Ch. 56..60: The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate Chapter 56-60
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 56
Alexander’s POV…
I peeped through the window to see the thousands of people who gathered outside waiting for my speech. Truly I don’t know if I was in the right frame of mind to give out a speech. I didn’t even know exactly what I was expected to tell them.
A lot had been going on that I had no control over. A lot had been going on, which made me feel weak and helpless.
At this point in my reign as Alpha, I am not so sure about the decisions I am making, if it is for the best of the pack or mine.
Like for instance, the decision I made to still pretend to be crippled when I can walk just fine. At first, I thought I was doing it because of the bigger plan and the element of surprise. When the Sizzlers first attacked us, they had the element of surprise waiting for us down that tunnel and, of course, a cheating a*s Beta as their accomplice who betrayed us at the slightest opportunity he had.
If it was not for Caleb and some group of Omega who felt something was wrong when the Gamma wolves had not returned and had made no ambush, they took the first instinct to retreat from attack and guard the city gate at all cost. If not for that one decision, our city would have been tossed to the ground. If they had taken that step before the plan failed, they most likely would have been punished for it, but that was the major thing that had saved us. But when I started walking and still stuck to the whole act of being crippled, I began to question my motive.
Was it really because I needed to know the intentions of people?
When I was still active, and my wolf was still very much active, whenever two wolves were in their wolf form, I could instantly and telepathically connect with them. I could see what they were seeing and hear what they were saying. It made everyone conscious whenever they were in their wolf form. Because they might never know; whenever they wanted to discuss something crucial around the night howlers’ territory, they did in their human forms, which was in a way safe for them away from me but far from safe for them in terms of battle.
This was part of those things that informed my decision when it came to choosing Caleb as the Beta. Before he became aware of the impending state of my fake ailment, I would mostly observe him and how he would defend me openly.
There was this time we all went for a hunt in the inter-realm, and many of them were saying bad about my inability to rule due to my disabilities. Only Caleb defended me, and they even mocked him calling him my bitch.
But to me, that was the height of Loyalty. It made me know who should be in the front and back when setting the lineup during battles.
I normally put the disloyal ones at the front and the loyal ones behind. No, this wasn’t my way of being vindictive and making them suffer, but I can’t trust them to have anyone’s back, and that’s why I always put the loyal ones behind.
But now I stand peeping through the window, hearing the endless shattering and bickering. I could see the fears in the mother’s eyes, confusion in the children’s eyes, and loss of hope being bestowed on the father.
I want to blame them for their reaction and their lack of faith in me, but truly I have given them little to no reason to trust in me or the throne, and I didn’t even know what exactly to say to them.
It was going to be more like a conversation. Certain clans had sent out their representatives.
To each pack faction, there was a clan: the Gamma clans, omega clans, and Kappa clans. There were a lot of people there, and I know a lot of them had a lot of raging thoughts, and I wanted to make sure I had an answer. Edwina came to help me to adjust my clothes, and I could tell she had questions too.
“Were you able to write down a speech yesterday for yourself?” She asked, and I glared at the open window again.
“I am not sure if I did, I was at the study all night trying to write something but so blank all the way, I am not sure why? They are my people, I should be able to talk impressively with them in all truth but now I can’t talk to them,”
“Why can’t you?” She said, adjusting my royal shoulder pad.
“Because that would mean me lying to them, there is almost no hope for us to win the battle and that’s something I need to start accepting,”
She sighed, and I knew she knew that was true.
“Don’t say so, there is still hope, I am sure something will come up,” she said with so much feigning optimism.
“Are you even sure of what is coming out from your mouth, so you know the number of people that left the pack since when Alpha Bethel showed up in that coronation?” I asked her, but I knew I wasn’t expecting an accurate answer.
“No, I don’t know,” she replied calmly.
“Eighty people,” I replied almost immediately.
“That’s not that much, I still believe there is__” she was saying before I interrupted her.
“Do you know how many wolves left for the sizzlers after Ben escaped and joined the sizzlers?”
“No,” she muttered again,
“Seven hundred people,” and I could see her frowning. She was displeased by what she had just heard, ” do you want to say that is a small deal?” I asked her, and she shook her head, and then there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I called out, and then Caleb entered.
