Chapter 5: A New Life

~VALERIE~

“I know you're in there! Better come out now nice and slow.”

My eyes flew open with my heart pounding. They found me! The thought was pure cold terror.. the Raven Pack guards.. or worse, one of Alpha Viktor's men.

I scrambled into a crouch behind a bale of hay with my breath coming in short sharp gasps. I’d traveled all night with my feet aching, hitching a couple of terrified rides with humans who didn't ask questions.

I had no idea where I was. I’d just seen the sagging roof of this barn and had broken in, desperate for a few hours of safety.

The call came again, harder this time.

“I'm not asking twice! And I've got enough silver bullets here to drop even the strongest Lycan, so don't try anything funny!”

The distinct deadly click-clack of a shotgun being cocked sealed it.

Trembling from head to toe, I slowly stood up with my hands in the air.

“Don't shoot! I'm coming out! I'm not armed!”

I pushed the creaky barn door open and stepped into the weak morning light, squinting. I expected a uniform and a pack insignia with cruel grinning faces.

I didn't expect a lone, grizzled old man with a weather-beaten face, pointing a very serious-looking shotgun right at my chest. He looked me up and down with his eyes narrowed but not unkind.

“Who are you?” he demanded, though the gun lowered a fraction. “And what in the blazes are you doing in my barn? Tryin' to steal my chickens?”

“N-no, sir.” I stammered with my hands still held high. “I was just... I needed a place to sleep. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trespass.”

“Running from something?” he asked with his eyes scanning the woods behind me as if expecting my pursuers to burst out next.

Tears welled up in my eyes and I couldn't stop them.

“Yes, sir. From... from really bad men. I just needed to get away. I'll leave. I'm sorry.”

He was silent for a long moment just studying me. I must have looked a pitiful sight... filthy, terrified and desperately alone. Finally, he sighed and uncocked the shotgun.

“Ah, hell. Get your hands down, girl. You're scaring the chickens more than I am.” He jerked his head toward a small, neat cottage a little way off. “Name's Hank. This is my land. You're in Lycan territory now. Blackridge Pack. You keep your nose out of trouble and no trouble will come to you. Understood?”

I nodded frantically, wiping my cheeks with the back of my hand.

“Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you.”

He started walking toward the house and after a hesitant second, I followed.

“My wife, she passed last summer.” he said, his voice softer now. “Don't have any kids. Place is too quiet. You look like you could use a hot meal and a roof that don't leak. You can stay if you please but you'll have to pull your weight.”

The relief that washed over me was so powerful my knees almost buckled.

“Thank you.” I whispered again with the words feeling utterly inadequate for the lifeline he’d just thrown me. It was good to finally find shelter!

******

SIX YEARS LATER

“Mason! Get your little tail out here now! The mall closes in an hour and we are not going to be late because you're rebuilding the universe with your Legos again!”

I tapped my foot by the front door. Our little cottage, the one Hank had left to me when he passed peacefully just a couple of months after taking me in was filled with the sound of frantic shuffling.

“But, Mom! The gravitational stabilizers on my starship are almost calibrated!” a small voice called back.

I sighed, fighting a smile. I wouldn't pretend to understand what he had just said. “That can wait. My patience cannot! Now, move it, mister!”

A moment later, my little boy emerged from his room. At five years old, Mason was all serious grey eyes and messy brown hair looking for all the world like a tiny frustrated scientist whose experiment had just been interrupted.

“Fine.” he said with a long sigh that sounded comically adult. “But the structural integrity of the entire vessel is now compromised.”

“I'll risk it.” I said, ruffling his hair. I grabbed his jacket and helped him into it.

Hank’s kindness had been my salvation. When he died, he’d left me the deed to the property, my first and only true piece of safety.

I’d given birth to Mason right here in this cottage, biting down on a folded sheet to stifle my screams with no one but a kindly human midwife from the next town over for help.

But the moment I held him, I knew. I knew there was something incredible about my son. It wasn't just a mother's bias. He was truly different. He grew faster, learned quicker and he was speaking in full sentences before his third birthday.

“Okay, hold on tight.” I said, taking his hand firmly in mine as we walked from the parking lot toward the bright mall doors. I rarely went out without him and never without my guard up.

“I'm holding, I'm holding.” Mason assured me, swinging our linked hands. “You worry too much, Mom.”

We reached the mall doors and they swooshed open. I was looking down at him, laughing and I didn't see the man coming out.

I walked right into a solid immovable wall of muscle amd stumbled back.

“Oof! I'm so sorry!” I gasped, stumbling backward with my grip tightening on Mason's hand.

I looked up into the man's face and.. oh dear.

In a matter of seconds my eyes had quickly scanned his body, taking in his height, his outfit and his sharp eyes.

I stifled a shout and took a step back, earning a look of confusion from little Mason.

“Are you okay, mummy?” Mason asked.

There was no way I could reply to that immediately. Was I dreaming or was it really him?!