Mhhh it is unlikely that Val will lower his walls completely around Gage, and even if Gage isn't acting on it each time Val fawns around him and shows weakness it pulls on his dormant impulse to hurt him, so it would be hard to even get to a point of unacknowledged fondness (like Coeus and Hunter's relationship lol). Tho their current relationship isn't really violent, there's just a prey/predator tension between them where Gage isn't actively trying to sink his teeth in Valeriy, just drooling and staring at him unnervingly. Gage also sometimes gets all over Val's business to sniff him, who in turn totally freeze until Hunter tells Gage to leave him alone so he can scurry away.
After some time Gage also starts to startle Valeriy on purpose (think wait for him behind corners and such) and legit human cackles at him when he bolts. He's fucking weird and creepy lol

If anything the person Val eventually starts to kind of warm up to is Hunter: he's the only one who does not want or do him any harm so even if he intimidates him once he kind of gets that oh, he can run to him when the doctor and the dog are scaring him, and also he will feed him even if he only pretends to give him leftovers (it's too much food to be just that). You know, kind of taking care of him under the gruff exterior (and the 'I shoot on sight so don't try to escape the premise' lol)