by Leela Ash
THE END
Claimed by the Alpha Daddy
Stonybrooke Shifters
Leela Ash
Copyright ©2017 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1.
“Come on, Gabe, she was gorgeous! And totally into you!”
“Luke, I told you to stop. You know I’m not interested.”
“It’s been years since Molly passed, man, you’re going to have to move on sometime! She’s dead! You have to get over it.” Lukescoffed. “Are you just never going to fuck anyone else or something? Because that’s pathetic bro.”
Gabe’s hackles rose and he turned his furious gaze to Luke. He was tired as hell of his friends harassing him about moving on and finding another girl. Molly had been the love of his life. They had known each other since elementary school, for Christ’s sake. He didn’t want to move on.
“All right, man, I get it,” Luke said, raising his hands and shaking his head miserably. “I’m just trying to help you out. Jeez.”
“If you ‘got’ it, you wouldn’t keep bringing it up,” Gabe growled. “And tell the same to everybody else. They think they know what’s good for me? Well, they don’t. They don’t know a fucking thing. So just drop it!”
“You’re way too sensitive about this. I’m serious. You have to move on or you’re going to be a crusty old sex-deprived man.”
Gabe stood abruptly from the table in Maurice’s diner, where he and Luke had just finished a meal together, and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt.
“Whoa, easy man!”
But there was nothing easy about losing his wife, and the little asshole was going to find that out the hard way.
“I’m going to settle this like a man,” Gabe growled. “Because you’re not good enough to see my wolf form.”
A small crowd gathered at the sound of Gabe’s raised voice.
“Ready?” he said darkly to Luke.
“Can’t we just talk about this?” Luke asked, shifting nervously. There was no way he could match Gabe and both of them knew it. He was lucky he wasn’t interested in fighting in his wolf form.
“I’m done talking.”
Gabe held Luke’s eye until finally, the man nodded.
A few swift blows to the face and Luke was writhing on the ground, his face bloodied.
“Never bring up my wife to me again,” Gabe spat. He left Luke to foot the bill, which seemed appropriate considering the enormous pain Luke liked to inflict upon him, telling him to just get over the loss of his wife as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do.
Now that Molly was on his mind, Gabe checked his watch. The flower stand on the corner should be open by now.
Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Gabe stalked down the sidewalk toward his house, where the vendor on the corner had set up shop.
“Morning, Frank,” Gabe said, pulling out his wallet.
“Good morning, Gabriel,” Frank replied, handing a crisp, perfect red rose over the stall. “This is the nicest one today.”
“Thank you, Frank,” Gabe said. He rarely spoke the phrase with such conviction, but whenever it came to getting the best rose of the day from Frank, he meant it. Only the best for his wife, whether she was alive to see it or not.
“Of course. Molly was a lovely woman.”
Frank rarely mentioned Gabe’s wife; maybe the pain from his conversation with Luke was still etched on his face. Whatever the reason, though, Gabe felt a brief moment of comfort and a heavy pain re-entering his chest.
“She was.”
The truth was, Molly had been beloved by the entire pack. Even wolves from packs from miles around had been touched by her sweet disposition and the grace with which she carried herself. She was always working to make Stonybrooke a better place. It had been a community tragedy when she had lost her life in a car accident just shy of her fortieth birthday, and since then, Gabe had been completely lost.
He had spent his entire life with Molly. She had been the best thing about him. Gabe had started out rough and tumble; a hard ass with sharp edges that made everybody on edge as soon as he walked in the room. It was funny just how opposite he and his wife had been. She had been beloved, and he had been feared.
But she had softened most of his roughness, and given him a reason to focus on bettering his life instead of giving in to bouts of anger that sabotaged his efforts. She had helped him to build his business into the success it was. Without her, he would have nothing. She had meant everything to him. Nothing could ease the pain of losing Molly.
“See you, Frank,” Gabe said, trying to tear his mind away from his pain.
“Take care of yourself, Gabe.”
Gabe turned the corner and walked down the sidewalk until he reached the comfortable two-story house he bought with his wife all those years ago. Molly had been a school teacher; a woman who had reached out and changed the lives of everyone she touched. They had struggled financially for the first couple of years of their marriage, until both of them had gotten more established. They had been through the hardest times of their lives together, having met and bonded so young. But she had left him alone for the hardest part of it all.
“For you, sweetheart,” Gabe said softly, laying the rose on his mantle in front of Molly’s photo once he got inside the house. He stared at the perfect features of her face; the gentle slope of her nose and the deep brown of her captivating eyes, pain and then anger rising in his chest.
“Who the hell does Luke think he is, anyway?” Gabe mumbled to Molly’s photo. “He thinks a man mates with a woman like you and can just move on when he loses her. He probably hasn’t lost anything in his entire life.”
He grew silent, half expecting her to speak back. Little moments like that were unbearable, and he felt more alone than he had in a long time.
