The Alpha's Progeny [The Alpha's #3]
Chapter 19

MALIK VLADIMIR

Malik may have slept like a baby when he had gotten into bed earlier, but he couldn’t even bring himself to close his eyes when he returned after the sacrifice.

Both of his pillows were damp with all the tears he had shed over the night and now that he was officially all cried out, he was forced to face the horrific thoughts that clouded his mind.

How could he have done that? How could he have killed that innocent pup?

He was now a murderer. And this wasn’t just some rogue that threatened his pack. This was an innocent pup that had been taken away from his parents in the middle of the night, Lord Erebus knows from what pack!

And he had been the one to kill him. To sacrifice him. To give up his life for a deity that no doubt cared in the least.

Malik would be sure that regardless of what happened, this pup didn’t die in vain. His death would be avenged as well as the prevention of any more of these sacrifices and to do that, he needed to get into the centre of it all.

Despite all the shed tears and terrible, self-loathing thoughts, Malik forced himself out of bed. He couldn’t care less of what he looked like right but nonetheless, he forced himself in the shower.

At least if he didn’t feel the part, he would look the part.

Definitely not dressed for training, Malik headed down to the ground floor where his dad’s office was. Forcing a smile on his face, he let himself in without knocking.

“I was wondering when you would come and fine me,” Orpheus chuckled from behind his desk, not really doing anything. Just sitting there. “To be honest, I expected you to come replace me at the crack of dawn.”

“I was asleep,” Malik lied as he dropped himself into one of the empty chairs in front of the desk. “But I wanted to talk to you about what happened last night.”

“I figured you would. Go ahead.”

“First of all, what happened to the baby. Where did he disappear to?” Malik asked the question he had been wondering all night. “What’s going to happen to him?”

“I don’t know the exact specifics of the last question,” his dad shrugged, as if they weren’t just discussing a missing baby. A missing, dead baby. “But the pup disappeared as he was accepted by Lord Erebus as a sacrifice.”

“That’s great news!” Malik cheered with a wide grin even though on the inside, he wanted to kill himself. How could he not when he was neck deep in this big mess?

“Fantastic news!” Orpheus agreed, matching the grin on his son’s face. “Let me hear those other questions that you have lined up for me.”

“Where did you replace all those wolves?”

“We’re all part of the same group and have known each other for years. When I returned to the pack, one of them hit me up and things just kind of continued where they left off,” Orpheus shrugged like it was no big deal even though it was. Actually, it was a huge deal!

“What group?”

“Just a group,” his dad shrugged. “We all have the same common goal.”

“Which is to free Lord Erebus?”

“Yes,” Orpheus grinned from ear to ear. “And now that you’ve completed a sacrifice of your own, you’re part of the group. We just have to make things official.”

“Official?” Malik tried not to gulp, doing whatever he could to maintain his ever-growing fear.

Whatever you do, don’t join!

What happened to blindly worshipping the man? Malik snorted, this being the first time he had spoken to his wolf since all that had happened with the forest, and the baby, and the sacrifice.

All of that went out of the window once we found out he’s part of a cult, his wolf retorted, his voice a mixture of disgust and fear. I don’t care what it takes or what you have to do, just don’t join his cult. I have a feeling that once you join, you won’t be able to leave and there’s no way we’ll be able to run the pack again.

You don’t have anything to worry about, he assured his wolf. The only thing I care about is keeping up pretences long enough to put an end to all of this.

And how are we going to do that?

Honestly? I have no idea, Malik sighed before returning his attention to his dad.

“So, how does that sound?”

Malik blinked, his smile tipping higher at the corners. His dad must not have realised that he was mind linking his wolf and had continued speaking, and now, Malik found himself in a rather precarious situation.

“Sounds great,” he returned the grin, lying smoothly. “Now, onto my next question,” he said, wanting to brush over the previous subtopic quickly. “Why did you send those two wolves to get me like that? Why couldn’t you just come and get me yourself?”

“But then it wouldn’t have been nearly as climatic as it was when you arrived and then performed your first sacrifice.”

Malik made a show of laughing, as if he took great joy in his dad’s joke even though it was the stark opposite.

“Good enough answer for you?”

“It’ll do.”

“Any questions left?”

“None,” he shook his head.

“Good, because I have a question of my own.”

“Go ahead,” Malik murmured.

“How often do you go to the Lupum Griseo pack? Only every fortnight?” Orpheus asked, trying not to sound too interested.

“Yes,” he frowned and nodded, a thoughtful, slightly confused expression on his face.

“And the last time you went was last weekend?”

“Yes,” he nodded his head again.

“Do you think it’ll be weird if you go back this weekend?” his dad hummed in question.

“Possibly but they wouldn’t care.”

“So, that’s a yes?”

“I don’t know what I’m saying yes to.”

“I want you to go visit the Lupum Griseo pack this weekend. Make up an excuse if you have to.”

“What’s going on? Why do you want me to go back there?” Malik frowned in question. “I thought you didn’t like when I spent time around Mars and Stassie.”

“I still don’t but this time, you’ll be going undercover.”

“Undercover?” Malik found himself questioning in surprise. “Why would I need to go undercover?”

“Because anyone is not with us, is against us. Come on,” his dad tutted. “I’ve been locked away for fifteen years but I still know all these quotes better than you.”

“Sorry, you’re right,” Malik chuckled. “I’ll call up Stassie and let them know I’ll be coming over this weekend instead of next because I’m busy next week.”

“Sounds great! Very believable.”

“Out of curiosity, why exactly am I going over to the pack this weekend?”

“Because a little birdie tells me that there’s a few females set to give birth this weekend at the Lupum Griseo pack.”

“And you…want me to assist with the labour?”

“Very funny,” Orpheus snorted. “I want you to take out the situation. Instead of taking your usual guards, you’ll take two wolves from the group which will play the role of your guards for the weekend. As soon as they pop the pups out, the guards will swoop in and hand over to some other group members that will be tailing you to the Lupum Griseo pack. The pack will be busy searching for the pups and the three of you will hang around for a while to pretend looking for the missing pups which will give you a great alibi.”

“That’s a very elaborate plan,” Malik cleared his throat, trying to keep his jaw off the ground. Well, that was until a sudden reminder sprang to mind. “What about Nathan? Does that mean you knew something about the kidnapping.”

“Of course, I knew!” Orpheus tutted his tongue. “But we made a mistake sending Nathan in. I should have known better than sending in an ordinary wolf. It should have been one of the group from the very beginning. They wouldn’t have been caught and we would have been one sacrifice closer to our goal.”

“It all makes sense now,” Malik hummed and pursed his lips, sticking around to discuss the specifics of the plan before he excused himself for training.

“This was a good talk, Malik,” Orpheus saw him out of the room.

“Sure,” Malik grinned before heading back up to his room.

We’re sincerely fucked! his wolf cursed. You’re going to have to fake a broken leg or something. There’s no way we’re going to be a part of this. There’s no way we’re going to be involved with anymore child kidnapping and sacrifice rituals.

The only way we can control the situation, is if we’re part of the situation.

I hate it when you’re right, his wolf grumbled, leaving Malik alone to his thoughts for the few moments before he needed to get to training.

Even though there wasn’t a weekend gap between now and the last time he had visited the Lupum Griseo pack, a few days at the very most, Malik felt like it had been an eternity since he had left his pack.

An eternity since he was away from this place he had forever called home but now, felt like a coma who had woken up to a whole new world.

-

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Layla Knight

20.08.2021