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

MALIK VLADIMIR

He remembered it to be like a party…although it was far from joyous like the typical party. There was no music, no drinks, no happy smiles, or even smiles in general. The only thing that made it feel like a party were all the people that had travelled far and wide to attend the event.

All of them had sent him pitiful looks, trying to assure him that everything would work out in the end. If only someone had explained to him why things weren’t working out in the first place. The Lunas tried to comfort him and the Alphas didn’t know what to say to him. The pack tried to keep him away from the centre of it all but he was a curious kid, even more so when he couldn’t find his mother anywhere.

Looking back now, he knew it to be the opposite of a party but little baby Malik had been none the wiser.

He could remember his aunt Stassie coming up to him, her makeup smudged and her face wet with tears. He had thought that she had looked funny and when asked why she was crying, she hugged him to her chest and cried harder. Malik had no idea what was going on but he wrapped his little arms around her neck and did his best to comfort her.

“Why are you crying, Stassie?” Malik asked, his hands tangled in her hair.

“Oh, Malik!” she sobbed harder at his question, tightening her arms around him. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. I’m so sorry you have to go through this!”

“What?” he barely had time to question before someone approached them from behind, wounding their arms around them both as he pulled them into his chest.

“He doesn’t need to know all the details right now,” Marcellus murmured as he guided them both into a separate room.

“Know what?” Malik asked, ever so confused as to what everyone seemed to be hiding from him. Where was his mum when he needed her? She never kept secrets from him and always answered his questions.

“Nothing,” Marcellus was quick to deny before his mate could say anything.

“What do you want to do, Mars?” Anastasia sniffled as she ran a hand through his hair, both comforting him and herself. “He deserves to know what’s happened! It’s his mum!”

Malik’s ears perked up at that. “What’s happened to mama?” he asked, tugging on the bottom of Anastasia’s dress when neither of them answered him. “Where is mummy? I can’t find her anywhere.”

Despite his incessant question, neither Anastasia nor Marcellus could bring themselves to be honest with Malik.

“We can’t tell him the truth,” Marcellus murmured to his mate. “This is the sort of thing that’s going to scar him for life.”

“As if he’s not already going to be scarred!”

Malik watched with wide, curious eyes at the silent back and forth between the Luna and Alpha duo. He had no doubt that they were mind linking…about what? he was desperate to know. Especially since he knew that it had something to do with his mum.

When he couldn’t handle the wait any longer, he growled in frustration like the little wolf that he was and stomped his foot on the ground like the child that he was. “Stassie!” he tugged on the bottom of her dress, his actions demanding his attention. “Where’s my mama?”

Anastasia wiped her tears on the back of her hand but it was Marcellus who crouched down so they were both on eye level.

“I’m really sorry Malik, but your mama has to go away for a while,” Marcellus gulped as his words trailed off.

“Mama would never leave me!” Malik denied, refusing to believe that his mama would go anywhere without him…especially without telling him. Everyone in the room knew that he was right.

“I know that she would never want to leave you but sometimes, not everything is in our control,” the Alpha wolf sighed, struggling to believe his own words. If he couldn’t convince himself, then how could he convince this child?

“Thea wouldn’t want us to lie to him, Mars” a sub escaped from above them, forcing them both to tilt their heads back to glance up at the tearful woman crying enough tears for the three of them.

When Anastasia started sobbing harder and Marcellus became distracted with consoling his mate, Malik – like the curious child that he was…far too curious in this specific case – took that as his chance to sneak away. Not wanting to risk getting caught, he tucked his chin into his chest to appear smaller and after wounding himself around a few legs, he was back in the dining room. However, it appeared that he had missed the memo as everyone appeared to have shifted from the dining room to outside.

His curiosity drove him as ventured out into the fields where everyone else was.

Malik wasn’t sure what motivated him, but he pushed against the legs of the two people stood in front of him. They seemed annoyed at first but one glance down at the child by their legs, they were quick to move out of the way for him. Thankfully, the rest of the crowd followed the example of these first two pack members.

Like the red sea, the crowd parted until finally, Malik was stood in front of everyone.

Malik wasn’t sure what to expect but an open coffin certainly wasn’t it. At his short height and the steps in front of him, Malik couldn’t see who was inside the coffin. The first tear rolled down once he climbed onto the first step. He didn’t know why he was crying but by the time he made it onto the top step and walked over to the coffin to peer inside, he knew.

Sleeping in the plain wooden box was exactly the person that he had been looking for this whole time. He had thought that she was still getting dressed or with some of the pack members…he hadn’t expected to find her in front of all the pack members. And certainly not in this grey, lifeless state.

“Mama?” Malik called out to her but for the first time, she didn’t answer.

That was the first moment Malik realised his mother was dead.

-

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Layla Knight

31.07.2021