Page 36 of Noah

He quietly closed the door as he ducked out of the room. Noah growled at the lack of a lock and wondered how secure she would be without one. Then he remembered no one in Moon would attack her.

Because of his uncertainty and his beasts’ constant swipes of unhappiness, he didn’t move far from Lila.

Doctor Myers noticed him and rushed to his side. At least he didn’t have to get his attention.

“How is she doing? Do you need anything?”

Between deep exaggerated breaths, Noah thought carefully about the words he would say next. “I’m not good,” he said, himself. “I feel sick without Ren.” He adopted a sickly expression.

Whatever expression he pulled made Myers pale and concerned Myers shooed them down the hall. Doctor Myers forced him to sit outside the room.

“Is there a reason you feel sick like you’re worried about leaving her? An emotional reaction.”

He shook his head and groaned tightly holding his head and chest as if he was in pain. Myers knelt and started running a series of tests, looking increasingly worried, and Noah felt a stab of something unnerving that he hadn’t experienced before.

“I don’t see anything obvious wrong apart from your heart rate spiking.” Noah spent the duration of the test picturing his life inside the cage in the hope he would appear horrified when he lifted his head. “You’re pale and sweating more than usual for a Number,” Myers murmured to himself.

Myers glanced at the room at the end of the hall when Noah groaned again. “Up. Up. Let’s go back to her room.”

Noah hobbled to his feet and made himself slump to the ground. Myers struggled to help him up. The moment he finally entered her room and approached her, he gradually straightened up. A genuine sigh of relief escaped his lips.

“I don’t understand why you react this way. It’s the first time…”

“Better. I feel better,” Noah said as he sat in the chair next to her bed.

Myers shook his head again and repeated the same tests, looking baffled.

Noah tried to hide his elation.

“Are you able to leave this building?” Myers asked.

He forced himself to look thoughtful. He imagined her leaving for good. Forever and that made his face tight with panic. “No. I can’t leave her.”

As Myers moved from one instrument to another, he said, “Okay, okay.” Noah’s face screwed up in frustration as Myers muttered, “I have no idea what to do. Does leaving her side hurt?”

Ha. Easy question. “Yes.”

“Okay, okay,” Myers repeated nervously, pulling at one of several sharp objects that impaled his face. Although Noah did not understand their purpose, he assumed they had one. It might be a status thing for everyone to know he was a doctor, but Lila didn’t have any.

He drove those thoughts away.

Myers mumbled to himself as he opened the door, “I’ll have to call the Alphas. I have no idea how to explain this. Weird biology? Exposure withdrawal? Gah Numbers! There’s always something new and unexpected. I could…”

Before Noah could hear the rest, the door swung shut. He could listen in, but why bother because he had what he wanted? Noah focused on Adrienne and the lie he had trapped her in.

She would wake up swinging, but Noah desperately needed this.

His beast pushed him to do it like there was something his human half didn’t know. The beast knew what the male would never know. There was no doubt in its mind that the little female was his.

He didn’t feel bad for feeling smug.

The annoying niggle he had earlier when Myers examined him was crushed by his selfish glee at getting what he wanted.

Arrogantly believing he was doing the right thing, and that Adrienne would eventually change her mind blinded him to reality.

He was almost…he paused, thought, and analysed the feeling, deciding on happiness. Yes, he felt happy. A shocking feeling, he rarely experienced. Noah felt if he treated her right certain they would laugh a lot.

He would treat her right, he corrected himself. There was no if. Besides, he didn’t have to tell her about his little manipulation.

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