Gabe took a deep breath. He had to get out of there.
“I’ll be home soon, honey,” he said, the futile, hollow ring of his words striking him sharply. He would have done anything to have her there with him again. And Luke and all his buddies would probably be waiting for the rest of their lives to see Gabe move on. Molly just wasn’t the kind of woman you “moved on” from.
As far as he was concerned, he was going to spend the rest of his life alone. His heart belonged to his wife, and that’s all there was to it.
2.
“Hey, baby, you’re looking real good today. When are you coming by my dorm?”
Valerie Waters gritted her teeth and pushed through the crowd of shifter boys blocking her way in the halls of Stonybrooke University.
“Oh, come on! You’d change your tune if you knew how powerful we are.”
“I highly doubt that,” Val mumbled.
She was getting sick of these jokers. They had been giving her shit for the past three semesters. They had first noticed her in their philosophy class, when she had been stupid enough to speak up in class and gain the praise of their professor.
Ever since then, they had been hounding her about the same time every day, waiting outside the classes they knew she had in the Stevenson Hall. It was really getting old, but there was nothing she could do about it. They hadn’t done anything really serious. They were just an obnoxious group of guys who didn’t seem to want to rest until she agreed to sleep with one of them. And that was never going to happen.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going? Ren, here, wanted to ask you out on a date!”
“Ren’s not going to ask me anything!”
She ignored their cries of protest when she walked past and refused to look at them, making her way into the lecture room and finding a seat as far away from the door as possible. They lingered there until the professor arrived, then went on their way. It was stressful having to avoid the
m, and truthfully, she didn’t have any clue what their fixation with her was. She probably looked like an easy victim.
And truth was, she had a hard time feeling very confident. She had run away from the foster care system when she was about sixteen years old. Fortunately, Val was intelligent enough that she received the credits she needed for her diploma early. From there, she had gone to college, paying her own way and working her ass off at three jobs to be able to do it.
But that had gotten too overwhelming for her, so now, at twenty-three years old, she was going back to school to finish her degree.
Thing was, she had fled her home state and headed out west, until she found herself in Stonybrooke. She didn’t have a lot of money, and had just barely managed to get an apartment in a rundown complex that most people made fun of. The owner was one step above being a slum lord, but only because when she had complained about there being no heat that winter, he had dropped off a space heater for her. Not only that but the place was infested with pests; rats and roaches and every once in a while, she was pretty sure she had seen a bedbug. But she invested all her money into keeping the place as clean as she could keep it, and she had faith that once she finished her degree, she would find something better.
She was embarrassed to admit where she lived, but it was what she had to do to make it on her own. She had never had anybody to rely on, and being in Stonybrooke’s worst part of town was still better than being out on the streets. She had to work harder than most other people to achieve the same things, but she had managed to do it and she would continue to work her ass off until she achieved her goals, whether groups of stupid shifter boys wanted to harass her or not.
When class was over on time that day, Valerie felt relieved. Usually, if it ran late, she would have to literally run to the bus station to get over to the little record store she worked at so she wasn’t late. It was the best of her three jobs, and if she was late one more time, she would be fired.
The bus ride was calming, and when she finally made it to the store she sighed in relief as she walked inside.
“Hi, Randall.”
Randall nodded at her from the cash register and Val hurried to the back, eager to clock in and get to work. There was a new shipment of records for her to stock and alphabetize, so she was soon swamped with work and all thoughts of her day were pushed out of her head.
“Check it out,” Randall said, nodding his head toward the window when Val came out from stocking the shelves.
Standing across the street was the tall shifter man who ran the Shifter Fit store. He was standing behind a supply truck, lifting huge boxes and walking them into the store; his broad muscles rippling and shining in the sunlight.
“You’re shameless, Randall,” Val said, shaking her head at him.
Randall grinned and shrugged. “There’s a reason I work here.”
“Awful,” Val laughed. Still, she couldn’t help but allow her eyes to linger a few moments longer on the man’s flawless form as he moved tirelessly to unload the truck single-handedly, carrying box after box of material from the truck and into the store.
“I know I wouldn’t have a chance anyway. He’s still totally in love with his dead wife.”
“How do you know these things?” Val asked, finally tearing her eyes from the scene and studying Randall in disbelief.
“I pay attention,” Randall said with a wink.
Val rolled her eyes and went back to work. It must be awful to live your life too consumed by a lost love to have any interest in anyone else. He didn’t look too sad from there. And he seemed plenty successful. Still, she couldn’t help but feel horrible for the man, whether he was the owner of a semi-successful business or not. He had to feel so lonely. Maybe she would make him a batch of cookies or something sometime, just to give him something good to think about.
But soon, Valerie was consumed, once again, by her work and thoughts of the handsome, lonely man were gone from her mind. She had to do what she could to survive, even if that meant filing records as quickly as she could so she could get to her job at the gas station in time. She had been on her feet since five o’clock that morning, and she was really looking forward to being able to lay down.
