for her to stock and alphabetize, so she was soon swamped with work and all thoughts of her day were pushed out of her head.

“Check it out,” Randall said, nodding his head toward the window when Val came out from stocking the shelves.

Standing across the street was the tall shifter man who ran the Shifter Fit store. He was standing behind a supply truck, lifting huge boxes and walking them into the store; his broad muscles rippling and shining in the sunlight.

“You’re shameless, Randall,” Val said, shaking her head at him.

Randall grinned and shrugged. “There’s a reason I work here.”

“Awful,” Val laughed. Still, she couldn’t help but allow her eyes to linger a few moments longer on the man’s flawless form as he moved tirelessly to unload the truck single-handedly, carrying box after box of material from the truck and into the store.

“I know I wouldn’t have a chance anyway. He’s still totally in love with his dead wife.”

“How do you know these things?” Val asked, finally tearing her eyes from the scene and studying Randall in disbelief.

“I pay attention,” Randall said with a wink.

Val rolled her eyes and went back to work. It must be awful to live your life too consumed by a lost love to have any interest in anyone else. She couldn’t help but feel horrible for the man, whether he was the owner of a semi-successful business or not. He had to feel so lonely. Maybe she would make him a batch of cookies or something sometime, just to give him something good to think about.

But soon, Valerie was consumed, once again, by her work and thoughts of the handsome, lonely man were gone from her mind. She had to do what she could to survive, even if that meant filing records as quickly as she could so she could get to her job at the gas station in time. She had been on her feet since five o’clock that morning, and she was really looking forward to being able to lay down.

She had quite a while before that could happen though, so she busied herself, hoping that if she finished early, she could sit in the back and get a head start on her homework. She was going to make something of herself, no matter what anybody else said about her. Valerie would do whatever it took to succeed.

 

 

“Son of a bitch!”

Gabe’s voice echoed off the walls of his storefront, reaching his own ears in a sharp burst of anger. The place was a mess. Glass was shattered on the ground, and his shelves had been rifled through. Boxes of hand grips and stop watches were strewn about on the floor and the scent of shifters was heavy in the air. He couldn’t tell who exactly they were, but there had been a group of them.

Gabe’s wolf was soon on their scent and he followed his nose through the store, taking inventory and confused by the fact that there was very little missing. The intruders had made themselves at home in the store, making their way from the cash register, through the aisles, and down into the basement.

“If there’s anybody down here, you better pray to your gods I don’t find you!” Gabe growled.

The wolf led the way as he followed their scent trail, his agitation mounting as he made his way through the crowded basement. Whoever had invaded had even poked around down past the stock and descended all the way down to the sub-basement of the building.

Gabe’s growl vibrated in his throat as he checked to make sure nothing much was out of place. He stepped through the small, narrow doorway that led to an ancient looking set of stone steps and hurried down them, grabbing the flashlight from the landing and throwing the beam around. The scent of the intruders was strongest here; they must have spent most of their time down there. It had probably just been a bunch of stupid kids looking for somewhere to get high, but that didn’t excuse the behavior.

Gabe was furious, but the wolf began to relax when he realized that whoever had broken into the store had probably just been doing it for some kind of a thrill. Teenagers were always talking themselves into stupid stunts to prove to their friends they were worthy of being an alpha. And Gabe knew that as soon as he smelled the scents of whoever had done it, he would be able to pinpoint them and make them pay.

He sighed heavily, taking one last look around the basement before heading upstairs and jogging across the street.

“How can we help you?”

Gabe glared at the man who spoke, a young guy with a nametag that read, “Randall”. He didn’t much like the guy. He could hear the things Randall said about him; checking him out in broad daylight. It made him uncomfortable, so Gabe turned to glare at the woman beside Randall. He nearly began to speak, but he hesitated, dazed by her innocent beauty. Gabe blinked hard and then looked back at Randall.

“You guys are here all day, right?”

Randall nodded, his lips pursed in an annoying, playful smile.

“Somebody broke into my store. Did you see who it was?”

“Oh my God…” the girl said, her voice a smooth, silky whisper in Gabe’s ears. He gritted his teeth and refused to look again at her, afraid of what might pop into his head.

“We didn’t see anything,” Randall said. “But I wish I had. Are you offering rewards?”

“My reward is that I don’t kick your ass for withholding information from me,” Gabe growled, peering down into Randall’s face. Randall’s smile widened and suddenly, the girl beside him had slipped in between them, standing with her back pressed against the counter and her hands resting gently on Gabe’s shoulders.

“He doesn’t mean anything by it,” the girl said quickly, her golden blonde hair falling in front of her face as she laughed nervously. “Please, if we could help you, we would.”

“Yeah, right,” Gabe growled, backing away so that the girl’s hands would fall from his shoulders. “I’m heartened by the news.”

Randall laughed and Gabe glared once again at him. This time, the ice in his gaze wiped the smile right off the man’s face. The wolf was determined to advance, and he had half a mind to let it. But suddenly, the girl’s hand was in his face. She snapped her fingers, bringing his attention right back to her, and she smiled again; a look that made all her features, right down to the deep emerald green of her eyes, light up.

“We’ll be sure to keep an eye out from now on,” she said apologetically. “We’ve just been really busy taking care of our latest shipment…”

Gabe gazed down at her, his anger deflating despite himself, and he busied himself by reading the nametag pinned to her form-fitting blue button-up shirt.

“Well, thank you for that, Valerie. Let me know if you see anything suspicious. My name’s Gabe. I own the shop across the street.”

“Yeah, Shifter Fit,” she said with a brief nod and another warm smile. “We know.”

Gabe turned his chin to the air, eyeing Randall darkly one last time before he pushed his way through the door. Whatever had just happened in there, he hadn’t gotten the results he was hoping for, that was for sure.

But at least he had asked. There wasn’t any other buildings on the strip that might have noticed anything strange happening, so he was just going to have to try to clean up the mess that the intruders had left and file a report with the Stonybrooke Police Department. The SBPD would take things from there.

Gabe spent the rest of the day cleaning up the glass from the floor and taking a detailed inventory, knowing that if he left anything out, he would be screwed over once he tried to take care of things when he sent in an insurance claim. He wished, more than anything, he had someone to talk to about what had happened to the shop, but he was alone. His wife was gone.

The thought of Molly made Gabe’s chest tighten, and he felt a twinge of guilt. He’d been seriously attracted to that girl across the street, but she was just a kid. Not only was it wrong but it was ridiculous. His heart would never belong to anyone but Molly, no matter what the insidious wolf within him wanted to say about it.

 

“Well, holy shit, look who we found here!”

Val cringed at the familiar sound of Ren’s voice, and the predictable cackle of the group of boys who had a tendency to accompany the shifter’s unwanted invitations for sex. Not only were they obnoxious but they pissed her off. Especially now that they had caught her crossing the road as she left the record store. If they knew where she worked, she knew she would never hear the end of the harassment.

“I’m late,” Val said, trying to push past them. But it was as useless now as it always had been before, and she sighed in frustration when Ren stepped in front of her. She gritted her teeth as Ren’s friends made a tight wall that was impossible for her to push through.

“What, you think you’re too good to say, ‘excuse me’ to us when you try to pass by?” Ren asked. Another round of cackles brought an agitated frown to her face, which only seemed to make them laugh harder.

“She’s pissed,” someone gasped between their obnoxious laughter.

“Not yet, but I will be if I lose this job because of you assholes!” Val snapped, trying again to push past the boys.

“You know what they say, don’t you?” Ren said, again blocking her from leaving. “All work and no play makes you a frigid bitch!”

“I don’t think that’s quite how the saying goes,” Val mumbled. “Now please, you guys, excuse me. I have to get to work.”

“I don’t think you do,” Ren said, grabbing her shoulder and whipping Val around as she tried to walk away. “I think I have a better idea.”

“Don’t touch me!” Val shouted. They had never gone this far on school grounds before, but now that they were out on the street, it seemed like they felt like they could get away with more. They couldn’t get kicked out of school for something they did out in public, right?

“What the hell is going on here?”

Everybody froze at the sound of the deep, booming voice reverberating around them, followed by the slamming of the door of Shifter Fit and the sound of the bell ringing violently from the force of Gabe’s temper.

“Don’t worry about it man,” Ren said, laughing lightly. “It isn’t any of your business.”

“I don’t know who in the hell you think you are,” Gabe growled. “Or what language it is you dumb assholes speak, but I believe I heard the lady telling you to leave her the hell alone. Didn’t I?”

Val was stunned by the ferocity etched in ever line of Gabe’s handsome face, and she hesitated before nodding. There was no point in denying it. Everybody already knew that’s exactly what she had been saying. It was their own fault for not letting her through…

“Fuck off, old man,” Ren said, eliciting another round of cackles from the boys around him. “You don’t have any right to tell me what to do with her. She’s mine whether you like it or not.”

“That’s funny, because it doesn’t seem like you have any kind of claim over her, now, do you?”

“You’re really stuck in the past, you know,” Ren said, laughing and grabbing Val by the shoulders. He threw her between himself and Gabe, as if using her as a shield for his own protection, and then spoke to Gabe from over her shoulder. “This is the new century, bro. Things don’t work the way it used to back in the Stone Age.”

Val flinched away when Gabe’s dark, mysterious eyes widened in fury, and she was almost convinced she was about to see a man shapeshift right in front of her for the first time. But Gabe was in his mid-forties. He had been around long enough to know better than to lose his temper over something like this. And yet, there was something wild about the look in his eyes. Something that made her wish she had stayed on the other side of the street when she was walking to the bus stop so she could have avoided the whole mess altogether.

“If you don’t let her go right now, you’re going to regret it,” Gabe warned. “All of you.”

His voice rumbled deeply enough that she could nearly feel its vibration right in her chest, and Val cried out involuntarily when Ren shoved her forward, nearly pushing her into Gabe’s chest.

“I told you man, she’s ours. You don’t have the right.”

“Then I claim her!” Gabe growled, his face dark with fury. “Now get your hands the hell off of her or prepare to die!”

The crowd of boys took in a collective breath of disbelief, and Val furrowed her brow. What the hell was going on?

“You can’t be serious,” Ren said, dropping his hands off Val and backing away. “You’re so old! Don’t you have a wife or something?”

Gabe’s intense glare didn’t waver as he stared Ren down, and he reached his hand out and laid it steadily on Val’s shoulder. He brought her close to him, sheltering her from any further harm the group of boys might think to do to her, and finally spoke, his voice a menacing whisper.

“I claim this girl. None of you are to so much as look at her, let alone speak to her, again. Is that understood?”

“Man, this guy is crazy,” Ren mumbled, turning his back on Gabe and Val. “He’s claiming this dumb bitch! Let’s get out of here.”

The group mumbled in agreement and they took off down the sidewalk. Gabe held his hand on Val’s shoulder protectively until the boys were out of sight, and then he sighed deeply.

“That might have been really dumb of me,” he confided, dropping his hand from her shoulder. “But we’re going to deal with it.”

“What did you do?” Val asked, dumbfounded by the whole altercation. Everything had happened so fast. “What do you mean you claim me?”

Gabe hesitated, his handsome face softening as he looked up to the sky, hoping to find some way to explain it to her so she wouldn’t get mad.

“These guys have been giving me trouble for a while now,” Gabe said with a heavy sigh. “They’re real assholes. Entitled kids with parents who let them get away with murder. I let my temper get the best of me, and now you’re mine to protect for the rest of our lives.”

Val furrowed her brow, opening her mouth to respond, but Gabe shook his head and held his hand up.

“I know. There’s nothing for you to worry about. I won’t get in your way. But…” he glanced at his watch, furrowing his handsome brow. “You’re going to be late to work. Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”

 

Gabe gripped the steering wheel tightly as he rolled to a stop in front of the gas station. He and Val hadn’t spoken a word since he had explained his claim on her, but now she turned to him, her agitation turning into a small smile.

“I thought I was going to be late, but since I didn’t have to take the bus, I’m early.”

Gabe nodded, afraid to open his mouth to speak. He was feeling angry and volatile, more at himself than at her, but it wouldn’t do either of them any good for him to take his frustration out on her. Val seemed to understand the tension between them and took a deep breath.

“Thanks for the ride…and everything,” she said quietly, looking down at her hands. “I’ll pay you back somehow.”

Gabe scoffed, turning his head away from her and staring out the window, and Val climbed out of the truck and went inside.

What in the hell would Molly have to say about all this? He knew she would be furious if she were still alive, but now that she was gone, what would she think? Would she be happy that he had someone else to take care of now? Or would she think he was a horrible pervert, inserting himself into the life of the first young girl he felt a twinge of attraction toward? He wouldn’t blame her either way, but the fury he felt for himself was mounting. How could he have let himself lose control to such a huge extent?

He would never forgive himself. And now, according to the laws and customs of the pack, he was obligated to serve her, to protect her, to give her all the comforts and pleasures that life had to offer. He might as well have married her right then and there. It was a totally insane thing to do right in the heat of the moment. What the hell had he been thinking?

The problem was, he hadn’t been thinking at all. Not even a little bit. Everything he had been stressing out about had resulted in this small explosion; this ridiculous, self-destructive act that gave the wolf the satisfaction of taking control of the situation in its own rash and impulsive way, no matter what the hell the consequences of that might be. He had brought this all on himself.

And now that he had staked his claim, he was going to have to go and register it with the Council. Gabe growled, punching his steering wheel hard. A sharp honk echoed in the parking lot of the gas station and he gritted his teeth, ignoring the confused and offended looks of the bystanders.

Gabe tore out of the gas station and headed toward the Council’s building in the center of town, where all the most important events were always held. His stomach sank when he parked his truck, remembering how happy he had been the first time he had staked his claim on a mate; the deep pleasure on Molly’s face when, hand in hand, they had walked into the council’s building and told them they were going to make their relationship official. He had told everyone there that he was going to protect her for all time.

A lot of good that had done for her. Gabe hadn’t been with her the morning she was driving to work and some dumb kid, still drunk from the night before, slammed into her car out of nowhere. He hadn’t been there when she breathed in the last sustaining breath of life, and let it out for the last time. And he certainly hadn’t been there when the doctors declared there was nothing more they could do, and left her lying cold on the gurney in the emergency room.

Nothing he had done that day had helped her. He had been in the office, working on his checkbook. He hadn’t kept his promise, and in return, he had lost his wife and would never have her back.

Gabe got out of his truck, unable to prevent his legs from shaking as he moved slowly forward through the parking lot and toward the huge, heavy oak doors. He didn’t have a hand to hold this time; a woman who thought the world of him smiling beside him as they prepared themselves to make their joyous announcement. No. All he had was regret.

“Gabriel Black, what are you doing here today?”

Gabe pursed his lips and swallowed hard, barely able to believe what he was about to say.

“I made a claim today.”

“You’re kidding!”

Leon had been one of the men that Molly went out of her way to help; she had been just as beloved in the Council as she had been everywhere else. Leon’s elderly father had needed care, and Molly had gone out of her way every day to check on him after she got off work. She would make him dinner and then come home to do the same for Gabe.

Nausea crept through Gabe’s stomach and he looked down at the ground, more ashamed of himself than he had ever been in his life.

“I wish I was kidding… but the wolf…”

“I understand,” Leon said, holding his hand up to silence Gabe. “Sometimes, these things happen without our own permission. That just means that it is somehow meant to be, whether we know the reason or not.”

