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300 My Mother

Bell stared at Galen with wide eyes.

Galen kept her gaze but said nothing.

Peter looked back and forth between them.

“So… I’m going to give you guys the room… Uhm… try to remember your calming techniques, Bell,” Peter said awkwardly as he left.

“What do you mean you tried to kill Ashleigh?” Bell asked carefully.

Galen licked his lips and looked away.

“I held a dagger in the air above her, preparing to run her through.”

Bell took a deep breath and then sat back down on the bed where she had been laying just a few moments earlier.

Knowing him, knowing the person he was, it was apparent there was a misunderstanding of some sort. She took a moment to calm her nerves and relax the reflexive panic at his words.

Bell pointed to the small stool.

“Sit,” she instructed.

Galen did as he was told.

“Move closer,” she said.

Galen rolled the stool so that he was sitting directly in front of her.

Bell took a deep breath and then looked at him.

“Well, you’re still alive,” she said. “Which means you didn’t actually hurt her since Caleb didn’t kill you.”

“No, I didn’t actually touch her.”

Bell was confused.

“So… you didn’t try to kill her?” she asked.

“I had my weapon readied,” Galen said, he took a breath. “I was going to do it.”

Bell sighed, she reached out and touched his cheek.

“This isn’t the time to bury the lead, love. Just tell me exactly what happened.”

Galen swallowed. He looked down at the floor.

“I got a call from Clara,” he began. “She said that Nessa had pissed off Ashleigh and that Fiona stepped in, but Ashleigh looked ready for a fight. So I called Caleb, and then I ran.”

He paused, licking his lips as he remembered the moment...

Galen had been looking through the work orders for one of the sentry posts that had been damaged by Ashleigh and Caleb after the gates had locked down.

His phone rang.

“It better be important.” He answered.

“Galen, come to Alpha Cain’s lab quick!” Clara shouted. “Nessa pissed off Ashleigh, Fiona jumped in, but Ash looked like she was itching for a fight! I don’t know what’s going on now, but you need to get down here!”

Galen jumped up from his chair and rushed out the door, he made a quick call to Caleb and ran as fast as he could to the lab.

As he got close, he heard the sound of fighting and Fiona’s voice.

“Submit, damn it!” Fiona shouted.

For a brief moment, he felt relieved, but then everything changed. He felt something in the air, a pressure, a thick and heavy strain like when he had been forced to his knees by Axel.

Galen felt a sudden panic.

He rounded the corner just in time to see Fiona on her knees, clawing at her throat. The look on her face was strained, a silent, anguished scream.

He didn’t know when he had touched the pin on his chest. He didn’t remember when the chords had covered his body or when he had summoned the blade into his hand.

Galen’s eyes were focused on Fiona, on the look of panic. On how weak she looked.

In all the years he had known her, even as she struggled to recover after her accident from Cain’s death, she had never looked weak. But right now, at this moment, she looked frail.

Just as they had.

Galen raised the dagger above his head, his heart pounding in his ears, his rational mind all but gone. Only then did he turn his eyes on his target, just as he was about to bring the blade down into the back of her throat.

Only then did he see Ashleigh.

“Stop!”

The familiar presence of his Alpha, the command in his voice combined with Galen’s utter loyalty, immediately halted his movement. A sigh of relief escaped his lips.

“Caleb apparently calmed Ashleigh enough for her to drop her hold on Fiona,” Galen said, wrapping up the story for Bell. “Fiona called to me as she struggled to regain her breath, she told me to stop, and I let go of the dagger. After that, Ashleigh seemed to wake up from a nightmare.”

“Wow,” Bell said. She took a deep breath and let it back out. “That is… intense.”

Galen nodded.

“Galen?” Bell said quietly.

“Yea?”

“I understand that seeing Fiona like that was upsetting,” Bell began. “But why did it bother you so much that she seemed frail?”

Galen looked down toward the floor again, he leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees.

“Galen,” Bell whispered, reaching her hand to lift his chin to look at her. “Talk to me, honey.”

Galen clenched his jaw and fought the heat that hit the back of his eyes, the tingle in his sinuses as his emotional armor was pulled away.

He swallowed and sat up.

“I can’t remember my mother’s face,” he said softly. “Almost every memory of her is cloudy, a smile, a flash of green eyes, strawberry blonde hair. Her hands… I remember her hands. She had long, thin fingers… with nails that were always painted, even at the end.”

He smiled as he remembered her holding the chain of paper snowflakes in the sunlight and the sound of her laugh.

“What I do remember,” he continued, “is how tired she was. How weak she had become. How she could barely lift herself in bed before the end.”

Bell wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to hold back her sniffles.

“Dad too,” Galen said. “After she died, it was like the disease passed to him… but it took years to kill him. The whole time, he was just so helpless.”

“Galen…” Bell whispered.

“And Hannah…” Galen whispered with a shaky voice. “She always tried so hard to smile and laugh when I visited her. To hide the exhaustion she felt. But I felt it. I know how weak she was, how hard it was for her to make it through each day until she couldn’t anymore.”

Galen paused. He cried, allowing himself to release the sobs he had held back.

“Seeing Fiona on her knees… all I could think of was Hannah… my parents…” he whispered. “I couldn’t do anything for them… I had to watch them die, slow, painful deaths.”

Bell stood from the table. She got down in front of him and hugged him. Galen hugged her, holding her tightly as he let himself go.

“Shh…” Bell whispered through her own tears. “It’s okay… It’s okay.”

“I wasn’t trying to hurt Ashleigh….” Galen sobbed with regret. “I just wanted to save my mother….”