Chapter 57

#Chapter 57 – Blood “You would have refused, Evelyn!” Victor yells, slamming my kitchen door behind him as he stalks into the room behind me.

We just spent the last half-hour shaking hands and smiling at people’s congratulations. I kissed my boys, laughed at Willard’s jokes about surprises, smiled for pictures, all the while seething on the inside, waiting for the moment when I could tear him apart.

As soon as there was a break, I caught Victor’s eye. It wasn’t hard – he’s been waiting for this too.

Without a word, we both stalked off towards my cottage.

“Yes, Victor,” I say, spinning to face him. “I would have refused, because you took the one thing from me that I have left! You took my freedom,” I say, banging on his honed chest with my fist. “And now you’ve got me all wrapped up in documents, your little pet, here at your command.”

He growls down at me, perhaps not as cool under my pressure as he thought he would be. “So go ahead, Victor,” I hiss, bringing my face close to his in a challenge. “Boss me around. That’s what you want, isn’t it? All this talk about protection and family, but all you want is control. So go ahead, command me.” My lips pull back as I growl. “Make me do your bidding.”

Victor fully bears his teeth then and he moves towards me, seeking to dominate me with force of his will, but I don’t stand down. His eyes dart downward, taking in all of me – my whole form in white linen and lace. “Go ahead, Victor,” I whisper, cruel. “Do it.”

He spins away from me, a snarl ripping from his throat. “Evelyn, you’re taking this out of hand.”

“I’m doing no such – “

“Evelyn,” he commands, slamming his hand against the wall. “It is a simple issue. If I had told you, you would have refused. So I was obliged to force your hand, for your own protection.”

“No, Victor,” I say, crossing my arms across my chest. “You had a choice between two options: to tell me, or not to tell me. But only one choice would have yielded you what you wanted, and so that’s the choice you made. And you’re trying to assuage your own guilt by suggesting to me that there wasn’t a choice at all!”

“It’s for your protection, Evelyn,” Victor continues to insist, his back to me. “You now have my official protection, and have been reinstated as an Alpha-born woman, the rights of which – ”

“I don’t want those rights!” I cry, flinging my arms to the side. “I ran away from those rights, which ruined the first twenty-two years of my life! I changed my name so no one would ever tie me to the person I was, an alpha-born female, ever again!”

“You’re a fool, Evelyn,” Victor says, turning and stalking back to face me. “As a woman marked with Alpha status you are protected, you cannot be touched,”

“Living in a gilded cage,” I cry again, though softer this time, overwhelmed by my emotions. “Protected, but tied – ”

“I am not tying you to anything,” he says, taking my face in his hands, showing honest remorse at my distress.

“You’re tying me to you,” I return, pressing my own hands against his and staring up into his face. We stay like this for a moment before I plead, “Please, Victor. Let me go, let me be Rogue again. I can’t…I can’t live like this.” Tears seep free from my eyes, collecting against Victor’s fingers.

“Evelyn, if you’re mine, your father can’t get to you,” Victor says, soft. “He can’t touch you, can’t take you away, can’t take your boys away. Don’t you see? In one day, I’ve made you all safe from him.”

“Don’t you see, Victor? You’re playing into his game. He wanted this.”

Victor takes a step away from me and drops his hands, his face now wary and curious. “What do you mean? How could he have wanted this?”

“I don’t know,” I say, exhausted and at the end of my emotional rope. “I don’t know what he gains from this, but I do know that he called you to his house for a reason. He pushed your hand for a reason.”

“He said horrible things about you, Evelyn,” Victor says. “Terrible things – sought to make me hate you – ”

“Or sought to make you want to protect me, Victor,” I say, hanging my head. “Wasn’t that the result?

You’re playing checkers with someone who is a master at chess, Alpha Kensington. And you’re playing right into his trap, whatever it is.”

Victor stalks away to stare out the back window, trying to figure it out. I collapse into a chair at the kitchen table, exhausted now that my rage has gone. I glance at the clock on the stove. It’s only 1:00.

How am I supposed to survive the rest of this day?

The back door swings open and Amelia enters, Edgar close on her heels. “What are you two doing,”

Amelia whispers furiously. She hurries over to Victor and grabs his hand. “Everyone saw you disappear in here together, and the press is waiting for interviews, Victor. Can you please come out and control this situation?”

“We were just discussing the change,” Victor says, gesturing to me. “If you couldn’t tell, Evelyn was…

surprised.”

Edgar kneels down next to me, taking my hand. “Are you okay?” he asks, his voice careful and full of love. I smile at him and nod.

“Oh, sure, she was surprised,” Amelia says, rolling her eyes. “No concern for my surprise in that moment. No rushing off to an abandoned cottage to comfort me. Come on.” She grabs Victor by the right hand and pulls him towards the door.

As she goes, Amelia glances at me and then stops dead in her tracks. She c***s her head to the side and then take a few steps closer, staring at my face. Her eyes quickly flick between my face and Victor’s poorly-bandaged left hand, which is now leaking blood.

“Better get cleaned up before you come back out, Evelyn,” Amelia sneers. “You’ve got something right here.” She taps her right cheek and I raise my hand to feel that, indeed, it is sticky. I look at my fingers as Amelia pulls Victor out the door behind her. They away red, with blood. Victor’s blood, from when he held my face in his hands.

“Are you okay?” Edgar asks, moving to the sink and wetting a paper towel. He quickly comes back and dabs at my face. “Did you get cut?”

“No,” I say, “It’s nothing. Just a little blood – from the boys, the ceremony,”

“Mmm,” he says, smiling up at me. “I knew in all that white they were bound to get a little blood on them. Didn’t think it would spread to you as well.” He carefully wipes my cheek until the towel comes away clean. “There. All set.”

“Thank you, Edgar,” I say, smiling and cupping his cheek in my hand. “You’re so good to me.”

He kisses me softly. “You’ve had a tough day,” he says. “But I promise, I won’t leave your side for the rest of it. Come on. Let’s get you a slice of cake. The sugar will do you good.”

We stand up and head out of the cottage, back towards the party. Edgar securely wraps my arm securely around my waist as we walk, guiding me as I put my head on his shoulder and relax. But even as I feel myself calming, there is something within me – my stomach, my gut, somewhere…new, that I didn’t know existed. That, like a compass that has found a new north, pulls inexorably elsewhere.