4.

Valerie's POV

Blinded by tears, I raced out of the pack house and down the staircase in front of it. I could feel their eyes on me as i rushed out but I didn't turn. I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing me totally shattered. He'd taken my virginity, my heart and even everything that belongs to me.

What else?

I stopped, then opened my mouth to speak, I wanted to curse at him so much but my sobs choked me. All I could let out was a pitiful whimper. My heart was like broken shards, piercing through my chest and leaving me gasping with hurt.

I would never be the same again. I pushed the gate open and walked out of their lives. Forever!

Immediately I stepped into the pathway that led away from the pack house, I broke into another run. The wind blew dust and dead leaves into my face but I didn't care much.

The pain was too much for me. Questions and tears jumbled into one another in my heart. Salty streams gushed out of my eyes and the wind whipped them back as I felt all the memories from years past resurface.

This was the same Adam who had told me I was the best thing the universe gave him when we were 13. The same Adam who had hugged me and cried into my shoulder a few months ago when his father had died.

The same Adam who had kissed me and taken everything I could offer as a woman last night. Where had it all gone wrong?

Despite how hard I tried to shake off the paranoia and the hopeless feeling that I had just lost something valuable, it kept rushing back in a torrent.

I stopped running finally, and looked around, tears blinding me. I was on a semi-deserted street in town. No, more like a rundown, crime-ridden area.

Ours was a small town of werewolves, but that didn't mean that it was immune to disrepair. This side of town was notorious for its high crime rate and a hovel for rogue wolves.

Opposite me was a broken down floral shop, the letters inscripted on its glass windows fading. Two doors down, a group of boys were gathered in a circle, trading something I couldn't see. I looked up and saw a sign, swinging on its hinges, declaring that the building behind me was "Hugo's Unisex Barbershop."

"Hey!" A raspy voice called, and I gave a large start and turned around. An elderly man was walking towards me, his brows furrowed in annoyance.

"Get yourself off my property, woman!"

"I'm sorry," I murmured and shifted. As I took a step forward, a wave of dizziness washed over me and I collapsed, hitting the curb hard.

I gasped as pain ricocheted from my hurt side to the rest of my body. Shoving the urge to puke, I stood to my feet on wobbly legs and tried to move forward.

My vision swam again and I saw several figures filter into my sight. I grabbed the nearest thing I could find to steady myself.

"Get your hands off me!" Someone snapped, slapping my hand away. I blinked rapidly and my vision became clearer. Four boys had gathered around me, the same boys I'd seen down the street. They were a motley crew of dirty clothes, rotten teeth and swinging baseball bats.

Before I could say anything, one of them moved forward, his nasty-smelling breath fanning my face and making me more sober. I took a step back, but he persisted.

"Whatcha got on you, girl?" He asked. His breath smelled of garlic and old cigarettes. Ugh!

"I have nothing," I murmured, pushing against his chest to leave. "Stay away from me."

"Not so fast, not so fast." He replied and pushed me backwards. I hit the wall of the barbershop hard and slid to the ground, groaning in pain. I looked up at the glass windows in front of the barbershop. The man who had shooed me away from his shop gave me a glance, then looked away as though he hadn't seen anything.

What was wrong with people?

The leader of the gang of rogue wolves crouched and looked into my face. His frown deepened for a moment as he stared at me, and then his brow shot up into his hairline.

He laughed—a raspy, annoying sound that sent the hairs on my neck standing erect—and his cronies followed.

"Isn't this the ol' pal of the new alpha?" He asked.

"What's ya name, princess?"

"Go away!" I screamed and stood to my feet shakily. I backed up into a dingy, smelly alley beside the barbershop, which was a terrible idea, since I now had a wall behind me and the rogue wolves in front of me.

I was stuck, and the only way I would be able to get out was through some divine intervention. I looked around wildly, and my eyes fell on a broken glass shard beside my feet. I lunged to the ground and picked it up, feeling the sharp edges press into my palm, feeling warm liquid ooze down my wrist.

I didn't care: I would rather cut myself than let these boys have their way with me, just like Adam did.

"Well, you don't look like you've got much in the way of cash on you," the leader murmured, his eyes glinting maniacally as it roamed over my body. "But perhaps we could take...something else from you."

"Don't touch me!" I screamed again, shoving the glass shard forward. "I swear to the Moon Goddess, if you come near me—"

"What are you gon' do, princess?" He asked, moving forward slowly.

"The alpha is my best friend!" I spat into his face. Adam's face swam into my head, and I tried to tamp down on the agony that followed.

The leader of the rogue wolves made a show of looking around. "Hmmm. I don't see him anywhere around. Your knight in shining fur and fangs is nowhere near to save you."

His words hurt more than it should. Adam had never been there for me, and he wouldn't start now. I took another step back and almost stumbled as my back hit the wall behind me. The leader grinned and stepped forward until inches remained between us. He wasn't going to back down, and the only way I would be getting out of there was if I fought my way through, but I was physically weak.

Summoning the last of my strength, I screamed and rushed forward with the glass piece in my hand, ready to stab all of them to death if I could. I heard a soft rip and a groan as the glass shard pierced through soft human flesh, and I opened my eyes to see the leader at my feet, the glass buried in his midriff.

But the other boys weren't willing to back down. They all came after me, baseball bats swinging, and began to hit me. I heard a soft crunch as the first bat made its contact with my skin and pain shot up my body.