Gabe had to bite his tongue to keep from snapping at Leon, but the fastest way to dishonor within the pack was to fight with an Elder when they were supporting you through the unpredictable twists and turns of life. There wasn’t much you could do to come back from something like that.

“Well, all right then,” Leon said, sighing heavily. His pen scratched across a sheet of paper and then he held his hand out for Gabe to shake. Gabe took it reluctantly, refusing to meet Leon’s eyes as his claim was officially registered with the council.

Gabe returned to his truck, unsure of how to feel. Just since he had woken up that morning, he had suddenly become saddled with a new responsibility he was going to have to deal with for the rest of his life. That was something he wasn’t going to be able to escape from. No matter what he did, no matter where he was, he was accountable for the human’s safety. What the hell had he been thinking?

 

The next day, Val could hardly focus on her schoolwork. All morning long, she had been bracing herself for the eventual confrontation with Ren and his lackeys, but surprisingly enough, they avoided her as if she were plagued. It was strange, if she was going to be honest, and although she did get a lot of attention from male students, she always found them easier to ignore than Ren and his gang. In a way, it was a little bit lonely to be completely ignored by the group of boys that had been giving her a hard time from the first day she had entered SU. On the other hand, she had never been more relieved.

When the end of the day finally rolled around, Val’s stomach dropped. The class had run late again thanks to a horribly timed question by one of the most obnoxious students in the class, and so she ran with all her might out the door and down the steep staircase leading to the student parking lot.

She rounded the corner, knowing she was probably going to miss the bus. Still, she was determined to try her best anyway. But just as she made it past the corner and toward the bus shelter, Val’s heart sank. The bus was speeding past and heading out toward the road.

“Shit!” Val exclaimed, kicking at the air. That was it for her job at the record store. Now what the hell was she going to do?

“You need a ride?”

Val froze at the sound of Gabe’s voice. He didn’t look particularly happy, but he was parked just outside the bus shelter all the same, his handsome features dark, pensive, and serious.

“I…you don’t have to.”

Gabe sighed heavily and threw the truck door open. “We’re going to the same place, kid. Just get in.”

Val felt a twinge of nervousness; how did she know she could trust him? But when she looked at him again, her reservations melted. He wasn’t going to hurt her. She had been looking up the ancient shifter laws all night after he had claimed her, and she knew he was doing this out of a profound sense of duty. Gabe seemed to believe it was his job to take care of her from that moment on. And if she was going to be honest, it was kind of obnoxious.

“You don’t have to keep showing up to save me all the time, you know,” she said quietly, climbing into the truck. “It isn’t your job, even if your pack makes you feel like it is.”

“You know nothing about my pack or my job,” Gabe said, refusing to meet her eye. Val felt self-conscious suddenly and looked down at her hands.

“Sorry,” she said quietly. “I just don’t like the idea that you think you owe me something. You did something nice to help me out when I needed it, but it doesn’t have to be anything more than that.”

“Actually, kid, it does,” Gabe sighed. “I already stopped by the Council to let them know about what happened.”

“Why would you do that?” Val asked, panic curdling in her chest. “You don’t even care about me! And you’re talking to the Council like we’re married or something?”

“There were witnesses, Valerie,” Gabe said, his voice frighteningly even. “It would have gotten around to them one way or another. And telling the Council doesn’t change anything. It just means I have to do everything I can to honor my word. I’m not married anymore. I’m going to honor my word. That’s all a man has.”

“I don’t know why you got yourself into this,” Val grumbled. “You’re just going to end up resenting me because you think you have to take care of me or something when you don’t want to.”

It was just what her parents had been like with her before they’d given her up to the foster care system. The idea made her sick.

“Well, maybe I needed someone to take care of,” Gabe said with half a shrug. “I don’t have anything else going for me right now, that’s for damn sure. Who knows why the wolf did what he did. It’s not like we have to do anything together. I’ll just hang around and keep you out of trouble.”

Val grew quiet and considered this. It was a relief to know she wasn’t sexually obligated to him, even if she couldn’t take her eyes off the guy. And it was true, she was attracted to him. Almost enough that it scared her when she was near him. But he was like twice her age. He probably just always wanted to have a daughter, and now that they were stuck together, he had a reason to feel like he was some kind of amazing father doing things like taking her to work and picking her up from school.

It was sweet, in a way, but it would be sweeter if there weren’t all kinds of ancient laws obligating them to each other. That was a lot of pressure for such a new relationship. And just what kind of relationship were they supposed to have, anyway? Was he like her husband now? Or were they able to simply act the way they were acting now, with him being paternal and caring and protective, with no questions asked; no weirdness or sexual tension whatsoever. Either way, it made her uncomfortable. She had never had a father before and she certainly didn’t need one now.

But when she caught Gabe’s eye from across the truck, the anguish roiling behind his brown eyes was enough to make her second-guess whether or not she was going to have to sidestep that unfortunate sexual tension. He was a ridiculously handsome man, and that meant there were things about him she was just going to have to try to ignore if things were going to be able to remain even semi normal between them.

Thankfully, they reached the record store before her mind could consider anything more about it, and Gabe parked right outside.

“Let me know if you need anything,” he said, finally holding her gaze. “I mean it.”

Val was lost in his gaze and nodded despite herself. There was an unspoken bond between them now, something she had to honor, whether she liked it or not. It was up to him to care for her, and it was up to her to tell him when she needed care. Whether she liked it or not, Valerie had been claimed.

 

Gabe frowned. How had his numbers dropped so drastically over the past three years? He hadn’t been doing anything differently, and frankly, business had been great. He had a lot of regular clients who loved to come and go. None of them were stingy either; when they walked in, they rarely spent less than a hundred dollars on health foods and equipment for their home gyms.

So why was it that every year seemed to be harder than the last? He should be to the point where he could begin franchising his store; at least in Stonybrooke. But, somehow, it seemed impossible to get ahead. What the hell was going on?

“Hey, what are you up to?”

Gabe was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of Valerie’s voice, and he frowned deeply.

“What are you doing here? Is something wrong? Do you need anything?”

Val pursed her lips at him, her entire demeanor deflated by the question. He almost regretted asking it…almost.

“I don’t need anything. I just wanted to come by and thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I could have lost two jobs if it weren’t for you. And if you want me to go to the Council with you and tell them we made a mistake, I will. Really…”

Gabe looked up at the girl, studying her briefly despite himself. She was certainly pretty; a small wisp of a thing, with her emerald eyes wide and innocent as she stared at him. For some reason, he was agitated by the reaction to her he always seemed to have. The wolf had claimed her, partly due to that reaction, and it was something he resented having so little control over. 

“Actually, kid, it doesn’t work like that,” Gabe grumbled, looking back down at the books sprawled out in front of him. “We can’t just tell them we changed our minds. We’re committed. That’s for life.”

“But it’s stupid!” Val exclaimed.

Gabe raised his brow at her, shocked that a human would have the gall to shit on centuries of ancient shifter tradition, and when she seemed to realize just how big of an error it was, her face grew pale and she backed away from him, raising her hands in front of her face protectively.

“I’m so sorry,” she said quietly. “I just mean, you shouldn’t have to throw your life away for someone like me. I’m not worth it.”

Now, Gabe was pissed.

“What makes you think you’re not worth it?” Gabe asked, glaring hard at her. “You don’t think someone should be looking out for you? Why is it you don’t already have someone hanging around you? A boyfriend or something?”

Val blinked hard, apparently confused by the turn the conversation had taken.

“A boyfriend?” she asked, furrowing her brow as she considered the question. “I don’t need anything like that. I want to take care of myself.”

Gabe laughed, a short, exasperated sound, and Valerie glared at him.

“What? Just because you’ve helped me out a few times doesn’t make you my frickin’ savior! I don’t owe you anything, you know.”

“All right, guess you’ve proven me wrong. You can do everything on your own. No questions asked,” Gabe growled, raising his brow at her. “That’s why I had to come out there and get those assholes to stop pestering you.”

“I could have handled it myself,” Valerie said, her voice low and angry now. “I’ve done it long enough without you butting in and ruining both of our lives!”

They stared at each other, angry sparks flying between them. Gabe hadn’t asked for something like this to happen. It was all thanks to the damn wolf inside of him, telling him she was apparently desirable; that she needed him somehow. That was a laugh. And that had nothing to do with the way he had been planning to spend the rest of his life. What the hell were they going to do now that they were stuck with each other for the long haul?

“If you maybe took your head out of your ass for a second, kiddo, you would see that you’re the one with the better end of the deal here. You’re new to Stonybrooke. I can tell. I know you just started over there at the record store and you also work at the gas station. You go to school. You’re fucking swamped and you’re a human, alone, in a town full of shifters. You’re going to need an ally sooner or later, and if you’re so quick to dismiss our claims and customs, then you’re not going to have what you need when you need it. Do you get me?”

Valerie glared at him, her green eyes flashing as the storm behind them grew. “I told you, I’m not going to be beholden to anyone, and especially not a man like you who thinks he has everything figured out about everybody. Just leave me alone.”

Gabe scoffed and looked back down at his books, and Valerie turned on her heel, heading toward the doorway. She left the store with a slam of the door and Gabe sighed heavily to himself. All she had done was come into the store to thank him. To tell him she was willing to let him off the hook for putting himself in such a stupid situation. So why was it he had reacted so adversely to the idea? Why had he defended his right to protect her? He must be a bigger idiot than he originally thought.

Gabe couldn’t help but follow Val with his eyes as she stormed across the street and back into the record store, where she proceeded to have an animated conversation with Randall, who laughed and shook his head as she apparently told him everything that had happened between them.

But Randall was a shifter. He knew exactly how these things worked, and maybe he would be able to talk some sense into her.

And that was all well and good, but Molly was gone. Without his wife around, Gabe didn’t know who was supposed to talk sense into him.

 

The next week went by without any interference from Gabe, and Val couldn’t be happier about it. After their last confrontation, she couldn’t imagine facing him again. Not only had she insulted his heritage, but she had completely lost her cool. That was abnormal. She had to be more careful; living in a shifter community meant there were different rules for them to follow.

She had to take care of herself, not make enemies. Val didn’t have anybody to help her and she didn’t need anybody to feel like it was their job to do things for her. Burning bridges seemed like a bad idea, but that was also what she had to do to maintain her independence. If she didn’t manage that much at the very least, then she would let her guard down and her entire system would crumble.

She wouldn’t let that happen, not for any man, for any reason. Even if it was an insult to his heritage. There was always a way, and Val would continue to remain ambitious and independent without letting someone like Gabe talk her into thinking she needed help of any kind.

In fact, all that had happened since she arrived in Stonybrooke was that she had been practically killing herself to pay for school and make rent and pay the bills. She couldn’t even afford her car payments anymore, so she had been stuck using public transportation ever since she’d arrived. She was getting sick and tired of being affected by the ancient shifter customs that had inserted Gabe into her life. In fact, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

She had the day off at school and at the record store, so Val braced herself to confront Gabe and caught the bus to Wayne Avenue, where the record store and Shifter Fit were located across from each other on the small strip, often full of foot traffic. The bus ride was long right from her apartment, so she had time to prepare herself. As hard as she had been working to make ends meet, it was futile. She had to bend over backwards for every hard won credit, and now that Gabe had gotten himself involved in her life, she couldn’t take two steps without worrying he was going to show up and make her feel like she was helpless.

What she was going to do was simple. She would drop out of school, give up on the pressures of trying to receive her degree in a place where she clearly didn’t belong. Then she would leave Stonybrooke and let Gabe move on with his life without feeling like he owed her something. It was a simple, practical solution. The kind that had always helped her land on her feet when everything around her seemed to be falling apart.

When the bus finally turned down Wayne Avenue, Val’s stomach knotted. The idea of facing Gabe again made her nervous beyond belief. Nothing seemed to go right when they were together. Still, she was relieved to have a solution she could live with, whether the confrontation was going to be hard on her or not.

“Gabriel,” Val said, her voice ringing through the storefront.

There was a woman standing in the front aisle, looking at protein powders, who gave Val a dirty look, but she ignored the woman and continued through the store in search of Gabe.

She found him in the back, restocking the fresh fruit with a pensive, serious look on his handsome face. Val almost had second thoughts about leaving Stonybrooke when she saw him hard at work, his mysterious eyes narrowed as he did what had to be done to make his business thrive. There was no doubt he was a hard worker. He had probably been working like this since she had been born.

And yet, she couldn’t live knowing she was a burden on anybody. She worked hard to carry her own weight and make her way in the world, and if anybody thought she couldn’t do it alone, that insulted her to the depths of her core.

“Gabe, we need to talk,” Val said, taking a deep breath and stepping forward.

She wasn’t sure he had even noticed she was there, but he continued along his way as if he wasn’t surprised in the least.

“What else is there to talk about?” Gabe said gruffly, standing up straight and heading toward her, carrying a box full of apples in one arm and an empty bag in his other hand. “I’m pretty sure we covered everything the last time, right?”

“I don’t think that’s good enough for me,” Val said, butterflies throwing themselves around in her stomach as he passed; he smelled fresh, like the outdoors. The longer she looked at him the harder it was for her to tell him what she had decided. The idea of never seeing him again almost made her panic. Maybe she was starting to like him more than she had thought.

“Well, you’re probably not going to think anything is good enough for you,” Gabe said with a casual shrug. “But I’m bound by my pack to protect you, and if I don’t, that’s my dishonor. You kind of have nothing to do with it.”

“I know…that’s my problem,” Val said flatly. “That’s why…”

“See you, Gretchen!” Gabe shouted over Val’s head to the woman who had been in the front of the store. The bell rang as she left, giving Gabriel a small wave, and then they were alone in the store.

“That’s why I want to leave.”

Gabe froze, his dark eyes narrowing.

“What do you mean, you want to leave?”

Val’s voice froze in her throat. She had made the decision on a whim, a frustrated, angry whim, and now that she was forced to say the words out loud, the truth of that felt heavy in her heart. And yet, it was the only way to rid Gabe of these shackles.

“I’m going to quit school. I can’t afford it anyway. And if I’m not in school, there’s no reason for me to stay here. So I’m going to leave. Maybe go out to the coast and live by the ocean…”

Gabe’s eyes flashed, and Valerie found herself captive in his gaze, his strong hands gripping her shoulders passionately as his face contorted with an emotion she had never seen him display before.

“You don’t have to do that. I don’t need you to leave. I just need you to be okay.”

Gabe searched her eyes and Val’s heart drummed heavily in her chest. She was overwhelmed by the intensity of his handsome features; the sincerity of his deep brown eyes.

And suddenly, their lips met and Val’s body was shocked into an awareness unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She closed her eyes, furious at herself for her forwardness. She had kissed him, not the other way around, and they were both electrified by the power of it.

Finally, Gabe pulled away and dropped his hands from her shoulders. He pinched the bridge of his nose and refused to look at Val, and her stomach sank. She had made a huge mistake.

“Could you please leave now?” Gabriel asked, his voice low and dark and menacing. “The store, not Stonybrooke.”

Val was too stunned to speak and turned around on her heel. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. What was she supposed to do now? The idea of leaving was unconscionable. She was drawn to him despite herself. Not only did she find it impossible to reconcile the idea of being with a shifter who felt obligated to take care of her, but he was old enough to be her father. Or at least a much older, very handsome uncle or mentor of some sort.

