+25 BONUS
Chapter 0341
Chapter 0341
Hannah
I spent the entire day avoiding the internet, too afraid and cowardly to see the backlash over the audio tapes being released. I could already imagine the comments: calling me a whore, a liar, a traitor.
I couldn’t bear to see if those comments truly existed.
So my phone remained face down on the nightstand all day, untouched and silent. If any of my friends tried to reach out to me, I wouldn’t know. They would understand why I hadn’t replied.
Instead, I buried myself in my preparations for my presentation at the Luna Council–assuming I was still invited to the next meeting. Luna Alanna hadn’t contacted me, nor had anyone else from the council. I supposed that was a good sign.
Eventually, when my eyes grew too bleary to keep working, I resorted to pacing the house like a restless tigress.
The house felt eerily quiet, almost oppressive in its silence. Every creak of the settling foundation made me jump, my nerves frayed and on edge. I kept glancing at the doors, where the guards were still stationed. They hardly seemed to move all day, although occasionally I would notice a new face here and there as they changed shifts.
Soon, in just a few short months, I would no longer have an Alpha to handle these sorts of things. I would be the Alpha handling them. I would be protecting myself. My child. The thought was both exhilarating and terrifying.
My hand rested on my belly. I was nearly five months along now, and there was no more hiding the small “bump beneath my clothes.
The sun had long since set when I finally heard the front door open. Noah’s heavy footsteps echoed through the house, slower than usual.
When he appeared in the doorway of the living room, he looked exhausted, his suit rumpled and his hair a
disheveled mess.
“It’s handled,” he said, his voice gruff. As he circled the sofa, I could see that dark circles ringed his eyes, and his shoulders were slumped with weariness. “The clip was claimed as a deepfake and taken down. We couldn’t confirm the IP address of the poster, but… for now, at least, everything’s fine.”
“And the public?” I whispered, afraid of the answer.
“Like I said, it was claimed to be a deepfake. You’ll–we’ll–be fine.”
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding as Noah flopped onto the sofa beside me. It felt as if a hundred–pound leaden weight had been lifted off my chest. I wanted to run to him, to throw my arms around him and kiss him all over.
“Really? It’s over?” My voice sounded small and hopeful, even to my own ears
Noah nodded, loosening his tie with a weary hand. “For now. But Hannah…” He hesitated, his green eyes meeting mine, a mix of concern and something else I couldn’t quite read in their depths. “Why didn’t you tell me about WhiteRabbit?”
+25 BONUS
Chapter 0341
I swallowed hard, looking away, unable to meet his gaze. The room suddenly felt too warm, too small.
“I… I was afraid to tell you,” I admitted softly, my voice barely above a whisper. “At the time, I didn’t trust you. I didn’t know how you would react.”
Pain flashed across Noah’s face, a brief crack in his usually composed expression. But to my surprise, he nodded slowly, understanding dawning in his eyes..
“I can’t deny that I wasn’t the best ally for you in the past,” he said all too quietly. “I can’t blame you for not trusting me. But from now on, at least for the remainder of your pregnancy, I want us to communicate better. No more secrets, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed, noticing how the lines of exhaustion seemed permanently etched into his face after the whole ordeal. He had never come back to bed last night. I hated to admit how that cold spot where he belonged kept me awake, too. “You should rest. You look exhausted.”
Noah nodded, his head lolling back on the cushion behind him as his eyes fluttered closed. Without thinking, I went to the kitchen. I warmed some milk in a pan and grabbed a cookie from the jar on the
counter.
