Chapter 5：A new life

Marie and Max rode in silence for a short time before Max spoke.

"I'm sorry?" Marie replied.

"What are you going to do about Vale?" Max spoke sternly.

"I don't know" Marie looked at her fingers in her lap.

"Well you better think carefully, you reveal him you reveal all of us."

"Everyone would think I'm crazy. No one would even believe it." She looked out the window as the tears started to slide down her cheeks.

"So you don't plan on talking to anyone about it?"

Marie shakes her head in response, she doesn't trust her voice.

"Good." Max responds before dialing a number on his phone. "Hey! I'm on my way!" He says and hangs up the phone.

Vale answers his phone and hears what Max says. He grumbles to himself as he gets out of bed and takes a shower. After putting some clean clothes on he closes the door to his room and goes to the kitchen to get a pitcher of cold water. He looks in his fridge for any snacks. There are non so he just takes the pitcher to the living room with some glasses and waits. Max has been his friend for a long time and loves to have fun, but he is also an Alfa and doesn't like being argued with. Vale knows he is coming to deal with business by the tone of his voice.

Marie watches as the city turns to countryside. She just wishes she had called her sister and told her she loved her. What if she will never be able to hear her voice again? Marie silently cried to herself as Max listened to the radio and hummed along to the songs. Maybe he didn't notice Maries tears, or perhaps he simply didn't care. Either way he did not speak to her the rest of the way. "Sir, we're here" one of the men in the front seat spoke to max.

he nodded and as they came around a brick wall Marie could see the large brick house. Was this to be the last beautiful thing she sees?

Vale heard the car pull up and went to the door. As he opened it and walked down the stairs he saw her face. She had tears running down her cheeks and he almost couldn't bear it. He waited at the bottom step for Max's men to open his door. Max then walked around to her side and opened the door for her. As she got out he could see her dark tights with her black heals. Max had picked her up from her job. She slowly walked towards him looking at the ground, what was Max thinking! "Come inside, lets sit in the living room."

They all went into the living room and sat on the couches. Max placed Marie in the armchair, Vale could see she could sense the Alfa. Once everyone was seated Vale looked at Marie starring at her fingers and over to Max. "What were you thinking?"

"Oh Vale, don't worry, I didn't hurt her." Max smiles

"Why did you bring her here?"

"Well I need to know what is going to happen next. If she starts talking or asking questions to the wrong people it will cause a lot of trouble for all of us." He pauses and looks at Marie "So this will be solved tonight, before it comes to that."

"Marie, I had no idea he would bring you here." Vale says softly "I'm sorry if you are scared"

"I understand what he is saying." Marie looks at Vale, tears still coming from her eyes.

"Here, calm down" Vale hands Marie a glass of water. "You've scared her!" He looks at Max.

"Well dear, what will it be? Have you decided what you want to do?" Max looks at Marie in the eyes.

"I won't tell your secrets. I promise." She doesn't look away this time.

"Good. What about Vale?" Max smiles.

"I want to continue seeing him." She looks to Vale now "It took a little while to wrap my head around it, but I'm ok now." She smiles

Vale smiles and takes her hand. "I'm so happy! My heart is already yours, and I want yours to be mine. I want you to be all mine."

"So it's settled." Max states. "There is a party at my house this weekend, you guys are invited!" Max is back to the cheerful, fun loving party boy in an instant. "I'm going to head out, you two have a lot to talk about!" With that Max and his two men leave.

Marie finally took a deep breath. She thought it was all over, she was going to be found in a ditch somewhere. But here she was, safe and alive. After a short time the adrenaline starts to wear out and Marie is exhausted. "Can I lay down? I'm so tired."

"Of coarse! Come you can sleep in my bed." Vale takes her hand and leads her to his room. He straightens out the sheets and goes to find a comforter. When Vale returns Marie is curled up on his bed, sound asleep. He takes her shoes, covers her with the comforter and cracks the window so she will have fresh air.

