Marked (Valeterra Series Book 1)

by Jennifer Reynolds

  Realizing that I was rambling, I snapped my mouth shut. A flush heated my face, as I grew embarrassed over my outburst. The man stared at me as if I had two heads, and I chided myself for talking too much again.

  “Thank you,” he said, holding up his bag and left the store.

  Anne startled me a bit later when she came over to ask if I wanted lunch from the restaurant and if she had heard my door jingle earlier. I told her yes on both accounts. I was just going for my purse when another customer came through the door.

  “I’ll bring you something back,” Anne said to me before smiling brightly at the woman who had entered.

  I thanked Anne and welcomed the lady.

  Jackson would have paid for my food anyway, I told myself, regretting not having time to give Anne money for my food. I had to keep reminding myself of that fact so that I would stop feeling as if I was taking advantage of the woman’s kindness.

  The woman who entered wore black slacks and a black and white, chevron striped blouse that came to mid-thigh. I asked her if I could assist her, but she said she was just looking.

  Twenty minutes later, she brought a copy of The Help up to the counter. I rang her up, she paid, and I handed her a bag with the book inside before thanking her for shopping at my bookstore. She paused after she took the bag with an expression on her face that said she wanted to say or ask something.

  “Is there anything else I can help you with?” I asked.

  “Yes, um, are those tables for the kids?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. Mr. Nichols had them delivered yesterday afternoon. He and I sat there until five with Azure while she read her history assignment aloud to me. I don’t know a whole lot about Valeterra, so I asked her to read the assigned section to me. She’s supposed to bring me some books from the school this afternoon so that I can study a bit myself.”

  Why was I talking so much to my customers? Why were people asking about the tables? Were they planning to send their kids to the store that afternoon? Did they think I was secretly planning to carry them up to my apartment to do despicable things to them? I mean I got some of the paranoia, but seriously.

  “Thank you,” she said and left.

  Anne returned about that time, and we made ourselves comfortable at the table closest to her store.

  “You’ve been popular today,” she said.

  “Yeah, I know. I think the customers have all been parents wanting to check out the place since Mr. Nichols has made it known that the kids can come here after school to study. I’m okay with that as long as it helps the kids and the business. But I don’t want it to cause problems for anyone.”

  “Speaking of Mr. Nichols. He asked about you a few minutes ago.”

  “He did?”

  “Yep, he wanted to know why you were still in the store. I was excited to tell him that you had a customer. I told him about the customer you’d had earlier. He seemed pleased that business had picked up, but not that you weren’t able to leave for lunch. Are you two…?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

  “Are we what?” I asked, pretending not to know what she was asking.

  “Are you two involved?” she asked in a low voice.

  “Not even a little. Mr. Nichols hasn’t said a single word to me since I arrived. He just stares at me blankly when I talk to him. I think he wishes that I hadn’t agreed to come.”

  I sighed and put down my food.

  “Really?” she asked. “I don’t think that’s the case at all. Nearly every time I see Mr. Nichols, he asks about you. I’ve heard he’s been asking others about you as well.”

  “I don’t know what his deal is. He is distant toward me every time we’re around each other. I get the distinct feeling that he wants me out of his town and his life. I don’t want to bounce from town to town, but I may tell Stephanie to move the timeframe up a bit on when they start bringing alphas here for me to meet. The sooner I meet my mate, the sooner I can leave,” I said, touching my palm.

  I said the last part in the hopes that it would get back to Jackson to get a real reaction out of him.

  “Don’t rush things, sweetie,” she said, touching my forearm.

  I was thankful she didn’t notice me touching my hidden palm. “You have to give people time to get used to you. Besides, just because you mate with one of those alphas doesn’t mean you can close up shop and leave. There’s a reason they want this store here. We may not look like it, but we are one of the biggest cities within a hundred miles in any direction.”

  “I know.”

  I did know. I didn’t want to leave. I liked the town. I was growing to like the people in it; Anne, Azure, Stephanie, and my neighbor—I had to learn his name. I couldn’t just keep calling him my neighbor. If Jackson disliked me, though, he could make my life miserable in Greenleaf.

  Before we could discuss things any further, the bell over Anne’s door jingled. She picked up the leftover food, said goodbye, and left me to the silence of my store.

