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“I have so many questions,” I told him instead.
“I’m not surprised. Tell me how you are first,” he ordered, his tone gentle. “Be honest, please.”
“I feel like I imagined I’d feel if I tried to do your job,” I replied. He snorted as he held back a laugh. “I’d be very bad at it.”
“The uniform would look hot on you.”
“Stop that.”
“You started it.” He kissed the top of my head. “What else?”
“It just hurts.” I sighed and shifted, trying hard to get comfortable. The stupid sling made it practically impossible. “I hate this stupid thing. I’m hoping that I can take it off tomorrow.”
“I doubt that, princess. You’re probably looking at a long road of recovery,” he told me. “Would it help distract you if I let you ask me some questions.? Stick with just the important ones right now?”
“Who do you work for?”
“Lane.”
“Who is Joey?”
“Do you want the truth?” Killian asked after hesitating. I nodded, and I sighed. “Joey is royalty from the fifteenth century and Lane’s prisoner. When Lane discovered the heinous ways Joey was torturing his subjects over things like needing food to feed their families and having no way to obtain it but taking it from royalty, he immortalized him. Lane tortured him for centuries as punishment.”
“That’s awful,” I whispered.
“That’s an eye for an eye,” he said. “Joey could only die once, but he’s single-handedly responsible for the deaths of thousands. One death wasn’t enough retribution. Thousands of years of being tortured was. Now, Joey’s in Lane’s employment to run his bounty hunting business. He mostly handles the human end of things, but he dabbles in some of the paranormal depending on the situation. Lane strictly handles his own team, but sometimes he takes an interest in individuals he deems special.”
“Like you.”
“Like me.”
“Is he a good man?” I replied. “Or a bad one?”
“Fuck.” He blew out a long breath. “Neither. Lane just… is. He does what no one else is willing to do for both our world and the human world. The thing is, he doesn’t hurt people who don’t deserve it. You have to do something particularly horrific for him to get involved. I really do help drag in idiots who jump bail or have warrants out for their arrest. I don’t turn them into Lane. I return them to the station they belong to. But there are just some people the system fails, and that’s when he steps in.”
“But doesn’t him taking things into his own hands go against the whole point of a judicial system?”
“If he can save people’s lives when the judicial system fails, isn’t that worth it?” Killian challenged. I chewed my lip because I wasn’t sure where I stood on that idea.
“Did you know he was a hunter?” I asked.
“The first hunter, and yes, I did,” he said. “He’s always been upfront with me about who he is. He didn’t tell me about the curse, but he and I will deal with that at another fucking time.”
“Why would you be friends with him?”
“I…” Killian faltered. “I don’t think I’d classify Lane and me as friends. Besides, I think some part of me understands why he created the hunters. Someone had to protect humans from my ancestors. He had a solution, even if it was an extreme fucking version of one.”
“Very extreme.”
“We wolves have the capacity for great violence, Genevieve,” he stated. “Just because we choose peace doesn’t mean we aren’t dangerous.”
“Yeah…” Images of Nolan in the warehouse rolled through my mind, and I shuddered.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, running his hand up my arm.
“Nolan… is he okay?” Okay? God, what a horrible way to say it. There was no way he’d be okay. And Raven’s messages didn’t give me much. “Did you see him?”
“He’s got a long road ahead of him,” he said. “Have they updated you on his condition?”