She closed her eyes and tried to shake the thoughts away. Maybe it was stupid to leave school so close to finishing the semester. She would see it through until she received her credits, at the very least. Maybe then she would know what the best move to make would be. And until then, she would just have to do her best to avoid Gabe entirely. Even if she had to quit her job at the record store, it would be easier than dealing with his stupid claim for the rest of her life.

 

 

The wolf inside Gabe was thrilled by the kiss and couldn’t stop obsessing over it, but Gabe himself was furious. He felt physically sick. The only woman whose lips had been on his had died. The last person he had kissed, before Val, had had her impression on his lips erased by some human he had gotten himself stupidly entangled with.

Gabe closed the store early and went immediately home. What had that girl been thinking, ambushing him like that? Just because he had claimed her didn’t mean they had to act like a couple or something, did it? She was saying one thing; that she wanted to leave and stop being a burden on his life, then the next minute, her lips were on his and she was trying to push the importance of his wife right out of his life. But she would never replace Molly. Never.

The more Gabe thought about it, the more furious he became, until he was passing by his house and on his way downtown. He parked outside the Council’s building, his chest tight and his heart angry. The wolf was warning him against going inside; it was against his nature to refuse the role he had accepted within the pack, even if he was unhappy about being tethered to a young woman who, despite being very attractive and sweet, neither wanted his help nor respected his devotion to his late wife. He just couldn’t let that go on any longer.

“Gabriel, what do you need?”

“Leon, I need to talk to you. It’s important.”

Leon was alone behind the check-in desk, but glanced behind him and gave a mysterious nod to someone Gabe couldn’t see.

“All right, Gabriel. Right this way.”

Leon stood from the desk and began walking, leading Gabe to a small conference room off to the side. It was opposite the room where Gabe and Molly had been married in so long ago. The memory made his stomach churn. Why had things gone so horribly wrong? There was no way he could continue on the path he was on; not with an unpredictable young girl who made him angry and confused about everything.

“So tell me, Gabriel, what is it that brings you here today?”

“I need to take back my claim. I can’t live like this anymore. The whole thing was just a huge mistake.”

The wolf inside whimpered, angry at him for turning his back on the pack, but Gabe set his jaw, determined to take care of this problem once and for all. It would be better for both of them. If he didn’t believe that, he wouldn’t be there, begging the Elders to give him his life back.

“Are you sure that’s what you want, Gabriel?” Leon asked.

Leon was a brick wall; impossible to see through. Whether he was angry, disappointed, or impartial, Gabe couldn’t tell. All he knew was that he would do anything to be rid of the young menace that was turning his world upside down. That kiss had left him breathless; made the wolf eager for more. The lack of control he’d nearly succumbed to had been powerful and terrifying. He hadn’t felt that way before; not any time in his entire life. His relationship with Molly had always been gentle; give and take. They had always known what to expect from each other. They had known each other like the back of their own hands.

It was nothing like what he was experiencing with Valerie. There was nothing predictable about the way the wolf prompted him to act around her. And there was even less predictability about the way she seemed compelled to act around him. Gabe was used to being in total control. But that wasn’t the way he felt when it came to Val. And that freaked him out more than anything.

“All right, Gabriel, you’re going to have to understand something about your claim on this girl.”

Gabe sighed heavily. Behind Leon’s stony exterior had been lurking a lecture. What had he been thinking, coming to an Elder about his problems?

“If you can understand it any better than I do, then I guess I would be pretty grateful about that,” Gabriel said with a sigh.

There was nothing easy about his situation with this girl. He felt like he was betraying his late wife; worse, betraying his own feelings. He was entirely devoted to her, and of all people for the wolf to decide to move on with, he refused to let it be such a young, innocent woman. She had her whole life ahead of her and she didn’t seem to understand a single thing about shifter culture. There was no way they would be able to make this work.

“When Stonybrooke was first founded, the land was wild and untamed. The shifters who settled here had done so after much deliberation. There was a myth from back then that underneath the hollow where the constellation of Mishgen’s snout points on the eve of the winter solstice, there lies a portal. It was discovered by the two lovers, Ashjn and Loshadel. The same two who, upon being thrown to Earth, searched a decade to find each other once again.”

“That’s just a myth, Leon,” Gabe mumbled. “Don’t tell that shit to me like I’m six years old or something. I’m asking you for help here, not a fairy tale.”

“Just because there are no documents confirming the ancients and their impression on the world doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a myth, Gabriel. Now hush and let me finish telling you the story.”

Gabe pursed his lips and folded his hands together, resigning himself to listening to the rest of Leon’s story. It all sounded like make believe to him, but Leon was an Elder. He was telling him the story for a reason. It would probably help him figure out what the hell he was supposed to do with the damn kid he’d claimed.

“Anyway, the couple were convinced the portal would take them back to the world from which they had fallen. It is rumored that for every group of shifters that were lost from the world of shifters, a portal was opened on the planet they ended up on. And so, together they crossed through the portal.”

“And…?”

Leon smiled.

“The portals are dangerous. But once they stumbled upon the portal, its magic did just as they hoped. They returned back to their own world. It worked. They returned to the planet they had been lost from. Only, everything was different than they remembered. There was something strange about it.”

Gabe sighed.

“I don’t know why you’re telling me this about the portals, or the people. All I want to know is if I can abandon my claim on the human. Neither of us are happy with it.”

“That’s the thing,” Leon said, shaking his head. “The couple I’m talking about were bonded for life. There’s a feeling; a sense that the wolf and the wolf alone can understand. There is only one true mate for you in this world, and once that claim is made, that’s the one that counts the most, whether it feels abrupt or not. So, you see, there is nothing you can do to unregister something like that. Even if it’s stricken from the records, it isn’t just going to disappear from your life.”

Gabe shook his head in frustration. “I don’t know why it has to be so damn complicated…”

“The couple that went through the portal knew something was wrong once they reached their world. Things were different than they remembered. It was impossible for them to be happy there; it was just a feeling they both had. They spent the next three years searching together to come back to Earth. Eventually, they made friends with powerful warlocks on their planet. By the time they returned to Earth, their love had withstood trial after trial. But Ashjn’s claim never wavered. They worked their hardest together, and ended up meeting their goals, no matter how impossible they seemed. They returned to Earth. They protected Stonybrooke. They marked it as a sacred space. And soon, our community was born. Against all odds, the claim provided them with a strength neither would ever have on their own.”

“All right, all right.”

Leon smiled knowingly at Gabe and nodded.

“All right, Gabriel. I’ve told you all I have to say about it,” Leon said, standing up from his chair and bowing graciously to Gabe. “I can’t take back your claim once it’s been filed, and even if I did, the wolf knows better than any single one of us what it meant to do. It will guide you.”

Gabe left the conference room feeling even more frustrated than he had been when he’d gone inside. Leon was giving his wolf a little bit too much credit as far as he could tell. It had been a stupid mistake by a wild beast that he didn’t have a handle on, and he wasn’t going to forgive himself for it. He was going to stay loyal to his wife, no matter what the Council had to say about it. That was final.

 

After a long talk with an academic adviser, Val was feeling good. She had been working hard to accumulate the credits she needed to graduate, and doing exceptionally well in her courses. It was always encouraging to be complemented on her academic gifts. It wasn’t the kind of thing most of her foster families had ever paid attention to. But her academic advisers always had good things to say, and she was beginning to feel refreshed. She was on the right track, doing the right thing for herself. All she had to do was stick with it just a little while longer.

“There she is,” Ren’s voice said suddenly from behind her. Val froze; it had been a while since the group of boys had approached her, and she had been feeling pretty good about that. Things had almost started feeling normal.

“Leave me alone,” Val said quietly.

“Or what? That old guy from the fitness store is going to come after us?” Ren sneered.

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Val said, sighing as she tried to disengage from the conversation and head to her last class.

“Well, that’s not what we heard. We heard he was at the council begging to get out of his deal with you,” Ren said, an unkind smile spreading across his smug face.

Valerie’s heart sank at the news, but why should it? She knew he had only claimed her in a moment of passion, hoping to protect her. It had nothing to do with her or a genuine desire on Gabe’s part to claim her. There was no reason he would want to stay bound to his claim, no matter how stubborn he was about making sure she played by the rules of his pack.

“That’s his business, not yours,” Val said darkly, doing her best not to let the way the news affected her come out in her voice.

The boys cackled, but they didn’t push the subject and she was able to go to her class without any other incidents. She worked hard, renewed by the talk she had had with her academic adviser to finish her classes and continue to thrive with them. She wasn’t a quitter. She had worked too hard to get where she needed to be. Life was what she and she alone made it. Whether Gabe felt obligated to help her or not, she was the one she had to remain accountable to. She would do what was best for her own life.

“You look happy,” Randall said when she walked into the record store that evening. “Did you resolve things with that alpha of yours?”

“What alpha?” Val asked, puzzled.

“You know…the sexy guy who claimed you,” Randall said with a soft laugh. “I’m jealous, you know. Not everyone gets a mate so easily.”

“He is not my mate,” Val said, prickling. Still, the thought of being matched with Gabe sent a warm thrill coursing through her body. For some reason, she wasn’t totally disgusted by the presumption, even though he clearly wanted nothing to do with her. Randall was right, after all. Gabe was sexy.

“Well, even if you don’t think he’s your mate, you two have a connection now. And that’s something to be proud of.”

Val shrugged it off and headed to the back of the store to get started on shelving the newest shipment of records.

“Shit! Val! I need a favor!” Randall called.

“What’s the matter?” she called back, hurrying to the front of the store, where Randall was staring down at his phone.

“Family emergency. Can you take over? I’m going to have to leave. But you’d have to stay all night if you do. Otherwise, we’re going to have to close the store.”

Val took a deep breath as she considered the weight of the request. She needed the pay from the record store that day; she had to make the payment on her loans next week. She would bring home a lot more from spending the night at the record store than she would make by going to the gas station.

She sighed. She would have to blow off her job at the gas station, which meant she could potentially lose it. But losing the job at the record store would be even worse. If she stayed, maybe she would eventually earn more hours and she would be able to quit her position at the gas station entirely.

Randall was looking at her now, his face panicked and sad, and Valerie nodded.

“Sure, Randall. I’ll stay.”

“Thank you! You’re incredible. I owe you one. You remember how to lock up, right? The key is in this drawer.” Randall showed her the key and then got up hurriedly. “I won’t forget this.”

“Just take care of yourself, Randall,” Valerie said, smiling at him. The man was so sweet. He had gone out on a limb to trust her enough, a stranger, and a human no less, to give her the job. Of course, she would do whatever she could for him.

She regretted agreeing to it as soon as Randall left, though. The store was eerie without Randall’s sweet, familiar presence, and Val did her best not to pay attention to the strong feeling of foreboding she felt whenever she looked out the window and saw that night was beginning to fall. She had never been in this area past dark before, and knowing that the shifters were no longer respecting Gabe’s claim was really starting to make her nervous.

The fight that Gabe and Ren and his lackeys had before seemed very serious, and she didn’t like the idea of anybody feeling as if they were entitled to her. That was exactly how the men at her school seemed to act, and if they had anything against Gabe or against her, they weren’t going to hesitate to strike back. She had a bad feeling about all of it. It was a dark presentiment that only grew more acute as the night wore on.

At about midnight, Val got out the keys and locked the store up, trying to ignore the creeping sensation of danger that was tingling up and down her spine. It wasn’t like her to scare so easily, but for some reason, as soon as she turned off the inside lights and turned toward the bus shelter to head home, a wave of nausea overpowered her.

She acknowledged it immediately and crossed the road as quickly as she could, huddling in the bus shelter, keeping an eye on the store. For some reason, she couldn’t take her eyes away, and what she saw made her stomach sink. A small group, about three men in total, had gathered outside the record store. They were peering into the windows, each of them dark, large, and menacing. What they were doing there, she had no idea, but all she knew was that something was wrong.

A loud crash suddenly echoed through the silence of the night, and Val let out a small shout, running absently toward the source of the commotion. The men were all laughing, and suddenly, she was standing in the middle of the group, blocking the doorway with her small body.

“What the hell are you trying to do?” the leader of the group asked, quirking his eyebrow at her. “You’re a pretty little thing. Seems kind of stupid to risk messing a face like that up over a couple of records. So, what is it that is making you so thirsty for trouble?”

Valerie opened and closed her mouth, unable to speak. In all honesty, she had no idea what she was doing, trying to insert herself between these three men and the record store. All she knew was that if she let them go in, Randall would never trust her again. She would never get the full-time hours at the record store she needed. He would blame her for everything that was going wrong and she would spend the rest of her time in Stonybrooke feeling like a failure.

It would be even worse than it was already, being barely able to make ends meet, forced into trying to suck up to a shifter who might be stupid enough to let her make some money. Most jobs in the area were reserved for shifters only, it had been miraculous that she had found anything, and she already knew that humans never received full-time hours.

What she was asking herself now, however, was, was that worth risking her life? She had been at the bottom once, and found her way back up. She could certainly do it again. But what she didn’t know, at this point, was just what was going to happen. Gabriel had thrown her whole life out of sync, and she had to figure out which way was up again. She was a strong woman, even though she was young, and she had to figure out exactly where she stood with or without him. It was hard enough for a human to exist in a shifter community, without going around asking for trouble like this.

“She’s too stupid to speak,” the tallest of the men said, cackling wildly.

“Now, she’s just scared. But I have to admit, it was pretty damn stupid of you to be running up here like that. You know you’re going to have to come with us now, right?”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Valerie said, shaking her head defiantly. “And if you try to take me, you’re going to be sorry.”

The sudden conviction she spoke with surprised all of them, but for some reason, she felt sure things were going to work out fine. She had Gabe on her side, whether she could count on him or not. If he knew something had happened, she knew his instinct would take over, one way or another. He would find her.

“Is that right?” the leader of the group asked, tilting his head and gripping her by the shoulder. He shoved her against the door, kicking it open with one powerful strike. “Because it seems to me that everything I’m doing right now is pretty much going according to plan. Everything except you, anyway. And now I’m going to take care of you just like I take care of everything else.”

Fear coursed through Val’s body as the menacing man shoved her back inside the dark record store. The group split up immediately, leaving her in the grips of the leader, whose name she gathered was Hacker. Hacker made a beeline for the back of the store.

The others surged through the racks of records callously, throwing things around and leaving them littered all over the floor.

“It just sort of does,” Val growled.

This made the men laugh and go about their destruction with more mirth than they had before, and suddenly, she was down inside the dark basement of the record store, the obnoxious laughter following them down the stairs and then becoming muffled when Hacker slammed the door closed.

“Maybe you would now, since you were in here overseeing everything. Is there anything strange in these parts? You know, when you’re hanging around down here, do you get spooked out of nowhere or do you hear things?”

“What kind of things?” Val asked, glaring at him. “This is a record store. All I hear is music.”

“Of course, it’s a record store,” Hacker said, turning his back on her and running his hand along the cool pale bricks of the basement wall. “That is what I’m asking you. You get any funny feelings down here? And if you do, where do you usually feel them at?”