“Are you ready to address your people?” He asked
“Honestly, no, but do I really have a choice?” I said.
“No, you don’t, let’s go.”
He wheeled me out while Edwina followed behind us suitably.
I thought about the thousands of questions they might want to ask me and the fewer answers I have, but that was crazy for me to think I could do it on my own and when we climbed up because I would be addressing them from a high balcony, with a microphone. And I felt all the anxiety kick in. I have never been this anxious to address my own people.
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 57
Alexander’s POV…
I still felt all the adrenaline rushing through my body as I reached the top of the stage. It wasn’t easy to know that this crowd had been gathered for you, just to hear you make some sort of profound speech, and you truly know that you had nothing for them in your heart. There was no atom of false hope they were going to get from me. No glimpse of wildflowers ready for battle.
They were still adjusting the microphone to fit down to my level, where the wheelchair height stopped. If I am to be honest, there is this part of me that just wants to stand up from this wheelchair. Everyone kept glaring at me, still muttering things underneath their breaths. I had never thought the day would come when I would be this afraid to talk to my people, and not just the fear but a justifiable belief of hopelessness.
I hope I don’t die of anxiety when all is done. Caleb then whispered to me.
“You will do just fine,” he said, and that was not the exact encouragement I needed, but it was still refreshing to know that he felt that way.
I saw Edwina smiling at me; if only she knew how refreshing that smile was to me at that moment when the night howler’s anthem began to sing and everyone stood up, normally the Alpha doesn’t stand up for the anthem, but even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t, I mean… I couldn’t.
When the anthem was over and everyone was seated once again, I cleared my throat. It was as if there was a giant lump in my throat that was preventing me from speaking.
“Good day, great people of the night howlers pack, I greet you all in the name of the moon goddess,”
There was a uniform howling, and I smiled because they still revered me in that way as their Alpha.
“I appreciate you all leaving your individual homes and businesses to meet up with this special gathering,” and all of a sudden, there was a pin drop silence in the arena.
“I know it has been a while since I have addressed you as the Alpha of this pack, and it had left a lot of room for doubt and lack of faith,” I breathed out and glared for a split second at Edwina, who was still smiling. It is weird, for some reason, how I get my strength from her, and I find it hard to place my finger on it. It is not about what she says or what she doesn’t say, but it was more than that to me.
“As an Alpha, it had not been easy for me. I had lost a lot over the past few months, I had gotten to sit down in my study, memorizing the names of every soldier that had given his or her life to keep all of us safe, and I had gotten to talk to their family, each and every one of them, from the grandma who wishes she had died instead to the child who keeps asking for his father,” I could see everyone paying full attention. I had written a whole speech before, but right before I left the room, I had dropped it. These were my people. I should be able to talk to them without rehearsing some speech or being scripted. They knew me, and even if that had changed now, at some point in all their lives, they had trusted me.
“It has not been an easy process, it had been heartbreaking because I believed all these people didn’t have to die, truly I don’t believe in the saying that there is no peace without b***d, there should be b***d maybe. But not the b***d of my people,”
“As a man, I had also been suffering. From the betrayal of a mate to the deceitful nature of a right-hand man to whom I had entrusted the life of my people. That had been so eerie.” I gazed at the crowd to make sure I still had their full attention and saw that they were still all looking at me with keenness. I could continue.
“Maybe as a leader, I have done a poor job communicating all this to you people, I had always believed the Alpha is supposed to be the strongest in the pack but maybe physically I have been strong but mentally I have been in a bad place,”
I could see a lot of people nodding their heads in empathy. Maybe they understand what it means to be so strong yet so weak.
“But when Alpha Bethel came for the second time, I felt all the rage over again, the rage of going to talk to that widow to tell her I was sorry because her husband wouldn’t be coming home to her anymore. The rage of going to all the grave of all those fallen heroes to apologize on their coffins because of how I failed to protect them. I want to tell all of you, no, I want to promise all of you, never again, never would I allow such thing happen again.”
I said to them, and I didn’t know where that strength came from, but with every word I had just uttered, I believed in what I had just said.
“I will be taking questions now, let’s start with the representative from the omega pack, “I announced, and I could still feel the impending chills. My eyes went far, and I could see some women crying. I recognized one as one of the widows I had gone to visit before.
