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.