Chapter 70

#Chapter 70 – Victor vs John “Come on boys,” my mother says, reaching down to take Alvin and Ian’s hands. She shoots Emma a worried look as she does so. “Let’s let the grown-ups talk for a minute, we’ll go outside and see the lake.”

“No.” Victor says, keeping his eyes on my father. “My children will stay with me.”

My eyes flash between Victor and my father. I’m suddenly aware that this was going to be bad. Part of me is pleased by this – despite my happy reunion with my mother and sister, I’m still very pissed that my father took my children from their school today.

Still, this could end in bloodshed. I don’t want my boys to see that.

“Mama,” I say calmly, my eyes on Victor. “It’s time for the boys to go home.”

Alvin and Ian cry out at this – clearly, they’re not done playing. I snap my eyes to them and they fall silent, intuiting, finally, that this is quite serious.

“Mama,” I continue. “Why don’t you take the boys out front to the cars. We have plenty of Betas waiting who can buckle them into their seats. The Betas can text us when the boys are secure.”

I say this all very calmly, so as not to spook the boys, but Victor and my mother intuit that this is a very calculated plan. My mother will take the boys to the car and hand them off to our Beta team, who will confirm when the exchange has taken place. When the children are safely in Victor’s control, I imply, we can begin to talk.

Victor nods and my mother takes the boys by the hands, leading them from the room, speaking to them cheerfully as she goes. My sister follows after her, sneaking one last worried glance at us as she pulls the door shut behind her.

A few minutes pass and none of us move, my father, Victor and I staring silently at each other while we wait for confirmation. Victor’s phone dings, the sound abnormally loud in the tense quiet of the room.

He breaks my father’s glare for the first time to glance down at the message from his Beta.

“The boys are in the car,” he says, “surrounded by my Beta force.”

“How dare you,” I growl, the words ripping from my throat in a violent snarl. “Take my children – “

“Bet quiet, Evelyn,” my father snaps, not looking at me. I feel my mouth snap shut and raise my hand to my lips. A knee-jerk reaction to an old childhood habit, I quickly assume, learned from years of enforced silence.

“You’ve crossed a line,” Victor says, his own voice low and threatening.

My father just laughs, ignoring him. “I hear that you’ve moved your wedding up, Kensington, a Christmas affair,” he says, casually strolling further into the room. “I’m still checking the mail every day, looking for my invitation.”

“If you ever take my children again –“

“And what will you do,” my father snaps, snarling into Victor’s face, shutting him down mid-sentence.

“I’m aware of your situation, Victor. You’ve gutted your Beta force, put all of your funds into that ridiculous little school – you’ve crippled yourself, Kensington. You’re no longer in any place to tell me what I will and will not do.”

My eyes dart between my father and Victor. Is it true? I was aware that he had made big changes – but where did the Betas go? The money?

“They are my CHILDREN!” Victor’s voice is nearly a roar here, his teeth fully bared, but my father does not back down. “If you ever lay a finger on them again, I will rip you limb from limb. And I will have every legal right to do so, if you threaten my heirs.”

“I have every right in the world,” my father hisses. “As they are my heirs too.”

My eyes widen with shock, my breath shuttering. What? A quick glance at Victor tells me that he is equally ignorant about what’s going on. How can –

“Tell me, Victor,” my father says, falling into a more casual stance that mocks Victor’s ignorance and powerlessness. “What is it, precisely, about this Amelia, this brainless model, that appeals over my Evelyn?”

My mouth falls open at this – shock after shock.

“What?” Victor hisses.

“Truly, I want to know.” My father says, shrugging. “What is it that makes you so determined to marry her and keep Evelyn as your secret pet, hidden away in that cabin out back. Is Amelia so much better in bed? Because I’m sure you can have Evelyn taught some tricks.”

My face turns bright red and I clench my jaw in frustration, in utter embarrassment.

“Amelia is my mate,” Victor grinds out, “my Luna.”

“All of that is inconsequential,” my father says, shrugging. “You can keep your mate, your little play thing, but she doesn’t have the political advantages that at match like Evelyn comes with. Alpha-born, the Walsh name. She’d be a better choice.”

Victor sputters, shocked. Of course, this has happened for generations – powerful Alphas marrying for advantage, having secret – or not so secret – relationships with the ones they truly love on the side.

But in this modern age, people privilege love – if you have found your mate, you marry them, even if it means divorcing a partner that you had married at a younger age.

What my father proposes here is an old-fashioned idea about the roles of marriage in an Alpha world, but it’s one that he has long privileged. His own marriage to my mother was never about love, but instead about the lineage, prestige, and money she would add to his pack.

“And you know Evelyn breeds well,” my father continues, looking me up and down. “Something which your pretty little mate has not yet proved. Why chance weak pups, when you know my girl can give you more strong boys?”

Victor’s eyes here glance at me but then move briskly back to my father. “Who I marry is none of your concern –“

“Oh, but it’s completely my concern,” my father laughs, moving over to a roll-top desk on the other side of the room. “It is important to me who acts as the mother to my grandchildren, who are, after all, my acknowledged heirs.”

“What,” I hiss, spinning towards him, towards the papers he now holds in his hands.

“This is impossible,” Victor says, rigid beside me. “My sons have been officially acknowledged as my heirs, you have no right to them –“

“My claim is patrilineal.” My father says, holding up the top piece of paper, which has a single silver seal on its corner. “I claim them as my heirs through Evelyn.”

“Evelyn is mine,” Victor hisses. “I claimed her as part of my pack, an Alpha-level she-wolf. You have no ties to her any longer, you gave up that claim years ago –“

“And what,” my father says, casually surveying the paperwork that he holds in his hands. “Was the date of that transferal? From James Willards pack to your own?”

“The twenty-second,” Victor growls, growing suspicious.

“Ah, then it seems, my boy, that you have been the victim of a dirty trick,” my father says, smugly handing him the piece of paper. “Because you see, James Willard transferred a Rogue wolf to me, Evelyn Ortega – previously Evelyn Walsh – to me one day earlier, on the twenty-first.”

“I’m sorry, my boy,” my father continues as the blood drains from my face. “But it seems your deal with Willard has no legal holding, as he had no power over her on the twenty-second.”

My father turns his cruel gaze to me. “Evelyn is mine.”