Wolfblood: The Price of Loss Ch. 06

"Are you almost done?" a deep voice asked from behind her and she jumped a little in surprise, not having sensed him approaching.

"Yeah, I'm done," she responded, zipping closed the bag and turning around to face him. "How are we getting back?"

"Well, I thought that perhaps I could carry you-"

"What? No!" Valery said, stepping away from him. "That's absurd!"

"Or we could use the car I had a friend drop off," Vincent said with a soft chuckle, amusement dancing in his eyes.

He moved past her to get her bag and held her hand so that they walked out of the room and down the stairs together. She actively ignored the feel of his hand on hers, instead focusing on the cars she saw parked just outside the open front door. A middle aged man entered the house and nodded at Vincent, his eyes connecting briefly with hers.

"Good morning sir, good morning miss. Anything else you'll need sir?" he inquired, looking at Vincent expectantly.

"No, that will be all George. Thank you for the assistance, I know it was a little out of the way," Vincent responded, still holding her hand. "Let me introduce you; Valery, this is George Orwens, an old friend and George, this is Valery, my mate."

She saw the older man's eyes widen slightly in surprise before a small smile played across his lips. Now that she was closer, she could scent that he was human.

"Nice to meet you, George," she said formally, unable to offer him a handshake as Vincent was still holding her right hand.

"The pleasure is all mine, miss, and may I say congratulations indeed. It's about time for him, dare I say it," he said with a light laugh, and she smiled back.

Vincent started walking outside before he stopped and turned back, making her almost bump into him.

"Oh, George, make sure they clean out the fridge thoroughly but keep the dry food well, you know how picky Siobhan gets."

"Very well, sir," George replied and with that, Vincent walked quickly through the door and towards a silver BMW, opening the passenger seat for her and letting her sit before he closed the door and entered the car, placing the carry-on in the back seat.

"I'd like to pass by my house so I can get some more items," she said as he started up the car, the engine purring.

"Alright, you'll have to show me where your compound is though."

They settled into a light chat after that and she found herself almost in constant awe of his intelligence and quick sense of humor. Valery learned that he was in business with Hector and had come into the city to finish up some work involving the merger with the cafes. His last name was Servo, one she could imagine fitting in well in Ancient Rome and that he actually was in agreement with Hector in regards to working with humans instead of supernatural creatures.

"If you could park next to the path up ahead," she said as they finally came up to the familiar road that led to her cabin.

Vincent did as she'd instructed, the car coming to a smooth stop and he made to get out of the car before she stopped him.

"No, you have to stay here. That path marks werewolf territory and there are wolves constantly monitoring the perimeter. The moment they scent a vampire on their lands, they'll come with the intent to kill," she said in explanation, frowning when he scoffed.

"There is nothing they can do to me even if they came at me in groups."

"Vincent, please, this is my pack," she said, frowning at him.

He stared at her for a few seconds before he nodded briefly, clearly not liking the idea. She smiled at his sulkiness and reached for the carry-on, looking inside to find the purse with her house keys. Valery got out of the car and quickly walked down the path, grinning when she reached the clearing and saw her house. She opened the front door and walked through it, doing a little spin, glad she was on familiar ground again. It wouldn't be for long however and she knew she needed to hurry lest Vincent got impatient and did something rather stupid.

Moving through the house quickly, she got a few toiletries and moved to her closet to start picking out some outfits before she heard snarling outside. Valery moved quickly to the bedroom window in time to find 2 large wolves race past her house and towards the path that led off the road.

"Vincent," she mumbled as she half ran towards the front door. Had he actually come onto pack lands, Valery realized in bemusement, even when she'd explicitly asked him not to? If so, then the shit was most certainly about to hit the fan.

****

Richard jumped slightly as the door to his office was flung open with such force, it bounced off the wall. He looked up, ready to give a stern dressing down to whomever had been stupid enough to barge in without going through his secretary when he was stopped short by the fiery look in Jonathan's eyes, the Alpha's form blocking the entrance as he silently seethed.

"Vampires, on our territory," Jonathan ground out, fury practically radiating off of him.

