Chapter 130

#Chapter 130 – Savior The helicopter arrives faster than Victor thought it could.

Victor is grateful, frankly. He needs to get this confrontation over with, whatever it is, before he passes out from blood rushing to his head. He knows he’s at a disadvantage now, that Rafe holds all the cards.

But he’s ready to face anything Rafe can throw at him.

Even if he is strung up like a rabbit.

The helicopter hovers above them now, the wind from the blades shaking the trees. Victor struggles to look up at it, but then covers his eyes, both from the light and the pine needles flying through the air.

From between his fingers he can see a black rope ladder drop between the branches, three figures swiftly climbing down it. Two of them are in white with red crosses on their shoulders. As soon as they hit the ground, they move to the imposter, checking his wounds and then carrying him over to the bottom of the ladder.

The other figure, in black tactical gear nearly identical to his own, slowly saunters over to Victor.

“Well well, brother,” Rafe says, smiling up at him. “Looks like we’ve got you trapped, doesn’t it?”

“What the hell is going on, Rafe?” Victor growls. “This trial is done – I took out all eleven of your men, I have won –“

“Ah ah,” Rafe says, holding up a finger and smirking up at him from the ground. “All ten of my men.

Yes, you took them out. I don’t see an eleventh.”

Rafe casually looks over at the two medics and Victor follows his gaze, realizing that they’re strapping the eleventh Beta to the bottom of the ladder. As Victor watches, the ladder begins to retract into the helicopter, taking the eleventh Beta – and evidence of his existence – up into the air with it.

The two medics stand stoically on the ground, watching as the man is lifted into the sky.

“You’re never going to get away with this,” Victor growls, realizing his brother’s plan. Rafe had been somewhere else all along, waiting in safety. He had let Victor do all the hard work and then swooped in at the last minute to grab the victory.

“Everyone will see right through your plan, father will –“

Rafe laughs at him. “Father will see his two sons at a standoff, with ten incapacitated Betas each. I admit, it came close at the end.” His smirk grows into a wicked smile. “But I always knew it would.

You’re good, Victor, but you can never resist a chase. Which is why I rigged up this snare.”

Rafe takes a minute to look it over. “It wasn’t the subtlest piece of work,” he says, returning his eyes to Victor. “But I knew with victory at the edge of your teeth, you wouldn’t be looking very closely.”

Victor ignores his taunts. “The helicopter – surely they will see it at the camp – what reason could there be for a helicopter –“

“To ship in the medics,” Rafe says, nodding towards them. He paints a tender, worried expression onto his face. “You can’t think I’d let these poor Betas – on both sides – suffer with wolfsbane in their blood, with no medical attention, can you?”

With that, Rafe nods to the medics, who nod in return and hurry off into the woods to tend to the Betas.

“They’ll talk,” Victor growls. “I’ll make them talk –“

“They’re sworn to me,” Rafe says, his voice darkening, his hands going into his pockets. “And they’re deeply incentivized to keep it that way.”

“My betas will talk –“

“And tell father what,” Rafe says, laughing, sure of himself, of his victory. “That I cheated? Who would believe them?” He laughs, looking around at the clearing. “Of course you would say that I cheated, that it was unfair, that you want a rematch.”

“My Betas don’t lie,” Victor growls, worried, now, as his vision starts to darken.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rafe says, taking a few slow steps closer. “Because they’re so loyal, father will believe me when I say that they lied for you.”

Rafe is close now, close enough for Victor to hear him as he whispers. “Face it, Victor. I’ve outsmarted you. Again. You might have the muscle, but I’m the cleverer son. The right choice to take this pack into the future.”

With that, he slips a blade from the sheath at his hip.

“I could kill you now, you know,” Rafe says, quiet, contemplative. “I could just say it was a mistake, that my blade cut too deep,” he murmurs, raising the blade to Victor’s throat. “I could end the question of lineage right here by making myself the last Kensington son.”

Victor growls, daring him. “It was never a question of lineage, Rafe. You never had what it takes to run this pack. You’re a liar, and everything you have is the result of a quick and clever twist. You have no integrity and no capacity for hard work, which is what it really takes to win a pack’s allegiance.”

“Really?” Rafe says. “Because if you ask me, I just took this pack with a few well-placed bribes and one clever plan.” He brings his face close to Victor’s, then, to whisper directly in his ear. “And while you were laying freezing in the snow, playing war games, I was cozied up by the fire having a nice cup of coffee, waiting for you to fall into my trap.”

Victor snaps his head back and then rams it forward, smacking his forehead against Rafe’s in a violent, stinging blow. Rafe gasps, strumbling backward a few steps, almost at the treeline at the edge of the clearning.

Victor grits his teeth against the pain. God damnit, that hurts, Victor thinks, pressing his eyes shut against his now-ringing head. But it was worth it.

“That was a mistake,” Rafe growls, finding his footing and gripping the knife in his hand. He falls into a crouch, preparing to launch himself forward, to end his brother once and for all.

But before he can, a thick tree limb whistles through the air from the darkness, clobbering him in the side of the head.

Rafe gasps, going down, and Victor blinks, confused, as a slim figure with curling brown hair scrambles into the clearing, dropping the thick piece of wood and diving for the knife that Rafe has dropped on the ground.

Rafe sees the direction of her action at the same minute and reaches for it as well, pushing viciously at the woman, but he is dazed, and she is faster than him –

Evelyn snatches the knife and, without hesitation, spins, ripping it through the air wildly, without aim, the sharp edge facing out.

The blade rips across Rafe’s face, drawing a thin line across his cheek and forehead. Violently, he roars and throws his arm out, backhanding Evelyn, who takes the blow on her cheekbone and goes sprawling in the snow.

But it’s too late. The dagger, like all the others, had been treated with wolfsbane. Rafe howls as the poison seeps into his system, his hands flying to his face as he cries and writhes in agony on the ground.

“Evelyn!” Victor calls, twisting, trying to get his eyes on her, panicking as he feels his head starting to go heavy, his vision even darker now. “Evelyn!” He calls her name again, desperate.

“I’m fine!” She says, her voice shaky. And then, suddenly, she’s there, her hands touching his head, his shoulders, spinning him in the air so that he faces her. “Are you – are you okay – how do I –“

“Evelyn,” he murmurs, “Please, get me down,”

“How,” she says, her chin trembling with adrenaline and fear as her eyes flick over the wire around his ankle, the line of it reaching far up into the trees. “How do I –“

“It’s tethered,” Victor murmurs. “You have to find th– “

But before he can finish the instructions, the world fades to black.