赤裸裸的滑稽故事

The guard at the gate had reported Landon’s arrival twenty minutes ago, but no one else. Even the scouts didn’t report having seen anyone coming.

He was feeling nervous.

There was no way this conversation would go smoothly, but he hoped they could at least find a way to talk it out and listen to each other. That he could help Ashleigh understand why he had to do this.

On top of his concerns about speaking with Ashleigh, he felt like something else was happening around him. A foreboding feeling. He looked out the window and saw that the streets below were almost empty.

Strange for the middle of the day.

His phone chimed. It was a message from Bell. A picture of a cat on a tree branch with the words ‘hang in there.’ He smiled to himself. She was worried about him. So much so that she had brought her charts to an office down the hall. She intended to use the excuse of catching up on her paperwork to stay near him if he needed her.

Galen was about to reply when his office door suddenly opened and slammed closed.

He set the phone down on his desk as he looked at Ashleigh.

She stood in front of the door. Her hands balled into fists at her sides. Her posture was rigid and imposing. Her jaw was clenched tightly as her eyes stared back at him in a seething rage.

He took a deep breath. This was already starting off worse than he had imagined.

“No one told me you were here yet,” he said. “I would have come to greet—”

“Is it true?” she growled, interrupting him.

Galen furrowed his brows.

“What?” he asked.

Ashleigh growled again.

“You’re a liar,” she stated, “a selfish liar!”

Galen stared back at her in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

Ashleigh marched toward him, stopping just a few feet away from him.

“I believed you,” she said. “I believed every one of your disgusting lies!”

Galen clenched his jaw, taking a deep breath through his nose.

“If you’re going to accuse me of something, I should at least know what it is,” he stated, his tone steady but cold.

Ashleigh let out a low growl.

“You pretended that you still cared about Caleb, that you still believed he would come back! But you don’t. You don’t give a damn about Caleb at all!”

Galen growled back at her now, taking a step toward her.

“You have no right!” he shouted. “I love Caleb with all of my heart!”

They stared angrily at each other.

“Liar!” she hissed. “If you really loved him, how could you do this? How could you take his life from him?”

Galen furrowed his brow.

“I know, Galen,” Ashleigh said. Looking at him with disgust. “I know you are trying to become Alpha of Summer.”

Galen stood up straight and took a deep breath. Now he understood.

“Who told you?” he asked with a heavy sigh.

Ashleigh scoffed and took a step back as she shook her head.

“So, it is true,” she said quietly.

Ashleigh turned away from him. Galen watched as she paced back and forth.

He swallowed and took a deep breath.

“Yes,” he replied softly with a nod of his head. “Fiona will nominate me before the pack at the full moon.”

Ashleigh turned back with a confused expression.

“Fiona?” she asked. “Fiona is aware of this… She supports this?”

“Yes,” he said. “She understands that it’s something that needs to happen.”

Ashleigh straightened her back. She looked at him now with renewed anger.

“Something that needs to happen?” she asked.

Ashleigh took a breath and then nodded to herself.

“Right,” she said. “Of course, Fiona supports this. She moved on a long time ago. Because we all ‘needed’ to move forward.”

“Ashleigh…” Galen sighed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Fiona has suffered for a long time. More than you could know.”

Ashleigh let out a gentle scoff and looked at Galen as though he were a fool.

“She wants to make him disappear, Galen,” Ashleigh stated. “Remove any trace of him, as if he was never here. First, it was the treehouse, and now she’s making you Alpha… just to make it easier to force everyone else to move forward like she has.”

Galen closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Ashleigh, come on…” he sighed. “You can’t really believe that.”

But when he looked into her eyes, he saw that she meant every word.

“That’s ridiculous,” he stated. “The treehouse? There was nothing she could do about that, and it devastated her to tear it down.”

Ashleigh crossed her arms and looked away.

“As far as making me Alpha,” he sighed. “She didn’t want to do it.”

Ashleigh turned back to him.

Galen nodded.

“I told you,” he said. “This is something that needs to happen. The wolves of Summer are struggling. They need an Alpha.”

Ashleigh furrowed her brows.

“It’s been hard the past couple of years,” he said. “And every day, it's getting harder and harder to keep the peace. This isn’t about what I want or what Fiona wants. It’s about what Summer needs and what Caleb wanted.”

“What?”

“Caleb chose me as his Beta,” Galen said. “He chose me to lead Summer if he couldn’t. That’s why I am doing this.”

Ashleigh swallowed and looked away.

Galen watched her silently. She was thinking, processing what he was saying.

“Give me a few more months,” she said quietly. “Six months, if I can’t find him in six months, I won’t argue or stand in your way.”

Galen shook his head.

“I can’t do that, Ashleigh.”

“Yes, you can,” she insisted.

“No, I can’t,” he replied. “Summer can’t wait, Ashleigh.”

She scoffed and looked away.

“It can’t be that bad,” she said.

Galen clenched his jaw tightly. He was trying to be patient and understanding. But it was a difficult task.

“No one has ‘moved on,’” he said sadly. “We’re still stuck here, waiting for him to come home. Clinging to that hope that he’ll walk through those gates tomorrow, and we can all start to live again.”

Ashleigh swallowed but didn’t look at him.

“You have no idea how this pack has survived in the past two years. No idea how any of us have had to deal with not having our Alpha.”

She took a deep breath as she listened to his words.

“Because you left, Ashleigh. You ‘moved on’. But we all stayed, right here, waiting.”

Ashleigh looked back at him angrily.

“I left because I couldn’t be here anymore!” she shouted. “Everything around me was a constant reminder that Caleb was gone!”

“For all of us!” Galen shouted back, louder and angrier than he had been at any point up until now. “Not just you!”

Before either of them could say another word, the doors to the office burst wide open.