Pregnant With Alpha’s Genius Twins

Chapter 138

#Chapter 138 – Angelina Van Horten

When Victor enters Annabeth Prath’s home, there’s a small stir at the door.

The Prath family is influential, but their power comes largely from their long lineage and political connections. Victor banks on this when he walks in. He knows their meager Beta force has no real way to stop him.

The Prath party planners and aids go pale at his arrival, but they don’t stop him as he crosses the threshold.

When Victor enters the party, about an hour late, it’s as if he owns the room. The crowd turns to him, many Alphas and their Lunas coming over to say hello, eager to shake his hand, ask about his projects, all trying to judge where he stands in this new world.

Victor is the military might in the land, with the finest Beta force ever recorded, but now, with no Luna by his side and a large portion of his Betas transferred to Willard, people are wondering whether the Kensingtons have started to fall from their pedestal.

You wouldn’t know it to look at him, though. Victor’s face presents a warm smile as he shakes hands and schmoozes with the cultural elites. Beneath it is a rough determination to demonstrate to them that he is still very much in charge.

His eyes connect with Annabeth across the room and he can’t help the slow smile that grows on his face as he sees first her shock, then her anger, and then her pride as she raises her chin and glares at him. She had deliberately cut him from the guest list, deliberately invited Amelia in his place. And yet here he is.

He’d have to apologize, of course. After all, he did come here to mend fences. But he also came to spread the message: he wasn’t going to be sidelined.

As he begins to cross the room, people instinctually move aside, making room for his powerful form. Victor heads directly to Annabeth, but on his way glances around to see if he can spot Amelia as well. There’s a fair chance she won’t even show up tonight – as a rejected Luna, she likely wants to attach herself to another Alpha before showing her face again – but if she does show, he wants to know it immediately.

“Annabeth,” Victor says, bowing low before her and taking her hand, placing a delicate kiss against her knuckles. It’s too much deference for a house party, but he wants her to know that he comes in peace. “A lovely party, for a wonderful cause. I was so pleased to be able to attend.”

“Victor,” she says, still glaring at him as he straightens up. “You know very well that you are an uninvited, undesired guest. If you do not leave immediately, I will have my Betas remove you.”

Victor gives her a slow smirk. “Go ahead, Annabeth. Let them try. I’ll take them out one by one and still come back to have the polite conversation that I came here to have with you. Or, you could just avoid the scene and give me five minutes of your time.”

Annabeth goes still as she realizes that, of course, Victor is right. She glances around at her weak Betas, judging them, and deciding that they come up short. They will lose the fight and the fuss will distract her guests from their donations.

“Fine,” Annabeth says, forcing a smile onto her face and coming forward to take Victor’s arm. “You have precisely five minutes of my time, Kensington. And then I ask that you leave.”

“Thank you, Annabeth,” he murmurs, pleased. She leads him over to the bar, where they both pick up a drink, and then over to a cocktail table placed conveniently in the corner. Away from prying ears, but still within full view of the party. The perfect spot for a clandestine conversation.

Annabeth raises her drink to her lips but Victor notes that the level of the wine stays the same in the glass.

Not drinking, but pretending she is, he thinks, storing away the information. His eyes flick over her form, wondering, but – no. A conversation for another time. He makes a mental note to ask Evelyn tonight.

“Well, Victor?” Annabeth says, shaking back her hair and looking at him with pride in her eyes. “You have forced my hand and gained my attention. What is it I can do for you?”

“Annabeth,” he says, looking at her with an earnest face. “What happened? We were doing so well – our plans were moving forward, fulfilling our mutual desire to prioritize the children of our packs, to –“

“That’s enough, Victor,” she says, narrowing her eyes at him. “I know that was all a lie. That family was never your priority.”

He looks at her with true confusion on his face. Annabeth blinks at this. She had expected – well, she had expected him to come with a pile of excuses, or threats, or justifications. The pure bafflement on his face, though – that’s a surprise.

And if Annabeth Prath knows anything, she knows that Victor Kensington isn’t a good enough actor to fake such an expression. He’s an Alpha who tucks his emotions away, but he’s not a fake.

