RANGER

by Samantha Leal

  “That looks better than in the pictures,” she said quietly.

  Val smiled shyly back at him and then turned away toward her bedroom, wondering whether she should have just kept her mouth closed.

  But when she laid down, the beauty of the night they had shared washed over her like a warm blanket, and she closed her eyes, happy beyond belief that, for the first time since she had arrived, she felt like she could actually belong there.

  19.

  Gabe lingered in the living room a few moments longer, until he could tell Val was safe and sound in her bed. He shifted quietly and crept through the house as her breathing became more rhythmic, until she finally crossed the boundaries of sleep. Then he leapt outside through the open window in the kitchen. He was going to hunt down the boys that had been harassing her in front of his shop; the idiot kids he had thought were just around causing trouble; putting graffiti on his mailbox and practically casing the place. He had originally thought it had been those kids that had broken in and gotten high in the sub-basement, but the smells didn’t match.

  And yet, he knew they had to be connected somehow. Val had told him as much. And now that he knew she was safe for the night in his home, he was going to figure out exactly what they knew.

  It was disturbing how quickly he caught on to their scent. They were in the woods just a few blocks away from Wayne Avenue, where the stores that had been broken into were located. The wolf was enraged by the discovery and soon, Gabe was trotting full pelt toward the area. He stopped just short of the wolves, carefully calculating which way the wind was blowing so the group of boys wouldn’t catch his scent before he had gathered the information from them he needed.

  “God, these rules are stupid! Why can’t we just go in there by force, man?”

  “You already know that as long as shifters live on human turf, we have to follow human law as much as we can. And according to those laws, the store doesn’t belong to us.”

  “Well, it doesn’t belong to him either! We should have every right to the portal!”

  “You’re a frickin’ idiot! You know the magic doesn’t work that way!”

  “Well, maybe I don’t, Ren! And don’t call me names, you asshole!”

  “The magic isn’t going to work for someone who doesn’t rightfully belong there. You already heard Hacker when he told you about it.”

  “Well, what does Hacker know anyway? He’s dead.”

  The boys took a moment to laugh at the fact, which Gabe personally found to be in bad taste, and then they continued talking.

  “The good news is, we know for sure where it is now. We smelled it even if we couldn’t use it. And the girl heard the humming.”

  “It’s no fair,” one of the others said, his voice an annoying whine. “Why can humans hear it when it takes the perfect frickin’ conditions for a shifter to find it? They’re our portals!”

  “Because the magic is more natural to us, you dope! Now, shut up. We have to figure out what to tell the boss.”

  Gabe perked up. If there was a man in charge and the boys knew who it was, then he was getting somewhere.

  “It ain’t our fault, though. Hacker wasn’t careful and that stupid old asshole wrecked him.”

  “We were supposed to be standing guard!” Ren shouted. “It’s our asses on the line! He’s going to fucking kill us all! You know how he felt about Hacker.”

  “Why would he hurt us? I thought he was your uncle, Ren.”

  Ren was silent for a moment, the pain curdling in his breast sharp enough for all of them to sense, even Gabe.

  “You don’t know my family, man. The only way to get them to care about you is to do what they want. Why else would they have us doing all their dirty work? It’s not for the glory, I’ll tell you that much.”

  As much as the wolf despised the kid for the way he had treated Val, the way his voice broke made Gabriel want to protect him. He knew what it was like to have heavy demands placed on a boy’s shoulders, and how horrible it could feel when one couldn’t measure up, no matter how hard they tried.

  “So what do you want us to do then? Run away like we’re just a bunch of cowards?”

  “No! We have to figure out a way to get ourselves out of this mess. Something believable. Hacker was one of my uncle’s favorite men. Who knows why but he treated him like a real family member. Nothing like how he treats me. We got him killed. We fucked up. And he won’t think anything of getting rid of me, and probably all of you, too, for doing it.”

  “But what about the pack?”

  “Yeah! Pack loyalty!”

  Ren’s anger radiated through the trees. “Our pack plays by different rules! What the hell is so hard about that for you morons to understand?!”

  Everybody grew quiet, and Gabe consulted the wolf, and made a bold decision.

  “What if I could help you?”

  The boys were startled by the timbre of Gabe’s voice, and turned to him, their eyes wide and growls of fear deep in their throats.

  “You can’t help me, old man,” Ren said miserably. “I’m dead meat. You don’t know my family…”

  “No,” Gabe said quietly. “You’re right about that. But maybe, if you told me more about them, I’d be able to really hit them where it hurts and protect you at the same time.”

  Ren was quiet as he considered this, and for a moment, Gabe was afraid the boy wasn’t going to take the bait. But he was desperate and afraid, and a wave of relief washed over Gabe when Ren met his eyes and gave a small nod.

  “All right, old man,” he said. “I’m listening.”

  20.

  “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 w
as 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.

  21.

  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 th
e 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.