The Alpha's Progeny [The Alpha's #3]
Chapter 25

MALIK VLADIMIR

For the first time in weeks, Malik slept like a baby. The only unfortunate thing was that he couldn’t sleep longer. You’d think that a person wouldn’t sleep very well when their dad was locked away in the dungeons but for Malik, it was the absolute opposite.

He truly couldn’t have asked for a better night’s sleep.

Malik was one of the first of the pack to be awake. Swiping a small stack of pancakes – a breakfast item that was available nearly every day at his pack due to his very well-known sweet tooth – for him to enjoy while he waited, Malik headed over to the dungeon. Other than a few pack chefs that woke up early to have breakfast for when everyone woke up, there was no one else awake. That played out in his favour as he was able to slip into the dungeon without anyone realising.

Despite the reputation of the Apo to Chaos pack – something which everyone seemed to be aware of except for the Apo to Chaos pack itself – their dungeons weren’t used very often. In fact, all of the cells had been rather dusty when he had popped in quickly yesterday before waking up his dad, but it wasn’t like he was interested in making things comfortable for him.

After all, it wasn’t like Orpheus Vladimir was a saint or anything.

Regardless, the wolf was his dad and unfortunately, there wasn’t anything that Malik could do to change that. What he could do, however, was stop the man from doing any more wrong.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many chairs in the dungeon so Malik had no choice but to sit on the floor while he waited for his father to wake up. At least he had a tall stack of pancakes to keep him company.

Malik had just managed to finish half the stack of pancakes before he heard the familiar growl of his dad awakening.

“Malik? What is the meaning of this?” Orpheus growled, very quickly followed by a hiss when the silver of the handcuffs burned the skin of his wrists. “Why am I in here? What have you done to me?”

“You’re a smart man. Surely, you’ve figured it out by now,” Malik snorted as he helped himself to another pancake. As he had wiped up all the syrup already, he would just have to do for the remainder of his rather large breakfast.

“What am I doing in here, Malik?” Orpheus growled again. Almost as if he hadn’t learnt his lesson the first time, he pushed himself up onto his knees and tried toward Malik; as if he would be able to make it past the bars. Let alone the silver chains that held him captive right now. “Why have you locked me away like…like-like some animal!”

“You’re forgetting two things here. One, we’re all wolves here which yes, makes you an animal and two, I’ve already told you that you should have all of this figured out by now,” he made a show of rolling his eyes as he continued progressing through his breakfast. It was petty but Malik knew that his dad was just as fond of the sweet breakfast delicacy as much as he was. It was one of the few things that the both of them had in common and he couldn’t help but rub it in his dad’s face.

Not only was his dad locked away, but he was also missing out on a rather particularly fantastic batch of pancakes.

“How could you do this to me? I’m your father! How could you do this to your father?” Orpheus growled and screamed at him, visibly wincing each time the silver of the handcuffs cut into his skin; which was very often considering how much he moved about. “I believed you when you said that you had captured Marcellus!”

“That sounds like a personal problem to me,” Malik snorted and rolled his eyes. “If you were paying attention, you would have been able to pick up on the human stench even if he was wearing Mars’ jumper. It’s rather poor from you, if you ask me.”

“I wasn’t asking you!” Orpheus roared at him but Malik remained unbothered. Instead, he helped himself to the penultimate pancake before placing the plate on the floor.

“You were a few moments ago,” he pointed out, a smug look on his face.

“Why are you doing this to me, Malik? Why are you doing this to your own father?” Orpheus’ expression grew soft, almost pathetic. Malik knew it was fake but seeing his father, the big bad Alpha, all but beg him for answers was rather humbling.

“Believe it or not but not everything is about you,” Malik snorted.

“What?”

“Well, I guess this is kind of about you but there’s so much more to the picture,” Malik explained, a dark glint in his eyes as he stared back at his dad through the cell bars. “It appears that you’re not the only one that can plan.”

“Can you please stop talking in riddles and just tell me what’s going on?”

“You’re not quite in the position to be making demands now, are you?” Malik grinned, nothing humorous about his tone despite the smug look on his face. “I’m not feeling very generous right now so I’ll keep my plan to myself but there are some questions that I’m looking to answer. And unfortunately, you’re the only one it appears I can get my answers from.”

“You lock me up here and expect me to answer your questions? What’s wrong with you?”

“Quite a few things, but not nearly as all that’s wrong with you,” Malik shot back at his dad with a quirked brow. “Now, are you going to answer my questions or should I go about my day? Perhaps being left to your own company may be exactly what’s needed to talk some sense into.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Orpheus grumbled with a dark look in his eyes, watching carefully as Malik made a move to get onto his feet and brush the dirt off his jogging bottoms. When he figured that the threat wasn’t empty, he grumbled some more but begrudgingly nodded his head; giving in.

“I was hoping you would change your mind,” Malik grinned widely as he dropped himself back into a sitting position on the ground. “Now, let’s get started. I’ll make it pretty simple for you. You can start from the beginning. Make sure you don’t leave out any of the details and if you lie about anything, I’ll know.”

“Start from the beginning?” his dad echoed in question for clarity.

“From the day you raped my mum. For the first time,” Malik made sure to add the last part just to show his dad that he knew the entire truth already. All he was interested in now was hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth.