Still, she can’t ignore what she knows, the evidence that she saw. Unthinking, her hand goes to her own stomach, where her own very-desired little baby is growing.

“And what about,” she says, watching him carefully, “Angelina Van Horton.”

He shakes his head slowly at her, letting her see his honest confusion. “Annabeth, honestly, I had my Beta researchers look everywhere for that person – in every database, in all of my documents, our

family files – hell, even in public records past and present, prison records, missing person reports. We found nothing.”

“Well of course you didn’t,” Annabeth says, her face still suspicious. “Because she doesn’t exist.”

“Please,” Victor says, spreading his hands wide in supplication. “Please, Annabeth, I am at a loss. Please tell me who she is.”

“She’s listed in your personal medical files,” Annabeth says, watching him for any movement, any sign of recognition. “With your personal doctor, as attached to your name.”

Victor exhales a frustrated breath and shakes his head. If that’s the case, then of course his Betas hadn’t found her. They wouldn’t have searched his own medical files – those were too close, too personal, like looking for information on this woman in his bedside drawer.

If he had no idea who this apparently imaginary person was, why was she so closely connected to him? To his medical history?

“Okay, Annabeth,” he says, putting his hands on his table and leaning on them. “I can go home and search through my medical files, and then come back to continue this conversation, or you can tell me now what I need to know.”

Annabeth considers and then nods. There is no point, really, in having him come back. “Angelina Van Horten is tied to your own personal medical account,” she says. “She doesn’t exist, I checked, but she was used as a way for your personal doctor to prescribe medications tied to women’s health.”

Victor goes stiff at this information, feeling anger start to rise in him. He’s starting to anticipate where this is going.

“Birth control,” Annabeth says, still watching his every reaction. “Abortifacients. Prescriptions that were filled for a woman who doesn’t exist, but delivered, apparently, to you.”

Victor grinds his teeth, turning his glare down to the carpet.

Amelia. He knew Amelia was behind this.

When they got engaged she had told him that she had gone off her birth control, had left her own pharmacy paperwork casually around the house so he had seen that her prescriptions hadn’t been filled.

And yet, apparently, she had found a way around it. And further, built herself some leverage by finding a way to run it through his personal medical account.

Victor’s mind flies through these realizations and Annabeth’s determination begins to falter, watching the emotions spread across his face. When he looks up at her again, she finds herself more receptive than she had been to hearing his side.

“I understand,” Victor says to her, “that this revelation would be upsetting to you. That it looks like I pretended to be a man who emphasized family values who all the while was slipping his mate medicines so she couldn’t get pregnant. And then letting the press blame her for her apparent unwillingness to be a mother.”

Annabeth nods, angry again at the idea that she could have done business with such a man.

“Annabeth,” Victor says, taking a step closer and looking seriously into her eyes. “I assure you, none of this is true. I understand the evidence is stacked against me but everything I said to you, personally, about my commitment to family and my investment in the future of our children – that is who I truly am.”

She considers him closely and finds herself, despite her prejudices, perhaps a little willing to believe him. Perhaps a little willing to consider that she had been tricked.

“Please, if I may have just one more moment of your time,” Victor says, straightening up and fixing his tie. Annabeth watches him carefully. “I just have one more question,” he says, “to which I merely require a yes or a no.”

Annabeth blinks, but does not protest. She will answer.

“The person who gave you this evidence,” Victor says carefully, needing to know. “Was it Amelia?”

Annabeth is perfectly still for a moment and then, with a quick nod of her head, she answers. Yes.

“Thank you,” Victor growls, looking out at the party, scanning again for his former mate. “I will be in touch, soon, with evidence to counter this claim. I hope that you will do me the favor of considering it when I have it sent to you.”

Without waiting for her response, Victor stalks away.

Annabeth turns to watch him go, considering that she has perhaps been played. She kicks herself, internally, for letting herself be caught up in this. But Amelia’s claims, her tears – she had been so convincing…

Annabeth’s reverie is broken, that moment, by the arrival of someone in a sparkling silver gown. The hostess goes pale, realizing that precisely the wrong person is entering the party as Victor is rushing out.

He freezes at the door, stopping short when he sees her. From NôvelDrama.Org.

Amelia has arrived.