Chapter 43
#Chapter 43 – Banished
Edgar, apparently finished securing the assant, hurries over. Evelyn startles at first – not knowing
who approaches, but seeing who it is reaches out a hand.
“Edgar – I – I’m so sorry,”
“No, Evelyn,” he says, holding her face between his hands – an intimate gesture that Victor suddenly
feels awkward to see. “You didn’t do anything wrong. What happened? Do you know who she is?”
“Yes,” Evelyn murmurs. “My – the stalker. My former patient. She’s…totally unhinged, thinks I stole her
boyfriend –“
“The one who wrote things on your car at your old house? Who threw the note through the windowst
night?” Victor asks, standing and crossing his arms across his chest. He ced extra guards against
precisely this threat – what happened?
As Evelyn exins further to Edgar – her voice weak with exhaustion, fear, and tears – Victor moves to
the front porch. There, quietly in the dark, he sees another body – slumped in a chair in the darkest
corner of the porch.
Victor hurries out, crossing carefully to the body just as the ambnce pulls into Evelyn’s drive,
followed immediately by a ck van full of back-up Betas. Good – Edgar thought quickly, calling in all
the appropriate reinforcements. Victor makes a mental note tomend him as he moves slowly
towards the inert form.
As he gets closer, Victor suddenly realizes that he recognizes the body. Beta Pete. Victor moves to his
side, fearing the worst – but no, Pete has a pulse. Victor heaves a sigh of relief and notes, in passing,
that Pete holds a dark square in his inert hand.
The Betas swarm the porch, their training clearly demonstrated as they move as a concentrated pack.
Once they have marked the location as secure, they wave the paramedic team forward and two Betas
come over to Victor to assess the situation with Pete.
“He’s unconscious,” Victor says, “thank god. I don’t know what happened.”
“Any sign of injury?” one of the Betas asks.
“Not that I can see.” Victor confirms, studying Pete’s body again.
“We’ll get the paramedics on him too,” the Beta says, snapping at personnel waiting by the ambnce.
They spring into action.
“Sir?” The second Beta leans close to Pete, sniffing. “What’s that in his hand? I smell…chocte…”
Victor likewise leans close. “I think it’s…I think it’s a brownie,” he murmurs, baffled by this strange
change of events. Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, he takes the brown square out of Pete’s
hand and studies it closely. Yes – a brownie. How bizarre. “Take this to theb. I want it analyzed
immediately.”
The Betas nod, taking it and rushing away toplete their duties. As Victor watches them go, he
senses someone moving to his side.
“Sir?” Victor turns his head and nods to Edgar, inviting him to continue. “Sir, the paramedics are
cleaning Evelyn up, but they’ve given her the clear – they say there’s no reason for her to go to the
hospital for further checks. If you’ll allow it, I’d like to stand guard here tonight. I would feel better doing
it myself.”
Victor eyes Edgar for a moment, wondering…but no. It was none of his business. He nods sharply.
“Approved, Beta. Thank you for your good work tonight. I am…in your debt.”
Edgar can barely hold back his smile, but he manages. It is no small thing for an Alpha to admit a debt
of honor to his Beta. “Sir.” Edgar says, snapping a salute.
“Your watch beings now,” Victor says, turning back to the house. “Send my team up to the big house to
tell Amelia what happened. Have them bring back myptop, my second phone, everything we might
need. We have work to do.”
The next day, Victor sets up camp in Evelyn’s office. A steady stream of Betase through the doors
all day, each reporting on the results of the varied tasks they’ve been assigned.
“Is this necessary, Victor?” Evelyn says,ing downstairs in her robe during a lull, a broad white
bandage across her injured cheek.
“Yes,” he says, not looking up as he types on hisputer, confirming an appointment.
Evelyn scoffs at Victor and he looks up at her to see her standing across from him, her arms folded,
looking angry. “What?” He asks.
“Victor, I’ve got two frightened boys upstairs. We need peace and quiet – not an army of Betas
stomping around down here like it’smand central. I need to get them back to normal – this is
anything but normal.”
“This is all for your protection, Evelyn,” Victor says, returning his attention to theputer as he sits
down. “I promised you protection, and I failed in that promise –“
“Victor, you did everything you coul-“
“No, Evelyn,” he says, snapping his eyes back to her. “If I had done everything I could have, that insane
woman would never have broken into your house. I’m fixing this. Let me fix this.”
Evelyn sighs and looks him up and down and then slowly nods. “Can we at least have some food?
