The werewolf didn’t give me any more information. He didn’t explain why Noah would want to forfeit his life, and the topic seemed to depress the male.
I was quite shocked, seeing once again the loyalty and respect Noah had from his pack.
Foresters were loyal to their people and culture, but alphas and betas changed so often, most werewolves didn’t bother pledging undying loyalty to their alpha.
Leaders were easily replaced here, and so no Forester was about to die for their alpha.
In the Forest Kingdom, if the alpha was at risk, no one would step in to defend them because they were supposed to be the top, they were supposed to be the best and strongest.
If they couldn’t protect themselves and their own title, then they had no business being in such a position.
As for Noah, he had the respect of his pack and loyalty.
They did not disregard his own wishes and chase out a skank like Hailey, who was an embarrassment, quite frankly.
Would they die for Noah?
I wasn’t sure.
Certainly not if he wished to die, but perhaps if he didn’t, they might have put themselves between him and an attacker.
What was it about Noah that made him so admirable? I hadn’t really seen it myself.
He just looked depressed and downtrodden but according to the werewolves of his pack, he used to be something to behold.
I hadn’t heard his name mentioned during the war a decade ago, but if his pack was to be believed, they had put up a formidable fight against the lycan army.
Although, I had stayed out of that war and hadn’t really been interested in hearing much of anything from either side.
But I was curious.
I wanted to understand Noah, find the ferocious alpha underneath the overworked, cheated-on male. And since no one really wanted to give me any more information, I did some investigating myself.
To put it simply, I became his shadow, casually following him around when he wasn’t holed up in his office.
I met his eyes, simply lifting an eyebrow in challenge when he stared holes into me as if to intimidate me into looking away.
It was the most dominance I had seen from him but really it was just cute more than threatening.
Like Cleo trying to give me the stink eye to get something she wanted from me. Really, that pup had a confidence and ego too big to fit the bill.
The next time I saw her, I’d have to make sure to land her on her ass just to remind her she had not surpassed the teacher.
She was on par with me, maybe even below me now that she’d been lazing away in that castle as a mother and alpha.
As for Noah, well I hadn’t seen him fight, so his skills were a mystery to me.
He’d sometimes stop to watch the sparring, but he never participated.
I would catch his lips turning down in disapproval, or maybe it was envy. Noah was a hard person to interpret. His chartreuse eyes were frozen and glassy.
They did not flicker with emotion; they just remained dull and washed out.
His olive green eyes were pinning me as I snagged his dinner tray from the werewolf entering his office.
The female let out a small “Epp!” when my hands lashed out and stole away the tray. She trembled as I released a strong wave of my alpha pheromones.
Her unsettled eyes landed on Noah, who just waved her away, setting down his pen and shoving back from his desk.
The female murmured a quick farewell to me, promising to return immediately with another dinner tray for the alpha.
I sent her a wolfish smile when her eyes quickly flickered over to me, a small blush covering her cheeks before she darted away.
I strolled into his office, pulling up a chair to the front of his desk, the back legs screeching across the ground. With a thump, I let the chair go, the piece of furniture landing back on all four legs.
I shamelessly pushed aside the clutter on his desk and plopped myself and my tray down.
I poked my fork at the bloody meat that was hardly cooked.
I didn’t necessarily care for raw meat, but it was better undercooked than overcooked.
I ate in front of him, offering no words as I cut the steak into cubes and pulled them off the fork with my teeth, the metal making a scraping sound that had always driven Cleo crazy.
Noah just stared at me with those unimpressed eyes. “Alpha,” he started slowly.
I continued chewing, raising my brows to prompt him further.
The dark-skinned alpha folded his arms.
“I have no objections to you doing as you please during your short time here, but if you have something to say, then say it.”
My wrist turned up, the fork with it as I shrugged.
“I don’t have anything to say,” I replied, stabbing the next steak cube and lifting it to my lips.
The alpha quirked a brow. “You aren’t going to mock me?” he flatly asked.
I smiled and pulled the meat off the fork with my lips.
“For what reason?” I inquired, playing dumb.
Noah just gave me a long look, telling me he knew that I knew about his mate situation.
He didn’t seem to be interested in playing my game and he was saved by the female werewolf returning with a second tray of food matching mine.
She shuffled past me, setting the tray down before Noah and then ducking her head and excusing herself before I had the chance to tease her.
Noah lifted the knife and fork, one in each hand, setting his fists down on the sides of his tray. He let out a long breath before dismissing me and turning his full attention to his food.
A little put out he wasn’t going to indulge me, I went ahead and pretended like he had probed deeper. “Ooooh,” I drawled, “you’re talking about the Hailey thing.”
