CHAPTER 277: WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

[ ...back to the Blackmoon Stronghold - Old World ]

Kieran didn’t move at first.

Not even a breath.

His eyes burned...unrelenting...locked onto the figure in the doorway. His hand still gripped Autumn’s waist like steel, refusing to let go.

And then when his voice came, it was a roar that made the stone walls shudder.

"What the hell are you doing on these lands without my permission?"

The sound literally cracked through the chamber like lightning.

So sharp even the guards flinched and stumbled further back, palms half covering their ears.

Alpha Malrick didn’t flinch though.

Even when his chest rose with a deep, deliberate sigh, as though it cost him something just to stand there.Perhaps ego... perhaps his dignity.

His gaze shifted once...briefly...to Autumn, then back to his son. The look he gave was not soft, nor pleading...there was weight in it. A weight that tried to press down on the fury blazing in Kieran’s stance.

One hand lifted, palm open, a gesture as if to say "I come unarmed."

As if that would have any meaning there.

"Kieran," his voice was steady, low, laced with exhaustion, "you know I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t urgent."

A pause. His eyes flickered, narrowing, sharpening."It is urgent.Like life and death."

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Father and son...staring each other down.

The heat of their gaze was like fire clashing with fire, refusing to yield.

Autumn’s breath caught between them, trapped in that invisible storm.

Kieran’s jaw tightened. His chest heaved once. Twice.

Finally...his fingers loosened their hold.

He turned his head just enough to glance at Autumn, his voice strained but still a little hesitant. "Autumn...please. Give us a moment...but...hey...wait for me...alright?"

His eyes pleaded with her silently as if begging her not to go missing once more.

Her lips curled, half a scoff, half a wound. She didn’t answer him. Didn’t nod...Just let out a sharp huff through her nose before spinning on her heel, boots striking the stone floor hard as she stormed out.

The guards didn’t wait for a command. They scrambled after her like prey escaping a predator, tripping over each other in their desperate hurry to leave the chamber, leaving only the echo of their retreat behind.

And then it was just them.

Kieran.

Malrick.

Father and son.

The air was thick, heavy, every second stretching out like it wanted to last forever.

The silence didn’t last.

Kieran surged forward so fast it looked like the air itself split around him. His forehead nearly crashed into Malrick’s, stopping just short... his breath scorching, his growl vibrating the chamber walls.

"How dare you show your face to me, huh?" His voice was raw, guttural, shaking with fury. "Do you have any idea what you have fucking done?"

His fangs bared. Claws pushed half out, scraping air, ready to rip.

Malrick’s lips pressed thin. He didn’t step back. Didn’t recoil. Just stood in that heavy, immovable way he always had, though his eyes flickered like the weight of something old sat behind them.

"I did what had to be done, Kieran," he answered, low, deliberate, carrying every ounce of the authority he once ruled with. "It is not like I had a choice."

Kieran’s laugh came out broken. Hollow. A jagged bark of disbelief.

"Fucking shit!" His chest heaved, breath tearing in and out of him. His voice rose, louder, sharper. "You told me I was helping my little brother when you made me do it...when you MADE me!"

His words cracked like a whip in the air.

Kieran’s eyes blazed, his face twisting with a fury so wild it looked like it might burn him alive from the inside.

"But you didn’t save him...you know that right? You fucking turned him into a monster. A devil...a fucking..."

Malrick’s jaw clenched. For the briefest heartbeat, something passed across his face...something that looked too much like guilt.

Kieran saw it.

He immediately latched onto it.

And his head shook violently, nodding like a man feeding the fire of his own hatred.

"Aha...judging by the look of it...you already knew that well, didn’t you?" His voice cracked but kept rising, veins bulging at his neck. "YOU!!!You lied to me. Kept me in the dark all these years.??!!!!"

He took a step closer, shoulders trembling. His breath shook like he couldn’t hold it in anymore.

"I thought..." His chest heaved, his voice splintered, "I thought we were fighting a dark power...the dark force out there causing us trouble even after it consumed my brother. But it was Karl...my brother shadowing me all along. And you fucking knew it. You knew...and you kept feeding my delusion!"

His hand shot forward, claws extended, almost seizing his father’s collar...

