The Alpha's Progeny [The Alpha's #3]
Chapter 20

MALIK VLADIMIR

“Thanks for meeting me out here,” he shot her a nervous smile, having not been sure that she was going to show up.

“You didn’t really leave me much of a choice,” Trinity snorted as she dropped herself on the grass next to him. “You literally texted me saying that if I didn’t meet you out here, you would spend all night sleeping out here waiting for me.”

“Well, I had to convince you to meet me out here some way,” Malik shrugged, a sheepish expression on his face.

“Well, now that you’ve got me here,” she chuckled and extended her arms in a way that said I’m-here-look-at-me. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I wanted to come see you as soon as I got into the pack but with your family still not liking me, I wasn’t sure if it would be the best idea,” Malik admitted, not the least bit bothered if this made him look desperate. As far as he was concerned, if he couldn’t be himself around his mate, then who could he be himself around?

“You made the smart call calling me out here instead of going to my house,” Trinity pursed her lips, turning her head to stare off into the distance. “My parents’ views still haven’t changed since last time. If anything, they’ve just gotten stronger and more adamant about me not seeing you.”

“And your views?” he prompted in a low hum.

“My views haven’t changed either,” she gulped, slowly turning her head to glance at him. Her dark eyes boring into his. “You’re still my mate and there’s nothing that I can do to change that. There’s nothing that I would want to do to change that,” she was quick to add the last part at the sight of his falling expression.

“And the rumours?”

“They’re not my opinion, and I’m stupid for asking you about them in the first place.” She now mirrored his earlier sheepish expression. “I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”

“Do you even have to ask?” Malik chuckled with a large grin – the first genuine one in the past week that he had been away from his mate.

“I really am sorry. I promise it won’t happen again,” she pouted, reaching over to place her hand over his.

“I have no doubt about it,” he squeezed her hand back.

A brief moment of silence passed between them where they just stared at each other, neither of them saying anything. Not that this beautiful moment required any words. Not when they were doing all the talking with their eyes.

“I missed you this week,” Trinity finally broke the silence with her quiet confession.

“I missed you too,” Malik grinned, glad that he wasn’t the only one to feel this way.

“Every time someone knocked on the door, I kept wishing it was you.”

At her endearing words, his heart fluttered. To think that his mate had missed him even if just a fraction of how much he missed her made him feel things he had never felt before. Feelings he didn’t even know were possible before.

“Tell me more about you,” Trinity prompted him after another few moments of silence.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

“That’s a lot,” he chuckled. “Well, my mum passed away when I was a child,” he started, not wanting to go into the details of it all right now. Especially not when her death wasn’t looking as straight-forward to him as it used to.

“I heard about that,” her voice trailed off before she cleared her throat. “I’m really sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be. It was a very long time ago,” he shrugged. “I’m sure you also know that my dad was locked away by the council for a while,” when he paused, she nodded. “Well, he’s returned recently so we’ve been trying to spend some time together. He left when I was very young so there’s not much that I remember about him. Other than the fact that both of us are obsessed with pancakes and what the pack has told me about him.”

“That must have been very hard for you to go through.”

“It was,” he murmured in answer. “It still kind of is,” he sighed before pushing himself to continue speaking, reminding himself that this was his mate that he was talking to. “To be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever be as close to my dad as I want to. I always feel like there’ll be this thing between us that’s keeping us apart, no matter how hard either of us try.” He purposely skitted around the topic, not wanting to go into the specifics of this either.

Just because Trinity was his mate didn’t mean that she had to bare the trouble of such knowledge. In fact, it would just be putting her in danger and that was the last thing he wanted for his mate.

Whatever this mess of a situation was, whatever happened with it in the end, he wanted her as far away from it as possible. It was just unfortunate that the only way to do that would be to keep her out of the loop.

“That’s ok, you know?”

“What?” Malik blinked in question, the sudden sound of her voice snapping him out of his thoughts catching him off guard.

“No one’s expecting you to be all chummy chummy and best friends with your dad now that he’s out of prison,” Trinity tried to assure him, giving his hand another reassuring squeeze. “You need to do what makes you happy and I can see that you’re kind of trying to force a relationship with your dad here. It’s putting a strain on your happiness and that’s the last thing you would want to do. Have something but he unhappy about it.”

“I’ve been thinking along those lines a lot recently,” Malik admitted, his lips curling up slightly at the corners. “I don’t think I’m ever going to have a very close relationship with my dad and I’m starting to realise that’s okay.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” she grinned. “And if that ever does change, remember that it’s never too late.”

How did he get so lucky to end up with a mate like Trinity?

It certainly wasn’t Lord Erebus’ doing, his wolf snorted like the snarky little creature that he was. Malik merely chuckled in response before returning his attention to his mate.

“As much as I would love to stay out here all night with you, I need to get back,” Trinity turned to glance over at him with an apologetic look on her face. “I told my parents that I was going out to see a friend so if I’m gone for too long, they’re going to start asking around.”

“Let me guess, ever since they found out we were mates, they keep thinking that you’re going to secretly meet with me?” Malik smiled even though he didn’t have much reason to smile nowadays.

“I can do you one better,” she snorted as she stood up, brushing the grass stains off her jeans. “They keep thinking that I’m going to run off with you so decide to check up on me every half an hour.”

“Woah, that’s intense,” Malik whistled under his breath as he joined her, though not nearly as bothered as the grass stains. Reaching out, he slipped his hand in hers and reeled her into him, wounding his other arm around her waist. “I’m sorry your parents are giving you such a hard time because of me.”

“And I’m sorry that they’re giving you such a hard time,” she mumbled into his chest, squeezing her arms around his middle. “I’m sorry for all the things that they said to you and the way you treated you. I wish things weren’t like this.”

“I wish things weren’t like this either but you and me,” he leaned down to brush his lips across the crown of her head. “Whatever life throws at us, we’ll get through it. We’ll make it to the end, no matter what.”

“No matter what,” Trinity returned his promise with a hopeful smile, pulling away to reach up on her tip toes and press her lips against his.

Malik growled against her mouth and tightened his arms around his waist, deepening the kiss. He licked along the seams of her lips for his favourite sweet taste. Too much and he would be in real danger of diabetes, not that he cared in the slightest.

There was nothing that would stop him from kissing his mate. Well, there was her family but he was actively trying to replace a workaround for that.

“I have to really go now,” she murmured against his mouth, nipping his bottom lip one more time before pulling away. “Maybe we can meet up again like this tomorrow?”

“Yes, let’s definitely do that,” he offered her a small smile, hating to see her go.

“Bye,” Trinity blew him a kiss before turning around and jogging back toward the path that would take her past the pack house and toward her house.

Malik waited several seconds before he walked along the same path, not wanting to further complicate things by being seen together. As tired as he was, he couldn’t just get into bed. Not when there was so much more he needed to sort out while he still had the chance.

After all, other than his uncle and aunt, and now his mate, there wasn’t many people he could trust. Not even his guards.

Especially not his guards.

“I’m glad both of you are still awake,” Malik announced as he let himself into the house, spying the Alpha and Luna duo cosied up with each other on the sofa. “There’s something that we need to talk about.”

-

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Layla Knight

20.08.2021