“I really don’t get any funny feelings at all,” Val said. “The only thing I can think of was today when I was about to leave. I felt like something bad was going to happen. And look at me now.”

The man’s face broke out into a broad smile and he laughed heartily as he continued along his search in the basement. “Well, that’s still pretty impressive for a human, I guess,” he said with a slight nod. “Although, I would much rather hear about the feelings you have down here.”

“The only feeling I have down here is that I want to get the hell out of here and go home. It’s late. I’m tired.”

“Sorry, but you have to stay with us now. I can’t run the risk of you blabbing to the SBPD about what you see here. That just won’t look good.”

“To be honest with you, I don’t really care how it looks. I’ve been awake since four o’clock this morning. I had work, I had school, and I had work again. And now, I just want to go home. I always eat take-out at the place down the corner from here after work…why don’t I go get some food while you look for whatever it is you came for?”

The man chuckled again but didn’t answer. He took another long look around the basement and then let out a heavy sigh.

“I don’t think this spot is going to help me any,” Hacker said with a genial shrug. “I guess it was a good try.”

Valerie almost replied, but her response was cut short by the man’s rough hands, grabbing her again and shoving her up the stairs. Another jolt of fear electrified her body, and she kept her mouth clamped shut, trying not to panic about the state of the record store as the man began to lead her outside.

“Come on guys, get the car,” the man said.

His hand was wrapped around her neck, his fingers digging into the pressure points there. She had to work hard not to stumble over herself as he roughly led her to the alley beside the record store.

His lackeys disappeared and Val was on the ground, the leader above her, his face sadistic and his eyes wild.

“What the hell are you doing?” Val exclaimed, trying to push him off her. “Get off me!”

But he was too strong. The abrupt weight that had been thrust upon her body was lifted just as suddenly as it had come and a vicious growl filled the air around them. Valerie’s heart soared; she knew immediately who it was. Gabe had found her, and he was going to protect her, no matter how angry he was that she had kissed him.

But the panic of the moment had been too much, and suddenly, the world became unsteady and her limbs grew heavy. She slumped down against the wall of the alley, the last thing she saw being the sleek silver gray form of Gabe’s wolf as it tore into her attacker and got rid of the threat once and for all.

 

 

“You’re awake! Thank God,” Gabe said, sighing heavily.

“Where am I?”

Valerie’s voice came out in a soft whisper, her beautiful face creased in confusion. Gabe’s chest tightened at the sound of her voice, and he gently swept the dark blonde hair away from her face as her long lashed eyelids began to flutter open.

“I brought you back to my place, where you’re going to be safe,” Gabe said.

“The record store!” Val exclaimed, sitting up a lot more quickly than she should have. She winced in pain, her dark green eyes narrow as she brought her hand to her forehead.

“Take it easy, kid! Are you trying to kill yourself?” Gabe exclaimed, pressing his hand on her shoulder and easing her back into the bed.

“No, it’s just that I was trying to get full-time hours. They’re not going to let me do that now. I let the place get broken into.”

“What you did was nearly get yourself raped and abducted!” Gabe said, unable to contain the anger broiling in his chest. When he had seen her there, so hopeless and defenseless, it had been all he could do to keep from tearing the man’s throat out right then and there. And truth be told, Gabe had left quite a mess in the alley, once he knew the kid was unconscious and wouldn’t see the brutality of the attack. He wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself for showing her what a monster he could be when it came down to it. She was important enough to him that he would fight for her. He knew that much now, anyway.

“Why are you naked?” Val asked, her voice hushed and an attractive flush creeping across her cheeks. He stiffened when the wolf inside him caught the alluring scent of her arousal. But there was no way he could let himself act on it. Not after everything that had happened. “I don’t remember you being naked…”

“What do you remember, exactly?” Gabe asked, hoping to divert the attention away from his body. Maybe if he got her talking, he would be able to ignore the deep intensity of her desire. At least enough that it wouldn’t get him all fuzzy brained. But the truth was, it had been a long time since he had been with a woman. Maybe too long.

“I don’t really want to think about it,” Val said quietly. Gabe nodded. He could hardly blame her for that.

“What the hell were you thinking, anyway? Why were you out there so late?” Gabe hesitated before speaking his real fear. “You weren’t looking for me, were you?”

If the girl had been out there looking for him and had gotten herself into trouble like that, how would he be able to live with himself? It had been his own damn fault that he had claimed her. She couldn’t help it if the whole thing just confused her. That was all on him.

“No,” Val said, shaking her head and trying to sit up again. “I was working late today. Randall had a family emergency…”

“Randall…” Gabe said, a small growl reverberating in his voice. Val laughed softly.

“Down boy,” she said, touching his arm lightly. She drew back immediately, as if she had touched a flame. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Gabe said, his eyes dark as he studied her. “Are you all right? They didn’t…did they?”

“I’m all right,” Val said.

The wolf wasn’t satisfied with this, and Gabe found himself trying to gauge the scents around her body to determine whether or not she was telling him the truth. She was, but there was something disturbing about the scent of the man who had attacked her. Something familiar.

“You’re sure?” Gabe asked, quirking his brow at her.

“I’m sure,” Val said, yawning. “It’s just been a long night. I haven’t eaten since two in the afternoon. I usually pick up dinner on the way to the gas station but I had to call off.”

Gabe was startled by the revelation and immediately left the room. The girl worked herself to the bone to be able to afford living in Stonybrooke. The place was rife with dangers. She probably had no idea who the men were that had attacked her, but after confronting them for himself and placing the scent of their leader, Gabe knew it was bad news.

But he would have to think about that later. For now, it was his job to take care of the girl. To feed her; to make sure she was safe and sound.

He set to work cooking a dinner unlike any he had made since his wife had passed away; an elaborate shifter meal, but a quick one, and then brought it into the bedroom where the girl was dozing lightly on the bed.

“Please, eat something. I’m worried an empty stomach may have contributed to your fainting,” Gabe said. He wanted to be angry that she was there; that she looked so good; so right stretched out and sleeping peacefully between his sheets. But all he could do was gaze upon her and try to fight the warmth that her presence stirred in him. There was just something about her he liked. He couldn’t help himself.

“Thanks,” Val said, sitting up and taking the tray from him.

He watched her closely as she ate; so closely that it seemed to make her uncomfortable, but he wasn’t going to leave until he was certain she was well on her way to feeling better.

Finally, he took the empty plate from her and whisked it into the kitchen, catching a glimpse of himself in the glass cabinet. He was still naked. It was shameless. But the wolf wouldn’t be embarrassed by anything. It was at home, and felt perfectly comfortable strutting its stuff in front of the girl.

“I’m sorry,” Gabe said, walking briskly into the bedroom and grabbing a pair of pajama pants. He slipped them on and Val averted her gaze, another heavy scent of arousal filling the air between them. Gabe swallowed hard, doing his best to ignore it, but when he looked at Val again, her eyes were heavy lidded with desire.

“It’s all right,” she said softly.

“You’re bleeding,” he said, gripping her hand in his and twisting her arm gently to look at her elbow.

“I’m fine,” she said, a little breathlessly. “Really.”

Gabe shook his head and retrieved a small first aid kit from the bathroom. He dabbed gently at the cut with a cotton ball full of alcohol and then dressed the wound, Val wincing the entire time.

“There,” he said quietly. “That should do it.”

But when Gabe looked back into Val’s eyes, he knew there had been no point in denying what he already knew. The wolf wanted her. Badly. It had claimed her for a reason, and now that she was there with him, her body rife with desire, there was only one thing he could do. Give in.

 

Heat pulsed through Val’s body when Gabe’s lips suddenly met her own, and she closed her eyes, her loins engulfed in flames. He pushed her shirt up over her head, burying his mouth against the soft flesh of her breasts, and she bucked her hips against him, completely consumed by a powerful wave of longing unlike anything she had ever felt before.

A soft moan, and then a whimper of ecstasy, escaped Val’s lips as the soft skin of Gabe’s sculpted abdomen brushed up against her exposed navel, and she felt the hard urgency of his desire firm against her middle. She shuddered in longing, anticipation mounting wildly as Gabe showered her body with hot, sensual kisses, both tender and demanding.

Val ran her hands through Gabe’s thick hair, gripping it as he tore the rest of her clothing off and devoured her body with his lips, kissing her from the nape of her neck all the way down to her thighs, a deep rumble vibrating against her groin as he growled, barely able to contain his animalistic desire.

Sweet waves of pleasure consumed her as he buried his face between her legs, his silky-smooth tongue caressing the ripe fruit of her loins and turning the fire into an inferno. Val bucked her hips wildly, desperate for a way to relieve herself of the intensity of her desire.

Gabe held her steady as he explored her with his mouth, his tongue awakening urges in her that she had never even known she was capable of. Her body was engulfed in bliss, and Gabe seemed to know exactly what he was doing to her. It was almost cruel in a way, but her body didn’t think so. It was thirsty for more; it wanted all of him, right then and there.

But he refused to strip himself again, no matter how urgently she pleaded for him to put himself inside her. She could feel just how much he wanted to; the testament of his longing was physical against her legs as he continued on in his pursuit to pleasure her. Never in her life had she wanted someone so badly, only to be refused again and again of the thing she wanted most.

And yet, it was clear he was relishing in the surrender of his longing, and his tongue seemed to savor every taste of her body he was able to get. Valerie found herself writhing on the bed, beside herself with pleasure, until she felt a sudden heaviness; a tingling pressure deep inside, and she knew she couldn’t hold out much longer. Her temptation to surrender to the bliss was overpowering, and she begged one last time for Gabe to go inside her; to fill her with the one thing her body wanted more than anything in the world. With him.

But again, he didn’t acknowledge her request, and instead, plunged a thick finger inside. She was electrified, and soon, he was pumping his fingers back and forth slowly, sensually, until the brink of her climax came upon her suddenly. Soon, her back was arching despite herself and Val gripped the sheets, unable to think of anything; her mind empty except for the consuming grip of her pleasure.

Higher and higher, Gabe took her, until she reached the epitome and cried out, her body quaking involuntarily from its force. Soon, Gabe’s arms were around her and she was being held tightly against his broad chest, the warmth of his body bringing her safely back to her own. She looked up at him, smiling sheepishly, and his dark eyes flashed. He wanted her. She knew it. But he wasn’t going to give in. And she wasn’t going to try to make him.

“Get some rest, kid,” Gabe said. “When you get up, we’re going back to the record store to clean it up a bit. I know that job means a lot to you.”

Val was stunned as Gabe rose from the bed and headed to the door. He hesitated at the doorway and looked over his shoulder at her.

“I know you probably know this already,” he said quietly. “But this can’t happen again.”

And with that, he left the room, shutting the door gently behind him.

 

***

“What do you mean I don’t need to make any payments on the loan I took out when I began school?” Val asked. “There has to be some mistake. There was a lot that I still owed, and the interest from all the time it takes to get it done was pretty overwhelming, to be honest with you.”

The woman on the phone laughed kindly, and Valerie knitted her brow in confusion. She had to admit, it was a little bit hard to concentrate after what had happened with Gabe. Maybe she had given the woman the wrong information and she had pulled up the wrong file.

“You must have some kind of an angel investor on your future or something, because the entire thing has been paid in full. You don’t owe us anything anymore. All you’re going to have to pay for now are the classes that you’re taking and the fees for enrolling to graduate. You, my dear, are off the hook.”

“Thank you,” Valerie said, dumbfounded. She hung up the phone and leaned back in the chair, taking a deep breath. Maybe she should call back and see if there was some mistake. Maybe the woman had gotten some of her information wrong and was looking at somebody else’s loan. Her hand hovered over the phone as her heart raced in her chest.

Realization suddenly dawned on her and she remembered Gabe’s face after she had told him how hard she was working to be able to stay in Stonybrooke. This had Gabe’s masculine, obnoxious scent all over it. He felt like it was his job to take care of her, but would he really go out of his way to do something like this? Especially when it was something she had been managing to handle on her own? Where did he get off sticking his nose in her business like this? He had his own business to run; what was he thinking?

She would have to confront him about it before he started feeling like he was responsible for her financially. There was nothing worse to her than feeling like a burden, and if he was to begin acting like this, doing these things without even consulting her first, she wasn’t going to tolerate it. Not only was it insulting, but surely, it was hard on him. He had his own life to worry about. She had to clear things up.

“You got any cigarettes?”

Val cringed, locking her apartment door and trying to ignore the man on the corner who always tended to ask her for things. He lived just a few apartments down from her, and when she had first moved in, she had given him a little bit of money just to appease him. At first, she thought it would be a good idea to keep the scary shifters off her back, but now, she saw what a mistake it had been. Roger, and a few of his friends now, thought she was a pushover, and now they felt comfortable asking her for things all the time. Sometimes, she obliged and sometimes she didn’t; and right now, she wasn’t in the mood.

“You already know I don’t smoke, Roger,” she said, walking briskly down the sidewalk.

“Will you just help me out? You got you some money? Because I do smoke,” he shouted after her.

Val shook her head without looking back, and she heard Roger mutter and curse under his breath. His habits weren’t her responsibility, though, even if she didn’t have to pay off her student loan any longer. She was tired of feeling like she had to bend over backwards just to stay safe in a dangerous community. Especially now that she knew what it felt like to have someone on her side who cared about her safety and well-being. Whether or not Gabe wanted to do it. And even if she didn’t want him to.

“I don’t have anything for you.”

She said this more to herself than to Roger, because, by then, she was turning the corner and heading toward the bus shelter. She never felt as anxious during the day as she did in the bus shelter outside of the dingy apartment complex. It was so low income that all the riffraff in Stonybrooke managed to find their way there and stay public fixtures. They spent their days asking other people for money so they could support their habits and then retreating into their rooms to have obnoxious and loud parties and high-intensity fights, often full of racist and prejudice slurs against humans and other shifters. In a way, she was glad she was too busy to be home for long. All she needed was somewhere to sleep and to keep her few possessions. Even if she didn’t feel safe, at least she had that much. She knew what it was like to have nothing, and that was worse.

“Let me give you a ride.”

As usual, the deep rumble of Gabe’s voice was warmly shocking, but she wouldn’t let herself be fooled by her physiological reaction.

“You’ve already done more than enough,” she said, glaring at him. His eyes narrowed in confusion, and then realization.

“You can’t be saddled with those loans forever. And how hard you’re working isn’t good for you. Not only that, but living somewhere like this? You could get killed even if you’re keeping your head down. None of these people would ever do anything for you. All these people are dangerous.”

Val’s face grew hot. She hadn’t wanted him to see where she lived. In fact, she had never told him. Seeing him there had been a major surprise.

“How did you know where to find me? This is my home,” Val said, trying to keep her voice low so her neighbors wouldn’t overhear. “Don’t you find that a little bit invasive?”

Gabe shrugged halfheartedly. “You know where I live. Fair is fair. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to help smelling you if I tried. Don’t blame me. The wolf brought me here. I was just going to go to work.”

“Ugh,” Val grumbled. “You know, you’re really an impossible man.”

Still, it was nice to be able to be back inside the safety of Gabriel’s car and avoid the watery, unsteady gaze of drunks and addicts as they watched her ride away instead of being stuck sitting next to them on the bus all the way to school. He smelled a lot better too.

“I’m going to pay you back for this, you know,” Val said, jutting her chin in determination. “I can’t be having you sweeping in to save me all the time.”