Richard immediately shut the laptop on his desk and stood up quickly, anger beginning to surge up in him as his wolf growled within him. Jonathan's eyes were practically glowing golden and it was clear he was trying to keep from shifting and Richard understood. The Alpha female was pregnant and now a threat bigger than any Were war was on their land; it was an outrage and the full wrath of the Wyle pack would be brought upon those blood suckers.

"Where?" Richard asked, trying to calm the beast within him that kept surging up as thoughts of Lyn and Nicholas ran through his mind.

"Valery's cabin," Jonathan spat back making Richard blink in surprise.

Without a second wasted however, Richard inclined his head to his Alpha and followed him, walking out of the office and eventually out of the building, into the parking area. The building of offices that was the headquarters of all the pack's finances and businesses was pretty close to the estate and Richard jumped into his car, waiting for the Alpha to get in before he sped off seconds later. His wolf had calmed down some, in confusion when Jonathan had mentioned that the vampires were around Valery's cabin. It didn't make sense; Valery knew enough to never even consider bringing any of those foul predators onto pack lands, whether one of them was her mate or not. He'd ingrained that fact into the girl himself and now...

"She wouldn't do this, you know," Richard said quietly, fully noting the tension Jonathan's body visibly increasing at his words.

"She'd better not have," the Alpha growled out in anger before he snarled and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "I know Valery wouldn't do this knowingly but she has made some stupid decisions in the past."

Richard relaxed slightly when he recognized the increased calmness in Jonathan's voice, at least that meant that he wasn't too far gone to listen to reason. They wouldn't truly know what had happened until they reached Valery but he knew Don, one of the Betas, was part of the wolves patrolling the perimeter that day and that gave him some confidence that things would be kept under control until they got there. If the vampires were with Valery, then chances were that they wouldn't be aggressive and neither was Don, the Beta often choosing to negotiate things out first before doing anything too drastic.

"Yes, she has; we all have, Jonathan, but she's not stupid," Richard said, airing out his thoughts before he spotted the path that led off the road and down to the clearing with the cabin.

As if in synch, the tension in their bodies increased and they both sat stiffly as the car neared the cabin, silence filling the air. Richard parked the car in front of the house, getting out to nod at the 3 large wolves that were slowly circling the house even as he scented the area, picking up the crisp scent that was typical of vampires. He could only detect one scent and it wasn't the one he'd picked up weeks earlier that he'd assumed was that of Valery's mate. Richard sniffed again just to be sure and felt some of his tension ease when Valery's distinct scent hit his nares with no distortion or fear.

"How many?" Richard heard Jonathan's terse voice ask and he turned around to see Don approaching their Alpha.

"Just the one," Don responded, his large frame approaching them.

Without another word, Jonathan turned around and headed for the cabin's main door, opening it without so much as a knock, but with markedly less force than he'd opened Richard's door earlier. Don followed him in and Richard was quick to enter as well, closing the door behind him. He followed the two men before him into the small living room area, seeing Valery seated in a sofa, a small frown on her face, before he stopped in shock as he looked at the vampire standing behind her, recognition running through his system.

"Vincent," he let out involuntarily in an awed whisper and all four other pairs of eyes turned to look at him.

"Richard," Vincent said, the vampires face not showing any emotion. "You've grown."

Richard frowned in confusion and irritation, memories he'd long since buried coming back to the surface as the Weres in the room looked at him in surprise, even Jonathan raising an eyebrow as he sat down.

"You two know each other?"

Valery was the one to air out the question that was clearly written on Don's face, his eyes glancing from him, to Vincent and back again.

"Well, it has nearly been a century but I could never forget that face," Richard ground out as he too sat down, taking the third chair as Don leaned against the wall.

Richard looked at Vincent, his eyes narrowed as he took in the way the vampire placed both of his hands on Valery's shoulders and leaned down slightly possessively over her. The same blank expression he remembered being on the vampires face all those decades ago was the same one he wore even at that moment. Vincent's eyes scanned the room and landed on Richard's, holding the gaze for a moment before he frowned and looked back at the Alpha.