Another bat hit my head, and I slumped to the ground, images before me in disturbing twos and threes.

Somewhere in the part of my head that wasn't riddled by pain, I heard footsteps approach the dingy alleyway. Then the attack on my body paused for a moment.

"Let her go!" I heard a person's command, and then the darkness claimed me...

Valerie's POV

I had been sleeping for an eternity. Or so it seemed.

My consciousness was stuck somewhere between light and darkness. I was floating around in a deep, dark abyss, punctuated only by unrecognizable sounds and flashes of light.

Voices swam in and out of my consciousness, and within those voices, I recognized the voice who had chased the rogue wolves away from me.

My dreams were every bit as riotous as the life I'd left behind. In them I saw Adam in every stage of his life since I'd known him, and the dreams always ended with him sneering and rejecting me.

I knew, even then, that the only way I could escape from those painful dreams was to wake up, but waking up was more difficult than I'd thought.

Then something sparked in my head, kick-starting my consciousness, and I woke up with a gasp.

Tears stabbed at my eyes the moment I opened it, and a sob escaped my lips. The trauma and pain from the past hours— or days, or weeks, I couldn't even tell— poured over me in one overwhelming torrent, and soon I was openly weeping.

My hands reached out to grasp something solid, get some bearing of my surroundings, and warm hands reached out for mine and held on.

"It's alright, you're safe now." A voice murmured. The voice was oddly familiar, and my mind flashed back to the dingy alleyway, the broken glass shard, the baseballs.

The rogue wolf I'd killed.

"I killed someone..." I whimpered, and the warm hands pulled me into an even warmer embrace.

"They were going to kill you first." He murmured.

"You were very brave, Valerie."

Wait.

How did he know my name?

I leaned away from the embrace, even though my trauma-stricken body was screaming in objection, and I looked into the eyes of my savior.

It was a striking, interesting shade of chocolate, somewhere between a deep ochre and light brown. The sun seemed to catch his irises at an angle I could not explain. The irises were ringed with black, speckles of gold caught within them.

My eyes traveled up the man's face and took in his deep brown hair that had been swept back, and the friendly expression on his face.

He was a very cheerful-looking man, a stark contrast to Adam. Where Adam was all blacks and dark shadows, this man was all soft brown and friendly sable. It felt relieving staring at him, as though I was stepping into a gently-flowing river and it was washing away all my pain and fears. He chuckled as I scrutinized him.

"You're looking at me as though you're expecting something worse."

"I'm definitely not." I whispered. "How long was I out?" I croaked, rubbing my head as a splitting headache attacked it.

"About four weeks. That baseball bat really did knock you out. In fact, the doctor was certain you were slipping into a coma."

Four weeks?!

My eyes widened in realization. "The rogue wolves...the...glass shard—" I stuttered, trying to make sense of it all, but he shushed me.

"There's no need to worry about that now," he said, then gently pushed me downward.

"You need to take a rest while I fetch the doctor."

I resisted him, instead letting my eyes roam around, taking in every inch of my surroundings. I'd been kept in a bleak-looking room, its walls painted a depressing white, and strapped to a bed, which was starting to feel uncomfortably warm. An IV had been strapped to my left hand, infusing water into my body.

"Am I in a human hospital?" I croaked.

"Yes. You're in Seattle now, as far away from that small town as we can be." The man before me answered. Then he smiled again. "Pardon me. My name is Kenneth."

I ignored the hand he stretched towards me and instead swung my feet down from the bed. Seattle was too far away for me, too bleak and unpredictable. What would I do in this thriving metropolis? Where would I start from?

"I'm getting out of here," I mumbled, slipping my feet into the hospital-issued slippers by the bed. The man lunged forward and grabbed my arm before I could make any further move. "You won't want to do that."

"And why is that?" I snapped. "You saved me from those rogue wolves and I thank you for that, but I think I'll find my own way now."

"You were speaking a lot in your sleep," the man said suddenly, raising his voice. He came closer to me, his impressive brown eyes boring into mine. "I heard and learned a lot from your mumblings."

I eyed him warily. "What are you talking about?"

"Who's Adam?" He asked instead, deflecting my question. "Is he the father of your child?" I frowned, extremely overwhelmed and gripping my head as the headache threatened to overcome me. "Wh...what are you talking about?"

The air was fraught with tension as we stared at each other. My heart was hammering against my chest, my mouth tasting like ash. "I'm talking about the life that's growing inside of you." He said in a quiet voice.

"You're pregnant, Valerie."

Pregnant? Who? I asked as confusion and realization hit me at once.

I had a one night with Adam but that doesn't mean I'm pregnant now, does it? "I'm not pregnant...no, I can't be" I said gently as the back of my eyes burned with tears.

"It is confirmed, Valerie. You're four weeks pregnant" Kenneth muttered. I shook my head as I walked out to nowhere in particular.

My head was spinning, I couldn't think straight.

"No it's not possible, I.. I can't be pregnant" I cried as my pushed myself out of the room.

The strange looking guy was behind me, I could hear his footsteps as I struggled to snap out of this freaking nightmare.

I tripped on my gown and lost my balance but he was quick to stop me from falling hard to the ground.

"You're not strong enough for this, Valerie. You just need to accept it and we can overcome this together" he said gently and I gave in to the tears that had been threatening to fall.

I never imagined becoming a single mother, not in my nineteen years of living had I imagined being a single mother after getting rejected by the guy I had loved all my life...