Page 13 of Under A New Moon

She looked at him, trying to see if he was lying. If he was, she couldn't tell. He seemed sincere as he told her that all he'd done over the past two decades was a crap job packing creates. If he were lying to her, he would have been trouble before the Veil fell.

If he were a danger, he'd have plenty of time to work in the shadows before any of his crimes were likely to come to light. In all her time investigating him, Darla hadn't found anything that indicated anything, but regular workplace accidents happened on the job. She'd chalked it up to him, not killing where he worked.

He was powerful, an alpha, and he could kill. But he didn't appear all that interested in it. There was the nagging sense of uncertainty crawling up from inside her.

If he really was innocent, why had she been ordered to kill him?

The government didn’t make mistakes. That was the first thing they taught you when you went to work for the government.

PEACE trainers knew that in the field, metahumans would be able to create alternate realities. They could make anything look like anything. Wizards dealt in power that was unmatched by guns and planes. The mortal realm was ill equipped to fight back against the paranormal. So they sought to create soldiers of absolute conviction.

It would have to be an extraordinary fuck up for him to be declared dangerous if he wasn't. It wasn't something that was outside the realm of possibility but still a stretch.

And he was pursued by his own kind. It could be that his crimes had been so heinous he had to be eliminated. But the wolves had come for her as well. If Galen hadn't pushed her out of the way, that first attack from the other wolves would have ended her.

And she still couldn't shake the illogical feeling that she could trust him, at least this far.

"Why were the other wolves after you?" she asked.

Galen sighed. "A rogue wolf is marked. Easy prey. Why now, though when I've been fine for two decades is beyond me." He looked at her. "Maybe you led them to me. I don't know."

"I would never do that."

She wasn't exactly sure why the statement stung.

"I didn't mean intentionally. From what I understand, I don't think you'd be working with other wolves. I'm wondering if your activities tipped them off or something. I don't know."

"I'm damn good at my job. No one knew who I was. There's no way it could have been me."

Galen rolled his eyes. "Fine. I don't fucking know. I have zero explanation to give you right now. But we're both in danger if they find us. You seem like you can handle yourself in a fight, but they outnumber us."

Darla eyed him skeptically and then said, "If you're innocent, and that's a big if, I need to speak to my superiors. Someone had to really drop the ball for them to put a kill order out on you if you've done nothing wrong."

"Do whatever you have to do." Galen paused. "Though I'd prefer if it weren't tying me up and leaving me for dead or something like that." He let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a growl.

It might have been a sound a human could have made. If she didn't already know what he was, it might have just sounded like a strange noise he made, but it set her on edge a little.

"I'm going to need to contact my father and the council. The number of wolves they threw at me—at us, is more than just some rogue clean-up."

Darla looked at the time. It was late. Her body hurt. Her brain felt like it was ready to turn to mush. This had ended up being one of the most exhausting days she'd experienced in a long time.

She looked Galen up and down. He was healing, but he'd taken more damage than she could imagine he'd want to admit in front of someone who might still want to kill him. But she could read it on his face. He was just as tired as she was.

"We both have people we need to contact, but I need to think about how to explain this to my superiors."

It had been on order from up the chain to kill Galen. She was going to have to be very careful when telling them that they had made a mistake. But she didn't have the brainpower left to soothe bruised egos.

"Are you going to call your father?" she asked.

The look Galen gave her wasn't contemptuous or condescending per se, but it did appear he was questioning her intelligence. Then it looked like some small epiphany happened for him.

"No. My father and his pack are isolated. They don't have phones. It's going to be a journey to get to them."

"Alright. So, we agree not to kill each other in our sleep. Then when morning comes, we can go our separate ways and figure this out on our own. Deal?"

"Deal," Galen said before laying back in bed.

Eleven

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