“Why not? That’s my job now. I brought it on myself, and you might as well just let it happen. There is nothing more I can do about it. Even the Elder said so.”

“Don’t you guys take human needs into consideration too? Why is it that all you shifters are able to do is worry about what your culture says? You guys are guests on earth as far as the research I’ve found has told me. Maybe you should be taking my needs into consideration more than your own. Because this is really stressing me out.”

Gabriel seemed thrown off by this, and turned to look at her, an angry and wild look in his eyes. “If you don’t like the laws here, you didn’t have to stay in Stonybrooke. This is our turf now. The planet had to make way for the shifters somehow, and wherever there are portals, the earth belongs to us now. You’re the one who chose to come here. And now you have to live by the laws of the land. Whether you like the way we do something or not.”

Gabriel gripped the steering wheel, the anger visible beneath his handsome features. “And really, I’m never going to see just what makes you feel so bad about having someone who wants to take care of you. Most people never have that. They’d consider themselves lucky to. And if they do have it, it’s taken away in an instant.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, but I know for a fact that we can never be together. You will never love me. Everything that we are doing is a waste of time, and you’re only doing all of this out of some sense of stupid obligation that doesn’t need to exist. It’s just stressing us both out. Stop coddling me. I have always made it on my own. Always. For my entire life. And the last thing I need is someone hanging around all the time because he thinks I’m not doing a good enough job of being independent.”

“That’s not what I think,” Gabe growled.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter anyway,” Val grumbled. He was such a stubborn asshole sometimes. He refused to see her perspective on the whole thing. He was so blinded by what he thought his duty as a wolf was that Valerie and her needs were completely overlooked.

“You’re right,” Gabe growled. “What’s done is done. And maybe we can’t be together. We already know that much. But the least you can do is respect ancient shifter laws when you’re living in our territories. You don’t want to find out what happens to people who disrespect my culture.”

A wave of fear chilled Val and she turned away from Gabe. They spent the rest of the car ride in an icy silence. He dropped her off in front of the school, not even bothering to drive her to the building where her first class was. She was eager to get away from him, and hurried to class, doing her best not to cry. She hadn’t asked this man to come into her life like this, and now that he had, she was feeling very overwhelmed. Maybe it would be better if she did leave after all.

But once she got to class, all thoughts of Gabe went out the window and she was consumed by curriculum. Just because things had been stressful didn’t mean she had to give up on doing what she had come there to do. She would get through this just like she got through everything else, and she would be all the stronger for it. She was never going to let anybody get in her way. Not even Gabriel.

***
 

Val tossed her backpack over her shoulder and headed down the hallway. She had to stop by the library before she left, and in a way, she was glad. She was dreading going to the record store. Even though they had spent the night cleaning up after the robbery, she knew Randall was going to be full of questions, and she wasn’t sure she knew exactly how to answer them. Gabe had said he would take care of it all for her, but she was tired of him inserting himself into her life. She would deal with Randall without him.

Val turned the corner and stopped suddenly. The group of boys that constantly harassed her had congregated in the hallway, and were talking in hushed whispers amongst themselves. For some reason, she felt compelled to listen, and hid herself behind the doorway of the classroom nearest to them.

“It didn’t work,” Ren said. “Apparently, Hacker didn’t find what they were looking for, and then he got slaughtered in the alley. We know where it is. We just have to be more careful next time.”

“Who would have thought that sexy little bitch would have such a pair of balls on her?” The tall dark-haired guy said, causing everyone else to cackle wildly.

“It’s not funny, you morons. This is important. If she interferes again, you know what we have to do.”

“It’ll be a waste of a nice piece of ass,” the dark-haired guy said.

Val trembled in rage, but she couldn’t do a thing about it. What were they talking about? Did they have something to do with the break-in of the record store? They hadn’t been there. She would have recognized them immediately. So what was going on? They hadn’t even taken anything. They were looking for something.

“It doesn’t even matter,” Ren said, waving his hand dismissively. “We are just going to have to be more careful. And the next time we see her, just leave her alone. We don’t need any confrontation right now. We’ll deal with everything as it comes; no more no less.”

His lackeys reluctantly agreed, and they went on down the hallway, leaving Valerie with more questions and confusion than she had to start with. As much as she had to admit it, she needed to tell Gabe about this. Only he would know what to do with the information.

She sighed heavily and made her way to the bus stop. She didn’t want to skip class, but the idea of staying there with Ren and his men lerking just around the corner made her feel a little sick. The sooner she told Gabriel about this the better. Whether she liked it or not.

 

Gabe studied Val’s sincere green eyes, until she became uncomfortable and looked down at her hands.

“I wasn’t sure whether I was being paranoid or not, but it makes sense now,” he said slowly, more to himself than to Valerie.

“What makes sense?”

Gabe’s chest burned. He was angry, yes, but he was struggling with being so near to the young woman again. It was easy for him when he was by himself to get angry and say he was never going to deal with her again; that he was better off without her and that he was going to love his wife and his wife alone until the last of his days on Earth.

But when Val was right there with him, beside him, looking at him like that, it was nearly impossible to fight his feelings for her. The wolf had staked its claim for a reason. She was his. And he had to fight tooth and nail to keep from making that claim on her physical. He refused to let his wolf take over. The only woman he wanted in his bed was Molly, and that was the end of it.

“Not every shifter in Stonybrooke is good, you know. Some of them come here with their own agendas. There have been a lot of rumors going around about a group of power hungry men who want to harness all the magic in Stonybrooke so they can use it toward their own ends, whatever that might be. I usually just blow off that kind of thing.”

“Yeah,” Val said, her gentle voice like a balm on Gabe’s soul. “It seems unreal that anyone could be so selfish.”

“Yeah…”

Gabe was captivated, once again, by the beautiful, flawless features of Val’s face. She was ridiculously pretty. He looked away, frustrated both at himself and at her.

“So, why aren’t you dating anybody anyway?” Gabe grumbled, standing up from his kitchen table and running his hands through his thick hair. “You’re a pretty girl. You deserve a nice young man to spend some time with.”

“Why am I single?” Val asked, looking suddenly very put on the spot. “I don’t know…I just have my own thing going, I guess.”

Gabe nodded. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if he had heard her say anything else about it. He knew he wouldn’t be happy to hear about her dating someone else, but he also wasn’t happy knowing she seemed to blow off male attention regardless of the fact they were continually drawn together, for one reason or another, as if the universe had made its decision. Didn’t he have any say in who he spent his time with? Why did it have to be this girl?

“Well, I guess it’s not your fault that SU is full of idiots like those guys you overheard talking. I didn’t realize how valuable the land is that my store is on. I haven’t completely paid off the mortgage yet, so it’s not technically mine. That must be why they have been trying to fuck with my business. If business is bad, I can’t afford the payments and then they can swoop in and steal it right out from under me.”

“But what do they want with it?” Val asked, her pretty brow knitted in confusion. “What’s so special about this area?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Gabe said, though the wheels in his head were turning now. “It could be anything, but I have a theory…”

Val sighed and stood up, carrying her empty coffee cup to the sink and washing it. She did it so naturally, as if she were fully at home in his kitchen. And for some reason, it didn’t even bother him. It sent a surge of heat through his body; the wolf was pleased.

“Is it a theory a human can hear?” she asked, glancing back at him from over her shoulder as she dried the mug and placed it carefully back in the cabinet she had seen Gabe retrieve it from.

“Well, it’s kind of stupid. I don’t even think they’re real; just myth. But I can’t help but wonder if what these guys are after doesn’t have something to do with the portals.”

“Portals?”

“Right. When the shifters came to Earth, it’s said that each group landing created a portal back to the world where we’re from. But that’s just myths and rumors that probably have no standing or any basis in reality whatsoever.”

“You think those guys are looking for a way back to the world where the shifters came from?” Val asked, turning to face him.

Again, the wolf longed to take over; he could take her right then and there, against the kitchen counter. And he knew she would want him just as much. He had already been able to smell it for himself…the memory haunted him in the dead of night, when all he wanted was a peaceful night’s sleep. His longing for her tortured him.

“I don’t think it’s as innocent as all that. The portals are rumored to be a source of great power. If you were to find their location, anything could happen. It depends on the person who located it. Maybe it would take you back to the original world where the shifters came from, or maybe they would use the portal to harness the power there and use it to serve their own twisted agenda. It could be dangerous.”

“We should tell the Council,” Val said, her beautiful face serious and determined. It took all he had not to kiss the firm line of her lip as she stared at him, her fists balled at her sides; ready and willing to do whatever it took to protect Stonybrooke right alongside him.

“We won’t do anything, kid. No humans are allowed at the Square without a formal invitation. But you’re right. I’ll let them know what’s going on. It’s better than being ambushed.”

Val’s defensive stance relaxed a bit and she sighed, nodding slightly.

“All right. If they think there’s something magical in this area, they aren’t going to stop looking until they get it.”

“You’re right,” Gabe growled, a sudden fierce urge to protect the girl consuming him. “I can’t let you go anywhere until this is resolved. You’re in danger. They already know your face.”

“What?!”

Val’s beautiful face changed from determined to outrage in less than a second, and Gabe nearly laughed.

“I’m serious,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “You’re not safe. Especially not in that shitty little apartment complex of yours. I’m going to drive you up to get whatever you need, but you aren’t going to stay there another second longer. Not until we know what’s going on.”

“You can’t do this to me,” Val said, shaking her head wildly. “That’s like kidnapping or something.”

Gabe sighed, locking his eyes on hers and mustering the most serious expression he could. He had to make her understand the urgency of the situation. She had nearly been abducted and raped, and now he was starting to figure out why. He had to protect her, no matter what the cost.

“It isn’t kidnapping if you can just see the damn sense in it!” Gabe said, his voice a low growl. “You know that place isn’t safe. And there isn’t anything in this house that’s going to hurt you. All you have to do is lay low. I won’t even charge you rent. Is that really so hard for you?”

Val glared down at the ground, her face proud and flushed. He had never been more attracted to anyone than he was to her in that moment. She was so young, and yet, she had the soul of a wizened warrior. To top it all off, damn was she attractive.

“Look, it’s just temporary. I’m not going to do anything to you. We’ll stay out of each other’s way. You can talk to your professors about finishing as much of your coursework from home as possible, and on days you need to go to lectures, I’ll go with you. Be your body guard. Just until we figure out what the hell is going on and how to make it stop. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, and that’s final.”

Valerie’s fierce eyes turned to him, her expression impossible to read. Her energy was all over the place, and when she opened her mouth, Gabe was convinced it was going to be so she could more easily bite his head off.

He was stunned when she finally spoke, and her words hung in the air between them as if stuck there by Velcro.

“All right,” she said quietly. “But we’ll have to protect each other.”

 

The next few days went by in a blur. Valerie could hardly believe it as she packed up her few belongings and loaded them into Gabriel’s car. It took a few trips, but soon, she was officially moved in to his house. They went together to the school to speak with her professors, and Gabriel explained the severity of the situation to them in terms only other shifters would truly understand. By the time they returned back to the house, the realization that her life as she knew it had changed forever crashed upon her suddenly, and she locked herself in the bedroom Gabriel had assigned for her, unable to truly comprehend just how different her life was going to be.

“I really appreciate you guys cleaning up after the robbery, and even taking the time to do the inventory the way you did, and once Gabriel is convinced you are safe, you are welcome to come back to the record store anytime you want.”

She could hardly believe Randall’s words, but they were her only source of comfort in the moment. She hung up the phone with him and looked around the sterile little room. It was nice in its way, it had a woman’s touch. Gabriel probably hadn’t had anything to do with its design. It was probably all due to the late wife he didn’t seem able to get over. In a way, she felt jealous of her, but mostly, she just felt sorry for Gabriel for having to endure such a huge amount of pain. Sometimes, life just didn’t seem fair.

“I serve dinner at six o’clock,” Gabriel said from outside the bedroom door. “It’s all right if you don’t want to eat with me. But if you do, I always make enough for two. It’s just an old habit I never got out of. I eat a lot of leftovers.”

Valerie wanted to answer, but there was a sick lump in her throat, and she was afraid that if she did, she would just begin to cry. She had never handled change very well, least of all the changes she had no control over. Part of the reason she resented Gabriel’s claim on her so much was because it took so much of her control way. That was what she needed most during the times when she had been trapped in the foster care system. She worked hard to carve her life out in the direction she wanted to go, and anybody interfering with that wasn’t welcome.

And yet, knowing Gabe cared so much about her, and was doing everything in his power to protect her from the threat gave her a feeling unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She felt as if somebody cared for her. As if she were safe. And that made her even more confused than before. Because she knew there is no way it was possible that she really was safe. She didn’t know anything about Gabriel, and the truth was, even if he wanted to protect her from the bad shifters, there was a possibility he wouldn’t even be able to.

Maybe they were both just kidding themselves by thinking her living there might change the situation. If she was meant to get into trouble, then she was just meant to get into trouble. Maybe some things were useless to fight. Maybe she would never be anything more than a powerless ward of the state; a victim.

Val was distracted from her thoughts by the strong scent of food wafting through the house. Wolf shifters were notorious for their incredible cuisine, and the only taste she had ever had was the take-out food she bought. Shifters heavily guarded their secrets, rarely allowing humans to taste the full range of flavors present in their food unless they truly trusted them not to insult the shifter pallet.

Her stomach rumbled despite herself.

“Traitor,” she grumbled down at it.

No matter how irritating it was to be ordered around by Gabe, she was helpless to her desire to try real shifter food; especially when she was so hungry. Her schedule left her strapped for time, to the point it was nearly impossible to find the time to cook.

And so, Val took a deep breath and headed out to the kitchen, her nerves bad enough that she was nearly too sick to her stomach to eat by the time she reached the table.

“Ah, so you’ve decided to join me, then,” Gabe said, keeping his back to her as he finished flipping something on the burner. A satisfying hiss came from the food and soon, Gabe’s strong frame was beside her, placing a plate full of delicious looking food in front of her.

“This is my favorite dish,” he said quietly. “My wife used to make it for me.”

Val pursed her lips at the news, feeling awkward and out of place, now, more than she ever had in her life. Her mind leapt to the framed photo of the beautiful woman on Gabe’s mantel. How would he ever be able to get over a woman that gorgeous? There was no way. No wonder he was so resentful of her any time things started to get physical.

“Thank you,” Val said quietly, hoping to sidestep the uncomfortable subject altogether. Gabe seemed relieved for this and sat down across from her, his own plate piled high with food.

He seemed to sense Val’s disbelief, and he looked at her, his dark eyes wide. “What?”

Val laughed. “That’s just a lot of food.”

Gabe grinned and flexed playfully. “I’m a big guy. It takes a lot of fuel to keep this body going.”

“So I see,” she said with an easy laugh.

“Try it,” Gabe said, smiling at her. Val couldn’t help but stare. His chiseled features seemed softer somehow when he smiled. She wished he would do it more often.

“All right,” Val said, suddenly catching herself. “I will.”

She brought a spoonful of food to her lips, gasping in shock when the explosion of flavors burst on her tongue. Val had never experienced anything like it before, and she stared at Gabe, her eyes round and bright. He laughed as if he had expected a reaction like that, and leaned back in his chair to wait for her to swallow her bite.

