Chapter 248


    #Chapter 248 – Spies in the Bushes


    Victor wakes the next morning with Evelyn curled in his arms, her head tucked neatly under his chin.


    He pulls her more tightly against him, lowering his face to get a good sniff of her still-damp hair, closing


    his eyes as he does. His mate gives a little mew of contentment in her sleep that makes his heart swell.


    God damn it, how did he ever get this lucky.


    Usually, thest thing he’d want to do is get out of bed when his mate is wrapped soft and warm in his


    arms. But today is…special. Or at least, he intended it to be. Doing his very best not to wake her –


    Evelyn being asleep was actually a pretty big part of the n – Victor slowly moves his body away from


    hers, his mouth pulled into a grimace as he silently prays that she doesn’t wake up.


    He gets lucky. A few momentster his feet are firmly on the ground and he’s able to silently stand,


    tucking her in beneath the nkets so that she stays warm, a pillow tucked beneath her arm to rece


    his body. Victor takes a moment to watch her sleep, a small smile on his mouth, but then his


    excitement propels him to move.


    Quietly, he bends down to open the drawer of his bedside table, reaching to the back to take out a little


    velvet box that’s been there for months. It was risky, he guessed, to leave it in so obvious a spot but…


    well, Evelyn never looked in his bedside drawer. The only other thing in there was a couple of mints.


    Victor slips the box into his pocket, ncing at Evelyn’s still-sleeping face as he tiptoes to the door,


    eager to get started on his day. He slips out, pulling it shut quietly behind him, and moving to the boys’


    bedroom door, eager to wake him.


    He stops in his tracks, though, at the sight of the little boy sleeping at the threshold to his bedroom.


    “What the…” Victor mumbles, frowning down at Ian, who sleeps with his mouth slightly open, a little line


    of drool falling from it. He’s stretched his full length out across the entrance to his bedroom with a


    nket pulled over him and a pillow from the couch tucked under his head. In hands he clutches a toy


    bow and arrow, which rests neatly against his softly-rising chest. Baffled, Victor kneels down next to his


    son and gives his shoulder a little shake.


    Ian gives an unhappy little moan and frowns, turning away, but Victor persists, shaking again. When


    Ian’s eyes flutter open, he slowly smiles at Victor.


    “Hey dad,” he says, raising a hand to rub scratch his head, acting like this is the most normal thing in


    the world.


    “Ian,” Victor asks, “what are you doing out here?”


    “Guarding the door,” Ian says like it’s obvious, blinking up at him. Then he raises the bow and arrow so


    that Victor can see it more clearly. “So nobody can get in to disturb Aunt Bridgette while she sleeps.”


    Victor has to bite his lip, hard, to keep fromughing. “Well,” he says seriously after the moment he


    needs to pull himself together. “That is very chivalrous of you.”


    Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDra/ma.O(r)g!


    “Yes,” Ian confirms, nodding and sitting up. “I am a very chivalrious person.”


    “And did you think,” Victor enquires, taking the stic bow and the arrow with the little rubber suction


    cup at its tip from his son’s hands, “that this was really going to stop your Uncle Rafe, if he really


    wanted to get through?”


    Ian just raises his eyebrow. “Who said I was protecting against Uncle Rafe?”


    Victor raises the same eyebrow, his face a mirror of his son’s.


    “Fine,” Ian concedes, raising his chin. “But Alvin said mommy said that Uncle Rafe was bad to


    Bridgette, and we need to protect her –“


    Victor can’t stop hisughter now, but Ian smiles too as his dad stands up and puts out a hand,


    beckoning him to follow. “It was very nice of you to do, Ian,” Victor says, looking warmly down at his


    son as they head down the stairs. “But sometimes, mommy goes too far in wanting to protect people.


    You shouldn’t have sacrificed a good night’s sleep for this.”


    “I slept great, though!” Ian says, beaming up at his dad as they reach the kitchen. “Sleeping on the


    ground was like camping again.”


    Victor nods, understanding and letting Ian’s hand go as he heads to the coffee machine to start


    brewing. As he goes, he nces into the living room and can’t keep himself fromughing again when


    he sees Rafe curled up on the couch and Alvin sleeping on the easy chair positioned across from him,


    a loaded toy Nerf gun pointed right at his uncle.


