Free VEX: Valley Enforcers, #1 by Abi Walters Page A

there was something about the way she hinted and made little drops about her feelings towards me that cemented her place in my heart. Her place there wasn’t in jeopardy. I loved her before I met her.
    “So your brother…” She cleared her throat. “Is he uh… dead?”
    “He’s in Canada right now. He volunteered to go help a clan that is at the end of a civil war. His parents, as well as my father, died during battle when we were younger. My mom took ‘Keem in, and the rest is history, I guess. I haven’t heard from him since he left, but I keep telling myself that not hearing anything mean he is okay.”
    “Are there a lot of battles?” Acacia asked almost timidly.
    “Depends on the clan and the Alpha. Our Alpha has kept peace, but my clan’s history book isn’t without bloodshed. There are fights here and there with other clans, and sometimes there are fights within the clan. We have the right to challenge anyone, but the Alpha has to approve it before it can happen. Bleedings are also fairly common within clans. They’re a form of punishment. It is exactly what it sounds like.”
    “That sounds terrible.”
    “It’s the way things have been done for a long time. Shifters heal quickly, so it isn’t like bleeding is corporal punishment or anything.”
    “That’s the definition of corporal punishment, Vex.”
    “I don’t see it that way. I’m just giving you the information you wanted.”
    We were in the thick of the woods driving over the bumpy terrain. My house wasn’t too far ahead and I prayed that nobody would be there waiting. I didn’t get visitors often and I was in control of the patrol around my cabin, but with the teams raking the property for any signs of intruders or cameras there was a higher chance that someone would swing by. There was also the pesky little scent detail. If someone picked up on her scent and recognized it as an outsider we would be screwed. If we weren’t in the middle of a security breech and Acacia hadn’t arrived in the Valley with an armful of pamphlets and an endless supply of questions about shifters, I would entertain the idea of calling Deacon and asking if she could stay at my place temporarily. My cabin was miles from the center of the reserve. Nobody ever shifted or even ran past my cabin. Parker kept Callie on his property before they were mated when she was being hunted by the 12 Bombs Gang. I didn’t want to risk it, though.
    “Are you sure you aren’t taking me out to the middle of nowhere just to kill me?”
    “My cabin is just secluded.”
    She laughed. “That’s what every psychopathic killer says. Mysterious and or secluded cabins in the woods are like, the number one horror movie cliché.”
    “It isn’t that prevalent.”
    “Are you kidding me?! Wrong Turn , Secret Window, Pumpkinhead, Friday the 13 th , Antichrist, The Last House on the Left, Misery, Cabin in the Woods, Mama,  Cabin Fever, Evil Dead. Need I go on? Creepy woods and small mountain towns are the go to for like, every college age horror movie.”
    “I don’t like horror movies,” I confessed as my headlights lit up my modest home.
    “What?” She screeched. She placed her hands on the dash and turned to me. “Stop the car. I’m leaving. Are you serious? How can you not like horror movies? That’s like saying you don’t like morning sex or banana pancakes!”
    “I hate them, actually. I uh, I get scared easily when it comes to that stuff. I can’t do haunted houses. I get spooked when they play Goosebumps reruns around Halloween.”
    “That is sacrilegious. I can’t believe this. You live in a ‘Swallow your soul!’ worthy house, but you’re a giant scaredy-cat? Vex, Leatherface would throw his chainsaw in the recycling bin if you looked at him and did that thing with your eyes.”
    “What thing with my eyes?” I scoffed.
    “You look like a badass already, but when you’re mad your eyes do this thing. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like