Noah didn’t even look up at me, snagging a paper off his stack and looking at it as he absently brought his fork to his mouth.
Now annoyed that he was ignoring me as I wasn’t one to be dismissed, I ripped the paper from his hand and quickly scanned it to see what could be of more important than me.
I frowned after reading it and then turned my scowl to the large stack on his desk. “Is that whole pile really just the coming and goings on the border?”
Ever the interesting converser, Noah replied, “Yes.”
I felt my eye twitch.
Really this werewolf was irking. I was supposed to be the one giving short answers and only responding with much prodding. Moon, now I could see just how annoying I must be to everyone else.
It really was no fun to be on the other end of the stick. “You do this all yourself?” I found myself asking. It was preposterous to saddle an alpha with such menial work.
“I have nothing better to do,” he drawled, snatching the paper back from my hand and setting it back on top of the stack.
“Really?” I dryly returned.
“You are aware that the Forest Kingdom is toeing the line of war with the lycans and your pack is the first in the line of fire, right? I think you have plenty of other things to keep you busy.”
For the first time I witnessed a vast change in emotions from the alpha. His eyes lit up with excitement. “Do you really think they’ll attack?” There was no mistaking the gleeful glint in his eyes at the speculation.
He was gripping the utensils in his hands so tightly they began to bend.
“Do you want them to?” I countered, leaning back in my chair.
“Moon yes,” Noah answered, stabbing the knife down on the table.
“I took this territory after the reformation of the Forest Kingdom for that reason. I thought there would be border skirmishes at the very least but after their victory the lycans completely backed off.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear he preferred to fight with the lycans than have peace with them.
He was a Forester after all, but still, the lycans were a brutal enemy even if there were few of them left, the army they had raised in the last few decades was formidable.
They had seized control of the Old Kingdom, and even the Forest Kingdom before deciding to relinquish control over it.
As for the Lunar Kingdom, while it had never belonged to the lycans, Cleo had killed Camilla and taken control before handing it over to me and the Hunters.
The lycans knew how to fight and they were good at it.
No matter how bloodthirsty and fight-craving the Foresters were, they were better off fighting amongst themselves than the lycans.
They stood to lose a lot against the lycans, just as they would if they wanted to come after the Hunters.
Still, despite Noah freely stating his desire to fight them, he didn’t seem to hold resentment for them.
“Do you dislike the lycans?” I queried.
The alpha shrugged. “Not really, but I do like fighting. I like the adrenaline and the planning that comes with it.
“I really feel like I am living when I risk my death like that to remind me of the life I possess.” The spark in his olive-green eyes dimmed, and he muttered scornfully, “ever since we got a damn king everything has been all wrong.
“As Foresters we fight. For mates, territory, positions of power, it doesn’t matter but now we can’t even fight amongst ourselves with the king stepping in.”
And that was what I understood and didn’t at the same time.
Yes, Foresters were known to like bloodshed and now they were quite starved of it. So it begged the question, “why don’t you fight those who touch your mate?”
If it was battle he was missing then why not take every opportunity offered to him?
Noah exhaled a long breath through his nose. “Because I’m tired,” he admitted. “The damage has been done.
“I have a son everyone knows isn’t of my blood. Hailey sleeps with any potential mate that comes around, hoping one will actually want her so she can be free of me as I long to be free of her.”
“And why don’t any of them challenge you? No young juveniles want your alphahood?” Hotblooded young males, and females for that matter, were not in short supply.
Even if Hailey was not the main object for initiating a mate fight, it still should have attracted some attention. I imagined that at least one should have challenged Noah by now.
“I have a border pack,” he reminded me, gesturing to the stacks of paper around him. “No one wants to inherit all of that work.
“As for Hailey,” Noah shook his head murmured, “she’s not young anymore and she has a ten year old son to boot. They get to sleep with her and then leave.”
His eyes turned hard and distant, and I could only guess he was also wishing for some miracle that would come and try to claim Hailey.
Those eyes flashed without warning so quick I had no time to dissect his strange expression before the alpha finished, “A mate fight over her is ridiculous, even if a pack and alpha title are involved.”
I was still mulling over the words the werewolf teacher had told me, only half listening to this conversation. “Would you really throw a mate fight and let your opponent kill you?” It was a preposterous notion to me.
Who would want to discredit themselves in such a way to throw a fight against someone weaker than them? How was that dying honorably?
He responded without the slightest of hesitation or shame. “Yes.”
Before I even knew what I was saying, the words were out of my mouth. “Hailey is my potential mate and I am unmated,” I relinquished the truth, “technically I can call for a mate fight.”
