Chapter 374

Hannah

My stomach dropped as I reread the message. “Hey, Alpha. Long time no chat.” WhiteRabbit had returned. Somehow, and for reasons I didn’t yet understand, the elusive internet vendor who had once sold me contraceptive-laced diet pills was back.

“What do you want?” I typed back, my fingers trembling slightly. I felt like a fool for responding at all, for not immediately running to the guard stationed outside my door, but my curiosity got the better of me.

The bubbles appeared, disappeared, then reappeared. The anticipation made my heart race. Finally, a response came through: “You should know that I had nothing to do with putting the contraceptives in those pills. I was just given them to sell to you. But I can tell you who gave them to me… For a price.”

A price. In exchange for valuable information. I could find out who had been plotting to keep me from getting pregnant, and maybe even why. Assuming the information would be real and not entirely fabricated.

For a moment, I almost asked what the price would be. The temptation was almost overwhelming, and my fingers hovered over the keyboard, itching to find out. To finally punish whoever had caused my suffering. But then I remembered who I was now.

“I was Alpha Hannah, not the desperate, confused girl I had been all those months ago. I wasn’t desperate for information. I was safe now. My baby was safe. And I wasn’t about to fall victim to an online drug peddler,”

“Fuck off,” I typed, gritting my teeth. “I’m not interested in this sort of thing anymore. I have bigger fish to fry than the likes of you.”

The response was almost immediate, the notification ping cutting through the silence: “Suit yourself. I’ll be here when you change your mind.” Not if. When.

With a shudder, I turned off my phone and tossed it onto the nightstand, the soft thud as it landed next to my crown serving as a final punctuation to the exchange. There would be no “when.” First thing in the morning, I would show this conversation to my head of security and have them track WhiteRabbit down. I would not be paying any price for that information. I didn’t make deals with scammers.

But the next morning, I didn’t tell anyone. I almost did, but… something stopped me. Curiosity, perhaps. Or fear. I couldn’t be sure.

I didn’t tell anyone the next day, either. Or the next day. In fact, months passed. And that last message sat waiting for me, mocking me.

“I’ll be here when you change your mind.”

Over the next two and a half months, I threw myself into my work as the first female Alpha of Silvermoon. The days blurred together in a whirlwind of meetings, decisions, and constant battles against outdated perceptions.

It wasn’t easy—many of the older men looked down on me. To them, I was just a trophy wife who happened to stumble into the role of Alpha. To them, I didn’t deserve respect or even the time of day.

At more than one meeting, I was outright ignored and talked over. And at more than one meeting, I’d have to slam my notebook down, rise from my chair, and shout at them to pull their heads out of their asses and listen to me.

Their eyes would often flick to my growing belly, smirks stretching across their faces, as they continued their cruelty. But not all was lost.

As the weeks passed, whispers about Noah’s struggles in Nightcrest reached my ears. The pack grapevine was alive with gossip, each new tidbit more shocking than the last. Apparently, his engagement to Zoe wasn’t sitting well with many of his business partners. He was facing backlash for how he had treated me, losing opportunities left and right. They thought he had no loyalty, that partnering with him would result in being stabbed in the back.