    Ian grins at his dad as he climbs up to explore the cereal cab. “We covered all the bases,” he says.


    “Like good Alphas.”


    “Very good Alphas,” Victor confirms, putting a filter in the machine and starting to load it with coffee.


    “Listen, kid,” he begins, “I’m going to need your help today.”


    Ian brightens with excitement, but they’re interrupted by a loud yawn from the living room. Victor turns


    to see Alvin rubbing his sleepy eyes, smiling at them.


    “Operation Protect the Princess was a sess, Ian!” Alvin calls out to his brother, proud.


    “We did great!” Ian confirms, hopping down from the counter with a box of cereal.


    Rafe groans at the noise, sitting up on the couch and looking around. “Why are you all so loud in the


    morning?” he asks, rueful.


    Alvin pulls the trigger on his gun and Rafe winces, frowning when the nerf bullet hits him in the face.


    Then, he res at Alvin.


    “Sorry,” Alvin says, not at all rueful. “I’ve been waiting to do that all night. It’s kind of a waste if I didn’t


    get to.”


    “Never run a prison, Alvin,” Rafe murmurs, sitting up on the couch. “You have no taste for mercy, even


    when your captive disys good behavior.”


    Victor smirks, pressing the buttons on the machine and setting it to brew. Then he leans against the


    table, crossing his arms and looking at his brother. “How did it gost night?”


    “Yes,” Ian confirms, nodding and sitting up. “I am a very chivalrious person.”


    Rafe sighs and looks up at him. “It was…” he hesitates, ncing between the boys. “Complicated.”


    “It’s okay, uncle Rafe,” Alvin says, moving to the couch and curling up next to Rafe, who puts a


    begrudging arm around the nephew who just shot him. “You can tell dad. We know everything anyway.”


    “What?” Rafe asks, frowning down at him.


    “We listened,” Ian says, carrying two bowls of cereal into the living room and handing one to his


    brother, who gives him a thankful smile.


    “What!?” Rafe repeats, looking between the two of them. “That was a private conversation!”


    “Well if it was private,” Ian says, rolling his eyes as he sits down on Alvin’s abandoned chair. “You


    shouldn’t have talked so loud.”


    “We went away from the house! We went and sat by the pool, all by ourselves!” Rafe says, appalled.


    Victor starts tough in the kitchen.


    “Oh,” Alvin says, blinking too-innocent eyes up at him. “Did you not want us to follow you through the


    woods andy in the bushes and listen?”


    “Of course I didn’t –“ Rafe sputters, looking between his nephews, clearly betrayed.


    “Well then you should have specified that,” Ian says, shrugging and taking a big bite of his cereal. “We


    couldn’t possibly have known.”


    Rafe, aghast, looks to Victor for support. But Victor just shrugs, secretly pleased with his sons. “What?”


    Victor asks, smirking. “You’ve met them – these are the kids who snuck into the woods at the third trial


    and caught you cheating. Did you think they were going to just sit inside and y with their toys?”


    Rafe’s mouth falls open now as he looks between the boys, realizing his mistake.


    “For what it’s worth,” Alvin says sweetly, smiling up at him. “I’m on your side. I think she’ll give you


    another chance, if you’re really nice to her. Especially after all you said about being so sorry, and being


    so low that you’ll lick her boots if it will make her -”


    “Oh my god,” Rafe interrupts, putting his head in his hand with an embarrassed sigh.


    “Enough of that,” Victor says to his kids, wanting to give Rafe a break and also wanting to get moving


    before Evelyn got up. He had a n to enact, anyway. “Boys, I need your help. Are you ready for your


    next mission?” Passively, his hand wanders to the velvet box in his pocket.


    “Yes!” The boys say in unison, putting their cereal aside and running into the kitchen. Victor bends


    down to tell them the n but is distracted, suddenly, when the back door opens.


    Beta Stephen walks in, his face grave. Victor straightens and frowns at him, not missing the fact that


    Stephen forgot to knock. Stephen never forgets to knock.


    “Sir,” Stephen says, snapping a quick salute.


    “Beta,” Victor confirms, folding his arms, suddenly all business. “What’s wrong?”


    “It’s Amelia, sir,” Stephen says, swallowing hard. “We found her.”