“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.