But he stopped short.

The weight of it broke him.

Kieran dropped to his knees on the cold stone floor, like the rage had grown too heavy for his body to hold upright. His fists slammed down, the floor beneath him cracking with the force.

"His eyes..." his voice was a whisper, haunted, breaking apart."Those eyes..."

His knuckles bled against the floor. He struck again, harder, the fracture lines spreading through the stone like veins of his own agony.

"You made me turn my brother into a monster..." he spat the words, every syllable trembling with hate and heartbreak. "A fucking monster."

His head bowed forward, shoulders heaving.

"I didn’t save him. I let his soul rot." His voice cracked, harsher, desperate. "So dark. So much darkness."

The silence swallowed him for a moment, his ragged breathing echoing like thunder.

Then his head snapped up.

His eyes, bloodshot and burning, locked onto Alpha Malrick’s.

"You did this." His words were venom, soaked in grief.

His body shook, fists curling as if they tore the earth itself.

"You fucking did this to Karl."

Kieran’s whole body continued to shake violently...not just his fists...his arms, his shoulders, even the cords in his neck quivered with a rage too big for his body to hold.

His claws flexed in and out, catching the faint glow of the indoor lights, itching to rip, to strike, to tear into flesh.

But he didn’t.

He couldn’t.

Something deeper chained him in place.Sliced through him.

His breath came harsh, ragged, dragging in through clenched teeth, spilling out in low snarls that echoed against the chamber walls.

His eyes burned holes through his father, daring him to move, daring him to push him further.

Alpha Malrick didn’t move at first.

He just watched. Watched the storm unravel inside his son.

His own face was unreadable.

And then...slowly...he bent.

The Alpha lowered himself, knee cracking against the stone, until he was at Kieran’s level.

The shift was startling.

For once, they stood eye to eye. Father and son, fire and stone, locked in the same line of sight.

Alpha Malrick’s hand hovered for a moment as if he wanted to place it on Kieran’s shoulder, but he didn’t. He let it hang in the air, trembling faintly before falling back to his side.

His voice when it came was steady...low...but carrying a weight that made the silence lean in closer.

"Kieran," he said, rough around the edges, "it’s okay. I understand what you are going through, boy."

Kieran’s jaw tightened. The word ’boy’ hit Kieran like a sting, but Malrick pressed on.

"It wasn’t easy on me when I found out either." His gaze softened...not pity, not weakness, just something like understanding."It’s okay to feel the pain. It’s okay to feel helpless."

Kieran’s lip curled, fangs still bared, but something in his father’s tone cut deeper than the words.

Alpha Malrick leaned closer, voice sharpening like steel under velvet.

"But then again...you are an Alpha. A father of three..."His eyes didn’t waver. Not once. "And you must pull yourself together. For what is coming is far worse than what you have seen."

Kieran’s breath faltered. His eyes searched his father’s face, desperately, furiously, looking for the lie.

Malrick didn’t blink.

"You have only seen the tip of the iceberg."

The silence thickened.

Kieran’s chest rose hard, fell harder. His hands twitched as if wanting desperately to hit something but finding nothing left to break. Slowly, his eyes narrowed, suspicion hardening into something else.

"What do you mean?" His voice was hoarse, cracked.

Malrick exhaled through his nose, his expression heavy. For once, the mask slipped, and what looked back at Kieran wasn’t the unshakable old Alpha...

It was a man carrying far too much.

"I know you know how it is...to lose a mate now." His gaze softened again, almost reluctant. "I am hoping...you will understand why I did what I did."

Kieran froze. His brows drew together, confusion overtaking the fury.

"...Wait."His words were cautious, like testing dangerous ground. "Don’t tell me this had anything to do with Autumn."

Malrick shook his head once. Slow. Very certain.

"No. It does not."

Kieran’s eyes narrowed sharper, demanding. His breath picked up again, shoulders tightening.

"Then what is it about?" His voice cracked, louder, pressing, refusing to let go.

Malrick’s gaze didn’t falter. He held his son’s eyes, letting the weight sink in. His jaw clenched, unclenched, and when he finally spoke, the words were a dagger pressed between them.

"It is about your mother."