“Rape? What?” Orpheus had the audacity to question, as if he didn’t know exactly what Malik was talking about. “You’re saying I raped your mum? What are you talking about? Have you forgotten that your mum is my mate? There’s no way that I could have raped her!”

“Mars warned me that you would try to convince me that there’s no rape between mates,” Malik growled in a disgusted tone, more disgusted with his dad in this one moment than he had ever been before. “Just admit you’ve raped my mum. That you raped your mate.”

“I didn’t rape Thea!” Orpheus growled loudly. He was so angry that he rose to his feet and moved to rush toward him despite the cell bars that separated them. In Orpheus’ anger, he momentarily forgot about the silver chains that were locked around his wrist and he ended up dropping to the ground in immense pain as his body was shocked.

“I have no interest in talking to you if you’re going to lie about it,” Malik clicked his tongue in distaste, feigning leaving as he rose to his feet. There was no way he going to leave without his answers, but his dad didn’t need to know that.

And just like he predicted, his dad fell for it.

“Malik!” Orpheus called after him again, followed up by the sound of the chains moving and then him swearing out loud once again. “Malik, please! Don’t leave me down here like this! Come back and I’ll tell you the truth!”

“Nothing but the truth?” Malik stopped in his tracks, throwing the question over his shoulder.

“Yes, I promise!” his dad called out to him, his voice dripping with desperation. Now, Malik wasn’t sure if this desperation came from the fear of being left down here all by himself, of the effect the silver chains would have on time as the coming hours passed or if he simply wanted to spill the truth but he didn’t care.

“Well, then,” Malik hummed as he turned around, the last pancake and all. “You better start talking.”

“I did rape your mother,” Orpheus whispered, his head hung low in what Malik could only assume was shame. It was just too bad that he knew his father better than that. The man couldn’t even spell the word shame, let alone feel it.

“I can’t hear you,” he rumbled in a low voice.

“I raped Thea,” he gulped and lifted his head, finally looking Malik in the eye. “I raped my mate.”

“That’s something I already know,” Malik struggled to swallow the words and the sour taste it left in his mouth. “Now, tell me some things that I don’t already know. Like why are you trying to raise Lord Erebus? Why did the Moon Goddess lock him up? What’s really going on?”

“It’s a long story.”

“You’ve got time,” Malik quirked a daring brow, silently threatening his dad that he would leave again if he didn’t cooperate.

“Lord Erebus is the true deity; the true God. The Moon Goddess is nothing but a phoney; a fake,” Orpheus spat, a growl slipping out to wrap around his words. In that moment, with his jaw clenched and his darkening with each passing second, it was like Orpheus forgot that he was stuck in one of his own cells. “Lord Erebus created the first werewolves and the Moon Goddess couldn’t stand it. She was jealous and vindicative, and when she got the chance, she tricked him. She locked away our Lord and took over the werewolves.”

“How long has it been since he was locked away?” Malik asked in a quiet voice when he found an opening, all but hanging onto every word that was coming out of his dad’s mouth.

“Centuries,” Orpheus smiled a sick smile. “Centuries and centuries. But all of that will end soon.”

“And by that, you mean Erebus will rise again?”

“Yes,” Orpheus confirmed with a nod. “It’s taken centuries and several generations, but we’re so close to resurrecting Lord Erebus. Just a few more and he will rule the werewolf world all over again!”

“I’m not so sure about,” Malik snorted and rolled his eyes, a sour taste in his mouth. “Where’s your Lord Erebus now when you need him to save him?”

“He’s your Lord as well,” Orpheus was quick to snap.

“No,” Malik scoffed and shook his head. “He’s not my Lord.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say that I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure that you, nor anyone else is able to resurrect Lord Erebus,” Malik told his dad, speaking with the utmost determination and certainty. “That wasn’t such a long story now, was it?” he mocked before casually turning his attention to the lone pancake that had no doubt gone cold now. “I need to get to training. You want it?”

Too proud to voice his answer, Orpheus merely gulped and nodded his head.

“Here you go,” Malik chuckled as he rolled up the lone pancake, throwing it at his dad. He made sure to keep the plate to himself, not looking to give the vicious wolf anything that could possibly be used as a weapon.

“Thank you,” Orpheus bowed his head as he scooped up the breakfast delicacy off the ground of the cell, quick to take a large bite out of it.

That was when Malik chose to unveil his plans.

“I promise you this, Orpheus Vladimir, that whatever happens, there’s no way that Erebus is going to be resurrected,” Malik spat as he took a step back from the cells, reaching into his pocket for the needle and fluid that he had emptied out earlier, holding it up in the air for his dad to see.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Malik,” Orpheus spat back but when he spied the empty vial between his son’s fingers, his lips parted in shocks and his eyes widened in disbelief. “What is that, Malik?”

“Wolfsbane,” Malik snickered and shrugged as he began walking down the hallway, taking great joy in the growls and screams that resonated from the very last cell. “I hope you enjoyed those pancakes. There’s plenty more where that came from so if you want more, feel free to mind link me.”

Except, he couldn’t. Not with that much wolfsbane pumping through his blood.

-

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Layla Knight

22.08.2021