Alpha's Regret After Her Rebirth (Hannah and Noah)

Hannah

Six months passed in a blur.

It all happened so fast that I didn't even realize how much time had passed before it was too late. In fact, if anyone were to ask me about everything that had happened during those six months, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

I supposed I could have started with my daughter.

Six months makes a world of difference when it comes to infants.

Before I knew it, Melody had gone from spending the majority of her days sleeping or feeding to suddenly crawling around faster than I could keep up with her. Grabby little hands went from clumsily grasping at my necklaces to gripping the edges of tables, chairs, whatever she could reach.

Pretty soon, she was trying to pull herself up on wobbly legs-and kept trying, even when she would fall

back down on her rear end more often than not.

Those months were exhausting, but filled with joy.Content © provided by NôvelDrama.Org.

My daughter was growing and learning, even beginning to show little snippets of her wolf side-such as nearly gobbling a hole straight through the sleeve of my sweater one night when the tips of her little fangs dropped ever so slightly-and I couldn't wait to see her grow and change even more.

After all, I'd watched her die once, and it was the worst moment of my life-even worse than my own

death.

So I'd be damned if I didn't cherish every little moment with her. Even the bad ones.

Melody, however, wasn't the only source of change in my life. My relationship with Noah was constantly evolving, constantly moving forward.

We must have gone on countless dates during those months. Every weekend seemed to be occupied with some activity or another.

We did anything and everything: went on double dates with Drake and Viona to fancy restaurants, went dancing at dive bars where no one would recognize us, tried new foods in places we'd never been before, went to the aquarium with Melody, family outings with my sister, her baby, and my parents.

It was bliss, to say the least. With no one standing in the way of our relationship, we could finally explore each other, experience each other.

On more than one occasion, we did discuss our future our plans for the packs, our hopes and dreams, our worries.

But when it kept coming up during nearly every date, we finally set it aside.

"I just want to enjoy dating you for once," Noah said, taking my hand across the candlelit dinner table." Maybe we could just do that for now and worry about all the other stuff at another time,"

I'd nodded, a bit relieved that he'd said it and not me.

We were in no rush. We'd never gotten the chance to have a real relationship, so the idea of taking things slow, of just enjoying the ride while it lasted, was appealing to both of us.

Of course, the public seemed to think otherwise.

When news of us getting back together finally got out, the media was practically in a frenzy. Everyone wanted gossip on the 'true star-crossed lovers', every Internet journalist wanted pictures of us holding

hands.

In an attempt to assuage some of the public curiosity, we arranged an interview with Emily to add to my ongoing television series. Noah and I appeared together on the show, holding hands and smiling and answering Emily's questions about our journey. We even kissed at the end-a real kiss this time, not a fake one for appearances.

Unfortunately, the interview only seemed to make people more excited. The moment it aired, we were getting stopped by curious people on the street.

"When is the wedding?" people would ask.

"Are you going to have more children?"

"What will become of Nightcrest and Silvermoon?"

"Has Zoe tried to contact either of you since she went to prison?"

That last question came more often than I'd hoped. I couldn't blame them, of course; Zoe's prison sentence made headlines the moment it had happened, and people were curious. But it was a wound that neither of us liked reopening.

The truth was, Zoe hadn't tried to contact us. She'd never asked for an audience, never sent a letter, never tried to make a phone call from the prison. Not even once.

Not that we would have answered if she had.

But... maybe a tiny shred of me almost hoped that she would call or write. That somehow, some way, she would come to an understanding and would actually try to apologize, or make some kind of evil speech, or... anything, really.

I think I had a hard time coping with the fact that it all went down so easily in the end-she was arrested, tried, and sentenced.

The end.

And yet it felt... empty. Unfinished. Like there was something else to the story that still had yet to unfold.

"7

Tkept that feeling to myself, even from Noah. I chalked that feeling of dissatisfaction up to watching too many movies and reading too many books. This was the real world, and sometimes there were no fireworks or evil-villain speeches or last laughs. Sometimes there were just trials and iron bars and silence.

Still, life went on. Noah and I were both busy, between each other, Melody, and our own Alpha duties. We didn't have the time nor the energy to wonder if Zoe and Alvin were realizing the depth of their sins while in prison.

Over the months, I grew more and more into my role as Alpha. I had some hiccups along the way, sure, but it felt right. I started making fewer and fewer mistakes, and began to feel more like I truly belonged in

the role.

The months were kind, too, in that regard; the longer I spent as Alpha, the less disrespect I received from other Alphas, thanks partially to the simple fact that time had passed and the matter was less 'fresh', but it was also due to my own hard work.

Of course, I had to work harder than my male counterparts in order to receive the same respect. But I did start to gain that respect, slowly but surely.

At meetings, I was referred to as 'Alpha-no longer 'Luna' or simply 'Hannah'.

And that alone was a step in the right direction, right?

But unfortunately, with hard work also came a lack of free time. I started spending more and more of my days in my office, neck-deep in paperwork surrounding pack trade agreements and resource allocation and legal jargon.

I wasn't sure how Noah did it on his own-he still had no Beta after Scott and no Luna at his side. I had Viona and even my parents to help when I really needed it, but Noah was alone in that big, empty house of

his.

Sometimes, I wondered if I should offer to help, maybe even move back in. But he never seemed to complain about it; whenever I would ask how he was holding up, he would just grin and say that 'things were in the works' and would never elaborate on whatever that meant.

I figured he was just working on finding a new Beta or something.

'That was, until one sunny Thursday afternoon, he suddenly burst into my office unannounced.

"Noah!" I breathed, clutching my necklace in surprise. "What are you doing here? I thought you were-"

"Pack a bag for yourself and Melody," he said before I could finish, a mischievous twinkle to his green eyes. "We're going on a trip."