"Jonathan," Vincent ground out in a deceptively quiet voice, his eyes narrowing as he practically glared at the Alpha. "If I'd known it was your pack that has treated Valery with such contempt then I'd have had a word with you sooner."

"Don't patronize me, vampire," Jonathan let out with irritation, practically spitting the last word out like it was a curse. "This is my home and my family, you have no claim here. What are you doing here?"

The tension in the room had suddenly risen and both Don and Richard were leaning forward slightly in their postures, ready to protect their own should the situation spiral out of control. Richard's wolf was lying low in the meantime, a small growl escaping it to echo in his head every now and then as he battled with the impropriety of the situation and the respect he still felt for the vampire.

"I have a claim to her," Vincent responded, his voice still calm but his lips starting to pull back in a snarl as his hands tightened on Valery's shoulders.

"That may be so, but you're still on my territory uninvited, remove yourself or I will be forced to cause you harm," the Alpha demanded.

"I'm not leaving until I can take my mate with me; I can't leave her in your prejudiced hands, judging from the way you have so efficiently kept her away from your main estate. And if you presume to take me on, I'd certainly like to see you try," Vincent responded, an arrogant smirk crawling across his face.

"Valery is pack and has been so from the moment she became a wolf, Vincent. I myself took her in and helped her through the process," Richard said, irritation starting to grow within him again.

"I'm right here," Valery said and all eyes turned to look at her as indignation wafted off her in thick waves. "Richard in right though, Jonathan and he took me in when I turned and they have treated me more than fairly-"

"That's not true," Vincent cut her off and Richard saw her frown in annoyance.

She opened her mouth to say something but the front door burst open in that exact same moment and a slight whiff of his mate's scent was all the warning Richard got before Lyn practically ran into the house, followed closely by Annet and Nicholas. He groaned within as he practically saw the situation escalate with Jonathan jumping up in surprise and rushing to his pregnant mate, insisting that she needed to leave and get herself out of the potentially dangerous situation. Annet glared at him slightly and shook her head, demanding that she was Alpha too and had to be part of the discussion, making her mate groan in frustration.

Lyn walked up to Richard, giving him a soft kiss on the lips that released quite a bit of his remaining tension before she walked up to Valery, and sat on the arm of her sofa, taking the girl's hand in hers and completely ignoring Vincent. Nicholas for his part, headed straight for Valery and glared at the vampire before he leaned against a wall, hands folded across his chest.

"You didn't say you were coming back, Val," Nicholas said as he eyed her warily. "Are you ok?"

"Yes, Nick, I'm fine. This is all just a misunderstanding simply because Vincent here, followed me down onto pack territory despite my asking him not to," Valery responded with a slight glare upwards at the vampire who in turn moved a hand and stroked her hair while placing a kiss on top of her head.

"I wouldn't have followed you if it was clear to me that you were safe, but since the Alpha here, keeps you away from the safety of the pack, then I had to make sure you weren't attacked again," Vincent said quietly, his head next to her ear but was loud enough for everyone to hear.

This got everyone's attention and for the first time, Don spoke up.

"What do you mean attacked again?"

All eyes shifted to Valery and she looked down at her lap, fidgeting uncomfortably as Vincent stroked her arm.

"Valery dear, what happened?" Annet asked, breaking the silence while Jonathan led her to the chair he'd been sitting in.

"Some rogue wolves must have tracked me down and they attacked me yesterday. It's part of the reason we came back so early."

"So you claim that we can't protect her and yet she gets attacked right under your nose, vampire," Don said, a sneer across his face. "At least when she was with us, she never got assaulted even once in these past 30 years."

Vincent turned an icy glare to the Beta and Valery reached up to take one of his hands as Jonathan let out a heavy sigh.

"Ok, enough. This has gone on long enough. Valery, are you alright-" Jonathan started to ask before Vincent cut her off.

"Of course she is fine. I take care of my own, Jonathan."

The Alpha bristled in his seat as Annet, Lyn and Nicholas turned to look at him in surprise.

"You know each other?" Annet asked.

