Chapter 210

Noah

“Tell me everything you know about WhiteRabbit.”

Noah leaned back in his chair, regarding his Beta carefully. The morning sun shone through the office windows, but Noah had not yet slept. He couldn’t sleep last night; there was too much to do. Too many moving parts to manage, too much damage to control. A mysterious forum post and now… this.

Scott shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “There’s not much to tell, Alpha. Luna Hannah asked me to look into the username, so I did.”

Noah resisted the urge to let loose a warning growl. Scott, seeming to sense that his Alpha’s patience was particularly thin today, almost shrank a bit in his chair.

“The vendor… disappeared a few months ago,” Scott elaborated quickly. “After selling Hannah those diet pills. Luna Hannah never told me more than that, and I never found anything other than an IP address traced to a random address overseas.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed. “Where was it traced to?”

Scott pulled out a notepad, flipping through it. “It was... ah, here it is. A small town overseas. I’ve got the exact coordinates written down. But when I looked into it, there were no residents at the address. The local government said the house has been condemned for years.”

As Scott rattled off the location, Noah’s mind raced. The place sounded familiar... uncomfortably so.

It was close to where his doctor had gone on that strange, unprecedented vacation. And the date…

“When did you say the vendor disappeared?” Noah asked.

Scott checked his notes again. “It was about five months ago, sir. Right around the time…”

“Right around the time Dr. Patel left for his vacation,” Noah finished, his suspicion growing.

And also around the time that Hannah got pregnant.

Scott’s eyebrows shot up. “You think there’s a connection?”

Noah waved his hand dismissively, not answering Scott’s question. “That’ll be all for now.”

With a nod, Scott rose and strode over to the door. But Noah stopped him before he left with one gruff command.

“You are supposed to be my Beta, Scott. I expect you to tell me when my wife asks you to look into shady online dealers.”

Scott stiffened, his hand curling around the doorknob. Noah said nothing more, effectively dismissing him.

As Scott left the office, Noah’s thoughts turned to Hannah. She must have made the same connection yesterday, linking the elusive online nature of WhiteRabbit to the forum poster. He couldn’t blame her for making that connection. And perhaps she was onto something.

Noah found himself somewhat… impressed by her instincts. She had proven herself to be correct about these things before.

He should have been angry with her for not telling him about WhiteRabbit sooner, but... he wasn’t. If anything, he respected her more for making that connection, for taking initiative. And for everything else she had been doing lately—her work with the Luna Council, her efforts to better herself.

A low growl rumbled in his chest as his wolf stirred. “You’re falling for her,” he accused.

Noah didn’t realize it, but a small smile had been touching his lips. He quickly schooled his expression and gritted his teeth.

The truth was, he had been falling for Hannah for months now. Ever since she was kidnapped, and he had nearly lost her.

The fear he had felt then, the desperation to get her back... it had awakened something in him. It tormented him at night. That was why he wanted to share a bed with her: fear. He wanted to protect her, and…

Sleeping beside her had alleviated some of his nightmares. He knew it had done the same for her, too. She had been dreaming about that night on the cliff, just as he had.

When they had begun sharing a bed again, both of them had been better-rested. They wouldn’t admit it to each other, but it was apparent on both of their faces. It wasn’t just the sex making them glow, although that helped, too.

“She still plans on divorcing you,” his wolf reminded him. “You’ll just let her leave? So she can take over Silvermoon?”

Noah closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. For a moment, an image flickered through his mind: Hannah, shifting out of her wolf form, the deer’s blood coating her lips and chin and neck. His Luna—his mighty Luna.

That image plagued him. It had seared itself into his mind, a constant reminder of what he was about to lose. What he had never fully appreciated when he had it.

But he finally let out that breath. “Part of falling for her has been realizing that I can’t keep her here like a prisoner. So if she still wants to go, then I will let her.”

Otherwise, perhaps his own blood would coat her chin. Noah couldn’t help but smirk at the thought. A fitting end, he supposed.

Shaking off these thoughts, Noah stood up. He had a doctor to visit.

The clinic was bustling when Noah arrived. Dr. Patel’s office door was open, and Noah could hear the doctor’s cheerful voice from inside. So he had returned from his extended vacation after all.

Noah knocked on the doorframe, and Dr. Patel looked up, his face breaking into a wide smile. “Alpha Noah! What a pleasant surprise. Come in, come in.”

As Noah entered, he noted that despite his alleged tropical vacation, the aging doctor didn’t look particularly tan. Interesting.

“Dr. Patel,” Noah said, settling into a chair. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

“Not at all,” the doctor assured him. “What can I do for you today?”

“I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on a situation. It involves an online vendor called WhiteRabbit.”

Dr. Patel’s brow furrowed. “WhiteRabbit? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that name. What’s this about?”

Noah watched the doctor’s face carefully, looking for any sign of recognition or deception. But the aging man, peering at Noah over the upper rim of his wire-framed bifocal glasses, seemed genuinely confused.

“It’s an online vendor that sold diet pills to Hannah,” Noah explained. “Pills that turned out to be laced with contraceptives. The vendor disappeared around the same time you left for your vacation.”

Dr. Patel’s eyes widened. “Good heavens. I had no idea. But surely you don’t think I had anything to do with that?”

Noah shrugged. “I’m just trying to connect the dots, Doctor. It’s a strange coincidence, don’t you think?”

The doctor shook his head emphatically. “I assure you, Alpha, I know nothing about this WhiteRabbit or any contraceptive-laced pills. My vacation was just that—a vacation. I needed some time away to recharge.”

Noah nodded slowly, not entirely convinced but unable to find any clear evidence of deceit. “I see. Well, thank you for your time, Doctor.”

As he stood to leave, another thought struck him. “Oh, one more thing, Dr. Patel. Why did you lie about Hannah’s fertility? She was perfectly capable of sex outside the ovulation window.”

The doctor’s brow furrowed again, genuine confusion crossing his features. “Lie? I... I don’t understand. I didn’t lie about anything, Alpha. Perhaps I was misinformed, but Hannah truly seemed too frail for regular intercourse. I suppose these… pills you mentioned could have had something to do with her frailness.”

Noah gritted his teeth, frustration bubbling up inside of him. Something wasn’t adding up here, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what. Dr. Patel had been a permanent installment in Noah’s family since he could remember, but…

“Perhaps,” was all he said, his voice tight. “Thank you for your time, Doctor.”

As Noah left the clinic, his mind was whirling. The doctor seemed sincere, but there were too many coincidences, too many unanswered questions.

He couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something fishy was going on, something that was connecting WhiteRabbit, the doctor’s vacation, and that damn unicorn.

Noah just needed to figure out what.