Chapter 0341
Hannah
I spent the entire day avoiding the internet, too afraid and cowardly to face the backlash over the released audio tapes. 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.
My phone remained face down on the nightstand all day, untouched and silent. If any of my friends tried to reach out, I wouldn’t know. They would understand my silence. Instead, I buried myself in preparing 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, my eyes grew too bleary to continue working, and I resorted to pacing the house like a restless tigress. The house felt eerily quiet, almost oppressively so. Every creak of the settling foundation made me jump; my nerves were frayed and on edge. I kept glancing at the doors where the guards were stationed. They hardly seemed to move all day, though occasionally I noticed a new face as they changed shifts.
Soon, in just a few short months, I would no longer have an Alpha to handle these 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, and there was no longer any hiding the small bump beneath my clothes.
The sun had long 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 living room doorway, 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 dark circles under his eyes, and his shoulders 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 hadn’t realized I’d been holding as Noah flopped onto the sofa beside me. It felt as if a hundred-pound lead weight had been lifted from 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 decipher in their depths. “Why didn’t you tell me about White Rabbit?”
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 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 ordeal. He hadn’t 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 against the cushion 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.