The Alpha's Progeny [The Alpha's #3]
Chapter 26

MALIK VLADIMIR

Malik knew what he had to do but it didn’t make it any easier. Let alone to even think about.

He knew that he needed to kill his dad. That it would be the smart thing to do – the right thing to do. The sooner Orpheus was out of the picture, the easier it would be to end all of this. But he just couldn’t do it.

Even though the man was despicable and he wished he wasn’t related to him, Malik just couldn’t do it. At least not yet, anyway.

If it weren’t for the morning prayer that Orpheus led every morning, he probably would have been able to get away without raising too many eyebrows. As Orpheus spent a lot of the day time locked away in his office, only appearing out of it few and very far in between, most people probably wouldn’t have noticed.

However, his dad’s lack of presence was far too obvious for him to ignore for too long and for that reason, Malik turned around to address the situation as soon as he finished the prayer.

“I’m sure you’re all wondering where my father is,” Malik spoke loud and clear as his eyes flitted through the crowd, lingering on a few select people that probably were more interested in his answer than the rest of the pack. “He had to leave last on an emergency. He has requested that I don’t go into the specifics but rest assured, he will be returning in a few short days. Until then, I will be taking over. If you have any problems or questions, feel free to direct them to me.”

If you had a Beta, they could have dealt with these questions, his wolf pointed out to him.

I think you’re forgetting what happened with our last Beta, Malik snorted, referring to Clayton and the horrible fate that he had suffered. Anyway, I don’t think it’s the best time to be involving someone else in this mess right now. Especially when we don’t know if we’ll be able to trust them.

Perhaps, but I still think it would have made things easier.

Before Malik could continue arguing with his wolf, he spied a few hands raised in the air from the crowd of wolves in front of him.

“Yes?” he questioned the wolf stood in the front row; a man he recognised to be a warrior.

“I don’t mean to speak out of turn or pry here, Alpha Malik, but is everything okay? What kind of emergency could have risen to take Alpha Orpheus away from us for a few days?” the warrior asked the million dollar question, no doubt voicing aloud what everyone else was thinking.

“Like I said before, I can’t quite go into the specifics as requested by my father but what I can say is that he has some matters with the council that he needs to deal with,” Malik tried to answer as diplomatically as possible – avoiding answering the question while making everyone feel like he had answered that question.

“Has the Alpha been locked away again?” another wolf asked, this one an incompetent teen whose mother sent him a sharp look as soon as he asked the rather intrusive question.

“No, of course, not,” Malik chuckled as he took his time to deny the teen. The last thing he needed was for more rumours to spread about them, even worse if they came from within the pack itself.

Malik kept up the cool and collected façade as he answered a few more questions. Once he had answered a reasonable number of them, he dismissed the pack and wished them a good day. To avoid getting stuck in the crowd – also the chance for people to further grill him of his dad’s whereabouts – he decided to stick around in the field.

At the very most, he expected to receive a few odd looks for the strange behaviour. What he didn’t expect was a familiar figure to walk out of the woods with a backpack on her back and a nervous smile on her face.

“Trinity?” Malik questioned in shock; unmoving.

Fuck! his wolf swore. As great as this is, her timing is terrible.

The absolute worst, Malik couldn’t help but agree, a worrisome expression on his face.

“I have to admit, I was hoping you’d be more excited than this,” Trinity murmured in a quiet voice as she came to a stop several spots in front of him. “I know that things didn’t end on the best of terms last time, but I’m here to fix that. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea…” her voice trailed off dejectedly, a shadow casting over her face as she continued to stare at him.

What’s wrong with you? his wolf barked at him. If you don’t say anything now, then our mate is going to walk away from us. Is that what you want?

No, of course, not! he answered his wolf before rushing to call out to Trinity before she turned around to leave.

“I’m sorry, Trinity,” Malik apologised with a frown, moving to close the gap between them. Reaching out, he cautiously took her hands in his, gently stroking the back of them with his thumbs. “You just caught me off surprise, that’s all.”

“Are you sure?” she frowned in question, gazing up at him from under her lashes. “You don’t look like you’re happy to see me.”

“Like I said, you just caught me off by surprise,” Malik attempted a smile – one which he was sure came out as more of a grimace – in hopes that it would somewhat elevate the tension in the air.

