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.