The representative from the Omega Clan walked up to the microphone on the other side of the arena. He was tall, about seven feet tall, and had brown hair. I recognized him well even though I couldn’t recall his name. Before now, it would have been Caleb walking up to that podium. I would have relaxed my mind because I trusted he wouldn’t ask me some sort of detrimental question, but for this man, I wasn’t sure what to expect from him.
“Greetings great night howlers pack and my kind regards to our great Alpha,” he said with a half smile on his face. His voice didn’t sound so terrifying as I would think for a seven feet tall man.
“Greetings to you great omega,” I replied to him.
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 58
Alexander’s POV…
“I am Carlos, the representative of the omega clan, I have heard all you say, great Alpha, and like you have always known, the omega are the warriors and had always stood solidly behind you. We wanted to know, for the threatening battle, what your plans of getting more recruits to join us were because clearly, we know we are outnumbered, and I am not sure even by magic we could win,” he said in a bit of an increased octave. At this point, I truly miss Caleb as the head omega wolf. He would have never asked me such a question. He wouldn’t do that to me. He is my friend.
“Thank you, and I understand your worries and truly, it is valid. I had reached out to some of the clans and packs in the realm in which we have a strong relationship to join forces with us, and I am hoping for a positive response from them all because in the past, I can count for quite a several time when we had lent them also helping hands.”
So I had lied. At this point, I had not reached out to anyone, I don’t know if it was pride or what, but it is also because of the fact that since I became the crippled Alpha, a lot of the other pack Alpha’s around the realm had not given us the support we needed. Also, most of them had cut tiles with us, so it was truly hard asking for that kind of favour.
“So we should be expecting some new recruits soon?” He asked again.
“Yes,” I simply answered. I didn’t want to fuel more of the lies in which I wasn’t sure how to go about, and I didn’t want to sound like I didn’t have any plan, but truly, I didn’t have any plan.
He bowed down as a sign of loyalty and left the podium. As soon as he was leaving, the next person was climbing the stage. It was the representative of the Kappa clan, I recognized her and knew exactly who she was. I had a little bit of history in the last sessions with her. I knew that she wasn’t going to go easy on me.
She had tried countless times to seduce me into making her my mate, and I had also refused countless times. When I had made Sonia my mate, she was one of the people that had taken it so personally and made a big fuss about it.
“Greetings great people of the night howlers clan. I plead my allegiance once more to the throne and our great Alpha,”
She spoke with a grin on her face. If I had not known her, I would have believed what she had just said, but I knew her better, and no word that comes from her mouth could be taken as what it is.
“Greetings, great Kappa,” I replied and sighed internally.
“I am Bella, the representative of the Kappa clan,” she stated and breathed out confidently. I already knew she was about to inflict pain on my life.
“I wanted to ask sir, we are all aware in the past battle, majority of the reasons why we had won was because of your tremendous strength in the battle and combined with the wonderful strength of our previous Beta and the amazing mind of the Omega Clans in carrying out strategy,”
“Okay,” I muttered. I knew where she was driving at. All this a*s kissing was for a worthy slaying course.
“So we are all aware now that you are not capable of engaging in battle,” she paused and let her words sink in for a moment. I wanted to commend her for calling me crippled without outrightly stating it. I didn’t. Instead, I let her continue.
“We no longer have the former Beta strength and some of the Omega wolves had left the pack, not to mention, the new Beta doesn’t possess the physical strength to lead a battle,”
She just slayed an entire dragon with one statement. I hated her. She is as annoying as you could get.
“So my question and I am sure a lot of people have the same question is, how do we plan to win, with such limited strength in battle?” She asked, and that was how she then filled the once silent room with endless chatter. I knew that was her aim, to disrupt the peace and growing belief.
“Firstly, I want to state something. Clearly, the reasons I was able to win such a battle is because of the collective will and strength of everyone, I wouldn’t be that strong if I didn’t have wonderful and strategic omegas or kappas that would have our back, we still have all that, and that is not something that changes when one or two people persons leave a clan, we still have all that,” I started, and I could see a lot of peoples face softened.
“You say one or two people. I want to believe you are aware that over eight hundred soldiers had left,” she replied with a smirk on her face. She can be so evil. The chattering and bickering commenced again, and this time, even louder.
