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“I love you, Talia and I want you to share everything with me. The good, the bad, the ugly. It doesn’t matter. Your problems are my problems.” He gripped the steering wheel, knuckles white under the strain. “I know I did a piss poor job of proving that tonight. Tonight has been...I let my temper get the better of me and I’m sorry to.”
“So am I.” I reached across the cab of the truck and rested my hand on his thigh. “Can we just start tonight over?”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather just forget this night ever happened.” Galen’s lips mashed together in a straight line and his jaw muscle twitched.
His sour mood had nothing to do with me. That time I knew not to take it personally. Just like he seemed to know not to press me on discussing my secret. We’d learned a hard lesson, but things couldn’t continue the way they were.
If I wanted a life with Galen - which I did, desperately - I had to come clean. The sooner the better.
All the things I wanted to say had to wait until after the pack meeting, but I would say them. Whatever the consequences.
Galen had enough on his mind and on his plate. He didn’t need the added stress of my troubles right before he was set to speak to the entire pack. He needed to focus on the good of the whole, not the needs of one. After the meeting, when he’d finished his obligation to the pack for the night, we’d have time alone to talk.
It wasn’t that I felt like second fiddle to the pack, I knew where I stood with Galen. He’d made that clear first in Montana and then again when he claimed me as his mate. The problems in our relationship laid at my feet, not his.
I still didn’t know why he needed to call the meeting in the first place. It was obvious he’d come back to the apartment in need of a shoulder to cry on. He needed a safe place to share his feelings and experiences, a person to bounce ideas off of.
He needed his mate.
And I needed to do better. Maddox never shared those things with me. I wasn’t privy to his or his father’s plans and my opinion never counted for anything. I was the arm candy, the beautiful wolf selected to stand by his side.
No more no less.
Galen saw me as a true partner. He not only listened to what I had to say, but he valued my opinion. Even if he didn’t agree with it.
My experience with love and relationships had been limited to Maddox, but I had zero experience when it came to my commitment with Galen. Everything was so new, so different, I learned on the go.
And, for the most part, it worked for me.
We had our first real fight, but we came back together and each apologized without demanding it of the other. I hoped and prayed for the same outcome when he heard what I had to say after the meeting.
Galen honked the horn in a pattern of short and long bursts similar to morse code. The main gate swung open as the headlights rounded the last bend before the entrance to the property.
“I’m glad you decided to ride with me.” He veered the truck to the right toward the meeting hall.
“Me too, even if I haven’t been very good company.” I tugged at the seatbelt that rode up my shoulder and across my neck and shifted in my seat to face him.
In fact, apart from apologizing for my part in our argument, I hadn’t said much of anything. I’d been lost in my own thoughts about all the things I planned to say to him later that night.
“Just having you with me is enough.” Galen drove the truck around to the back of the meeting hall and parked the truck next to Theo’s car. “I really need you by my side in there.”
“There’s no place I’d rather be.” I opened the passenger door, hopped out of the cab and came around the front of the truck to join Galen.
We entered the meeting hall side by side, hand in hand, like a celebrity power couple, but I felt Galen’s trepidation through our connection. Whatever he’d planned to say, it was a major announcement.
I followed him through the community kitchen and out into the main meeting room. A hush fell over the crowd and the pack dipped their heads in a show of respect for their alpha as Galen moved through the room and took his place behind a small lecture stand positioned in the front of the large hall.
“Thank you all for coming out tonight on such short notice.” Galen’s voice boomed throughout the open room. “I’m sure by now most of you have heard about the losses we suffered during the demon attack tonight.”
Another attack.
I’d been at Galen’s crying over my own problems, worrying about myself while the pack was under attack and wolves died. I kept a stoic expression, revealing nothing about my ignorance to the rest of the pack, put my regrets aside and listened to our alpha as he explained what happened.
“First, I need to thank everyone who stepped up tonight to tend our wounded and assist the witches with the remains of our fallen.”
Galen continued, skipping over the gory details of the attack to spare the younger wolves who attended the meeting with their parents.
“I’ve spoken with Marguerite and going forward, there will be a witch on patrol for every shift. I know we’ve had a few attacks here on the property, but with the wards the witches have created, it’s still safer here than in town. I’m asking those of you who live off pack lands to consider moving back home. At least for the time being.”