We’ve got an Avengers movie marathon going on upstairs, which seems to be calming them down, but
we’re getting hungry.”
Victor passively gestures to some bags sitting on the kitchen table. “I ordered you Chinese. Please, eat
whatever you like.”
Making a small noise of appreciation, Evelyn moves to the package and starts to unwarp it,
investigating the containers. A few minutester, she calls goodbye to him and Victor catches a nce
of her carrying what seems like a ridiculous amount of food up the stairs to the boys’ room.
He smirks. Whatever. Let them indulge, feel happy and safe. He’d order them all the takeout they
wanted, if it would help. Besides, Edgar was up there with them all. They would be safe.
Secretly, though, Victor is pleased that Evelyn and the boys will be distracted upstairs. He has an
important meeting, and as it has to happen now, and in person. And, as Victor refuses to leave the
premises, it has to happen in this dining-room-turned-office. And, much as she would hate it, it has to
happen without Evelyn knowing.
As he waits for his interlocutor to arrive, Victor looks over the materials that his Betas have gathered.
The first is a report on the brownie from the previous evening, confirming that it was poisoned, but that
Pete is expected to make a full recovery. Good.
The next document is regarding the stalker’s identity. Emily Perkins, no-rank lycanthrope, officially a
member of the small, progressive pack run by Alpha James Wird – Evelyn’s official pack as well,
which is probably how Emily’s boyfriend came to find Evelyn as his therapist.
Victor notes, with only slight interest, that the same agency which assigned him to his own therapist is
noted as the one which serves this pack as well.
Victor studies the stalker’s picture. She is a rather unimpressive specimen, he thinks. Weak bloodlines,
weak mind – no talents. The sort of wolf which he wouldn’t be pleased to call a member of his own
pack, though his pack only epts new members through familial lineage and marriage. These new,
progressive packs…don’t they see how they are courting ruin by epting anyone?
As he considers, Victor hears a knock at his door. “Ah, Wird,” Victor says, “you are quite wee
here. Please,e in, make yourselffortable.”
N?velDrama.Org holds text ? rights.
“Happily,” Wird says, sauntering into the room and over to Evelyn’s desk. He unbuttons the jacket on
his blue suitcoat and sits down, casually crossing his legs. “Apologies, Kensington,” he says, looking
Victor over from top to bottom. “I hear that there was quite a disruption to your peacest night, caused
by two members of my pack.”
Victor considers the man before replying. Wird is tall and distinguished, with a white hair and beard
and warm blue eyes. Though the older gentleman presents himself as approachable, Victor is not
fooled – he’s still an Alpha, driven by a need for control, for power. And it does not pass Victor’s
attention that Wird has opened the conversation by iming both Evelyn and her assant as his
own. Victor carefully considers his next steps.
“Emily Perkins, a member of your pack, assaulted persons on my propertyst night. As these persons
were under my care, and on my property, it is my within my rights to aid in the decisions regarding her
punishment. I seek to enact those rights now.”
“So formal,” Wird says, his eyes crinkling in a friendly smile. “Really, Kensington, can’t we speak
about this as old friends?”
Victor clenches his jaw, wanting nothing less than to negotiate with this man who is not his friend. Still,
Victor has to recognize that his power over this situation is tenuous at best. “Of course,” he says.
“As far as I know, this is a minor assault between two members of my pack. If one of the members is
your…tenant…” Wird takes a moment here to study Victor’s reaction to his word, nodding slowly
when he sees Victor’s body tense involuntarily.
“Then,” Wird continues, “I appreciate your dedication to your renters, Kensington, but I don’t see,
really, how your rightse into y.”
Victor sees that his hand is being forced. He clenches his fists, cing them on the table before him
and leaning his weight onto them. “The persons involved in the assault – Evelyn Ortega, and her sons
– they are…important to me,” he says, through gritted teeth.
“Why?” Wird enquires, c*****g his head innocently though Victor suspects Wird already knows. Or,
if he doesn’t, then knows that there is something more at stake.
“Do you need to know why? Is it not enough for me toe to you, Alpha to Alpha, with this request?”
“What is it, specifically, that you request?” Wird says, folding his hands over his knee, epting the
power which Victor has just handed to him.
“Emily Perkins. I want her made Rogue. Banished. Officially. Forever.”
“My my,” Wird says softly, his eyebrows raising on his wrinkled forehead. “That is a big ask. In order
toply, I will want some things in return.”
“Make your requests,” Victor says, his teeth gritted.