“Yes, I am aware of all that, and as I had already replied to the Omega, there are plans to bring in recruits and level all playing ground,” I replied, and I could see the disappointment on her face.
“I pray so,” she whispered enough so I and every other person could hear and then she bowed down and left. If it were still the time I had been so wicked and threw anyone that undermined my authority to jail, I would have done it for her.
“The last clan,”
The representative of the Gamma clan came, a young, vibrant man. The Gamma clan was mostly filled with youths.
“Greetings great people of the night howlers clan and I plead my allegiance once more to the throne and our great Alpha,”
I nodded my head.
“Greetings great Gamma,” I replied.
“I am Jason, representing the Gamma clan, before now we had a series of questions for you but after your speech, we decided to thank you for your effort instead and we also want to tell you we will be here with you all the way,”
That word was enough reassurance I needed to hear, and I was glad he had said that. And all of a sudden, all the fears I had disappeared into thin air.
I was so afraid of this gathering before now, but now that I had spoken to them in my truth, I was glad that I did so and would want to start acting upon all I had said.
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 59
EDWINA’s POV
I gazed upon the man to which I had married proudly, how he had managed to salvage all the situation that presented itself yesterday as a true leader. If I wasn’t aware of his struggles beforehand, I would have assumed he had a speech memorized somewhere in the back of his head and also prepared a lot of possible questions and found answers to them, but there was nothing like that. He had been scared shitless to address his people beforehand. He had even dropped the speech which we had rehearsed that gave some politically correct answers but still didn’t visit most of the key areas in which we faced.
He was able to let out his vulnerable side and amplify his strengths more than his weaknesses. He had been able to gain the trust of most of the pack members, at least to a very large extent, and that was a win.
We had come back that day, and I had f****d him so well last night. It wasn’t a gratitude f**k. It was more like an “I am proud of you f**k,” I didn’t say it, but I let my body show.
“You are so beautiful. I think I am so lucky to have you in my life,” he had said when we both finished, and we were lying down, side by side, facing each other. This was what I wanted from my ideal partner.
But I don’t know why I haven’t fallen in love with him yet. Was my mind that closed off to love? Why was it so easy to fall in love with someone as dishonest as Ben but not with him?
“Good morning, so you are looking at me,” he said when he finally opened his eyes with a smile, and I almost blushed because I knew how weird it sounded and felt to be caught staring at him.
“It is no big deal, Good morning,” I replied defensively, and he smiled.
I think if there was something I could possibly fall in love with about him, it was the way he smiled. It was so refreshing and sometimes breathtaking, but often times he rarely smiled. Things had not only been overwhelming for him but, on the other hand, causing him a major part of his joy.
“Hope you slept well, or you didn’t find time to sleep considering you were busy staring at me all night,”
I playfully punched him.
“Ouch,” I playfully responded.
“I slept well if you may know and I only started staring at you about a minute ago,”
I said to him, and he chuckled.
“I see, well let’s say I believe you,”
During the time I was married to Ben, I didn’t have many morning moments when we would play and plan our day like this.
I normally got up early to cook for him, and then he would eat, and he would drop me to where I planned to spend my day, which was mostly the library reading.
I got up, yawning, as I took my pyjama robe and rounded my body on it. I was still stark naked at this point. I had not gotten dressed after we had made love last night. Instead, I had just covered myself with the blankets and slept off.
“What are your plans for today?” He asked me, and I smiled. I think that was the most gratifying question I woke up to everyday day with him. It gave me that sense of purpose. Mostly, Ben would just tell me to go to the Library. He never supported the idea of me working, claiming it was unheard of that the wife of the Beta should be working. And as the Beta’s wife, there were a lot of functions I was meant to be in attendance at and was never let to attend. He said they were mostly boring and had no relevance in my life. And he even made me decline a position in the top women’s council. I could have thought he had done all these things to protect me, but now that I am carefully analyzing it, he had done it all to protect himself. He didn’t want me exposed with him in public so that people would know that he was married to a deficient human, someone with no wolf. He was embarrassed about that part of me. And whenever he had a function that required him to go with a plus one, he would go alone. Anytime he did it, most of those things broke me down, I tried to pretend as if they were nothing and didn’t get to me, but they did with every bone and fibre in me.