“Good, isn’t it?” he asked as she chewed. She brought another bite to her lips right away. Gabe laughed heartily and nodded.

“I’ve never had anything like it before,” Val said when she had finally felt satisfied by her first taste. “You really cook like this all the time?!”

“There’s no other way to eat,” Gabe said, his lips twitching in an effort to suppress a smile.

Soon, they were eating together and having an easy conversation; talking about Val’s course load and all the things she hoped to do with her degree.

“I’ve never met a woman who wants to be a ranger before,” Gabe said, chuckling deeply. The warm rumble of his laugh brought an involuntary smile to Val’s lips, and she realized just how good a time she was having with him. She had never felt like part of a family before, but here at the kitchen table at Gabe’s house, she could almost imagine what that might be like. It was a comforting feeling. One that kind of scared her.

“Well, I don’t just want to be a ranger,” Val said. “I want to work for the benefit of the forest. Conservation and preserving the homes of the wildlife. That’s why one of my former professors recommended coming to Stonybrooke. They said the shifter’s programs are the best.”

“I imagine we would have a vantage point on the topic,” Gabe agreed with a small smile. “It just seems strange for a woman to want to roam around in the woods with a gun, helping little birdies that fall out of their nests.”

“I don’t mind getting my hands dirty,” Val said, unable to prevent the flirtatious smile from creasing her face. Gabe’s smile widened for a moment, and then his features grew dark.

What the hell was she thinking, coming on to him right at the same table he had shared meals with his wife? The beautiful woman she would never be able to compare to, no matter how hard she tried? It was a hopeless effort. Why bother? And why would she let herself make him feel so badly?

“Anyway, that’s just what I’d like to do instead of bouncing around and juggling three jobs.”

“You don’t have to do that anymore,” Gabe said quickly. “Not with me.”

“I’m not going to have any man supporting me financially,” Val said, quirking her brow at him. “No matter whether we’re married or I’m claimed or not. I’m going to have my own life outside of the man I’m with. That’s just the way it has to be.”

Gabe grinned at her and nodded slowly. “Well, you finish your degree and be a ranger. But until that happens and the danger around these parts dies down, you just enjoy getting a little rest and relaxation. You feel me?”

A hot flush darkened Val’s cheeks and she looked away quickly, remembering just how good it had felt when she had physically felt him. How they had managed to stop themselves she would never know; except for the fact Gabe would never be able to care for her. The only woman he would ever want was his wife, and she was gone. That meant that whatever agonizing feelings she was having for him, she wasn’t going to be able to act on them, whether she liked it or not.

It was probably for the best.

When she looked up at Gabe again, his eyes were flashing, the same dark desire visible within them as they stared at each other. He was doing his best to contain himself; whether the wolf wanted her or not, Gabe himself didn’t.

She decided to make everything easy on him.

“All right,” she said, taking her plate to the sink and washing her dishes quickly. “Thank you for dinner.”

She disappeared upstairs to her bedroom, wondering whether or not it had been a mistake to eat with Gabe. Somehow, though, she was feeling really good about it. Maybe she would just have to play it by ear from then on out.

 

 

“What the hell am I supposed to do, Moll?”

Gabe touched the glass of the frame, studying the beautiful features of his wife’s face. It had been so long since he’d seen her. He would give anything to be with her again.

But the wolf was making it more and more clear that the situation with Val was more serious than he wanted for it to be. That private thought she’d had over dinner had smelled better to the wolf than all that food combined. In fact, the wolf was pacing in its cage right at that moment, urging Gabe to throw all his inhibitions out the window and ascend the stairs with utmost urgency.

Gabe was disgusted at himself. Molly had helped him to make this house a home, and now he had invited his biggest temptation there. It had to be done, but it was already starting to feel like the biggest mistake he had ever made, or would ever make. He would never forgive himself if he let the wolf have its way. He refused to betray his wife.

“Gabe?”

Valerie’s voice cut through his thoughts like a sensual blade, and he groaned inwardly, caressing the frame of his wife’s picture one more time before placing it back on the mantel.

“What do you need, kid?” Gabe asked.

Maybe if he focused on the fact the girl was practically half his age, the wolf would let up. The last thing he needed was to feel like a frickin’ pervert.

“This is kind of embarrassing…”

Gabe made his way up to the girl, the wolf eagerly leading the way.

“What’s going on?” Gabe asked, pushing her bedroom door open.

He was startled to see Val in a fluffy pink robe, her long, beautiful legs fully visible. Was this some kind of a trap? Was she trying to get the wolf to surrender?

“I don’t know how to turn the shower on,” Val said.

Gabe looked at her squarely, realizing this wasn’t a ploy at all. The girl was humiliated having to ask him, and refused to meet his eye; her hands covering the chest of her robe and her legs pressed tightly together. This was not inviting behavior. She was flustered.

“All right. Come here and I’ll show you.”

Val took a step forward, still refusing to let go of her robe or meet Gabe’s eyes.

“You see this knob here? It pulls out. You turn the water to the temperature you want it first.”

As Gabe demonstrated, Valerie’s mood seemed to grow darker, but her voice remained bright when she laughed, embarrassed, “Oh. Every faucet I’ve ever had was kind of different. Thanks.”

“You’ve had a lot of faucets?” Gabe asked, sensing sadness in the girl’s voice.

“Yeah…I was in the system. Foster care. My parents didn’t want me.”

Gabe frowned, all traces of the wolf’s longing had gone and was replaced by the fierce urge to protect her.

“Well, you can stay here for as long as you want,” Gabe said, the wolf taking over before he had the chance to filter it out.

“Thank you, but you don’t have to say that. I think I’m going to shower now…”

“Of course!” Gabe exclaimed, suddenly embarrassed. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel like he was making excuses to stay in the room with her half naked.

“Thanks again,” Val called, ushering him out of the room and closing the door behind him.

Gabe stared at the door, just as flustered as Val had been, and then walked slowly to his bedroom. He sat on the bed and ran his hands through his thick hair. It was hard enough having the girl there in the first place. How was he going to handle this?

He stood abruptly and rummaged through his closet, taking down the small box of sentimental items he had left from his wife. He had put a lot of her things in storage already, knowing it would be too hard to stop grieving her with her clothes and possessions still around the house.

Gabe sat back down on the bed, opening the box carefully to look inside. The room was filled with the gentle scent of Molly’s perfume, and a lump formed in his throat. She would probably hate him for what he was doing with this girl. Val was just a sweet, innocent child that his wolf was trying to take advantage of. And now that she was living in his house, it would be all the easier for that to happen.

He would have to be on his guard more now than he ever had been before. Not only to preserve his love for his wife, but to protect the girl he had taken in. Not only from the dangers of the outside world and the shifters who were surely out to get her but from himself. The wolf simply wasn’t to be trusted. It had gotten him into a serious situation; one that could mean his claim on his late wife would soon mean nothing.

Gabe couldn’t let that happen. From then on out, he was going to have to have an iron will. Absolutely nothing could distract him from the task at hand. He had to find the men responsible for breaking into the shops, find out exactly what they were up to, and put a stop to it once and for all.

In the meantime, he would treat the girl no differently than he would have treated his own daughter, had he and his wife been blessed in that way. Unfortunately, Molly hadn’t been able to have children, and he wasn’t even sure he wanted them anyway. It seemed like a hell of a lot of trouble for little reward. He had his pack to act as a family. He didn’t need anybody else.

Gabe looked through the box for a little while longer, then sighed deeply. It wouldn’t do him any good to get all sentimental about the past. He had to focus on the present or he would never get anything done.

 

 

Valerie woke up early the next day, surprised and relieved to realize she no longer had to wake up at the crack of dawn to get ready for work. But when she sat up and realized the room she was in was not her own, that it was decorated by the careful hands of the woman that Gabe was mourning, the woman he had loved more than he would ever love anybody again, her elation turned to distress and she sat heavily against the headboard of the bed, her chest tight with agony.

“What am I doing here?” she mumbled to herself.

She dressed slowly, taking articles of clothing out of the small duffel bag she had packed them in the day before. Gabe had told her to unpack and get herself comfortable there, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. After so long bouncing from house to house, family to family, she felt, once again, like a stray dog who couldn’t rest. There was no way she would be able to feel at ease in his home. She would never just simply unpack and “make herself at home” as he had so casually encouraged her to do. Without her own apartment, everything felt off kilter somehow. As if she were right back where she had started when her parents had driven her at such a young age, but old enough to remember, to the place that had solidified her deepest fear – that nobody could possibly love her.

And now, she was repeating the cycle again, but this time with a man she so desperately wanted to love. A man she wished she could reach out and touch, whose arms, when they were around her, felt more like home than any crummy little apartment she would ever be able to settle into. Gabe had promised her protection, safety, security. His claim had been his word as a wolf, his vow that she would never be alone in this world again. So why was it that she felt more alone now than she ever had before?

A small lump forged itself in her throat, and Val tried to sigh it away, but it went nowhere. Soon, she was crying despite herself, quietly and desperately, wondering what in the hell she had done to deserve such a cruel life, where no matter how hard she tried, she was doomed to suffer in silence, all by herself. She was worthless. It was about time for her to accept that.

Suddenly, Gabe’s great, familiar arms were around her, and her head was pressed against his broad chest. His rugged scent filled her nostrils and she tried to force the tears to stop. But he stroked her hair, and, somehow, they just fell with more force, until she was sobbing, mourning all the things that had brought her to the point of sitting on the floor of a stranger’s house, wishing that the home he had promised her was something more than a glittering illusion.

“Come on, kid, it’s going to be all right,” Gabe’s deep voice said, rumbling her to the core and forcing another sob to her lips. “I know things are hard. They’re always hard, one way or another. That’s life. We all have things we wish were different about our lives. People and situations we miss; no matter how hard we try, we can’t change the past or the things that have happened to us. All we can do is try to greet each new day and live like it will be the last.”

It seemed an ironic thing for Gabe to say, considering he was clearly never going to be over his wife. He couldn’t possibly imagine the torment of having nobody in this world. Gabe was a shifter. A wolf. He would always have his pack, even if he didn’t have a wife or family. He knew where he was and where he belonged, and that was something Val would never have. She wished she could take comfort in his words, but they felt hollow.

“I know it’s rough, but you’re going to get through this just like you get through everything. You know how I know that? Because you’re a fighter. You’re always going to keep going, no matter what happens. You’re not like me…”

The statement took Val by surprise and she looked up at Gabe, whose dark eyes were shadowed with concern.

“What do you mean? You don’t think you’re a fighter?”

Gabe shrugged helplessly. “If I was, I don’t think I would be so stuck. Everyone is always telling me what I should be doing; how there are all these other fish in the sea and that Molly wasn’t my last chance at having a mate. But I don’t care about what they say. I don’t even want to believe them, if that makes sense. I just want her back, and I’m a stubborn ass. I’m not going to be happy until I get what I want, and she’s all I want. It’s impossible.”

“So, what, you’re just going to accept the fact that you’ll never be happy?”

Now, Val was more confused and agitated than she was unhappy, and her eyes bore into Gabe’s with an intensity she hadn’t known she was capable of. He looked away, clearly caught off-guard by the question and her determination to see to his answer.

“It isn’t like I wanted any of this to happen,” he said, his voice low and tortured. “I just wanted to spend the rest of my life with the woman I love. But I have a lot of years left. And she’s gone.”

Val’s anger melted at the pain in Gabe’s voice, and now, she was hugging him, stroking his well-muscled back as he sighed, his body tense as she tried her best to comfort him. He relaxed a little under her touch, and they held each other on the floor like that, quietly and with an odd, unspoken understanding. Both of them were unhappy. Both of them needed comfort and peace. Both of them felt more alone now than they ever had before, and both of them were to blame for all of it. And yet, there they were, the only remedy to each other’s pain. And yet, healing seemed farther off now than it ever had before.

Finally, Gabe pulled away and bumped Val’s chin gently with his fist.

“It doesn’t do any good to cry about the past. It’s over and done with. We make our own realities, you know. Everything we see around us is a reflection of our own feelings and lives. It’s up to us to figure out what the hell we’re supposed to do with the pieces we have left. And even if we can’t gather them up and move on the way some people think we should, at least we can honestly say we have nothing left to lose.”

Val tilted her head, then shook it. “No, there’s plenty to lose. For both of us. I think it’s better to keep fighting and working toward a better future. That’s the only real solution.”

Gabe’s handsome face creased into a look that was almost a smile, and he nodded. “All right, then. Want to come with me so I can open the shop?”

It seemed so natural to let him care for her in this small way, but being cared for still wasn’t something she was comfortable with. Still, she wanted nothing more than to get up off the floor and pretend nothing had happened; that he hadn’t seen her in a moment of rare weakness, and she hadn’t seen him during the same. That was the only way she would be able to face the rest of the day and still pretend she was strong enough to face the rest of this life on her own.

“All right,” she agreed. “Let’s get this day started.”

 

 

It was starting to feel familiar having the kid around. Gabe hadn’t had anyone in his house for so long that it was surprising to wake up and find Val’s gentle voice laughing at something on television, or hear her as she puttered around the kitchen, determined to perfect her very first shifter recipe. He was happy to know she was starting to feel at ease in his home. He knew that must not be easy for her.

When he had found her there, sitting on the floor beside her sad little duffel bag in tears, it had nearly broken his heart. Her energy was all over the place. She had suffered tremendously during her young life, and maybe it had aged her beyond what normal girls her age had endured. She was practical and mature, no-nonsense and intelligent. Determined and independent. And so, so beautiful.

He could tell she felt lost, and felt stupid for not taking her feelings into consideration more. But what was done was done, and he wasn’t going to be able to change the past, or the fact that she was stuck there with him until the outside world was safe for her to return to. And he couldn’t help but dread the day that happened. He had forgotten just how nice it could be to live with someone. He hadn’t realized just how lonely he had been until Val arrived.

But Gabe couldn’t live with the idea of a threat on the woman he had claimed and took to the streets. When he knew Val was sleeping, safe and sound in his home, he would go out in his wolf form, allowing his senses to take over and guide him on the trail of the group of shifters that had been trying to destroy his business. What was it that they had wanted?

His first clue had come late one night, when he and Val were closing up shop.

“What do you keep in the basement?” Val asked, coming up the steps, her eyebrows knitted in concern. “There’s a weird humming coming from behind one of those shelves.”

“A humming?” Gabe asked, immediately thinking of the intruders. Had they planted something down there? Something that might endanger Gabe and anyone who came to his shop?

“Yeah,” Val replied. “Like a giant refrigerator or something. I know you keep food stocked down there, but it was different…”

“Stay right here,” Gabe said. “And don’t move until I come back, unless somebody comes in the shop. Then come down with me.”

Val smiled, clearly thinking Gabe was overreacting, but he couldn’t be too careful. Especially when it came to Val’s safety. He had dropped the ball with Molly, but he wasn’t going to do the same with her.

“All right,” Val said with a small shrug. “Can I have an apple?”

“Have whatever you want,” Gabe said absently, heading down the stairs. “What’s mine is yours.”

When Gabe reached the bottom of the steps, the hair on the back of his neck prickled. He didn’t hear the humming sound that Val was talking about, but he did see something strange. An eerie golden light made the room glow, almost as if there was something wrong with the lightbulb. But he knew there was more to it than that. He was in the presence of magic.