She had quite a while before that could happen though, so she busied herself, hoping that if she finished early, she could sit in the back and get a head start on her homework. She was going to make something of herself, no matter what anybody else said about her. Valerie would do whatever it took to succeed.
3.
“Son of a bitch!”
Gabe’s voice echoed off the walls of his storefront, reaching his own ears in a sharp burst of anger. The place was a mess. Glass was shattered on the ground, and his shelves had been rifled through. Boxes of hand grips and stop watches were strewn about on the floor and the scent of shifters was heavy in the air. He couldn’t tell who exactly they were, but there had been a group of them.
Gabe’s wolf was soon on their scent and he followed his nose through the store, taking inventory and confused by the fact that there was very little missing. The intruders had made themselves at home in the store, making their way from the cash register, through the aisles, and down into the basement.
“If there’s anybody down here, you better pray to your gods I don’t find you!” Gabe growled.
The wolf led the way as he followed their scent trail, his agitation mounting as he made his way through the crowded basement. Whoever had invaded had even poked around down past the stock and descended all the way down to the sub-basement of the building.
Gabe’s growl vibrated in his throat as he checked to make sure nothing much was out of place. He stepped through the small, narrow doorway that led to an ancient looking set of stone steps and hurried down them, grabbing the flashlight from the landing and throwing the beam around. The scent of the intruders was strongest here; they must have spent most of their time down there. It had probably just been a bunch of stupid kids looking for somewhere to get high, but that didn’t excuse the behavior.
Gabe was furious, but the wolf began to relax when he realized that whoever had broken into the store had probably just been doing it for some kind of a thrill. Teenagers were always talking themselves into stupid stunts to prove to their friends they were worthy of being an alpha. And Gabe knew that as soon as he smelled the scents of whoever had done it, he would be able to pinpoint them and make them pay.
He sighed heavily, taking one last look around the basement before heading upstairs and jogging across the street to the record store.
“How can we help you?”
Gabe glared at the man who spoke, a young guy with a nametag that read, “Randall”. He didn’t much like the guy. He could hear the things Randall said about him; checking him out in broad daylight. It made him uncomfortable, so Gabe turned to glare at the woman beside Randall. He nearly began to speak, but he hesitated, dazed by her innocent beauty. Gabe blinked hard and then looked back at Randall.
“You guys are here all day, right?”
Randall nodded, his lips pursed in an annoying, playful smile.
“Somebody broke into my store. Did you see who it was?”
“Oh my God…” the girl said, her voice a smooth, silky whisper in Gabe’s ears. He gritted his teeth and refused to look again at her, afraid of what might pop into his head.
“We didn’t see anything,” Randall said. “But I wish I had. Are you offering rewards?”
“My reward is that I don’t kick your ass for withholding information from me,” Gabe growled, peering down into Randall’s face. Randall’s smile widened and suddenly, the girl beside him had slipped in between them, standing with her back pressed against the counter and her hands resting gently on Gabe’s shoulders.
“He doesn’t mean anything by it,” the girl said quickly, her golden blonde hair falling in front of her face as she laughed nervously. “Please, if we could help you, we would.”
“Yeah, right,” Gabe growled, backing away s
o that the girl’s hands would fall from his shoulders. “I’m heartened by the news.”
Randall laughed and Gabe glared once again at him. This time, the ice in his gaze wiped the smile right off the man’s face. The wolf was determined to advance, and he had half a mind to let it. But suddenly, the girl’s hand was in his face. She snapped her fingers, bringing his attention right back to her, and she smiled again; a look that made all her features, right down to the deep emerald green of her eyes, light up.
“We’ll be sure to keep an eye out from now on,” she said apologetically. “We’ve just been really busy taking care of our latest shipment…”
Gabe gazed down at her, his anger deflating despite himself, and he busied himself by reading the nametag pinned to her form-fitting blue button-up shirt.
“Well, thank you for that, Valerie. Let me know if you see anything suspicious. My name’s Gabe. I own the shop across the street.”
“Yeah, Shifter Fit,” she said with a brief nod and another warm smile. “We know.”
Gabe turned his chin to the air, eyeing Randall darkly one last time before he pushed his way through the door. Whatever had just happened in there, he hadn’t gotten the results he was hoping for, that was for sure.
But at least he had asked. There weren’t any other buildings on the strip that might have noticed anything strange happening, so he was just going to have to try to clean up the mess that the intruders had left and file a report with the Stonybrooke Police Department. The SBPD would take things from there.
Gabe spent the rest of the day cleaning up the glass from the floor and taking a detailed inventory, knowing that if he left anything out, he would be screwed over once he tried to take care of things when he sent in an insurance claim. He wished, more than anything, he had someone to talk to about what had happened to the shop, but he was alone. His wife was gone.
