Page 27 of Under A New Moon

That’s fucked up. You act like you’re falling for me and then you use a word like that.

“Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,”

“Don’t bother,” his ire was palpable. “We don’t have time for any of this now, but it’s good to know where I stand.”

Galen was fifteen, when his dad, Armand, was riding him hard about going to Crescent City to receive training as a wolf shifter. “I’m a fucking alpha, boy. Do you not understand that? If a fucking whelp like you won’t do what his alpha father says, then why should anyone else?”

“I don’t need ‘wolf training’ from you or anyone else. I know who and what I am, old man,” Galen said. It was an especially teen angst kind of day.

Armand laughed out loud for the sheer audacity of the statement. “Boy, you know exactly two things. Jack and shit. You think because we set up shop in LA, and we’re living right under the noses of humans that they won’t figure it out?”

Even though Galen was tall for his age he was still a runt next to his father. Armand knelt a little to get almost eye to eye with his son. “For you, it was a long time ago when they came for us out in the Mojave. We thought we were hidden good, but it didn’t matter. We lost good men and women that night, and if we weren’t a pack… we’d have lost everyone.”

Galen knew everything his father was saying was right, but fucking pride. “I don’t need a pack, I don’t need to hide, and I sure as fuck don’t need you.”

Outraged, Armand grabbed Galen by the back of his neck, and there was nothing the boy could do to stop the pull of his father as he walked them both down a hallway to look into a courtyard below. There he saw members of their community; kids playing, mothers hanging clothes to dry, men working on cars. All of them feeling safe and secure.

“Look, god damn it. Look at your pack. Those kids playing in the yard. Do you think you can have that in this world without a pack watching your back? That’s what it’s all about. That’s what anyone’s life is all about. And by god, you WILL go to Crescent City and learn how to protect yourself, and your loved ones, when they come for you. And they will come for you.”

Back in the moment, Galen could hear jack-booted officers running down a hallway. “They’re coming!” he hissed at Darla.

She grabbed him by the hand and bolted down the open hallway, visible now to the floors above. “Come on, we have to get to the elevator. I have an idea.”

Somewhere above and behind them, Galen heard a soldier, “I’ve got eyes on the targets. Center Terminal, basement level. Go go go!”

The gunfire was imminent, and as it began to ring out, Galen was certain they were going to die, but all he could think of was protecting Darla. They turned a corner and pressed the elevator button.

“Elevator?” he said in shock and horror. “You’re pretty certain the way to escape these well-armed terrorists is in a slow-moving metal cage?”

The door opened and Darla pulled Galen in as a bullet nearly grazed the back of his head and impacted into the wall where he was just standing; spraying a cloud of plaster and dust around him. She kicked the button for the lobby while pulling Galen into an embrace and passionately kissed him.

Twenty-Two

Darla

Darla could feel Galen hesitating.

"Trust me. They won't attack us with civilians present. It's one of the main rules of PEACE and especially of my division." Darla stopped for a moment and then said, "My former division. They can't risk civilian death. As long as we don't present an immediate danger to anyone, they can't shoot us."

"Are you sure?" he asked, but he followed her anyway.

"It's the same reason I didn't kill you in the diner."

"Well, I guess I'm glad it was a popular breakfast spot, or we wouldn't have had the chance to have this lovely conversation."

Galen took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry about Lily."

"That's something I'm going to have to deal with later. For right now, let's just not get shot long enough to figure out what to do."

They stepped off the elevator, hand in hand. There were people all around. Darla could pick out the PEACE agents from the crowd. Although they were supposed to blend in, she'd worked on the other side of the equation. Darla even recognized some faces.

That was perhaps one of the weirder parts of this. She'd drank terrible coffee in the break room with some of these people. She'd seen pictures of their kids. She'd laughed about something stupid they'd seen on tv.

And all that didn't matter. She began to wonder what she'd do in their shoes. If she'd been told to take one of them out, would she have followed them through the crowd? Would she have waited for the civilians to be out of harm's way while quietly corralling them towards some choke point?

She knew the exact tactics they were using. They wanted to force them into an alleyway or something. Without making a scene, PEACE agents were slowly closing off options. They couldn't start shooting in a crowded area, but that didn't mean they couldn't try to capture them.

It might put civilians in danger if Galen transformed, but given all that she'd learned in the past hour, she wasn't sure how strictly they'd adhere to the part about avoiding that. If Galen transformed, that might be enough of a justification to open fire even with civilians around.

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