Chapter 9 IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES (2)

GALLAHAN'S POV

I cleared my throat and said, “So… My turn?”

The conversation went on and on. We tossed questions back and forth and shared answers for each of them. Every question grew more personal than the ones before, and I knew then that we were slowly but surely getting to the topic of our glaring and probably irreconcilable differences.

“You prefer fighting in your human form. Why?”

Willa stabbed her spoon onto the half-eaten pint of ice cream I found in my fridge. It was plain vanilla, but then knowing she liked ice cream with nuts, I had also given her a bag of mixed nuts she could eat along with the cold treat.

We had long finished our stir fried noodles, and we had moved on to desserts; the bed tray of emptied plates discarded uncaringly on the countertop in the kitchen. But our conversation remained in the bedroom, with me having a simple bar of milk chocolate with almonds, and Willa having her vanilla ice cream and nuts.

I watched her doggedly dig her spoon into the hard ice cream as she answered, “I think… I just think I fight better in my human form. While my wolf is agile and quick, I am not in the same league as the others in terms of sheer strength. I am quite small for a wolf actually.”

“Really? Can I see?”

She gazed at me with slightly squinted eyes. “I had already given very useful information about myself to an enemy.”

I broke a small piece of my chocolate and offered it to her, saying, “Hey. We ceased to be enemies the moment we learned we are fated. Between the two of us, the war is on ceasefire.”

She shook her head to decline my proffered chocolate, a wistful smile on her lips. “If only it could be that easy.”

“It is. If we want it to be.”

“Han… Our difference in our beliefs and principles will put a strain on our relationship. We will forever be fighting about this until one of us concedes and joins the other side, or if this war stops completely.”

I knew she was right, but I childishly stayed in the river of denial and said, “Who said anything about fighting? We are not fighting.”

Willa heaved a heavy sigh. “For now. But soon enough, we will have to face it. You hate humans, but I am partial to them. I… How would we live happy lives together if we are fighting on different sides of this war? Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless we run away. Unless we leave everything behind.”

My blood ran cold, and my stomach dropped in one uncomfortable swoop.

“But we couldn’t, right? We wouldn’t,” she said, the sadness nearly palpable in her voice.

“Willa…” I paused, wetting my lower lip with my tongue. “I can’t just leave. I know you can’t too. You have a family here, fighting alongside you. And…”

I ran a frustrated hand through my mussed up hair, while Willa waited patiently for me to finish my speech.

“And I may have abandoned my people during the battle in the Ferndell Forest, but I refuse to abandon them in this war.”

“Your people?” Willa exclaimed, voice shaky and high.

“Yes, Willa,” I responded softly, an attempt to sway her back into calmer waters. “My people. My army.”

But my attempt was in vain.

The war was too polarizing, and we would never see eye to eye about this matter. I didn’t want to admit it, but I could see it in the way she seemed to be equally gobsmacked and terrified by what I was saying.

Meanwhile, I felt no terror. I had never known fear again since I was five, seeing my father go on a rampage as he tried to save me, my mother and my sister from a group of thirty humans who were creature hunters for fun.

FOR FUN.

I had never feared again after seeing my mother and sister brutalized by humans. Instead, I became the monster they feared, and I had never second guessed that path that I had taken.

But then seeing Willa’s green eyes, misting a little with tears, I almost, ALMOST, wavered.

“What? What do you mean, Han? Please… Don’t tell me…”

I swallowed, finding it hard to get the answer out. Maybe it was because I knew deep down that what I would say next would ruin me in her eyes.

But I would always stand by my people, my principles, my history, my mom, my sister, and my father. So maybe that was why, even though I didn’t want to break the fragile peace between Willa and I, I admitted to her, “My Culling Army, Willa. And every werewolf who stands by the Alpha King, who is my father, by the way.”

Willa’s strength seemed to have left her, her arms falling limp until the pint of ice cream sat on her lap, her hand loosely wrapped around it. The color on her face drained in a heartbeat, and she looked at me with dawning horror.

“What is your real name, Han?”

“Gallahan,” I managed to say with my mouth that had gone completely dry over the reaction I was getting from her. “I am Gallahan Wick, the general of the Culling Army and the only son of the Alpha King.”

And fuck.

The heartbroken look on her face as the first tear rolled down her cheeks was enough to raise all my defenses up despite my efforts to keep them at bay.

I wouldn’t let anyone judge me for my pain and how I handled it. Not even my fated mate.