Chương 166: WHAT PEOPLE SEE

When we were finally in the car, we hurried back to our packlands.

"Alpha Lorent is coming over earlier. There will be a memorial service for his son tonight."

"His son, as in my mate?" I asked.

"Yes, Goddess," Killion confirmed.

"Bell's not dead," I said.

"Yes, Goddess," Killion said placatingly, and then he added, "But it might be safer for him if they don't know that. Beta Lorent is still at large."

"We need to warn Alpha James," I said.

"Would he believe you? He had not believed my father," Killion told me.

"My father had even gathered evidence, but Alpha Lorent would not even look at it." I quieted. Killion had a point. I needed to think about this.

"I need a shower."

"Your dad said he'll handle it if you can't get back on time," Killion told me.

"Are we going to get back in time?" I asked.

"That's up to you, Goddess." Killion smiled. Hm? Now that was terribly tempting. Let my dad handle it. But wouldn't that be running away? So cowardly. I would never do something so cowardly! Killion took one look at my hair and stepped on the gas, and we were on our way home... except that we sped right into the next traffic jam. I sighed as Killion lined our car up with the rest of the traffic. Killion's phone buzzed.

"Oh, I think that's my gift from Maxwell," Killion said.

"Will you open it for me?" He handed me his phone, unlocking it with his thumb in one smooth motion.

"Here." I tapped on the notification. It opened an email.

"Here's the documents as promised. I've got more if you have the time for me. Love, Max," I read aloud. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Pop. He's an idiot," Killion laughed.

"Good thing he didn't write anything worse."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Maybe it wasn't the best idea to let you open my mail," Killion muttered.

"Why did he sign off with 'love'? Is it a beta thing? Max is so weird."

"Pop, no, Goddess. That's just Max," Killion said.

"We had a little lunch date just now. Anyway, just open the documents... or maybe not. I don't know what he'd send." I tapped to open the file with my name on it. Whoa... It was like a data sheet about me. It had my date of birth and name, the schools I've studied at... It even had information about my family and extended family. It had our annual income and my family's estimated net worth... I had no idea if that amount was little or a lot. Where did they get this figure from? How was it calculated?

I wasn't sure I felt comfortable about the amount of information collected. Actually, I wasn't very comfortable about what information was used to describe me... Surely who I was had nothing to do with how much my dad made a year.

"There should be files on everyone on your project team," Killion told me.

"How... why... what?" I closed the document and looked. True enough, there was a document for every member of my team. I didn't open them. It felt like we were prying.

"Your friend Henry likes to collect data. He probably has files on everyone and everything," Killion informed me.

"After all, his pack is well known for gathering intel. Information is power."

"How did you get these files?" I asked.

"Max offered them to me," Killion said.

"He tells me there's more where that came from."

"Wait, but this isn't Maxwell's to give, right?" I said.

"Nope," Killion agreed.

"Then why did he give it to you?" I asked.

"It's an adult thing, Goddess," Killion said. I growled and crossed my arms.

"Try me." Killion hummed.

"How should I say this in an age-appropriate way? Okay, Max thinks I'm hot and wants to hang out. I told him I won't hang out for nothing. And he said he could help me a lot with information. So I asked him for a sample and had lunch with him. I can get more information, as long as I keep hanging out with him."

"So he wants to be friends?" I asked. Killion gave me a sidelong glance.

"Yeah. Or something."

"I don't trust him," I told Killion.

"Yes, Goddess." Killion nodded.

"You have excellent intuition." I spared him a sidelong glance. I could never be absolutely sure if Killion was being sarcastic. Killion kept his tone deceptively light as he continued speaking. I'm starting to recognize this to mean he is saying something personally important to him. The heavier the subject, the lighter he forces his tone when he speaks of it.

"On the bright side, I can confirm that Henry knows nothing about my fight dog days or my previous life. They assume me to be native to Night Leaf. As long as they don't see my wolf form, I would not arouse suspicion." Oh yeah, Killion was still in hiding. Oops. I thought about our time at Henry's home. I don't think anyone would have suspected this man to be a former fight dog. In fact, quite the opposite! Everyone had assumed Killion was 'Alpha Sam' until Henry said otherwise.

Killion definitely looked the part — young, cool, confident, well dressed... and very male.

"People see what they want to see," I said. Killion looked mildly surprised at my words.

"You are right, Goddess." Killion smirked at the road.

"I worried for nothing." Was he worried? Wait... if they thought Killion was Alpha Sam, who did they think I was?