“Well, try to stick to crowds. I hear they usually take to the woods to get us alone,” James offered. It was the only advice he could think of. He and his brother were more distant than ever due to their own respective decisions, but James didn’t want his brother to die or suffer, no matter how difficult things were between them. But he didn’t know much about this new underworld Noah was a part of. “Maybe stay at a club or something until sunrise. Increase your odds.”
James stopped in his tracks when Noah started listing off the worst names he could have said: The Mathesons, the Hamilton Pack… The Mathesons who turned him and ruined his standing in their pack and then the other pack in town whom James had a treaty with. Treaty or not, wolf code was pretty universal: if someone is cast out from one pack, the allied pack shows solidarity. Apparently loyalty meant nothing to Natalia, but he never thought she’d be such a snake in the grass. Taking his own brother when he wasn’t even a wolf seemed just like a move to piss off the Armstrongs, to flex on him.
“Please tell me this is you being sarcastic.” James said evenly, taking a deep breath before launching into a reaction. Surely Noah wasn’t this stupid that he would jeopardize a truce between two powerful packs. That he wouldn’t run into bed for a second time with the vampire who despised their family and literally killed him on a whim. That he was so naive and indecisive that he would claim loyalty to three different groups: The Lovell Clan, The Hamilton Pack, and the Mathesons. “You’re joking. Right?”
“James,” Noah stopped his brother, his voice soft as he spoke. “This isn’t my first full moon like this. I’m good. I’m promise. I figured it out,” He said with a little shrug. He appreciated his brother’s advice, he did and a month ago? He would have been lapping it up, clinging to every word. But now? He wasn’t the little boy following in his brother’s shadow anymore. He was thankful that James was trying. That’s all he had ever wanted, to know in some way or another that his brother cared. But, no matter how much he appreciated it, the advice itself was just a little bit too late. “You little brother is all grown up now, so-”
As he watched James’ react, Noah just gave his big brother a simple shrug. He knew his brother would probably be pissed or disappointed in him. Not that, that was really anything new, but the little kid that used cling onto the hope that maybe things between them might be different, wasn’t really around anymore. Noah loved James, he always would. James wasn’t just a brother to him. For most of his life, he was a role model. But, now? Noah was done looking for anyone else’s approval, but his own. “No, I’m not,” Noah told him, lifting up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal the Hamilton pack insignia over where the Armstrong Pack’s once was. “Look- you’ll always be my brother. And if you want to get to know me? I mean the real me? Not just the guy who worked as your right hand? I’ll be here. But, the pack’s yours. Not mine. You have a family. And until you allow me to fit in it, I’m gonna to support the people who want me. Who are proud of me.” He didn’t say he was sorry, because he wasn’t. But, there was something apologetic in his tone all the same.