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

MALIK VLADIMIR

Malik had no idea what he was looking at but whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t normal. In fact, it was so far from normal that it teetered on abnormally freakish.

For several moments, it looked like his dad was floating in the air instead of suffering the same fate as the pup that had plunged into the gaping hole that had suddenly opened up. Everything was black, everything was dark, and this ball of darkness was the only thing that allowed them to see a little.

And then that was gone and they were plunged into total darkness, their werewolf vision not helping in the least in this situation.

“What just happened?” the wolf next to him asked, sounding just as confused and mystified as Malik felt.

“I have no idea,” he murmured back.

“Did Orpheus fall in there?” another wolf audibly gulped.

“I don’t know.”

“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“What do you mean that wasn’t supposed to happen?” Malik snapped. “You guys have been planning this for years and now you don’t know what happened? Just exactly what were you doing this whole time?”

“This isn’t our fault. This was never part of the plan.”

“I think his sacrifice got rejected?”

“What?” Malik was quick to ask before the conversation moved on. “What do you mean you think his sacrifice got rejected? What sacrifice? The pups?”

“No, not the pups,” Griffin denied from somewhere in the distance. “The final sacrifice needs to be strong enough to accept the power of Lord Erebus. That’s why Alpha Orpheus performed all the sacrifices. Each one gave him more power and at the end, he would be powerful enough for Lord Erebus to sacrifice.”

“Except, he didn’t do all the sacrifices,” Malik gulped in response, his mouth suddenly feeling very dry. “I did one of them.”

“I don’t know what happened but this wasn’t part of the plan. This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Griffin continued to panic. “Lord Erebus was supposed to accept Alpha Orpheus’ sacrifice and be able to rise. He was supposed to possess Alpha Orpheus’ body, not consume it!”

“Possess?” Malik gasped in shock but no one had time to answer his question.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking some more, quickly followed by another lightning bolt. Even though the sight was blinding and it felt like his eyes were burning, Malik forced himself to peak from behind his fingers, needing to see what was going on.

The thunder bolt zapped the ground just like last time but instead of splitting the ground in two, it dived into the hole and as it gradually disappeared, the split started shrinking.

Malik had no idea what was going on but whatever it was, it was trying to close up the ground. It was healing the two sides of Earth and forcing then together, and soon enough, it would be like brand new. As if the ground hadn’t been split up in the first place.

Except, his dad was down there!

Sharing his same train of thought, the wolves around him began shrieking and panicking, forced to think about what would happen to them. Not only had they committed several crimes against werewolfkind, their ring leader was now missing from action which meant that they would have to face the entire repercussions of their actions.

They all could sense that the council weren’t far away.

While some wolves attempted to escape with the little light that was available from the retracting thunderbolt, Malik forced himself to watch, unable to believe that his father was dead just like that.

They weren’t all that close and certainly didn’t share a close bond, but he had thought that if his dad were to have passed, he would have felt it like he had done with his mother. At the very least, he thought that he would have felt something, but there was nothing.

It just didn’t feel real.

The thunderbolt was quick to disappear, taking its light with him until they were plunged back into darkness once again. Except this time, it didn’t last for very long as the blinding light returned but far slower and eventually emerging from the narrowing gap.

While others looked away and shielded their eyes, Malik forced himself to watch. He forced himself to watch his dad levitate out of the pit. Even though it was his dad’s body, he had no doubt in his mind that this was Lord Erebus resurrecting. That this man was no longer his father but rather, the evil God that he had been trying to bring back to life for more than half his life.

This evil God, born from chaos, the current black mass of air and cloud that followed him had all but swallowed his father, something which he would mourn later but right now, he needed to ensure that there was a later to mourn.

Springing into action, Malik leaped and shifted into his wolf mid-air. He all but threw himself at the black mass, unaware of exactly what he was getting himself into but it was far too late now. When he was close enough, he opened his mouth wide and bit around his dad’s neck. He bit down hard until he heard several cracks and crunches, the sounds making him wince but he still refused to let go. He twisted his mouth until the head was completely severed and only then did he open up.

Trying not to gag on the metallic taste of blood, Malik landed on the ground with a thud and dropped the severed head. Unable to bring himself to look at it, he averted his eyes and kicked it away from him, only looking back when he caught it rolling toward the open hole which was still closing up.

Ignoring his body’s natural reaction to cry out and mourn the passing of his father – the feeling so much stronger as he was the one to end his dad’s life – he turned his head to stare at the headless body that had landed on the ground next to him.

His dad was dead but the creature inside of him that his father had been trying to resurrect was still functioning; still moving.

Malik watched for a moment as the thick cloud of smoke began to slowly travel up his dad’s body which twitched like it was having a seizure, slowly making its way out of it before no doubt moving onto the next vessel it could take over. Refusing to allow that to happen, Malik did the unthinkable.

This whole time, the ground had continued to close up and now there was only a small slither left. Unable to stomach the thought of this thing, this monster that his dad was obsessed with being released into the world to no doubt destroy it, Malik scooped his arms under his dad’s lifeless, headless body and picked him up.

Even though he hated his dad and was glad that he was gone – Malik was sure that the feelings of dread and sorrow would kick in soon enough but for now, he felt nothing but relief – he needed to make sure this evil God suffered the same fate.

He was holding and not holding his father in his arms at the same time but right now, that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he put an end to it all and for that reason, he spared his father’s body one last look before he dropped his arms and allowed him to roll onto the floor and into the minute gap that remained; closing up almost immediately, as if his father’s body had been it’s last meal.

As soon as the whole closed up, it was like nothing strange had happened in the first place. The large crack on the ground no longer existed, they were no longer surrounded in darkness but rather; the beautiful blue of the sky and soft chirping of the birds.

It was like nothing had happened in the first place. Like he hadn’t just killed his dad and destroyed Lord Erebus’ attempt at resurrection…at least for now, anyway.

Even though this was a moment that was supposed to haunt him for the rest of eternity, Malik didn’t feel a single ounce of regret. Not when it meant that his father would never walk the ground of this Earth again.

Not when it meant that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pups were saved from him.

While he waited for it all to settle in, he dropped himself to the ground by his mate’s side and waited for her to wake up as from this day onward, she was the only family he had left.

-

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Layla Knight

30.08.2021