Gabe walked to the shelf that Val had told him about and inspected it carefully. There was nothing amiss there, and he sniffed the room, tapping into the wolf for guidance. The wolf led him to the narrow doorway of the sub-basement, and Gabe’s heart began to hammer hard in his chest. Something was down there. And he didn’t know what to make of it.

The wolf was on full alert. He could hear Val shuffling around the store, the sound of her teeth biting into the apple. And suddenly, he began to hear it too. The sound of a soft hum. He descended down the steps into the dark passageway. He didn’t even need the flashlight this time. The whole way was lit by the golden glow that had changed the atmosphere of the room.

When he finally reached the bottom, Gabe froze in awe. He could feel warmth coursing through his body, and the wolf led him to a spot in the center of the floor. When he stopped, a ripple formed at his feet, and a circle of light began to spread around him.

And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone and Gabe was left in the pitch blackness of the sub-basement of the store.

His mind raced and he bolted back up the steps to where Val was still standing, chewing her apple, clearly unimpressed by the whole incident. Gabe was still too stunned to believe what had just happened, let alone to try to explain it to a human, and he kept the incident to himself.

“It’s time to lock up,” Gabe said, ushering Val out of the store.

She headed to his car, but Gabe looked up at the sky, not allowing himself to even dare to hope he would find what he suspected he would find.

But, sure enough, the constellation of Mishgen was brightly lit in the sky, his snout aimed directly above Gabe’s shop. The shifters that had been somehow going into his accounts and siphoning his money away were looking for the portal. And they had known long before Gabe had known, exactly where it sat. They would do anything to tap into its power, even harm an innocent human.

When they had arrived home that night, Val went up to bed and Gabe sat up all night by himself, trying to think about the best course of action to take. He now understood the appeal of his parcel of land. He didn’t fully own it yet; he was still working hard to pay it off. And little by little, the shifters who were after the portal’s power were sabotaging it so they could snatch it right out from under him.

It had to stop. Gabe was going to go after them and finish this fight once and for all. He would protect Valerie and make good on his claim, both on the girl and on the land where his shop stood. There was no other way.

 

“I miss you more every day, Moll,” Gabe’s deep, rumbling voice said. Val froze in the hallway. She had never actually seen Gabe come inside and place the rose in front of the picture frame on the mantel, but she had noticed that every single day, there was a different flower there. They were always roses, always fresh and always unbelievably beautiful. Somehow, he took care to choose the most perfect flower he could to honor his wife with, and now, she had caught him in the act of removing the day-old rose and replacing it with one that was so fresh it still had speckles of dew on its delicate petals.

She was sure he had heard her approaching, but he seemed lost in thought, oblivious to his surroundings as he spoke to the picture frame, his voice low and tortured as he spoke of his small troubles; the brakes were going bad in his car, and the sink was starting to leak again.

“And there’s something strange going on at the shop…”

Gabe’s voice halted abruptly. “But that’s something I have to unravel on my own. If you have any guidance for me, I’d really appreciate it. I really got myself into a mess this time.”

A mess? Was he talking about bringing Val into the house, or was it something else? Something to do with work? Maybe that strange noise she had heard in the basement was as important as she had feared it might be. Hacker had been asking her about whether she had heard strange noises in the basement of the record store. Was what those shifters were looking for in Gabe’s basement, not Randall’s? And if so, then what the hell was it? Why would anyone be so willing to die for it?

Val turned around, less than eager to embarrass Gabe by letting him know she had witnessed something so personal, and ducked into the first room in the hallway to hide from him. She waited until she heard Gabe’s heavy footsteps leave the living room, muttering to Molly about how he was going to go fix the brakes now and how he would talk to her again tomorrow.

It was sweet, in a way, and also heartbreaking. Did he believe his wife could hear him? Had he been doing this since the day she died, or was it something he had done gradually to cope with the loss? No wonder he found it so hard to move on, if that was the case, and she was the only person he had to talk to.

Val was about to step out of her hiding place when she realized she was in a room full of boxes. It was a small room, barely bigger than a walk-in closet, and she couldn’t fight her curiosity. One of the things she had always done to make herself feel better about the dark prospects of being put into a new foster home was snoop around the house and see just how much she could piece together about her new “family”, based on the things they kept in their homes. Usually, she was able to learn a lot about a person based on just a few things, and since Gabe was so difficult to get to know, she found it impossible to resist.

She waited until she was sure he had heard him leave the house before she tentatively opened the box closest to her. Val had grown very good at placing things exactly as she had found them, and that gave her the courage she needed to continue her search. She carefully lifted a bulky photo album out from the box. It was a wedding album, with a photo of Gabe and Molly on the cover. Gabe’s face was flushed red and he was smiling broadly, his face young and darkly handsome. He had an edge to him, even then, but standing beside Molly, he seemed softer somehow. She had probably known just what to do to keep him in line. Val would probably have liked her.

Without intending to be, she found herself completely consumed by the photos in the album, and had devoured every picture she could of Gabe’s handsome, chiseled features and the bright, easy smile that seemed to come so naturally to him in the presence of his wife. Before long, she had reached the end of the album, her heart filled with warmth toward Gabe and also heavy with a sense of understanding concerning the depth of the loss he had endured.

She reached eagerly into the box, thrilled to find another album stacked beneath the first, and sat on the floor in the dim light of the little room, flipping through photos of people she didn’t recognize; every once in a while pausing to study the shockingly handsome face of the man who had claimed her. She felt a strange sense of pride to be his; to belong with a man who was so clearly capable of handling anything life threw his way. Anything, that is, except the loss of his mate.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Val nearly leapt out of her skin when Gabe’s voice growled viciously behind her, and the album was snatched out of her hand.

“I’m sorry! I just…”

Gabe’s eyes flashed darkly and Val’s voice trailed off. There was no way she could defend herself this time. She had been snooping, and she was caught red-handed. That had never happened to her before. Why hadn’t she been paying better attention?

“You have no right to this area,” Gabe said, glaring at her. Val felt both embarrassed and ashamed, but there was nothing she could say to make things right.

“I know,” she mumbled, looking down at her hands. “I don’t know what I was thinking…”

But she knew exactly what she had been thinking. She had wanted so desperately to understand Gabe better. He was so aloof and cold at times, and yet, when he was warm, she wanted nothing more than to be by his side for the rest of her life. It was a complex situation with no real solutions, and she hated herself for getting into it in the first place. And in a way, she hated him, too, for putting her there.

“You weren’t thinking at all, is my wager,” Gabe said.

A wave of fear coursed through Val. How much patience could a man like Gabe have? His wolf could come out at any second. It wouldn’t stop for anybody if it was prompted to attack, would it? Not even if he had claimed her.

But Val’s fear seemed to snap Gabe out of his rage, and he looked at her again, this time with a look that fell somewhere between exasperation and pity.

“Really. Why do you want to look at these stupid old pictures anyway? Don’t you think I’ve aged well?”

Val wanted to laugh, because the truth was that no matter how handsome Gabe had been in his youth, now that he was an established older man, there was something even more sinisterly attractive about him. He was sexy and confident in a way he hadn’t been as a young man who had been striving to prove himself to his wife and pack. He knew who he was now, and he was all the more attractive for it. But that wasn’t the kind of thing she could just say to the man. Not when, just a few seconds before, he had been just one step away from biting her head off.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been putting my nose where it doesn’t belong…it’s something I used to do with my foster families.”

She normally didn’t talk about her past, so she was surprised when she let the information slip. Gabe raised his brow at her.

“What was the deal with your foster families, anyway?”

Val sighed, standing up from the area she had perched to look through Gabe’s photo albums and shrugged at him.

“If you want to know, maybe we should go somewhere else and talk about it.”

Gabe considered this and pursed his lips.

“Fine. But only if you let me tell you the stories behind some of these pictures. People making their own presumptions about some of these things could make me look bad.”

Val wasn’t sure what to say as Gabriel led her out of the room. He settled on the couch and nodded for her to sit beside him. She did, but more because she was afraid of angering the wolf than because of a genuine interest in being close to him.

“I’m sorry I got so angry,” Gabe said, as if he could sense her fear. “I don’t want you to worry. No matter what, it’s my job to protect you, even from myself. If I sense you feeling distressed, in any way, I will be there. Me. Not the wolf.”

“Well, sometimes, the wolf,” Val said, remembering the way the silver beast had leapt to her defense in the alley by the record store. The memory made her shudder, and Gabe put his arm around her comfortingly.

“Only when it’s what’s best for you,” Gabe promised.

Somehow, when she looked into his deep brown eyes, Val believed him. The wolf didn’t want to harm her. In fact, it had never done anything but save her life and her job several times already. Maybe she didn’t have anything to worry about.

“Thank you,” she said, unsure of what to say. But Gabe quirked his brow and she laughed.

“You don’t have to say things like that to a shifter,” Gabe said. “If you’re grateful, happy, angry, scared…we can tell. We can sense it. That’s what makes the wolf act, or not act. Whichever is the best for you in the moment.”

Val nodded and Gabe took a deep breath.

“Well then. Where did you leave off in this album?”

They spent the rest of the night like that on the couch together, talking and laughing as they looked through the photos in Gabe’s boxes. They learned a lot about each other; from Gabe’s first shift to his days on the varsity football team in college.

When she went up to bed, Gabe held her gaze almost as if there was something he wanted to say to her, but he couldn’t quite get it out. Instead, he smiled at her, and her body was electrified by the suddenness and beauty of it. It was the first time she had ever seen him smile like that, and her heart pounded hard in her chest.

“That looks better than in the pictures,” she said quietly.

Val smiled shyly back at him and then turned away toward her bedroom, wondering whether she should have just kept her mouth closed.

But when she laid down, the beauty of the night they had shared washed over her like a warm blanket, and she closed her eyes, happy beyond belief that, for the first time since she had arrived, she felt like she could actually belong there.

 

 

Gabe lingered in the living room a few moments longer, until he could tell Val was safe and sound in her bed. He shifted quietly and crept through the house as her breathing became more rhythmic, until she finally crossed the boundaries of sleep. Then he leapt outside through the open window in the kitchen. He was going to hunt down the boys that had been harassing her in front of his shop; the idiot kids he had thought were just around causing trouble; putting graffiti on his mailbox and practically casing the place. He had originally thought it had been those kids that had broken in and gotten high in the sub-basement, but the smells didn’t match.

And yet, he knew they had to be connected somehow. Val had told him as much. And now that he knew she was safe for the night in his home, he was going to figure out exactly what they knew.

It was disturbing how quickly he caught on to their scent. They were in the woods just a few blocks away from Wayne Avenue, where the stores that had been broken into were located. The wolf was enraged by the discovery and soon, Gabe was trotting full pelt toward the area. He stopped just short of the wolves, carefully calculating which way the wind was blowing so the group of boys wouldn’t catch his scent before he had gathered the information from them he needed.

“God, these rules are stupid! Why can’t we just go in there by force, man?”

“You already know that as long as shifters live on human turf, we have to follow human law as much as we can. And according to those laws, the store doesn’t belong to us.”

“Well, it doesn’t belong to him either! We should have every right to the portal!”

“You’re a frickin’ idiot! You know the magic doesn’t work that way!”

“Well, maybe I don’t, Ren! And don’t call me names, you asshole!”

“The magic isn’t going to work for someone who doesn’t rightfully belong there. You already heard Hacker when he told you about it.”

“Well, what does Hacker know anyway? He’s dead.”

The boys took a moment to laugh at the fact, which Gabe personally found to be in bad taste, and then they continued talking.

“The good news is, we know for sure where it is now. We smelled it even if we couldn’t use it. And the girl heard the humming.”

“It’s no fair,” one of the others said, his voice an annoying whine. “Why can humans hear it when it takes the perfect frickin’ conditions for a shifter to find it? They’re our portals!”

“Because the magic is more natural to us, you dope! Now, shut up. We have to figure out what to tell the boss.”

Gabe perked up. If there was a man in charge and the boys knew who it was, then he was getting somewhere.

“It ain’t our fault, though. Hacker wasn’t careful and that stupid old asshole wrecked him.”

“We were supposed to be standing guard!” Ren shouted. “It’s our asses on the line! He’s going to fucking kill us all! You know how he felt about Hacker.”

“Why would he hurt us? I thought he was your uncle, Ren.”

Ren was silent for a moment, the pain curdling in his breast sharp enough for all of them to sense, even Gabe.

“You don’t know my family, man. The only way to get them to care about you is to do what they want. Why else would they have us doing all their dirty work? It’s not for the glory, I’ll tell you that much.”

As much as the wolf despised the kid for the way he had treated Val, the way his voice broke made Gabriel want to protect him. He knew what it was like to have heavy demands placed on a boy’s shoulders, and how horrible it could feel when one couldn’t measure up, no matter how hard they tried.

“So what do you want us to do then? Run away like we’re just a bunch of cowards?”

“No! We have to figure out a way to get ourselves out of this mess. Something believable. Hacker was one of my uncle’s favorite men. Who knows why but he treated him like a real family member. Nothing like how he treats me. We got him killed. We fucked up. And he won’t think anything of getting rid of me, and probably all of you, too, for doing it.”

“But what about the pack?”

“Yeah! Pack loyalty!”

Ren’s anger radiated through the trees. “Our pack plays by different rules! What the hell is so hard about that for you morons to understand?!”

Everybody grew quiet, and Gabe consulted the wolf, and made a bold decision.

“What if I could help you?”

The boys were startled by the timbre of Gabe’s voice, and turned to him, their eyes wide and growls of fear deep in their throats.

“You can’t help me, old man,” Ren said miserably. “I’m dead meat. You don’t know my family…”

“No,” Gabe said quietly. “You’re right about that. But maybe, if you told me more about them, I’d be able to really hit them where it hurts and protect you at the same time.”

Ren was quiet as he considered this, and for a moment, Gabe was afraid the boy wasn’t going to take the bait. But he was desperate and afraid, and a wave of relief washed over Gabe when Ren met his eyes and gave a small nod.

“All right, old man,” he said. “I’m listening.”

 

 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Val exclaimed as Ren walked through the front door.

She had woken up in the middle of the night after a nightmare and had needed someone to talk to, but when she got up, she had found the house completely empty. Gabe followed Ren in, a sheepish look on his face.

“What the hell is he doing here?!” Val demanded.

“Relax, kid. I’m on it.”

“Like hell!” Val cried, getting right up in Ren’s face. “Were you following me or something, you little creep?”

“Easy!” Gabe growled.

The noise startled Val and she frowned over at him.

“I hate it when you do that,” she mumbled.

“I can explain everything,” Gabe said with a sigh. “But not yet. I have to talk with the kid here. He’s kind of in trouble.”

“What the hell?” Ren asked, looking at Gabe in disgust. “Is it your job to take in strays around here or something? The lost little kids in the neighborhood?”

“Watch it, before I change my mind, you little shit,” Gabe said, his voice low and menacing. Everybody already knew that it was futile to mess with Gabe, and Ren clamped his mouth shut quickly, avoiding eye contact and taking on a submissive, puppy-like look.

“There,” Gabe said. “Now you’re finally acting like your true self.”

“Yeah, well, my family doesn’t acknowledge omegas. You have to learn how to blend in.”

