Chapter 125

#Chapter 125 – Into the Woods Just at the last gasp of dusk, Evelyn stands with the entire Kensington family at the edge of the forest.

She looks up into the sky, noting that the stars are just starting to peak out into the velvety blanket of navy blue that coats the heavens. There would be no moon tonight.

Good, Evelyn thinks. Victor does well in the dark. Rafe will have no advantage there.

“The trial begins,” Henry says, his voice low.

As one, all twenty Betas who will participate in the trial snap to attention and salute the family. Rafe and Victor turn to salute each other. Then, they each take a moment to say goodbye. Both kiss their mother on the cheek, shake hands with their father. Rafe then moves to say a word to Bridgette and Victor goes to stand with Evelyn and the boys.

All day, the boys have been excited and cheerful. However, as the time drew nearer, they had grown more serious, their eyes filled with trepidation. Perhaps it is something about the reality of the forest at night, but Victor can see the fear in them.

Victor goes to one knee in front of his boys and looks at them seriously. “That isn’t fear I see in your faces, is it?” he says, perhaps more hard than kind in this moment.

The boys each lift their chins.

“No,” Ian says. “We’re not afraid.”

“We know you’re going to win, Papa.” Alvin continues, though his voice shakes a bit.

Victor nods, proud of them. “Good. I need you here, supporting me, being brave.” He flicks his eyes up to Evelyn, standing behind them. “Protecting your mom.” The boys nod seriously but Evelyn rolls her eyes. Victor can’t help but smirk.

He stands and shakes each boy’s hand and then leans down to give them each a kiss on their heads.

Then, he moves to stand before Evelyn.

She crosses her arms and looks him up and down, unable to stop herself from thinking about how damn good he looks in his black tactical gear. She frowns in an attempt to make herself be more serious.

“What’s wrong?” Victor says, misinterpreting her expression as he takes another step forward and placing his hand under her chin, studying her face.

She smiles up at him. “Nothing,” she says. When he frowns at her, wanting to know, she laughs a little.

“Seriously, Victor, I’ll tell you about it later. When you come home to me.”

He smiles then, and nods, taking his hand away from her face. The two stare at each other, then, trying to be discreet, but then Evelyn heaves a sigh and gives up. She throws her arms around his neck, kissing him, pulling him close.

It’s a brief kiss, but long enough for Victor’s family to see, long enough to bolster his pride and his determination. When she breaks away, Evelyn nods at him seriously. “You come home to us, safe and sound, you hear? Or I’ll kick your ass, Alpha or no.”

He smirks, nodding, assuring her silently that he will. One last look and then Victor turns. He and Rafe nod once more to each other and then each leads their forces along a separate path into the forest.

Once Rafe and Victor have disappeared into the darkness, Alvin tugs at her sleeve. “Mama?” he asks.

“Can we go to bed?”

She frowns down at him, surprised. “Really? I thought you’d be staying up until dawn, waiting for your dad to come back.”

Ian frowns at her. “Well, is he going to be done by dawn?”

Evelyn shrugs, glancing out at the forest again. “Honestly, baby, I have no idea.”

“Well,” Alvin says, rubbing his eye. “I’m really tired, and if I’m just sitting around waiting, maybe the time will go faster if I go to sleep?”

Evelyn nods, impressed by his self-restraint. “Well, that’s sound logic. Are you sure?”

Ian bites his lip, looking out into the forest. “Maybe, if you could promise to wake us up if he comes back early? Then we could sleep good and not worry about missing anything?”

Evelyn nods, smiling kindly down at him. Her poor boys – they’re really too young to be experiencing this kind of anxiety. “Yes, darlings. I promise I will. Come on.” She takes them each by the hand and then walks them into the cabin where she tucks them into bed.

About thirty minutes later, Evelyn re-emerges from the cabin and nods to the two Betas standing by the door. “Will you keep an eye on them, if I go to the fire?” she asks, nodding to where Bridgette and Marissa are sitting.

“Of course, ma’am,” the Beta on the left says, giving her a kind smile. “No worries at all.”

She nods to him, letting him know she is grateful, and then heads to the fire where she sinks into a camping chair that has been left out for her. Marissa gives her an understanding smile and then pours her a large glass of wine from bottle that she’s nestled neatly in a pile of snow.

“How are you holding up, Evelyn?” she asks, passing the glass over into Evelyn’s mittened hand.

“Fine,” she says, sighing. “It’s just all so dramatic, isn’t it?” she says, looking exasperatedly at the two women sitting with her. “As if they were at war, and not just brothers having a squabble.”

Marissa laughs lightly. “You know these Alpha men,” she says. “If it’s not over the top, it’s not enough.”

Evelyn laughs lightly, but sees Bridgette bite her lip. Evelyn tilts her head as she looks at Bridgette, inviting her to talk. When Bridgette sees Evelyn’s expression she puts on a fake smile, but it immediately falls away.

“Um,” Bridgette says, playing with her hair anxiously, “Is it always like this?”

Evelyn frowns and sit forward. “What do you mean?”

“I mean like,” Bridgette shrugs. “Is this what it’s like to be an Alpha’s Luna? I thought it would be, like,”

she wiggles her shoulders and gives her little tinkly laugh, “more fun.”

Evelyn wonders, for the first time, about Bridgette’s past. As the girlfriend of a Kensington, Evelyn assumed that Bridgette had an upbringing much like her own. But now, she wonders. “What was it like when you were growing up,” Evelyn asks, trying to be subtle. “Was it not like this?”

Bridgette shrugs, her eyes wide. “I mean, my dad was a Beta,” she says, and Marissa blinks in surprise. “So no, it was nothing like this. So is it, um…” She gestures around at the camp, encompassing everything that’s happened so far. “Is this normal?”

“Well,” Evelyn says, shrugging, newly curious about this girl. “It’s not always like this, but…” she hesitates, “I don’t think many would say that the life of an Alpha’s Luna is always…fun.”

“Oh,” Bridgette says, her face dropping. Evelyn can tell she’s disappointed.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s all bad,” Evelyn says with a smile, trying to be encouraging. After all, it’s the life she has newly chosen for herself, after years of running from it.

“We will be honored to have you as part of this family, Bridgette,” Marissa says, kindly taking her hand.

Evelyn is touched by this – many Alpha mothers would reject a woman who was dating her son upon learning she was Beta-born. “And I’ll help you as much as I can.”

“Me too,” Evelyn says, nodding, meaning it. “I mean, as much as Victor and Rafe are out there shooting wolfsbane bullets at each other,” everyone laughs a little at the irony of this, “it doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”

The three women relax then, sipping their wine and staring at the fire, warmed by it as much as their newfound kinship. Soon, Evelyn begins to ask questions about Bridgette’s girlhood, and they’re lost in conversation.

“Okay, now’s the time,” Ian says to his twin, seeing the women at the fire pouring their third glass of wine.

Alvin nods. He’s glad that they’re getting started – they’ve been bundled up in their winter clothes for almost an hour now, waiting, and he’s starting to overheat.

Together, the two move to the back of the cabin, silently opening a window and sliding through a near-

invisible hole in the screen which they had cut earlier in the day with a pair of scissors from their craft box. They drop silently to the snowy ground, looking around to check that they’re not noticed.

Then, they melt into the darkness of the forest.

Ian told him not to, but Alvin left a note on his pillow, just in case his mother came back to the cabin and saw that they were gone. He didn’t want her to panic.

Mama, it said. Went to help dad win. He needs us. Don’t worry – we will be home for breakfast. Love, A&I