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.