Vale sits in his office to work on a new design. He hasn't really worked in days and needs to get back into it. He is across the hall from Marie so when she wakes he will hear her. After several hours he has a floor plan, and decides to take a break. He peaks in at Marie and she is still fast asleep. Vale decides to go out for a run and changes into his jogging shorts, puts on his sneakers and heads out for a quick run.

Marie wakes up but doesn't move. She blinks as she looks around. This is Vale's room, when did he put a comforter on her. She sits up and stretches while she looks around a bit. Where did Vale go? She slips out of bed and heads for the bathroom. After relieving herself, she starts to look around. Marie ends up in Vale's office and looks at what he is working on. She smiles as she looks at the photos on the wall of different houses, even Max's house. As she walks about she hears the door creak and turns quickly to see Vale smiling at her, leaning on the doorframe. "Just couldn't help yourself, could you?" He chuckles

"No" she smiles back. "Did you design all of these?" Marie points to the wall of photos.

"Yes, do you like them?"

"Your very talented" she looks back at him.

"Well, I bet your hungry. Come." Vale puts out his hand. Marie takes it and lets him lead her to the kitchen. "I wasn't sure what you like, so I got some sandwiches and juice. Seemed like a pretty safe choice."

"That sounds good. Thank you." She watches him make two sandwiches at the bar. "So you eat regular food, what about the blood thing?"

He knew this was coming. "Well I know a guy down at the blood bank so I'm all set. I need it but it doesn't have to be a vicious thing."

"What about if you are out of control?" Marie asks cautiously.

"Marie, that hasn't happened in a long time." He places her sandwich in front of her. "Besides I would never bite you without permission. If you let me make you mine."

Marie bites into her sandwich as she takes in this information. Maybe she should stop asking questions.

Vale watches her carefully as she eats. She seems to be taking the information well, but he wonders how she will feel when she hears Max's stipulations. Maybe he should wait, but that wouldn't be fair to her. "We need to talk about something." He says cautiously.

"What is it?" She looks at him with a tired gaze.

"Well, maybe you should read it for yourself." He hesitates.

"No, you can tell me." She says. "I have a feeling I don't have a say anyways."

"Well I guess that is true. Max said you are to live here now."

"Oh? what will I do for work? It is too far to travel everyday." She isn't about to get hunted down by whatever Max is.

"You could work with me. I can set you up with your own desk in the office." Vale holds his breath.

"What is Max anyway?" Marie wants to know.

"He's the Alfa of his pack."

"So, werewolf?"

"Yes" Vale watches her carefully.

"Is he your Alfa?" Marie is looking him straight in the eye now.

"In a way. He rules over this area and protects people like me, so we follow his rules. So I guess he is my Alfa too." He is worried at how calm she is.

"Ok. When can we go get my things from my apartment? And I will be breaking my lease. I have work I would like to finish before I quite my job." Marie finishes her sandwich.

"I'll take care of the costs and I can hire a moving company." Vale responds. She is too calm.

"Can I use your car to go to work the rest of the week? I need to close out all of my accounts." Marie didn't want to leave her work for someone else to do.

"Yes, the keys are hanging by the garage. I'll let Max know what is going on."

"I can't wear this to work, maybe I can use a shirt of yours?"

Vale nods and Marie goes back to the room. She showers quickly and looks through Vale's shirts. Once she is dressed she steps out into the living room. Vale is not there so she checks the office. Vale looks up and smiles. Marie is wearing her tights and heals with one of his button up shirts tied with a ribbon just under her chest, making his shirt into a dress.

"I think it looks better on you than me." Vale chuckles.

"I'm going to my apartment after work." Marie gave Vale a small smile.

"I'll be there with a moving truck to help you as soon as I can. Also to help settle your accounts."

Marie nods and heads to the garage. Vale has four cars in his garage and Marie chooses the Jeep.