Chapter 54

Noah

Noah strode into the library, his eyes immediately searching for Hannah. She should have been here by now, but…

“Once upon a time…”

He heard her voice coming from around a corner, and followed it. A moment later, he found her sitting on a small stool in the center of a circle of children. She was holding up a picture book with one hand and wearing a dragon puppet on the other.

The children watched with rapt fascination as Hannah told the story. Noah leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, listening to her do all of the voices for each character.

“She’s a natural, isn’t she?” a soft voice came from behind him, causing him to turn. “With the children, I mean.”

Noah turned his head to see the librarian, an older woman with a pair of round spectacles on her face, sidling up next to him. He gave her a curt nod and returned his gaze to Hannah.

“Yeah. She is.”

Noah wasn’t lying; Hannah really was a natural. Far more of a natural than he could ever be, and despite all of Hannah’s shortcomings—although the list of them seemed to be getting shorter these days—he couldn’t deny it.

Part of him wished that she would have his child, not only so he could have an heir to Nightcrest, but also because… he thought she might be a good mom.

But that would never happen. She had made it abundantly clear, and besides…

They were getting divorced. The date was ticking closer now, with only a little over two months left, and he was no closer to convincing her to stay. She seemed to be convinced that he was a bastard who was madly in love with his ex-girlfriend, and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Dammit, he thought to himself, turning his head to look away from her as she reached the climax of the story and caused the kids to gasp as they wondered if the dragon might eat the princess. He knew he needed to stop having these thoughts.

He and Hannah were getting divorced, and perhaps it was for the best.

When Hannah reached the end of the book, her voice tapering off as she closed the cover with a dramatic flourish. the children erupted into a chorus of disappointed groans and pleading cries for another story.

“I’m sorry, kids,” Hannah said with an apologetic smile, her voice a little hoarse. “My throat is getting a bit tired.”

The kids’ faces fell, their eyes downcast and lower lips jutting out in identical pouts. Clearly, they were fascinated with their Luna’s storytelling. But then, Hannah’s gaze flickered toward Noah for the first time since he had gotten here, and she gave him a look he couldn’t quite read before she turned back to the children.

“But maybe…” she began slowly, “if we ask really nicely, we could convince Alpha Noah to read a story for us?”

All at once, the group of children swiveled their heads towards Noah, their eyes wide and imploring. Noah instinctively straightened, taken aback by the sudden onslaught of hopeful gazes.

He had never agreed to read to the kids; he had only agreed to come here in order to save face. It wasn’t as if he could go around letting Hannah do all of this volunteer work to get her approval ratings up while he sat around doing nothing. He needed the high approval for the divorce just as much as she did.

But he had not signed up to read silly stories to kids.

“Me?” he sputtered, shaking his head adamantly. “Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly—”

“Please, Alpha Noah?” one little girl piped up, her hands clasped together in front of her. “Pretty please?”

The rest of the children immediately joined in on the pleading, their voices quickly becoming almost deafening. Noah shot Hannah an exasperated look, but she merely arched an eyebrow at him, her expression cool and challenging.

Dammit, he thought. Dammit all.

With a resigned sigh, Noah pushed away from the wall and made his way over to the group. Hannah stood, gesturing to the stool with a smirk, and Noah shot her a withering look before sitting in her place.

A young boy immediately thrust a book into his hands, and Noah found himself the recipient of a dozen expectant stares.

Steeling himself, Noah cleared his throat and opened the book, scanning the first few pages with a furrowed brow. When he began to read out loud, his voice was flat and monotone, utterly devoid of any of the animation or voices that Hannah had used.

“Once upon a time, there was a greedy dragon…”

The children listened politely for all of two paragraphs before the first complaint rang out.

“You’re not doing the voices!”

Noah’s gaze snapped up from the book, the tips of his ears turning red as the rest of the kids immediately echoed the first kid’s complaint with a chorus of disgruntled murmurs. He shot Hannah another look, but she simply shrugged one shoulder and offered an impish grin in response.

“Using the puppets helps,” she said quietly, pointing at the bin of cloth and paper mache puppets at his feet.

Noah felt his cheeks flush hot as he shook his head almost imperceptibly. As if he would debase himself by putting on a silly puppet show, all so he could—

“Please, Alpha Noah!”

A high-pitched whine of pleading from one of the younger girls cut through his thoughts, and Noah found himself the target of a barrage of tiny voices once again. He could practically feel the weight of Hannah’s stare as well, her silent challenge lingering in the air between them.

You wouldn’t want to disappoint the children, would you? Her gaze seemed to say. Or disappoint me?

With an inward groan, Noah reluctantly reached for the nearest puppet—a garish purple dragon with a floppy tail and a lopsided grin. He slipped his hand inside, his fingers finding the holes to bring the puppet to life as he cleared his throat.

“Once upon a time,” he began again, deepening his voice into an exaggerated growl as he moved the dragon puppet through the air, “there was a greedy dragon named... Sir... Snorts-a-lot.”

The children immediately perked up, their tiny giggles causing the faintest ghost of a smile to tug at the corners of Noah’s lips.

“Sir Snorts-a-lot liked to fly down to the village and steal all the gold…”

Slowly but surely, Noah found himself growing a little more confident. Soon, he found himself moving the dragon around, doing the voices…

And even crawling around the group on his hands and knees as he acted out the various characters. At that point, he wasn’t even reading the story anymore—he was just making it up as he went along.

Finally, with one last sweeping motion of the dragon through the air, Noah reached the end of the story and leaned back onto his heels, panting lightly. The children immediately burst into applause and cheers.

“That was the BEST!” one little boy cried out.

“My favorite part was when the farmer boy fought the dragon!”

“Well, my favorite part was when…”

Noah stood, his cheeks aching from smiling. He glanced up at the clock, thoroughly astounded to find that an hour had passed, and he hadn’t even noticed.

But then his gaze landed on Hannah, still standing by the wall, and he felt his smile fade.

She was watching him with tears in her eyes.

“Hannah?” he murmured, taking a hesitant step forward.

But even as her name left his lips, Hannah was turning on her heel and darting away, one hand pressed to her mouth as she fled from the room.

Noah stared at her retreating form as the dragon puppet slipped from his hands.