“I think I will go out with Ramona to visit the families, especially the soldiers, to see how they are faring,” I told Alexander, and I could see him smile.
“I am glad you would do that,” he said briefly, and all of a sudden frowned.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you want me to do it? Tell me if I am not supposed to interact with them. I would love to know. It’s no big deal. I will keep my distance,” I mumbled when I saw the change in his countenance.
“No, no, no, it is nothing like that. I even love that you are taking the initiative to go and visit them individually. It will help them develop more confidence and help us all in a time like this to feel like we all matter and are being heard,” he responded, and I sighed. I was sighing at myself in disappointment when I recognized my response and reaction was induced by all I had faced with Ben and his attempt to always keep me away.
“Then what is it, why are you agitated?” I asked.
“I am not agitated, just a little bit worried,”
“Hmm,” I sighed again, “About what?” I asked.
“A Lot of things, but one thing I have been most bothered about is the way of recruiting more soldiers to fight with us,”
I walked back to the bed and sat down close to him.
“I thought you said you had reached out to some of the Alphas of some of the pack across the realm and solicit their aid to provide soldiers for you?” I asked again.
“Well, I lied, I had not done no such thing,”
I rolled my eyes because when he said it, I had also asked myself why I wasn’t aware of that move he made, and I was also sad that he still wasn’t keeping me In the loop of all he did.
“Hmm, but you plan to do so, right?” I asked because I didn’t think it was such a bad idea, and except we planned to start recruiting child soldiers, there was no way we would get enough soldiers needed for this battle. Recruiting child soldiers weren’t even an option we were willing to consider.
He reached out for my hands and clenched them together with his and made me lay my head down on his chest, his broad chest. Even though he most probably had not worked out for about six months or more, he was still looking so fit and muscular.
“I am considering it, but I don’t see the feasibility of the plan working. Right now, the sizzlers are one of the strongest packs in the realm, and they are being feared by a lot of the other packs. None of them would want to get their hands dirty to find someone else to mess with. If it were the time I was still the strongest Alpha, maybe they would have done it, but right now, they fear Alpha Bethel more,”
I frowned too because I knew this to be true, we would go out to general functions, and there would be the highest seat reserved for the sizzlers.
“So, what else do you plan to do?”
He sighed and frowned both at the same time.
“I have a crazy idea but I don’t know how it will sound to you and if you will buy the idea,” he responded, and I smiled at him.
“I think I love crazy,”
“You don’t,” he scoffed.
“You don’t know me that much,” I responded with a smile, and he drew me closer and tilted my head upward to face him. He took my mouth into his and kissed me; it was one long, passionate k**s. I knew the k**s wasn’t going to lead to anything, but it felt nice to be kissed in that manner by him.
“So tell me your crazy idea,” I said when our mouths finally parted from each other.
“I am thinking of setting free some of the prisoners who were once soldiers or have the battle experience and had done something wrong along the way to recruit them back to fight for us,”
I frowned. I am not sure I love this idea.
“What is the guarantee that they won’t do something remotely evil when they are out again?” I asked in concern, I didn’t doubt Alex’s decision-making skills, but I am not sure about this particular one.
“A lot of things would inform our decision, if the crime is something like a felony of a misdemeanor, I think with a little bit of training and evaluation, we can let them slide. But high crimes such as murder and all that, won’t be set free,” he explained.
“I think that is true, and I think we can go for it,” I replied, but it wasn’t because I bought the idea completely. It was because of the side gain and a request I wanted to make.
“Really, I will run it through with Caleb before making a decision,” he responded with a smile.
“Sooooo,” I dragged.
“So?” He asked.
“Does that mean, Sonia can finally face trial and be free?”
I could see him frowning. He did not like the idea one bit.
“I am begging you, she is about entering her last trimester and I don’t want her to have to give birth and raise a child in the prison,” I explained.
“So you are ready for her to know that you are now luna and not her?”
He asked, and I frowned. That was something I didn’t really put into consideration when mapping out that plan in my head minutes ago.
Was I really ready for that?
