Valkyrie's Revenge

Chapter 9

As a new day broke Valkyrie had found a new purpose in her day now that the run had happened, and she had some hope for regrowth and moving forward. She wanted to find a way to speak to her mate but did not know how to start after such a difficult start. As her stomach growled, she knew that whatever she did would need to be after breakfast. As she came down the stairs, she heard the usual laughter from the guys and the smell of cooking food. In the kitchen she was met with the usual three and a couple of new faces from the run. They turned to say good morning and bowed slightly, which earned a smirk from the twins. Valkyrie was not used to anyone else treating her the way that an Alpha would expect to be treated.

“Good morning everyone, please do not feel you have to bow. Up until today the only people who called me Alpha were these knuckleheads.” She told them, gesturing to the boys, who had started throwing bits of food at each other. “Please make yourselves comfortable, and until we can sort out housing for the pack you are welcome here whenever you like. I am going to talk to your Alpha today about what can be sorted out.” Valkyrie finished as she sat at the table with a plate of food. As they all ate, she learned about what life had been like here for them all, and what her mate’s pack is like. Once finished she excused herself to go get ready for a day, she knew she could not avoid, an actual conversation and peace talk with her mate. Allowing herself to get excited about her mate bond for the first time was a new feeling, she could feel herself getting both anxious and excited to see him. She knew she would need to be careful, but for once she also just wanted to be happy.

Arriving at the College she went to her first class and noticed that her mate was not there, but his other members were. This made her frown, having planned, and looked forward to a conversation with him. She initially felt like this was a slight to her, without even knowing where he was, but she was sure not to allow that frustration to show outwardly. As their first class progressed, she fought to stay on task, but found herself looking back to Thoren’s pack members to see their mood, a few times catching the Beta looking in her direction. As the class ended and she bid farewell to the twins she prepared to spend the rest of her morning alone, taking her usual seat in her second class. Suddenly she found herself jolted to attention when the seat next to her was taken.

“He had pack business to handle today, you can stop looking for him.” The gruff voice to her left said. She took the time to look at the brooding figure beside her, a mess of curls hung in his face as he looked at his phone. Briefly his eyes shot up to meet hers, then he went back to his phone, typing another message. “He did want me to tell you he hopes the run went well, and that he would like to see you this weekend if possible. When works for you so I can tell him? I don’t want to play messenger all day.” He huffed. Wanting to be rid of this poor attitude beside her she jotted down her number and handed it to him, saying for Thoren to get in touch. He grunted in approval then quickly moved to his customary seat a couple rows back from her.

Mid way through her class she felt her phone buzz, seeing a message from a number she did not recognize, but assumed it would be Thoren. Opening the message, she is greeted with a quick greeting, then a message stating that she can now reach out to him any time and he could not wait to see her this weekend, assuming she would be free. Having finally decided to allow herself to be less guarded when it came to her mate, she felt her cheeks flush at the idea of getting to spend some time with him. She always knew how to be controlled and in charge, but this is different, she wants him to know how much what he allowed meant to her, and what she is looking forward to. Looking around she checks that no one else is paying attention to her then she starts to type out a response.

‘Hey Thoren, thank you so much for allowing your pack members to come and be with their kind once again. I know how difficult it must have been to accept allowing them to consider leaving for a different pack, even if they will one day be connected. There is much for us to discuss, and I absolutely would like to do that this weekend. I am available all weekend, why don’t you and your Beta come to the house, we can eat, and all get to know each other.” She typed out to him, cursing her lack of being able to make it sound like more than a business venture. Quickly she decided to follow it up with something, so he knew what he was getting into. “I know I come across as cold, but understand I never planned on meeting my mate. This has been in the works since my parents were killed and now, I am here trying to avenge that and met you on one of my very first days. I want nothing more than to be with you as I have never been with anyone, but please understand how important my pack and rebuilding it is to me. I hope we can make this work.”