“Well, you do a pretty poor job of that, kid. Let me tell you…”

Ren opened his mouth, angry enough to protest, but one look from Gabe cut him off.

“Seriously. What’s going on?” Val demanded. “I don’t like being around this creep.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gabe said dismissively. “You can go up to your room then, because I and the creep have some talking to do.”

Val’s cheeks burned hot with indignation and embarrassment. “Are you sending me to my room like I’m your little kid or something?” she exclaimed. “Because I’m not going! I’m staying here to find out just what the hell is going on.”

Gabe shrugged halfheartedly, refusing to meet her eyes, and nodded his head toward the living room. Ren understood the unspoken cue and headed inside, sitting down on the couch with a heavy sigh.

“A lot of good it does you pretending to be an alpha,” Val muttered under her breath. They both heard her though; it was useless to try to keep whispers out of earshot of a wolf shifter. She had learned that much on her own when she had first moved into her apartment complex and had complained to herself about just how shady her neighbors were. They had responded in kind, howling and yelling about how they didn’t need any stuck up humans in their neighborhood. Giving them money on occasion was the only way to keep them happy enough not to harass her.

“So my uncle is kind of a bigwig around Stonybrooke,” Ren said, making himself comfortable. “If your cute little maid over there gets me a drink, I’d be happy to tell you more.”

“Watch it, you little scuzzbag!”

Gabe held his hand up at her.

“Watch it, you little scuzzbag,” he growled.

Ren’s face paled and he averted his eyes again.

“H – he’s a banker. Head of ShiftLegacy Merchants.”

“No wonder,” Gabe growled, “my accounts have been sucked dry, no matter how good business is. But every time I check my statements, they add up.”

“Yeah, he’s kind of brilliant like that,” Ren bragged. “He has people on it all the time. They’re always looking for the next big investment. Like the land your store sits on.”

“That’s not an investment they can make,” Gabe growled, his features darkening. His eyes glanced up at Val as if he sensed her fear and his voice lightened immediately. “I’m paying that property off.”

“Yeah…well, not if you run out of money, you’re not. That’s what they’re counting on. If they suck the accounts dry and keep fining your account here and there, you’re going to have to default on the loan and the bank can pick up the property. Then we get the portal.”

“You say ‘we’ again one more time and I’m going to feed your ass to your uncle directly. Do you understand?”

Ren swallowed hard. “Well, how do I know you can really protect me and mine? What can you do about it?”

“I can take care of your uncle once and for all before he takes his petty rage out on a couple of misguided kids,” Gabe said, “for one thing. And I can get you protection from the Council if that doesn’t work.”

“Are you sure you can take him?” Ren asked, suddenly afraid. “He has a lot of men.”

“Trust me,” Gabe said darkly. “Nobody fights harder than a man with nothing to lose.”

For some reason, the words sent a jolt of pain through Val, and she looked away from him quickly. So he didn’t care whether Val lost him, was that it? Or maybe he didn’t seem to care whether he lost her or not. Either way, she felt miserable and stood up. She had heard enough.

“I’m going back to bed,” she announced quietly.

“Oh shit,” Ren said with a boyish laugh. “You’re in trouble.”

Gabe shook his head in agitation and Val refused to meet his eyes.

“Take it easy, girl, it’s not his fault you have daddy issues!” Ren said, cackling.

Val’s blood boiled and she refused to look at him.

“Get the hell out of my house,” Gabe growled to Ren.

Ren tensed up and then took off out the door.

Gabe stood up and followed Val to the staircase, where he stood watching her helplessly as she ascended, fury and pain consuming every fiber of her being.

“Good night,” Gabe finally said.

And maybe in the words, there was an apology buried, but Val was too damn tired to look for one. She was going to sleep, whether she could forgive him or not. Maybe things would be clearer in the morning.

***

 

“It’s got to be around here somewhere,” Gabe muttered. Val hung back, watching him as he searched the sub-basement of Shifter Fit, the wolf clearly leading the way as he attempted to find the portal. “I’m telling you, I saw something in here before. It’s got to be here!”

“Maybe you have to do some kind of incantation before you can use it,” Val said, sighing. She was still agitated at him about bringing Ren into their home and acting as if he didn’t care whether he lived or died. How could she have been stupid enough to trust a man like that, who would bring her mortal enemy to the place where she was sleeping and say, right in front of her, that he had nothing to lose?

But it was true. Maybe he felt that after losing his wife there was nowhere to go but down. Still, couldn’t he care even just a little bit that Val was there? That they were getting along and enjoying each other’s company in a way she had never enjoyed anyone else before?

Gabe had been born in a pack, though. He took that kind of closeness for granted. He had already been through all this before with his wife; the sharing and the laughter. It was stupid for her to think there could ever be anything more to it than that. Why did she always get her damn hopes up like this? It always ended the same. She always ended up alone.

“You may be right,” Gabe said. “I’ll have to tell Leon about the portal. There’s nothing I can do with it. I’d never go through it anyway. I can’t leave the house I built with my wife. But the Council would be able to use it somehow. Maybe harness its power.”

“Sure, great,” Val said, still agitated. “Whatever you say. Can I go home now?”

Gabe looked back at her, confusion and something else–maybe anger –flashing in his eyes.

“You stay with me!” Gabe shouted. “Until you’re safe!”

Being yelled at was the last straw. Not only did it scare her when he was acting on his anger, but it made her furious. Where did he get off treating her like she didn’t have a right to her independence?

“As long as I’m with you, I’ll never be safe,” Val growled. She stomped up the steps of the sub-basement, leaving Gabe on the ground beneath her stunned into silence. Maybe he knew she was right. Whatever the reason, he didn’t follow, and she was glad he didn’t. It was too damn stressful to be part of this charade with him. Everything she had ever done had been for herself, and trying to change that to accommodate a jerk like Gabriel was a huge mistake. She was better off without him.

Val stepped out the front door, considering stomping across the street to talk to Randall, when suddenly, a pair of hands were wrapped around her wrists.

“You’re right about that,” a sinister voice hissed. “You’ll never be safe.”

The world went black as a burlap sack was placed over her head, and her body was shoved forward. She landed hard on the back seat of a car and the door slammed behind her. Soon, they were driving far, far away from the record store, from Shifter Fit, and from Gabe. Fear began to mount in Val’s chest, and she squeezed her eyes closed in a silent prayer. She was in big, big trouble.

 

 

As soon as the door of the shop slammed shut, Gabe knew something was wrong. He bounded up the steps of the basement, but he hadn’t been fast enough. Val was already gone.

“Shit!” he growled, shifting into his wolf form before he even had the chance to lock the door. But that didn’t matter; not now. Not with Valerie missing.

He followed her scent, thoughts of Molly racing through his head as he ran with all his might. He hadn’t been able to save his wife, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let anything happen to Val. She meant more to him than he could even dare to express, and if he lost her, he truly would be nothing.

Gabe was hot on the trail, and it led him into a hoity-toity neighborhood that he and Molly had always promised to take their kids trick or treating if they ever had any. He had never been there before, and froze outside an imposing mansion sitting on the edge of a vast golf course.

She was inside. He could smell it. He knew it was probably an ambush, but he didn’t care. He had to do whatever it took to save Valerie. He would do for her what he hadn’t been able to do for his wife. He had to. He loved her.

He howled, a war cry to be heard by all, and leapt, with all his power, straight through the glass of the window. He was overwhelmed by the bitter scent of greed, and the sound of Val’s frightened whimper, muffled by the cloth stuffed into her mouth. It was enough to infuriate him, and Gabe searched the room quickly, identifying five enemies. He would take care of them one by one, starting with the maggot who had his hands on Gabe’s woman.

“How uncivilized.”

By the tone and scent, he could tell, beyond a doubt, he was listening to Ren’s uncle. The man spoke with such pomp that the wolf growled instinctively. He didn’t wait for any other reason to attack. Gabe lunged at the man keeping Val captive and tore his throat out quickly, knowing the attack would leave the others enough time to shift.

Sure enough, as soon as Val dropped to the floor beside the man he had slaughtered, three wolves were descending upon him. Pain seared through his body as teeth and claws gnashed into his flesh, but Val was staggering to her feet, grabbing the curtain rod that Gabe had knocked down in his entrance and slapping the hell out of the wolves as Ren’s uncle, Liam, looked on, a small smile on his gaunt, ugly face.

Gabe finally got a good grip on the biggest of the three, and wrestled him to the ground. He ignored the pain of the other wolves attacking. He would do this methodically, taking them out one by one as Val continued her ceaseless attacks. It was enough to loosen their grips on his flesh as he shook the wolf beneath him violently, gripping his neck hard until every last drop of life was drained from him.

He focused on the second strongest next, yelping in pain as his neck was seized by the smallest of the three. Val was shouting in fear as Gabe struggled to free himself, finally managing to buck the wolf off him and finish off the one he had pinned.

Val set to work, striking the wolf again and again until finally it turned its back to Gabe and growled at her, ready to attack.

That, clearly, was a mistake, and soon, they were engaged in a brutal altercation, the black wolf against Gabe’s silver wolf, each of them fighting with all their might. He was hurting, but he would do anything to protect Valerie. Blood spilled out onto the floor as he landed the finishing blow, and turned his wet muzzle onto Ren’s uncle, who had remained in his human form all that time.

“Impressive show,” he said, though his pompous voice sounded bored. “But you’re not going to get away with this.”

He bowed his head and began muttering to himself, and a wave of fear overpowered Gabe. He hadn’t shifted because he was reciting an incantation. He was going to fight with magic, like a sneaky, underhanded coward.

“Ow!”

Gabe was just as surprised as Ren’s uncle when Val, her eyes narrowed in determination, smacked him with the curtain rod. It was all the break he needed to lunge at the man. Gabe was injured badly; he wouldn’t survive another fight with a wolf. But if he could reach the man before he shifted or recited his curse, he would have done his job. He would save her.

A sharp cry filled the air, and Gabe’s mouth was filled with the taste of human blood. He prayed Val was looking away, refusing to bear witness to the slaughter, but he had a job to do. He couldn’t shelter her from this. Not when he had to protect her.

But the world suddenly began to spin and Gabe’s vision darkened. He didn’t know whether he had finished the job or not as the wolf began to succumb to its injuries. He could only hope as he attempted to cling onto the last strands of life he had in him, that Val would do whatever she could to get the hell out of that house and run like hell.

 

 

“Thank God,” Val whispered when Gabe’s eyes finally fluttered open. They were dark and brooding as they settled upon her, and he reached his hand up to touch her face gently.

“Are you all right?” he asked hoarsely.

“Me?!” Val exclaimed, laughing in disbelief. “You nearly died! If Ren hadn’t shown up and driven us back here, you would have!”

Gabe’s brow furrowed. “I don’t remember that.”

“Well, good, because I was hysterical the whole time. It was kind of embarrassing.”

Gabe grinned, a sexy little gesture that made his entire face light up, and Val swallowed hard. She didn’t know what she would have done if she had lost him. The thought was unbearable.

“Is Ren still here? I’d like to thank him.”

“No, he left after stopping by the drug store and getting me a salve to put on your wounds. He said you’d make it, but I didn’t believe him until just now. When you opened your eyes. Don’t ever do that to me again, you jerk!”

Gabe sat up straight, the thin sheet falling from his broad chest as he did so. It was clear he was gaining all his strength back now, and quickly, just as Ren had promised he would.

“Or maybe, next time, you stay put when I ask you to so you don’t get yourself kidnapped and I have to fight to the death for you.”

Val pursed her lips, a combination of relief and guilt bringing hot tears to her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey,” Gabe said, his low voice a comforting rumble as he held her close to his chest. “Don’t do that, now. I only did it because I…”

Val froze, the emotion between them obvious, and she pulled away to look into Gabe’s eyes.

“I can’t live with you like this anymore,” she whispered. “I have to go on my own. Not unless…”

Gabe’s lips were on hers suddenly and passionately, and Val gasped in shock and pleasure. Her body was electrified, every sensation of pleasure awakened by his touch. It meant only one thing. He felt for her exactly what she felt for him. And now, he was ready to accept that. And she was ready to receive.

Val moaned softly as Gabe’s soft lips found their way to the nape of her neck, and she was filled with a hot wave of ecstasy as her body became weightless in Gabe’s arms. He sat her down in his lap, the thick muscle between his legs pressed firmly against her as a testament to his desire. She shuddered in pleasure when he stripped her swiftly, so the only thing between their middles was the thin sheet of her bed.

Suddenly, Gabe was on top of her, the sheet nowhere to be found, and she stared in wonder at the impossible muscles of his abdomen. They had gone through so much, and yet, he was still able to display such raw power. It filled her with something deeper than desire; a profound sense of awe and appreciation for his body.

He seemed to sense this and returned it in kind, his strong hands roaming the gentle slopes of her body, sending tendrils of fire in their wake. A creeping sensation traveled up her spine as the fire in her loins was stoked, and soon, Gabe was rocking his hips gently against her, massaging the most sensitive area of her body. She writhed in pleasure beneath him, gasping in shock when, with one abrupt, decisive action, Gabe thrust himself inside her.

An explosion of bliss shook her to her core, and she gripped Gabe’s shoulders tightly, closing her eyes to relish the fullness of the sensation. His body was becoming one with hers as they found their unique rhythm, Gabe’s hips moving in slow, sensual rotations until the only thing Valerie could think about was her own pleasure.

She met Gabe’s eyes, and they bore into her. Without speaking, she knew what he felt, and she felt the same. They were better together, both of them knew it, and now, nothing would ever be the same again.

Val cried out in ecstasy as Gabe’s muscle pried inside her again and again, each time bringing her closer to the height of her desire. He dropped his lips over her breast, taking her nipple into his mouth and lapping his tongue sweetly over it, intensifying her pleasure until she could no longer hold herself back.

She shuddered beneath the comforting weight of his body as he thrust inside her, every inch of his member making itself known to her. She couldn’t stop the contractions as her orgasm began, and they hugged his muscle tightly. Gabe growled in pleasure, unleashing the true power of his beast inside of her and nearly making Val shout out in rapture.

The sudden explosion of Gabe’s orgasm rocked Val’s body, and she was filled with the sheer force of it as she surrendered fully to her own, their bodies entwined as they shared a moment of pleasure unlike anything either of them had ever known. Gabe gradually slowed his pace as Val shuddered beneath him, and they finally collapsed together on the bed.

Gabe lifted Val up and held him tightly on top of his broad body, stroking the hair out of her face and kissing the corners of her lips.

“You sure I’m not too old for you?” he asked, raising a brow at her.

Val laughed and shook her head. “You’re not too anything for me,” she replied. “Is it wrong for me to love you the way I do?”

Gabe shrugged.

“I think it might be more wrong to hide what you really feel. At the end of the day, that’s what really matters.”

“Do you think your wife would like me?” Val whispered.

The question seemed to take Gabe by surprise. She expected him to be angry, to want to leave and never come back, but instead, he smiled and held her eye.

“She would absolutely love you,” he whispered, kissing her tenderly. “Because I love you. And I know she would want us to live happily ever after.”

Val smiled, and laid her head on his shoulder, suddenly very sleepy.

“So do I,” she said with a small yawn.

“And we will,” Gabe promised, stroking her back soothingly. “I claimed you for a reason.”

And with that, they fell into a deep, restorative sleep.