Page 24 of Under A New Moon

Lily teased a nail. “It’s a lot bigger than that alpha you were hunting.”

Nineteen

Galen

Galen could feel all his nerves firing at once. His muscles were coiled, and he was ready to spring into action. He'd been gearing up for a fight when Lily arrived. All that energy didn't have anywhere to go now. And while he should have been able to just relax and let it go, he still felt on edge.

He missed the quiet moment when he first woke up. He wanted to feel like he had before. Doubt and fear kicked in and tried to rob him of this connection he was forming with Darla before he heard Lily's footsteps. Now, something just felt off.

He tried to dismiss it as just nerves, but he couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom. The news Lily brought didn't help. They sat at the table, Lily's eyes flitting to Galen as she pulled out a large file folder.

"They've been keeping this off-book mostly, but you know how much a government agency loves paperwork. You can't order pens without a document signed in triplicate," Lily said with a laugh, but it sounded more nervous than humorous. "More so for bullets."

Galen could hear her heart pounding and smell the stink of fear coming off her. She didn't seem to trust him. He was okay with that. She didn't have to trust him. She trusted Darla and at least didn't distrust him enough to keep things from her as well.

Lily put the file on the table and opened it.

"We've been lied to. We were told we were out there eliminating dangerous shifters. But instead, we've been sent to kill people who've done nothing wrong." Lily paused, her pulse thudding so loud that it grated on Galen's nerves.

Then all her tension and fear made sense. She expected an angry outburst, but Galen couldn't feel anger. He knew that would come later, but there was a cold lump forming in the pit of his stomach right now.

When he figured out what Darla had been doing, he'd hoped that her orders to kill him had been a mistake. A terrible one, but still a mistake. But no, Darla's mission hadn't been to "eliminate" dangerous shifters. Instead, she'd been sent to murder innocent ones.

He could hear it in the way her breathing changed and the way their connection shifted. The realization was dawning on her. She was responsible for the deaths of so many people who'd done nothing wrong.

"Why?" Darla asked, her breath shaky.

She still looked like she was having trouble processing this idea. Understandable. It's not every day that you're told your professional career boils down to being a serial killer. Galen wanted to reach his hand out to her, to say to her it was alright, that it wasn't her fault.

But he was still working through the news himself. What did this mean for them? Was this the end of their time together. Could he look at her the same way? His mind pinballed between an almost overwhelming number of reasons and justifications.

She didn't know. He was still getting to know her fully. They'd only been together a short time. But he knew for certain she wouldn't have done any of this if she knew.

Everything about her screamed conflict. She didn't want this. She didn't want any of this. Her world was tipped upside down just as his had been.

Lily continued talking like she hadn't just shattered both of their worlds. Galen couldn't tell if she was unobservant to the emotional cues. He wouldn't have needed his preternatural abilities to see how distressed Darla was.

More and more papers were pulled from the file. Names, addresses, phone numbers, photos with "COMPLETE" stamped on them. A few had "MISSING" stamped on the front. It was a small ray of hope that whatever the hell PEACE was doing hadn't been one-hundred percent successful.

But he was sure anyone who was missing was on the run, just like Darla, and he'd have to be, possibly for the rest of their lives. PEACE was huge. It had offices everywhere and a budget that was more than some small nations' yearly gross domestic product.

Galen was trying so hard to hold on to the hope he had felt earlier. But he could feel it slipping from his grasp. His idea about a life with Darla was becoming such a remote possibility.

He'd never leave her side, and they'd survive, but this was their life now. Two people, maybe three depending on what Lily did next, against a behemoth like PEACE was too much.

He half wished Lily had been someone coming to kill them. At least then they could have fought her off and fled, and he might be able to hang onto a shred of hope.

Lily had been saying something that Galen had been too overwhelmed to hear. It must have been the same for Darla because she asked, "Wait. What do you mean?"

Lily coughed and said, "They're eliminating anyone who knows. I suspect that once you began running off with Galen, they thought you'd figured it out. But that's just a guess. I have no way of knowing for sure. Once I found this information, I realized I needed to get out of there."

"How many people are dead?" Darla asked.

"Barret, Jamison, and Kowalski." Lily's tone was flat.

"I thought they were on administrative leave, pending an investigation," Darla said.

"That's why I had to run," Lily said.

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