Alpha's Regret After Her Rebirth by Aurora Starling

When we finally pulled apart, | leveled him with a hard look while he glanced around curiously.

“Who cup with all of this so fast?” he asked, gesturing around at the bustling event.

1 did.”

Noah shota surprised expression. “You... What?” he asked, sounding genuinely shocked.

| nodded. “It’s an idea I've had for a while now. Why do you seem so surprised?”

For a few moments Noah just blinked at me, clearly too stunned to speak. | just watched him with a self- satisfied

smirk on my face as my nails dug into his forearm. Everyone else thought we were just having an intimate

moment, completely oblivious to the fact that we were in the midst of a silent war against one another.

Finally, he scratched his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I'm just not used to you doing stuff like this.”

“Yeah, well, get used to it.” | released my grip on his arm and began to strut over toward the beverage bar for a

drink, I didn’t check to see if Noah was following, but | knew he would.

Just like clockwork, Noah let out a sigh as he jogged to catch up with me. “I guess | should have learned my

lesson with the whole Lunar Festival plans thing.” he admitted. As we walked, he kept looking around at

everything-the streamers and banners, the waiters passing out drinks, the mingling crowd-like a kid at the zoo.

We stopped in front of the bar and | ordered a lemonade.

“Make that two,” Noah said, holding up two fingers.

| had to restrain the urge to roll my eyes. The last thing | wanted was to spend more than five seconds around

him, but it seemed as though he had little intention of leavingthe hell alone.

“Well?” | asked once we were given our lemonades. | gestured around at the space. “What do you think?”

Noah paused for a moment, running his finger across the rim of his glass. | could practically taste the scathing

comment he was no doubt brewing up-likely sretort or another to putdown right after | had done

something that people actually liked.

But to my surprise, he didn’t say anything like that. Instead, he raised his glass.

“You have a knack for this kind of thing, Hannah. I'm impressed.”

| felt frozen for a moment as Noah's glass hovered in the air. It was so unlike him to offer up

compliments, especially not after the way he had beratedlast night. But at the stime, | couldn't

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seem to stop the red flush from covering my cheeks.

Looking away, | clinked my glass with his. “Thanks,” | muttered, taking a sip of the tangy lemonade. “1 think |

handled the whole Drake thing pretty well, too. Don’t you think?”

A muscle ticked in Noah's jaw at the mention of Drake, but he nodded nonetheless. “Yes. You did.”

“Brilliant of me, actually,” | continued. “You should have had a little more faith ininstead of just assuming

that | would be nothing but a big f****efore he could, the sound of Drake's voice cut through the din-speak of the

devil.

“Hannah! Noah!” he said as he pushed through the throng to get to us. He stopped in front ofand bowed his

head respectfully, then did the sfor Noah after a slight pause. “Hannah, your speech was incredible. And I'm

so excited to see your awareness campaign take off.”

As he spoke, Drake took a step forward and envelopedin a near-bone-crushing hug. Around us, | could hear

the soft sighs and murmurs of the event attendees-apparently, our hug was just another example of our friendly,

wholesrelationship.

And it made Noah bristle visibly, which was all the more pleasing to me.

“Another lemonade,” | said, gesturing to the bartender once Drake and | pulled apart. When it arrived, | handed it

to Drake. “Thank you, Drake. That means a lot.”

Drake grinned and sipped his drink. He glanced over at Noah, who seemed to be all too interested in the slice of

lemon sitting on the rim of his glass.

“You know,” Drake said, turning back towith a quirked eyebrow, “I didn’t know you were suffering from an

eating disorder, Hannah.”

| furrowed my brow as | looked at him. Gesturing to my skinny arms, | said, “It wasn’t obvious?”

Drake chuckled. “I had an inkling, | suppose. But | didn’t know it was to the extent you described.” “Well, it was.”

| shot Noah a look, which he didn’t return. “But | hope to tackle it and overcit. And | appreciate your help;

what you did yesterday, feedingthat m*n when you knew | was hungry, was more helpful than you realize.”

“I'm glad to do whatever | can.”

There was a brief pause after that. Noah stayed silent, but shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. He was

clearly fr+d, but | didn’t care, | had been f***led, too, when he went to Zoe's bedroom the other night.

“Actually,” Drake said, “I was just thinking... | might have an idea to help you start eating more.”

“Oh?” | raised both eyebrows in unison. “And what would you suggest?”

“She's got it under control,” Noah suddenly burst. “I've been helping her eat at home. Unless you've forgotten

about the casserole already, honey?”

The false sweetness in Noah's tone made my fingers tighten instinctively around my glass. Turning to him, | drew

in a slow breath through my nose and composed myself before | managed a stiff smile.

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“Yes, you did feeda few bites of that casserole,” | said. “Don’t worry. | haven't forgotten. You were saying,

Drake?”

Clearly, the dismissal in my voice made Noah all the more uncomfortable. He raised his finger, opening his

mouth to retort, but was quickly cut off.

“I was just going to suggest that you and | could sample sof the restaurants in the region,” Drake said,

either oblivious to Noah's turmoil or choosing to ignore it like | was. “I'd be more than happy to take you

wherever piques your interest.”

Drake paused, gesturing around at the event. “In fact, perhaps you could even consider televising it for your

campaign. It could be an excellent way to not only document your journey of trying sof your fear foods, but

also to showcase the restaurants in the area.”

A tense silence fell after that. Behind Drake, | could practically feel the hatred radiating off of Noah in waves-his

shoulders trembling and his face reddening until | thought he might burst.

Seeing him like that madegrin. Good, | thought to myself. Let him be angry.

“You know what, Drake?” | asked, raising my glass and clinking it against his. “I think that would be an excellent

idea.”