As she waited for a reply, she quickly made a list on her phone of all the food and things she would want to have in the house for that weekend. She knew feeding four Alpha blooded wolves was hard enough, add another Alpha and a Beta and she might as well buy out the entire meat section of a grocery store and still be short on the food needed. She knew along with that she would need things like snacks, drinks, fruit, dessert, and every fun thing she could think of. Just as she started to contemplate what she should wear on the weekend she felt the knowing buzz of her phone. Another message had arrived, and she could not wait to see what had been said to her. Just as she felt a second buzz, she picked her phone up expecting two messages from her mate, but instead was met with something very different.

“You do not know who I am, but I know you little Valkyrie Grace. I remember the feeling of your fathers’ blood running down my hand after I slit his throat and I remember the cries of your little sister. Leave now before I take the rest of you with me, and for good measure I’ll take your mate’s life as well.”

The sender was right, she did not know who it was, but she knew that whoever it was wanted her gone. She looked around again to see if anyone else was looking in her direction. Quickly she grabbed a screenshot of the message before closing it, then opened a new one and sent it to her brother and the twins with the message; ‘seems we have been found. I want to know who this is. NOW!’ She did not wait for a reply from them and put her phone away to try and remove the words from her mind. When she could not clear her head of the imagers the message had conjured, she decided she was done with school for the day and left to return home. It was not lost on her that she only got this message once she gave her mate and his Beta her number, was there a connection here that she had been blind to? She did not want to believe it possible but felt immediately like she had been taken advantage of but was not going to stand for it. As she got to her car, she took her phone out to tell the twins to find their own way home to see the message from her mate still unread, and despite the pain from the last message she had been subjected to, she decided to read what he had to say.

“That would be amazing! I found out some things about your pack and mine that you might find interesting. I think there is more to why your family was attacked and what the dangers are out there, but I could just be reading too much into old texts. I enlisted the help of my pack elder, and he has given me some insight into the packs of old and who has destroyed us over the years. I will bring it with me this weekend.”

His message gave her a lot of information and she decided not to jump down his throat just yet about the message she had received. If it was not him that had sent the other message, or he had not been privy to the info, then she did not want to attack him for no reason. If he was part of it, then she did not want to tip him to her being aware of his part in what was to come. It was also entirely possible that her mate really is just as much in danger as she is, so there is no reason to let him know what is coming before he she has the right amount of info. The first step is to gather the boys and fill them in on the message she received and the plans for the weekend.

Messaging the group chat she had with the boys she told them to be ready for a meeting tonight at the house, that there were some important things they needed to discuss about their future in town. They all responded quickly, but Emery was quick to question if something had happened to threaten them. He has always been a perceptive one, but she could not give it away to him now, not before they were all home and somewhere that they could discuss it openly and safely.

Leaving the school, she decided to take her time on her way home, stopping to get a snack and something to make for dinner. After a few other stops she made her way toward home, not thinking too much about the vehicles around her until she turned toward the house and away from the busy downtown streets. At this point there were usually not many vehicles around, but the one behind her she realized she had seen a few times before. Instead of turning toward the house right away she decided to make a right turn and try and get an idea of who was behind her. She could see it was a single person in the vehicle, and the car itself was a basic black sedan. As she continued through the suburban area it became more obvious to her that the driver was tailing her, but she could not figure out who they were working for. This was not the same as when the cop was watching the house, they had not been back since that first night. This was someone that until the last couple turns had tried to remain hidden to her. As she became more concerned about who it was in the vehicle, she failed to notice that she had turned down a dead end and was now faced with a wooded area directly in front of her.

Cursing to herself she looked behind her waiting to see the black sedan pull up behind her and block her in. As she continued to look in her rear-view mirror, she was suddenly frightened by the sound of something tapping on her driver side window. Looking over she sees a girl, about fifteen, with pigtails and a smile on her face standing there. As the young girl waves Valkyrie cannot help but smile back, and with one last glance in the mirror puts the window down to say hello.