As much as he appreciated his mate for making the effort to come here and surprise him, he couldn’t help but worry that she was just putting herself in danger. Not only had she turned up announced, but she had landed herself in the presence of his dad, Orpheus Vladimir. This was something that Malik wished to avoid, even if he was locked away.

“Malik,” Trinity called out to him, snapping her fingers in front of his face. “Are you listening to me?”

“Sorry, yes,” he was quick to nod his head, indicating for her to continue.

“I’m sorry for what happened with my brother. He shouldn’t have said all those things. They’re not true and I definitely don’t believe them,” the words rushed out of her mouth. When she spoke, her cheeks warmed and she lowered her gaze, almost as if uncomforting with meeting his eyes. That didn’t settle well with him.

“You don’t have to apologise for anything,” Malik was quick to correct her before she said anything else. “Your brother shouldn’t have said all of that stuff, sure, but I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I shouldn’t have hit him or…” his voice trailed off as he sent her a pointed look, referring to the part where he had done more than just beat bit his brother – or at least tried to. “I clearly overreacted. I’m sorry for what I did, and I should have called you sooner.”

At his words, Trinity exhaled in relief before rushing into his arms. “We’ve agreed that the both of us are sorry,” she mumbled into his tone, all but sagging into him when he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tight. “I could have called you as well but I needed to see you again, and thought it best that we talk this over in person. Things didn’t end very well when we discussed our issues over the phone.”

Malik and his wolf laughed at that but very quickly remembered that they had something bigger than themselves to deal with. And their mate being front row and centre to it all made things even more complicated.

“How did you get here?” Malik asked as they pulled away from the hug.

“I took a train and then two buses,” Trinity grinned up at him, a determined look in her eyes.

“How long did that take you?”

“I left about six this morning,” she murmured as she glance down at her watch, doing the maths.

“And it’s eleven now so about five hours,” Malik beat her to it. “If you leave after lunch, you should be able to make it back to the Lupum Griseo pack just in time for dinner.”

“In time for dinner?” Trinity murmured in question, an uncomfortable expression on her face as she shifted from foot to foot. “I was kind of hoping that I could stay here for a few days.”

“Stay here? For a few days?” Malik echoed in question, the words sounding worse than he intended for them to come out. “Wait, sorry,” he was quick to apologise but judging by the look on her face, he knew he was too late. “That’s not the way I meant it.”

“I thought you would be happy about me coming here,” Trinity frowned deeply, taking a step back. “If I knew that you didn’t want me here that bad, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place.”

“No, Trinity. That’s not what I meant,” Malik called out after her, all but begging for her to understand. “I appreciate you coming down here so we could talk in person. I truly do, but there’s just so much going on around here, I’m not sure if I’ll have time to spend with you,” he lied, trying not to wince at purposely keeping things from his mate.

“I’m your mate which means that one day, I’ll be the Luna of this pack. Why not let me help you with whatever you’ve got to do,” she offered, naive to all that was going on in his life.

“I’m afraid that you won’t be able to help me with this.”

“Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?” Trinity huffed, dropping his hand as she took a step back; purposely putting distance between them.

“I just can’t,” Malik sighed, gnawing on his bottom lip.

“I don’t understand why you can’t just be honest with me. We’re mates.”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“Protect me? From what?” Trinity continued to push, completely oblivious to the can of worms that she was opening and tainting herself with. With this sort of thing, there was no going back once someone had been exposed to the truth. By being honest with his mate, Malik would be putting her in danger but with her continued insistence, she was practically inviting danger by this point.

“You have to promise me that regardless of what I’ll say, you’ll stay. Tell me you won’t leave after you hear what I say,” Malik begged, feeling more vulnerable in that moment than he had been in all the moments of his life totalled up.

“I won’t but you’re starting to scare me,” Trinity gulped, staring up at with wide, careful eyes.

“I haven’t even gotten started yet,” he sighed before running a tired hand down his face.

With no other choice, Malik sighed before he opened his mouth and told her everything. He started from the very beginning when his mum was still a student in college, all the way up to this morning once he had left the dungeon.

He would have much preferred keeping her out of this as the less she knew, the better but it wasn’t like she had left him any other choice.

-

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Layla Knight

24.08.2021