The bold and aggressive way Varek kept pushing us did not make sense at all. Money was important, yes, but I had already said I would pay him. So why was he still threatening us? He was acting as if we had missed a payment date or told him to f**k off. This all felt personal somehow. Money, out of everything in the world, was one of the least personal things I could think of. And right in the middle of everything was Vale.
I met Jaxon at the barbershop, while my head was still full of questions. The barber, an old man named Claude Shipley, was a human who had always had a good relationship with the pack. The man had already been old when I was a kid, but his small barbershop was a well-known place in Pinecrest Valley.
“Afternoon, Claude,” I said as I walked inside.
He was just putting t
