Chapter 127: Cartoons and Jealousy

Noah’s POV

We’ve seen three full cartoons and I’ve eaten thrice.

Breakfast, an unplanned brunch, and lunch. Elias might be a jerk, but he’s the most caring...at least for now.

The alpha has been quietly turning around to type something into his phone, and I tell myself he’s taking notes on how to be less robotic from the cartoon.

While one part of me wants to take a peek at the screen, the other part of me is reminding me of my history with eavesdropping on the Deus.

It’s a very bad history and I don’t think I want to know anything they’re not telling me directly.

The Deus can keep their secrets and I’ll keep my sanity.

"I’m going out to stretch my legs" I announce when Elias stays too long on his phone.

He’s clearly hyper focused on his phone and I’m starting to feel jealous. He promised me a ’me’ day, not a ’I’ll be on my phone all through’ day.

"Elias" I snap and he looks up from his phone.

"Nevermind, A-hole" I mutter and get off the bed. I make sure to throw a glare at him before marching to the door and leaving the room.

I guess I’ll have fun on my own.

I storm down the hall, walk down stairs and pause when I find mom talking on the phone in the living area.

No.

I’m not ready.

I stop in my tracks and hold my breath. I don’t even know why I still call her mom in my head. She’s immaculately dressed and her back is turned to me.

"No. No, I won’t accept half payment, business is business" she says firmly to the person she’s speaking to, and I take a step backwards. I stay quiet as I return to the room I just came out of.

I think I’d rather remain with Elias...he has become the devil I know and love.

I open the door to my room and catch Elias half buried in my wardrobe. The posture he’s holding makes the alarm bell in my head start to ring.

"What are you doing?" I ask and he looks over his shoulder. He doesn’t look startled as he pulls out my hidden box of cassettes and compact discs. The brown box clearly says ’keep out’ in bold red letter, why the hell is he holding it up like it’s his trophy?

"Put it back" I growl, rushing into the room to snatch it back, but he holds it above his head with a smirk.

"Can’t you read? It says keep out, you jerk" I snap at him, still trying to take the box back, but he’s not letting me win.

"Elias!" I yell his name.

"I hate that you hide parts of yourself from me, Angel" he says calmly and I shake my head.

"You can’t just- you can’t just search through my thing!" I stutter and he tilts his head, looking at me like he’s weighing me.

"You belong to me. I can search for whatever I want" he says and I open my mouth to give him a smart reply, but nothing comes out. I’m dumbfounded. All the kissing and sleeping together, he still chooses to act like a premium jerk.

"Anything else, Noah?" he asks, knowing that he’s won, and I shut my mouth to shoot him a more hateful glare.

I guess his distracted act was a way to get me out of the room. Well played, Deus. Well played.

"Fine" I spit and go over to the bed. I keep my eyes on him, fold my arms and pretend not to be mortified by what he’s going to find in those boxes.

He places them on my vanity and starts to pull the cassettes out one by one.

"Arctic Monkeys...TV girl...Radiohead..." he reads out the label, and my heart softens at the way he’s taking his time to read them. He doesn’t hurry through them or toss them aside roughly, instead, the alpha sets them on the vanity carefully...like he’s taking care of my heart.

"you have a lot of cassettes" he says without looking up, and I take the freedom to trace his side profile with my eyes.

"I wasn’t allowed to have a phone, so Zane snuck our favorite songs in for me as cassettes" I explain and Elias nods with understanding.

"Do you want a phone?" he asks and I shrug.

I know I’m free to have one, but...I don’t know if I can ask him to do that for me. I don’t have any money to pay him back with.

"I’ll get you a phone. You’ll get anyone you want" he says and looks down at the box again. Hiding his suddenly pink cheeks from me.

Oh goddess. Elias Deus is blushing?

I want to squeal and make fun of him, but I don’t want to break the fragile moment, Elias can be pretty unpredictable.

When the alpha is done looking at my collection of cassettes, he starts to look through the CDs, and the delicacy of this amazingly fragile moment suddenly jumps out the window.

I’m screwed.

"Daddy’s Little Thief...The Priest’s Toy..." he murmurs the names of the movies, and the more he says their names, the more I realize how horrible they sound.

What the hell was I thinking when I begged Zane to sneak them in for me? I’m about to throw myself out the window with the fragile moment.

"Hot and Messy: enemies to lovers" he holds my favorite one up and I shut my eyes.

"Are you done embarrassing me?" I ask with a groan.

"You think I’m trying to embarrass you?" he asks with genuine confusion in his voice and I drop my hand to my thighs with a loud slapping noise. "It’s quite obvious, isn’t it?"

"Noah" he says and I scowl, "what?"

"I don’t know you" he says and I blink twice.

"You are too used to pretending. I want the real you. I want the Noah who isn’t conscious of people’s opinion or controlled by a set of teachings" he says and my omega whimpers painfully.

Who’s Noah? A guy who talks too much, a guy who enjoys music, life and doing normal people things.

Noah, the real Noah, is nothing special.

"I don’t think you’ll like that Noah, Elias" I say softly and he drops his hands, resting them in the brown box.

"I liked him when he was a kid" the alpha says and I laugh softly.

"Don’t lie, I remember your horrible attitude" I say with a wrinkle of my nose. The nasty attitude of thirteen-year-old Elias walked so this Elias’s horrible attitude can run.

"I liked you enough to put my brothers in trouble, Noah" Elias says, and all argument and smart replies die in my throat.

"I grew up, Elias. I only know how to be...this" I gesture to my body and he walks over to me.

The alpha takes my face in his hand and I whimper softly, pressing my face into his palm.

"That’s another lie, Angel. You were being conditioned, yet you hid those tapes and discs in your room. I was going to break you to hurt you, but I changed my mind..." he says, rubbing his finger over my chin and my eyes flutter shut.

"...I’m going to break you to free you" he says and his phone’s loud ringing breaks the silence in the room.

The alpha takes the phone and accepts the call with one hand.

"Yes?" he asks, still looking into my eyes.

Maybe getting him to watch all the cartoons that made me cry was a good idea. He feels so...human.

"Bad news, actually, fucked news. Conan is sane and Mrs. Goldsmith is a conniving bitch" Damien’s voice says through the phone and I stiffen.

Right...we’re here because of Conan, my dad, and my mom.

"We’ll be on our way to the hospital" Elias says and I get up, getting ready to dress up for the trip.

"Ah, and yes, we got you a little something to fuck with...a very pretty psychiatrist" Damien says and I pause, turning my head to look at Elias.

"Keep her safe for me, I’ll have her when we’re back" my husband says and a muscle ticks in my jaw.

What the hell? We went from being lovey-dovey with me to suddenly talking about someone else.

"You’re...going to sleep with her?" I ask him and he ends the call, he gives me a cold smile, returning to his ’death’ personality as he gives me an answer.

"No, Angel. I’m going to kill her" he says.