Chapter 121

Hannah

It was another early morning, but unlike the last one, it was particularly cold and rainy—the first signs of a long and very wet spring. It took all of my willpower to roll out of bed that morning, and just about all of my energy to pull my hair back into a ponytail and put on my training clothes.

“Here goes a second try,” I muttered to myself as I pulled my bedroom door open and stepped into the hallway.

It had been a few days since the last disaster of a training day, and Noah insisted that he had recovered enough to begin training. I had promised to alternate between Noah and Drake for training, and today was Noah’s day—thankfully in our own home gym.

But as I made my way downstairs and toward the west wing of the mansion where the gym was located, I couldn’t help but feel nervous. It wasn’t just that the last training day had been a disaster; it was also that I hadn’t trained with Noah, really trained, in years.

And last time we tried to train together, right before the Luna Queen’s tournament…

Well, it had been a bit of a nightmare. My wrist still throbbed on instinct when I thought about how we had fallen together in a tangled-up heap.

When I stepped into the gym, Noah wasn’t there yet—surprisingly. Normally, he was always the first person in the room, but apparently not today.

I sighed, my eyes scanning the home gym: the state-of-the-art equipment, the lockers by the door, the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows taking up one entire wall.

I stepped over to the windows and peered out. The rain fell on the glass in droves, the sky so dark with heavy rain clouds that I could see my reflection in the window. Somewhere in the distance, there was a flash of lightning followed by a low rumble of thunder. I shuddered slightly and wrapped my arms around myself.

“Stormy today.”

I whipped my head around to see Noah stepping into the room in his usual training gear. His face was mostly healed already, save for a small crack of red on his lower lip—a cut that hadn’t healed fully yet because I had a theory he had been picking at it.

“Yeah.” I shrugged and turned fully to face him. “I guess I’m not going outside today.”

“Me neither,” he said, striding over to the center of the room. I watched as he began pulling out a mat for us to use. “It’ll be a good day to stay inside, maybe even watch a movie…”

My eyebrows raised of their own accord. “You? Watching a movie?” I couldn’t help but chuckle. “That might be a first.”

He shot me a sidelong glance. “I meant for you. I have work to do.”

“Oh.” I had to quickly look away to hide my disappointment. Despite myself, a tiny part of me had secretly hoped that he would have been implying that we should watch a movie together—like a real husband and wife.

But of course the cold Alpha had work to do. I couldn’t even remember the last time we had watched a movie together.

Once the mat was arranged, Noah stretched his girthy arms over his head and nodded toward it. “Ready?” he asked.

I nodded and strode over to the mat, carefully avoiding his gaze. We stretched in silence for a few minutes, the only sound that of the fan running and the storm raging on outside. Finally, Noah was the first to break that silence.

“Let’s get to work,” he said, straightening. “We’ve got some training to do.”

…

I laid back on the mat, out of breath and my forehead caked with sweat. Noah pushed himself up to his knees and wiped his brow with the back of his wrist.

“Not bad,” he said, catching his breath for a moment before standing and holding his hand out to me. “I think we can call it a day now.”

Nodding, I took his hand—he hauled me to my feet with little effort, practically lifting me off the ground entirely as he did so. “Thanks. That was…” I paused, watching as he turned to gather his things. “That was a good session,” I finally finished.

Noah glanced at me over his shoulder. “You really mean that?”

I nodded again, the tips of my ears reddening slightly. It really had been surprisingly good—he had been amazingly patient, far more than I had ever seen him before. We had spent most of the session on the floor, with Noah teaching me how to get out of various holds. More grappling than kicks and punches, and I had finished unscathed.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I do.”

Noah stiffened for a moment, and I caught his gaze in the mirror on the opposite wall. Before I could decipher what was going on behind those green eyes of his, he straightened and began heading for the door.

“I’m hungry. Let’s go have a protein smoothie.”

A few minutes later, we found ourselves in the kitchen—I was seated at the kitchen counter and Noah was rummaging through the cupboards for the fixings of a protein shake.

“You should have one every day, you know,” he said as he pulled out a container of protein powder, a carton of milk, and a bag of frozen fruit. “Especially if you’re trying to gain weight.”

I pursed my lips and looked down at myself; I was gaining weight slowly but surely, but I still had a long way to go before I looked like my old self again. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, watching as Noah dumped the ingredients into the blender.

When he was finished, he poured the smoothie into a glass and slid it over to me—but there was only enough for one serving.

“You’re not having any?” I asked, noticing how he was already rinsing out the blender.

He shrugged. “We’re all out of protein powder. I’ll eat later.”

“No.” I frowned, jumping down from my stool, and strode over to the drawer. As I pulled out two straws and thrust them into the glass, Noah blinked at me warily. “Let’s share.”

“But—”

“I won’t be able to finish all of this by myself anyway,” I insisted, taking my seat again and gesturing to the seat next to me. “Help me out.”

Noah gaped at me for a moment, clearly trying to decide whether to follow my orders or not. When I shot him a warning glare, however, he huffed and took his seat. I gestured to the glass as I sipped and he cautiously leaned forward, sipping himself.

For a few minutes, the kitchen was blissfully silent as we drank. I couldn’t deny the heat that rose to my cheeks, though, nor the occasional brush of our knees beneath the counter. I didn’t pull back right away, and neither did he—although his face remained impassive, leading me to wonder what was going on behind those eyes of his.

But then, suddenly, that changed. It happened just as we both leaned forward at the same time: our noses bumped. Hard.

Noah pulled back so abruptly that it was almost as if he had been burned. I pulled back, too, rubbing my nose as an involuntary giggle escaped my lips. “Sorry,” I muttered.

“I have to go.”

Before I could even ask where he was going, Noah was suddenly on his feet. The last I saw of him before he swept out of the room in a flurry was his face turning the brightest shade of red I had ever seen…

And an undeniable tent in the crotch of his pants.