“Are you still with me?” he asks after a few moments.
“Yeah. They’re getting out of their cars.”
Valak is first, and as he gets out, I’m hit by a wave of familiarity. Not that we’ve met, but like the hotline guy said, Valak has been doing the media rounds recently with the Alliance. In real life he’s way more intense, everything about him is amplified. Even over the distance, I can see how his eyes are a deep brown, nearly like dark melted chocolate. His hair is almost blue black—pulled off his face so it magnifies the sharpness of his cheekbones. Size wise, he’s tall, way taller than me, but that’s not hard. And even though he’s wearing a black shirt, it doesn’t hide the width of his shoulders or the rest of his physique.
He’s not a bear-sized lumberjack, but he’s not skinny like a bean either. I’d put money on him being cut under his all-black ensemble. And clearly, he’s a big boy, judging by the size of his shoes.
And then I am hit by a tease of his scent; it’s hard to properly distinguish over the top of my stress and anxiety, but it’s nothing like that of the man and woman lying next to us either. Even faint, his scent is strong enough to make me think about it. He walks deliberately towards me, not slowing down. He stops a few feet away. His focus is entirely on me, and not on the bloody scene just to the side of us.
He nods his head once in greeting. “I’m Valak from the Alpha Alliance, and I’m here to help you. Are you talking to Gabriel?”
I shrug at him; I didn’t get to the name part with the guy on the phone. For all I know I might be talking with Tom, Dick, or fucking Harry. The guy on the phone takes the lead.
“She sure is. Valak, what do you need?”
Valak’s eyes take in a sweep of the area, coming back to me before dropping to my dog. And it’s only then that his eyes flick up.
“Clean-up crew, a dark van for transport. Let’s keep this one off the scanner. I’ll need a large crate…”
My bitchy tut is out before he can blink. “My dog does not go in a crate.”
Valak rears back, raising his hands to pacify my sudden aggression.
“Sorry…” I say, rubbing my hand down my face. “No crates or cages. I’ll sit with him, and he should be fine. Can you help me put him in my car?”
Valak nods as he stands. I look for my keys but he sees them before I do and unlocks the back of my Jeep, fiddling around with the seats and moving some of my stuff to make room. While he does, the man from the white SUV approaches.
And I know whoheis. I definitely know who he is.
“I’m Noah Teo,” he says. His voice is devoid of false emotion and the warm fuzzies some people use for comforting others.
Noah sounds like Noah always sounds. I actually really like the way he talks. Others wouldn’t, they’d be put off by his monotone voice and temperament.
The guy from the hotline interrupts. “And for the record Noah is a surgeon, and one of the doctors from the Alpha Alliance. You’re in good hands.”
And this is where the situation gets tricky, because I know a lot of the alphas and people of importance in this country, and if I drop my name they’ll know exactly who I am too.
Initially, I worried about how the hell I’d get people to agree to only doing business remotely, but the fact is money talks. Having Bailey as my first big name client was all I needed and then everything else fell into place. My agency, A Ra Wn, an arty-farty play on words, where people once again only see what they want became an overnight success. It became my mantra for my clients too; success and overnight that is. The weirdest thing is only one person has ever recognised the name of my agency to be a subtle salute to the Welsh god revenge and terror; and that man is the one in front of me now, Dr. Noah Teo.
“Yeah,” I eventually answer the alpha from the hotline, my hand brushing against my forehead, a sting starting to get more noticeable. And then he uses my call and intentionally drags Noah into the conversation. “Noah, you want me to find you a hospital?”
“No,” I answer—interrupting and stopping everyone.
And this time it’s Noah who pumps his hands, urging me to stay calm.
It’s weird being under his intense gaze, but it’s also easy to see he’s viewing me more as a patient. He talks to all of us as his eyes move over every inch of me without coming closer or reaching out to touch me. “I’ll be able to do a temporary fix, and then when we get wherever we are going, I’ll need to do a couple of stitches.”
“I’m fine, really. He punched me, but I ducked and managed to tuck down so he probably broke his fist on my head. But that’s the least of his worries,” I finish with a weird grimace as I look at the unconscious man. The guy’s mangled arm looks like mincemeat, and there’s a large puddle of blood under him.
“True,” Noah says, looking at the man, his tone dismissive before he brings his attention back to me.
The man on the phone takes charge again. “Okay, I have another team en route, they’re probably still ten minutes out and then you could meet up, Noah.”
“I’ll patch you and then you can leave with Valak.” Noah speaks to me before looking over at the man in question. “Where are you going, Valak?”
“I think Jones Road is our best bet. I’ll need to call to find out if they will let us bring him in first though.”
“Why?” Gabriel answers, you can hear the genuine interest in his voice.