  24.

  ~~~Jackson~~~

  “You have to meet with Valerie tomorrow,” I informed Stephanie once she returned from her lunch break with Scott.

  “I’m not scheduled to see her until Saturday when the store is closed to show her around town some more,” she said, handing me a container of food.

  “Well, I’m moving up the time. I want you to meet Valerie in the morning and spend the day with her.” I said.

  “Why the sudden schedule change?”

  “She didn’t eat at the restaurant last night or the bakery this morning, and she didn’t come with Anne to get lunch. Anne said she had a customer, and I know a few parents have gone by there to check out the store, but I think something else is stopping her from being amongst us. I want to know if someone has done something to her to make her want to hide in that damned bookstore.”

  “You mean someone other than you?” she asked, giving me an angry glare.

  “Me? What have I done?”

  I knew I’d been a little distant to Valerie, but surely my behavior wouldn’t have that much of an impact on her.

  “Oh, don’t play stupid with me. I talked to Azure. She knows about the mark on Valerie’s hand. She told Valerie what it means and that her mate will have one as well. Valerie didn’t tell Azure that she suspects you are her mate, but Azure figured it out by watching the way the two of you interact with each other and because she’s your niece and knows you. Azure also says the fact that you won’t talk to Valerie upsets the woman. She says that you barely acknowledge her presence when you’re around her. Do you know how unwanted that can make a person feel?”

  Stephanie was leaning against her desk with her arms crossed as she spoke to me, but I could see her skin ripple with the need to shift and attack me.

  “Fuck.” I slumped against the door frame of my office with a sigh. I figured I was causing her some discomfort by my silence, but I hadn’t meant to isolate and outcast her with it, especially since I couldn’t seem to help being silent around her.

  “If you want her to feel more at home here, you’re going to have to talk to her. Treat her like a person instead of scowling at her all of the time. Do you know that she told Azure that she thought someone put the mark on her hand as a practical joke?”

  “Yeah, I overheard that conversation.”

  “Jackson, we can’t let her go on like this. From the things she has said and the things I’ve uncovered, she’s spent her entire life being the butt of people’s jokes because of her weight. She’s never had a serious boyfriend. Hell, the woman hasn’t had sex in years. All because people in her world treated her as if she wasn’t worthy of their time or love due to her weight. I promised her that our world would be different.”

  “We are different,” I snapped. My wolf growled and scratched for me to let him lose. He felt trapped and angry with me for not going to Valerie right that second and fixing things.

  “We aren’t if her mate refuses to talk to her. If Valerie even suspects you’re her ma
te and you go on treating her this way, she’s going to feel as if you’re ashamed to have her as your mate.”

  “I’m not ashamed of her,” I told her and my wolf. “She simply isn’t ready for what it means to be my mate.”

  At Stephanie’s incredulous look, I said, “Fine, I’m not ready either. Wolf might be, but I’m not.”

  “You are ready. You’re just scared to admit that you are. I’m not saying that things aren’t moving too quickly. They are. I had hoped Valerie would have more time here before you got up the nerve to touch her, but you did touch her. The mark is proof. Now you don’t have a choice. Neither of you do because both of you are going to start yearning for each other soon. That mark isn’t just a symbol that the fates want you two together, it is a sign that your desire for each other is strong and is only going to get stronger. Pretty soon that desire is going to throw the two of you in bed together before you’ve gotten to know each other, and I have a feeling that she isn’t going to be happy about that.”

  “No, she won’t.” I agreed. I buried my face in my hands and sighed. “All right, don’t meet her again until your scheduled time. I’ll go by there this afternoon and try to talk to her. She isn’t going to be happy when she hears my voice and knows who I am, and knows I’ve lied by omission to her.”

  “Suck it up and take your punishment,” she said. Her voice lacked sympathy for my situation.

  “If I didn’t love you, I’d fire you,” I said, shooing her to her office. I needed to strip and go for a run.

  25.

  ~~~Valerie~~~

  Two hours later, the bell over my door jingled. Anne, who’d come over with cookies a customer had made her, gave me a big smile before going back to her side of the store. I covered my two remaining cookies with a napkin and went to greet the customer. That time the person was a little old lady wearing peach slacks and a flowery shirt. Her hair was long, wavy, and white. She walked with a cane, though she put very little weight on the thing. I couldn’t even begin to guess how old she was. In my world, she would be about seventy-five or so, but in Valeterra, she was probably thousands of years old.

  “Hello, my name is Valerie, how can I help you today?” I asked, meeting her in front of the tall windows where I had stacks of new releases and popular items displayed. I discretely wiped at my mouth and shirt to be sure I didn’t have any crumbs on me.

  She said nothing at first. She only looked me up and down for a long time. I stood still and straight, letting her take in all of me, knowing she was evaluating me. Some instinct in me told me the woman was important, and that I needed her approval if I wanted to stay in Valeterra.

  “Valerie, huh,” she said after what felt like ages. “Isn’t that name a bit old fashion for someone your age?” she asked, cocking her head and reading my facial expressions.

  “Yes, Ma’am. My sister and I both have old-fashioned names. Our parents named us after my grandmother’s aunts: Valerie and Gail Jessop.”

  “That wasn’t fair of your mother. I bet other kids teased you a good bit growing up.” She looked away from me as she spoke and moved to the books along the wall.

  “Yes, Ma’am, I was. Mostly for being fat, though. My weight overshadowed my name. The teasing over my name didn’t come until I was in high school. By then I had boobs, and whereas my weight was an issue, the breasts made up for it, so they thought teasing me about my name would be better.”

  I don’t know why I told her all of that, but something about her made me want to tell her the truth about everything to do with who I was.

  “Fat, huh,” she said, looking me up and down again as if she didn’t see what there was about me for people to make fun. “Brutes your people are.”

  “They can be, yes Ma’am,” I said. I should be offended on behalf of my world, but considering the teasing and harassment had bled into my adult life, I had to agree with her a little.