“Hi there, I seem to have taken a wrong turn. I am new to town and am not even too sure where I am.” Valkyrie stated, trying to sound friendly.

“Isn’t the obvious, mutt; you should stay to your own side of town otherwise someone might see it right to put you where you belong.” The sweet looking girl responded, c*****g her head to the side. Her smiles stayed on, giving the illusion of innocence, but her words bit through Valkyrie like a knife.

“I beg your pardon, what are you talking about?” Valkyrie responded, feeling herself becoming angrier by the minute. Just as she made a move to open the door the girl brought her hands up, showing the knife she had in her right hand.

“Turn around and run-on home before I show you what my daddy taught me to do to your kind. You may be top of the food chain for now, but soon you will be nothing more than food for my dog. Now be a good little pet and run home to your master.” The girl finished, tapping her knife on the car before turning and walking up the steps to the house by where Valkyrie had stopped. As the girl took a seat on the chair a large angry looking man emerged from the house glaring at her vehicle. At this point she knew all she wanted to do was get home and get away from all this wretchedness she had found today. One thing was for certain, whoever had killed her family was still alive and there is a very real threat still living and breathing in this city.

It is time to find out who they have as allies, and who they need to count as enemies.

Look at the little mutt lost on her way home. Careful now, you wouldn’t want to be lost too long in that part of town. Better run home to your big bad wolves before something else happens to you, or maybe to that fool of a mate you have.

The message rang through moments after she had gotten back to the main road, the car following her had disappeared, after trapping her in a very hostile situation. She was not sure if she should be relieved that the anonymous message threatened her mate, or if it was a simple way to draw suspicion away from him. She had yet to respond to the messages, and until she showed the message to her family, she did not want to give them the satisfaction of a response. The one thing she knew for sure is she did not want them to see both messages and know about her wrong turn in town today. She did not need them to know she had been followed or threatened today.

Once home she settled into some comfortable clothes and started looking through the footage from her car camera to get an idea of who was following her. When they were younger the idea of cameras that are running when they are in the vehicle took hold. It gave them the ability to always look back at possible threats and see what others were doing around them. She printed the photos she could and hoped that Thorin’s connections with the police force would be able to help her look up who was following her. As she printed the last photo she heard the doorbell ring, but upon answering the door was shocked at who was there.

“Christian, what are you doing here? How do you even know where I live?” She asked in a huffy tone. She knew she sounded exasperated at the appearance of the Alpha, but what nerve he had approaching her here.

“You may think you are hiding well but taking up in your packs old land is like shining a beacon on your presence. I bet there are all sorts of folks that know where you are and are waiting for you to leave again.” His words caught Valkyrie off guard, was he alluding to knowing something about the messages, or was he just being the creep that he seemed to be when they first met. She was not sure which was the case here, but she knew she wanted him gone.

“I was never trying to hide, but I also did not expect a visit from you considering you didn’t allow my pack members to attend the run, why would you show up here now and threaten me?” She asked, taking a more relaxed stance, leaning against the doorframe. She was trying to appear to be more at ease in the moment, gain control and briefly she saw something flash through his eyes that looked like fear, but that was quickly covered with a chuckle and a shake of his head. As he clucked his tongue at her she heard the arrival of the twins and was relieved that they were here now to be part of whatever this was. Christian was less enamoured by the arrival of the twin wolves, but he smiled and nodded in their direction.

“I see your men have arrived, I will depart; but before I go let me just say, it is not me you need to worry about threatening you. When you’re ready to know the truth of what is happening out there, I am sure I can open your eyes little one. Until then, good day.” He finished as he turned and walked away. Ethan came to Valkyrie’s side ready to defend her and see what had been happening, but she brushed it off. Soon there would be too much more to concern themselves with, and whatever it is Christian knows his information is not the first thing she needs to understand.