Tangled Hearts - The Alpha's Baby Mama
Chapter 139: Romantic emotions...

Chapter 139: Romantic emotions...

Noah POV

My heart was so heavy that the only thing in my mind was to lie down on the floor and bawl my eyes out. As soon as I left, Selene’s room, the fake smile I had on my face slipped into a frown, I was confused about a lot of things and one of them was Selene’s nonchalance towards me despite everything that had happened.

Somehow, I had hoped that she would be pissed at me or even show signs of it, but she was so at ease that it made me worried. Her indifference was getting to me... a part of me had expected she would make trouble with me regarding Brooke but she still wanted Brooke to be her Beta. Was that a ploy to rub my indiscretions in my face or was there something missing?

Deep in thought, I didn’t know I was walking towards Kurtis’s office. It wasn’t until I was standing in front of his door that I realized I was there. I stood there for a while, contemplating if I wanted to go see him, worse still what would I discuss with him if I did go in? I knew they were all very close friends to Selene... did they also hate me now for what I did to her? And surprisingly, they hadn’t mentioned anything about Brooke to Selene.

Taking a deep breath, I raised my hand to knock when suddenly the door opened and Kurtis stood in front of me, a quiet expression on his face. My eyes widened with surprise when I saw him standing before me.

"Good morning your majesty!" he curtsied and then stood to one corner indicating that I come in "You were standing too long at the door, so I thought maybe you knocked and I didn’t hear clear enough to come to open it for you. Did you want to see me or did anything happen?" he asked staring at me.

I could sense hostility. Although Kurtis was more mature emotionally than Lucius who wears his disdain-like clothes, I could see he was trying to maintain a cordial and polite atmosphere between us. And I commended him for that. "I didn’t mean for things to happen that way," I said sinking onto the couch in his office "I was just overwhelmed by everything that happened and now I regret it so much. I wish there was a way I could have made better choices coupled with the fact that my wife didn’t....?"

"That is not an excuse to chat, Noah!" Kurtis scoffed placing a bottle of wine in front of me and a glass cup "Do you know how many men go days and months without physical affection and yet they’re still alive? What is so special about your wife not wanting to be with you and you giving that as an excuse to sleep with an Ex without fearing that she might discover?"

"I know!" I sighed "You think I don’t regret what happened? I fucking regret it because she no longer cares. Selene is taking everything in a stride and it bothers me so much. I’m worried I might have pushed her farther from me but honestly, it wasn’t my intention,".

As Kurtis opened his mouth to speak, the door opened and Xavier poked his head through the doorway. He was about to say something to Kurtis but when. He saw me, he paused and gave me a bow before he murmured something about checking Kurtis later that he could see he was busy and then left before I had the chance to call him in.

After spending nearly fifteen minutes with Kurtis, I decided to leave. He was not making any effort at brokering peace. So, I made my way down the corridor towards the hall. As I walked a lot of whispers from the servants filtered into my ears. Some of them blamed Selene that she was unwise and could have left the first chance she had. I didn’t want to take it to heart too much because they were correct. How could she leave a cheating partner to another one?

When I arrived at the hall, I noticed most of the Lycan. Kings were sitting huddled in small groups conversing. As soon as they noticed my presence, they immediately rose to their feet, the hall falling silent immediately. They all bowed their head towards me to which I waved at them before gliding into the hall. As soon as I settled, one of the kings rose to his feet.

A few minutes later, Brooke entered the company of two soldiers and was asked to sit on a chair in the middle of the hall. Her gaze was downwards and I could tell she was crying. We quarreled yesterday and all my attempts to reach out to her proved abortive. I wanted to talk about how we were going to go about today’s trial.

"Without much ado, we’re gathered here today primarily to talk about the issue of Brooke who shot at Conrad, King Tanner’s brother," he started. "First of all, it is in our law that no one should kill a fellow Lycan no matter the provocation and Brooke did. But our laws are supreme and just as well as it is...".

"Before we go ahead to talking about our laws and the kind," another of the king rose to his feet "Let’s all remember that we could have been dead for her timely intervention. She not only stopped Conrad from carrying out his plans, but she also saved our lives. In as much as we cannot admit it, I suggest we look into this matter critically,".

"I agree!" another of the King piped in "She didn’t do it purposely. She did it to save a life and I think it’s time we rewrite most of these century-old laws. The world is changing so much. Humans whom we’ve borrowed their ways of living are always inventing strange things. And when our laws cannot stand special situations like this, it should go. We cannot continue keeping all of these ancestral practices. There was a reason while it was passed in those days,".

A tense murmur rippled through the hall. My gaze swept across them, taking in their expressions – anger, sorrow and grim determination were all on their faces.

"Killing Conrad who could easily have been the next Lycan King in his brother’s stead is nothing less than a capital violation and asking us not to apply that law because it was used in our favour would mean we should not apply other laws," another King barked out "Even if she’ll not be killed as the law stated, she should be punished. That would serve as a statement out there to people who think the law would bend for them,".

A chorus of grunts and affirmations followed. One of the elders of the Moon Whisper pack suddenly rose to his feet causing the heated talking and arguments to die down.

"Need I remind you all of the full context?" He stated "Without Brooke’s actions, many things might have happened. And not just Brooke... Alpha Xavier of the Greyhound Pack, Nephew to our beloved king risked his life to go out during the Dark Moon phase to stop machinery sent to Moon Whisper. A lot of people laid down their lives to see that whatever had been intended by Conrad doesn’t fly and you think if we repay them by punishment they would choose to be patriotic to us again. What message are we sending to the rest of our pack members? To tell that their acts of service which don’t align with the law will be punished?"

The hall erupted into shouts and furious debating from both sides. Assertions that Brooke’s crimes could not go unanswered, that they must uphold the law at any cost taking the upper hand of those arguing that she was a true heroine and should be celebrated not just thanked.

Through it all, Brooke remained motionless. The only signs to know she was in the room were her silent sobs and the occasional tears which would drip from her eyes onto the dress she had on. Her gaze remained locked onto me, however. I refused to hold her gaze, averting my eyes from her, I turned once again to the elders in the hall with me. right now, I couldn’t afford emotions to becloud my judgements and the only way I could save her right now was not to act attached.

Deep down, I know a lot of the Kings were waiting for someone to use her attachment to me and also use that we had displayed our romantic emotions in front of everyone to judge that she was clouded by love and lacked common reasoning and at such had chosen to kill Conrad so that she could save me.

When the argument was getting heated, I raised my hand, calling for silence. I waited until they quietened.

"Ideally," I started "All of this happened in Moon Whisper. Although it would be out of context if I mentioned how gullible you all were by heading to Conrad and leaving your packs behind to come here that would be another discussion for another day. Still, all I want to say is this is a grave issue before us and because of how delicate it is, we cannot choose to handle it the way we like without proper scrutinization since the final judgment will rest in my hands, I suggest we stop here for today," I paused and looked around the hall waiting for someone to try to counter me.

"I will not decide until we’ve all weighed the matters and then we’ll gather a month later to properly discuss this. In the meantime, a lot has happened. We should all go back to our Packs to take care of our scared members and put other things again so when next convening to talk about this issue, we will be meeting as people who are well rested and have gotten over the shock of the event that happened,".

I took in a deep breath and rose to my feet "I’ve also instructed my soldiers to aid your return. I wish you the best of journeys," with that, I turned on my heels and left the hall.