Chapter One
“Don’t shoot!”
Quintus sat up in bed, gasping for breath. He was afraid to close his eyes in case the memories of his dream came back to haunt him.
Fuck, why am I dreaming about that night?
Quintus thought he’d put that moment in time behind him. He looked down at his shaking hands, the memory of holding the gun and pulling the trigger came back to him. He closed his hands in a tight fist, clenching his fingers, almost piercing his flesh, hoping the pain would stop the shaking and push the memory away.
He didn’t need to be thinking about that night. He always woke up at the very moment the gun went off. Quintus knew there were parts of what happened that night he couldn’t remember. He knew he didn’t have a choice, but it shouldn’t have been a decision he had to make while being so young.
He fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.Come on, Quin. Stop thinking about it. You’re fine, and so is everyone you care about. He’s dead, and he’s not coming back.He kept repeating the words until his heart stopped thumping loudly in his chest.The past is in the past.He wrapped the covers around himself?—the same way Vale Valley had the night he, his mother, and sisters entered the small town.
Quintus was seven years old when his entire world changed. Now at twenty-six his life was for the better. He couldn’t understand why he was dreaming about that night. After a few minutes, when he started feeling calm, Quintus reached over and picked up his cellphone, switching off the alarm that would have gone off in a little over twenty minutes.
“I might as well get up. Donald will be here for our morning run in a few.”
Putting his phone down, he rolled out of bed and grabbed his sweatpants, putting them on. Walking into the bathroom, Quintus took care of his morning duties before heading down to his kitchen to make his protein shake, adding a bit of Irish moss to the mix. Donald couldn’t understand why he’d drink anything in the seaweed family in the mornings, but Quintus liked the added nutrients he got from it, even though they were shifters and were hard to kill.
Quintus had met Donald when he’d gone to do an estimate to remodel the house he’d bought. There wasn’t any instant attraction between them. He and Donald had started talking and found out, other than having Grayson in common, they also melded on other things.
Truthfully, Quintus hadn’t thought he and Donald would have become such good friends with their backgrounds. Donald came from a family of wealth, and everything had been handed to him on a silver platter. Quintus, on the other hand, had to struggle to try and find a place in the world. But that was before he and his family moved to Vale Valley. The small little town was hidden deep in Pennsylvania, invisible to those unable to see and feel its magic. Vale Valley opened her arms to him and his family, giving them a place to belong.
Even at a young age, he could tell Vale Valley was unique. Quintus closed his eyes, trying to block out the memory of what had forced them to run from their home in the middle of the night. They’d never heard of Vale Valley. But Quintus remembered that night vividly. He remembered his mother had been driving on a dark road, and out of nowhere the Vale Valley sign had appeared in front of them. Truthfully, they were only supposed to have stayed for one night, but ended up making and starting a new life in the small town.
Quintus had started attending Vale Valley elementary school and became friends with Grayson Vale, excelling in all of his classes. Once he got to high school, Quintus knew he’d found his calling after his first shop class. He’d been able to let his imagination run wild, and thankful for his teacher. Miss Austin would encourage him and others to not let the limitation of their classroom hold them back. He had later used that same drive and attended Vale University?—majoring in carpentry.
During the summer months Quintus worked for Gabriel Wolfe, who owned the only construction company in Vale Valley. Gabriel had later gotten married to his mother and adopted him and his sisters. When Gabriel retired, he turned the company over to Quintus who’d gone back to college a few years later and earned his master’s in business.
Quintus and Gabriel were close, and he’d been happy to walk his mom down the aisle, giving her hand in marriage to the man who treated him like a son and his sisters like his daughters. Gabriel still stopped by the office, but most days he could be found behind the counter of Bella’s Diner. Other than her family, it was one of his mom’s pride and joys.
Setting his empty cup in the sink, Quintus leaned against the counter looking out his window at the vast land that belonged to him. He’d bought the property a few years back and started building his house, which still wasn’t finished. He could ask the guys that worked for him for help, but he wanted to do this project on his own?—no matter how long it took. Whenever he found time in his schedule, Quintus would putter on his home.
There was a quick knock on his back door before it opened, and Donald stepped into view.
“Hey, you’re up early,” Donald said, walking over to his Keurig to make his first cup of coffee. “That’s what...like the third time this week?”
“I never knew you paid attention to my sleeping patterns,” Quintus said to his friend.
Donald had initially shown up in Vale Valley to win Grayson back, but by that time the man had already been head over heels in love with Chance Knight?—the current mayor. In Quintus’s opinion, Donald only used Grayson as a front and was searching for something else. He’d yet to ask his friend about it, and didn’t feel he had a right to do it when he was hiding secrets of his own.
“I pay attention to everything,” Donald said, walking over to him and kissing him on the side of his head.
Quintus soaked up the affection. As a cheetah shifter, he craved affection and loved to cuddle with his friends and family.
Donald stepped back and peered into his face. “You look like shit, dude. You have bags under your eyes, and your hair is a mess.”
“You’re filled with compliments this morning, aren’t you?”
Donald shrugged a shoulder. “I call ’em, as I see ’em.” His brows creased together with worry. “Are you sure you’re okay? I’m asking out of concern.”
“I know. And yeah, I am. I’ve just been working late, that’s all,” He lied.
“Tell me something I would believe,” Donald said, not buying it.
“Did you come here to interrogate me or run?”
“What if my answer is both?”
