“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.”