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 60
Author’s POV…
Things get so busy at times, and people forget to breathe. We fail to analyze and think before we talk or act. Caleb had been second-guessing his recent encounter with Ramona since that day and had not been able to talk about what had happened. He didn’t want to text her; that would be too forward, but he needed to know who they were now. Were they attempting to enter a relationship, or would they just be f**k buddies? It would be a little bit higher than the place she had formally placed him in her life, and he didn’t want to push a lot.
All his life, he had pictured the day he would finally k**s her, but they didn’t just k**s that day. They f****d, real hard, and it was pleasurable. Much more than he had ever imagined. But now he wasn’t sure if that was what he wanted. He had always wanted her body, but he had always wanted her heart too.
Now he sat on his chair before his desk, in front of a laptop, trying to see if he could concentrate on doing the barest minimum work. He had a lot on his plate, and he knew that even though he didn’t want to, he had a point to prove to everyone that he didn’t get this part because he was friends with the Alpha but because before now, he had shown tremendous strength and willpower to push forward.
It’s so easy for people to create a false narrative about you just to prove a point. He thought within himself.
He knew he wasn’t concentrating at all. He recalled his conversation with Alpha Alex and shrugged,
“I wanted to run something through you,” Alex had said when he called him to the office.
And he knew that his day would either get complicated or filled with so much work.
“Okay, I just hope I give out an appropriate answer,” he said, relaxing on the sofa. He wanted to make himself comfortable.
“I already ran it through Edwina but I want to hear your thoughts on it also, you know as the Beta,”
Somehow to him, that name still feels strange. Being the omega, he was used to being called his name because there were thousands of omega wolves, and no one referred to them by their title, but being the Beta, only one person answered that name in the pack, so his name was swiftly replaced with it.
“I am glad she gave a good solution, I want to even commend her intellect, I hope you know you got married to an incredibly intelligent woman,”
He was trying to buy himself time to get his head ready for what was about to be thrown at him. But he meant it in every sense of the word he had just uttered, and Alpha Alexander had smiled, knowing it to be true, and he nodded.
“So I was thinking of a lot of things lately,” Alexander said.
“That makes two of us,” he muttered under his breath.
“I was thinking of ways to get more soldiers, and I am sure soliciting from other packs is not that feasible. No one wants to send their soldiers out to a senseless battle having little to do with them and also with low chances of winning,” Alex mumbled out.
He cringed a little, knowing he had the same thought, “since when you said it in the arena, I had thought about it, and I know how hard it is for that to work. Truthfully, if it were to be the time they still felt like you were the strongest, they might have done so. But now they are not going to,” he paused and gazed at Alex, “Except you want to give up the act and prove your strength again,”
Alex quickly shook his head in disagreement. He didn’t consider that an option at all.
“I have gone too far and lost too much not to see this through to the end,” he said, and Caleb knew that to be true. If he had recovered fast, he is sure that he would still be with Sonia, who would probably still be cheating on him with Ben and have a child thrown on him as his.
“So, what is your plan?” Caleb asked, “We need more soldiers. There is no way we are going into war in this current state. It will be more like we are going to give ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Sizzlers,” he muttered.
“So that’s the idea I have, it’s a little crazy but it is worth it,”
Caleb was even scared to ask again because he knew how Alex could get with his crazy idea.
“Okay, lay it on me,” he finally said.
“I was thinking of releasing some of the prisoners to train them. I am not talking about the high-level criminals; people with a little misdemeanor or felony, not murder-level criminals. We will take it upon ourselves to train and recruit them into soldiers, and then by the end of the day, we don’t have to run to someone who wouldn’t come through for us,”
Caleb breathed in and exhaled out. He was thinking of how exactly he could digest the information. He was silent, analyzing and scrutinizing the plan in his head.
“What do you think?” Alex asked when he noticed Caleb was quiet for long, too long.
“I think it is an idea worth trying. I think we have to carefully check their records. There are some of them in for little felony but more dangerous than those with murders,” he explained. Alex felt a little bit of relief because he didn’t have to try so hard to convince Caleb about his plan. He was also aware that Caleb wasn’t trying to patronize him.
“But that is not just what is bothering you,” he said to Alex. He knew him that well.
“Yes, Edwina asked me to set a date of trial for Sonia and it is coming up soon,”
He let out an exasperated gasp as he knew things just went from slightly complicated to way more complicated. This wasn’t what he wanted to hear.