  “Well, you look fine to me. Healthy. You’ll bear children easily enough. Now whether you are strong enough to be his mate is another story.” With that, she turned from me and started down the general fiction aisle.

  “Excuse me. I don’t know who this ‘he’ is you are referring to, but the question you should ask is, is he strong enough to be my mate,” I said, letting her see how much her words had offended me.

  The more politically correct phrasing should be, ‘Are we strong enough for each other,’ but I was taking the feminist route. I ignored the children comment altogether. I could still bear children, but only for a few more years. If my mate didn’t come forward soon, I’d be pretty useless to those people, despite the fact that in any other situation, the fact that she was basing my usefulness to her people on whether or not I could have children would piss me off.

  “You know who I’m talking about,” she said chidingly. “We both know you bear my grandson’s mating mark. And you are correct. I’m not sure if he is strong enough to let himself be yours.”

  The sorrowful expression on her face hurt my heart and made me angrier at whoever her grandson was.

  I had hidden my arms behind my back when she walked in so that she wouldn’t see my gloved hands. At her words, I touched the mark for the millionth time that day.

  “Whether I have anyone’s mark remains to be seen, since no one I’ve had contact with seems to bear one or to claim me as their mate. I understand their reluctance since I’m new to this world, but the whole reason for me being here is to find a mate.” I couldn’t hide the anger, annoyance, and humiliation in my tone.

  “Stupid boy. I’ll talk to him about that. We need to get this mating going. I want more babies in my life. I’ve lived a long time. I’ve seen many children of my line come and go. I thought I was past caring or getting excited over a new child, but with nearly everyone in my blood line gone, I refuse to meet my ancestors without knowing our people will survive.”

  Well, when she put it that way with such misery and pain, I wanted to bear as many children as possible for her, but if my mate couldn’t even be bothered to own up to our mating, then I didn’t think she’d be getting new babies anytime soon.

  “I’m truly sorry this is happening to your people. I do hope your doctors or scientists discover a cure soon.”

  “You and me both, sweetie. Now, show me your store.”

  So I did.

  26.

  ~~~Valerie~~~

  Mrs. Rose and I wandered up and down the rows for a bit, then when she saw my half-eaten afternoon snack, she made me sit and finish my food while she rested and flipped through a few books that she’d pulled from the shelves. She had a cookbook, one about the histories of the different religions of my world, and one about a young girl with cancer who falls in love.

  She and I sat and talked until Azure came into the store. The child’s face lit up at the sight of the old woman. My heart warmed at the look of pure joy I saw in Azure’s eyes at the sight of someone who had to be a relative of hers. The look was one that I hadn’t thought the girl could have considering all she’d lost.

  “Gramma Rose,” Azure said, rushing to the woman and giving her a hug and kiss. If she had been younger and smaller, she would have crawled into the older woman’s lap and curled into her arms, and Rose would have let her.

  At my questioning look and at the building anger showing in my eyes that said I wanted to know why Azure, who obviously had a family, was left in an orphanage, Mrs. Rose said, “She is one of my brother’s few remaining grandchildren…a couple of generations down the line that is. We just say grandchildren, because saying great, great, great, etc. gets to be too much.”

  “I see,” I said, still frowning as her answer didn’t tell me why the child lived with strangers and not family.

  “What’s wrong, girl?” Mrs. Rose asked, sensing my disapproval. I couldn’t look at the old woman. I only watched Azure bounce around the table in glee and then take up a spot across from us.

  “I didn’t think she had any family left and that that was why she was
living in the orphanage,” I finally said.

  “She has some family scattered about Valeterra. Most live too far away from Greenleaf. I tried to send her to some of them, but she wanted to stay here. Greenleaf is her home and where she’d buried her parents. Others that might be closer are taking care of more than a few living family members and don’t have the room. Here she can be close to her parents’ grave, me, and...” The old woman and the child looked at each other conspiratorially, making me wonder what I was missing about the situation.

  “And your grandson, whoever he is,” I said, though a small voice in the back of my head told me that I knew who her grandson was. Knowing I wouldn’t get a straight answer if I tried to confirm my suspicion, I asked, “Why doesn’t she live with either of you?”

  “I travel a great deal. Being one of the oldest of the Valeterrian people, I’m actively involved in our government. That means I don’t stay in one place for long. Until she has gotten the education she needs to assist me and begin training as my replacement, she will remain here.”

  “And your grandson?”

  She looked at Azure for a long time. The girl kept her eyes on the homework she had started, ignoring us both even though I knew she could hear us.

  “He’s dealing with his own…let’s say issues at the moment. He makes sure Azure is taken care of, though.”

  I couldn’t imagine what was more important than taking care of a child, but the grandson must have his reasons. Before I could say more, two teenagers—a boy and girl about sixteen years old—entered. I stood to greet them.

  “Mr. Nichols said we could come here to study if we wanted to,” the boy said, sounding a bit unsure if coming to the store was what he wanted to do. His eyes bugged when he saw Mrs. Rose, but he didn’t rush to her the way Azure did. The girl said nothing, but she was too busy scanning the store in fascination to notice the three of us at the table.