"I'd just become Alpha when Vincent here brought a teenage wolf whose family had been slaughtered in a war, to me. I took him in, of course, but that was a close to a century ago," Jonathan responded, taking his mate's hand in both of his and giving it a light kiss.

"Who was the new wolf?" Nicholas asked, finally speaking up after a long time.

"It was me," Richard responded, his eyes fixed on Lyn. "Vincent had been a friend of our family for years before the slaughter of our pack. We were few and couldn't hold off a much larger group of wolves."

There was a pause of surprised silence as Richard looked at all the faces in the room, not really liking the pity he saw reflected in there, even as his mate stood up to walk towards him and sat on the arm of his chair, taking his hand. Seeing his family die at such a young age had changed in and it was only through the help of the couple that had adopted him in the Wyle pack that he'd learned to get over it. Vincent had arrived just in time to save him as a wolf had sunk its teeth into his leg. Richard closed his eyes and tried to suppress the memories but they just kept surging up. He'd been 15 at the time and hadn't yet learned how to shift, which made him useless in the fight. When Vincent had come, he'd been relieved to see the familiar face, but after the vampire had taken care of the attacking wolves, he'd carried Richard for miles, moving with his supernatural speed and had presented him to Jonathan on the pack perimeter. Jonathan had accepted to give Richard asylum and Vincent had left in that moment. Richard had often hoped to see the vampire again, thinking that perhaps he'd just pass by to say hello but had eventually given up hope as years had gone on without so much as a whiff of the one person that reminded him of his family. And now there the vampire stood, mate to the woman he called daughter; how ironic fate was.

"What caused the war?" Nicholas asked, snapping Richard out of his reverie.

"The attacking pack didn't agree with us...fraternizing with a vampire, so they deemed us fallen and tried to take over our land," Richard let out, his voice hoarse as Lyn wrapped her arms around him.

"I agree with Don, why would you say we weren't protecting Valery when it seems that people get hurt whenever they're involved with you?" Nicholas asked, anger evident in his tone as he glared at Vincent.

"Nicholas, please don't-" Jonathan started, before he was cut off yet again.

"I don't agree with you either, Jonathan, you're so stuck in your traditional ways, you didn't really care that the pack treated Valery differently all these years. I should have spoken up before but did it ever occur to you that perhaps they would have come to accept her if you'd shown that you didn't give a shit and simply just let her leave in the pack estate?"

"Nicholas, that's enough," Richard let out in warning as he saw Jonathan's lips tighten in anger.

"No, dad. Have we even thought about how Valery is going survive now? Vampires are not welcome on our lands, Jonathan is pretty clear on that so that leaves her with two options, either she becomes constantly separated from her mate, or she leaves the pack and tries to survive outside it."

Nicholas was furious and his words were coming out at a great speed. The tension in the room was rising and Richard cast a worried glance at Lyn before turning back to his son. Despite everything he wanted to believe, Nicholas was right. Valery wouldn't survive long outside the pack and yet he doubted Jonathan would be willing to let Vincent live on pack lands or if the vampire himself would want to as well.

"Am I wrong?" Nicholas asked and everyone in the room shifted a little uncomfortably.

"You have to understand, son, I enforce these rules for the safety of the pack," Jonathan said tightly.

"I don't think Valery has ever been a threat to this pack," Nicholas retorted.

"Nicholas, please, stop. I can go with Vincent and still survive so long as I maintain my alpha bond with Jonathan, right?" Valery said, uncertainty tingeing her tone as she glanced between Richard and Jonathan.

"It's not that simple, Valery. The alpha bond is key, yes, but your wolf also needs to bond with other wolves. If you leave the pack, then those bonds will be broken," Richard said gravely even as he saw both Valery and Vincent stiffen at his words.

"I'll go with her."

Silence filled the room once more as every pair of eyes turned to Nicholas, shock on many people's faces at his words.

"Y-you can't do that, Nick. We'll both just die," Valery stuttered, surprise written across her features.

"No, we won't. I was waiting for you to come back before I told you but I am an Alpha, so I can survive for a long period of time without a pack. But if you were to form an alpha bond with me, I could help your survive because I'll also be close to you, so your wolf won't be lonely."