The Alpha's Vessel [The Alpha's #2]

THEA PETROVNA

“So, I hear you’re a rapist!” Marcellus growled from his seat behind the desk, his mate perched on his lap in her attempt of calming him down despite the fact that his rage was completely justified.

“And where did you hear that from?” Orpheus asked from the other side of the desk, though Thea had refused to sit next to him and instead, she grabbed the chair and dragged it far, far away from him; not trusting him to try anything from under the table.

“Where he heard it from doesn’t take away the fact that it’s the truth.” Anastasia piped up from her mate’s lap, a deep scowl on her face.

“I kind of does, actually.” The Alpha of the Apo to Chaos packed chuckled, as if there was anything remotely funny or humorous about this situation. “Why don’t we hear the truth from Thea, instead?” He questioned with a dark glint in his eyes before turning to face her. “Thea?”

A shiver ran down her spine with the way her name rolled off his tongue but she refused to show how something as simple as that affected her.

“What?” She questioned with a snort, rolling her eyes at his attempt at dismissing exactly what he had done to her. “Do you expect me to deny the fact that you raped me even though that’s exactly what you did.”

“I wouldn’t call that rape exactly.” His lip curled up at the corners slightly as he cocked his head to the side slightly, a coy look on his face.

“And what would you call it then?” Thea dared to question even though she knew that regardless of what he chose to respond with, she would absolutely detest hearing.

“Passionate sex.”

The fact that he had the nerve to smirk at her before sending her a knowing look,

“And this happened last night?” Marcellus with a confuddled, yet raged expression on his face, turning to look at his mate for confirmation.

It was evident that while Anastasia had explained what had happened to Thea, there were some obvious things that she had missed in the mad rush this morning.

“No, it happened six years ago.”

“Less than six years ago.” He was quick to deny, quirking a teasing brow. “Five years and ten months to be specific, I believe.”

At his exact admission, Thea’s lips turned down into a deep frown. As if the situation wasn’t very uncomfortable already, he had chosen to make it all that much worse by taking to make light of a disgusting, very dark situation.

“Let me explain.” Thea sighed as she reached a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose; mentally preparing herself for having to open up yet again.

There were very few times that she had told this story and people hadn’t reacted in a significantly negative way, some even trying to flip the tables back on her.

“When I was a freshman in college, I went out clubbing with my friends one night and on the way home, he,” she paused to send him a dark, disgusted scowl, one which he responded with a simple wink; as if that was even remotely appropriate in this situation. “He pulled me into a dark alley while I was somewhat drunk and he raped me.”

“What the fuck?” Marcellus couldn’t help but exclaim out loud in a mixture of shock and disgust, effectively cutting her off as she wasn’t finished with the story yet.

“Unfortunately, yes.” She nodded her head and sighed; confirming it. “Long story short, I got pregnant and yesterday, I recognised Orpheus as the man that raped me all those years ago.”

“Well, that’s not what I was expecting to hear.” Marcellus murmured quietly, a sad, pitiful expression on his face as he looked at her. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Thea. You’re so strong for being able to move on from after such a horrific thing happening to you.”

Before Thea could respond for his kind words, Alpha Orpheus was quick to deny the allegations, clearly not agreeing with them.

“What did you expect to hear?” Orpheus replied dryly with a dark look on his face, almost as if he hated the way she had decided to paint him with the narrative that she had used; as if everything that she hadn’t just said was nothing but the complete and absolute truth.

“That you were Orpheus’ mate.”

Thea frowned deeply but watched him carefully, surprised with the way that Orpheus wasn’t the least bit affected by what Marcellus had just said. As if them being mates didn’t disgust him but before she could question him regarding his bland reaction, Anastasia inserted herself back into the conversation while choosing to take a back seat and listen carefully while Thea spoke her truth.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there.” Anastasia scowled at the wolf sat across from her, behind the desk. “He went into her room last and demanded that Malik and Thea go back with him to his pack today. That’s why she needed to get out of the pack this morning.”

Marcellus couldn’t help but scoff as he shook his head, struggling to wrap his mind around all of this news that was dropped on him so early in the morning.

“Why didn’t you guys tell me what happened when you first saw him?” He asked, glancing between both of the women.

“Because it’s not exactly something which I’m proud of or go around telling people.” She sighed softly turning her head to glance at both of her friends. “All I wanted to do was get away from here and away from him, but you just couldn’t let that happen, could you?” Thea rolled her eyes toward the end and glanced at him; not the least bit impressed with the way he was smirking at her, almost as if proud of what he had done to her.

“That was not an option, I’m afraid.” He grinned at her cheekily which only made her feel dirty in response.

“Are you not ashamed of yourself?” Marcellus growled the question, the evident distaste and disgust apparent on his face. “How could you do that to someone? How could you do that to a woman?”

“It was quite easy, actually.” Orpheus shrugged as he leaned back in his chair and spread his legs out in front of him

Before anyone could rebuke him for such a disgusting combination of words, especially in regards to something as serious as rape.

“What’s going on here?” Dalton asked as he popped his head into the office.

“Nothing.” Thea was quick to deny with a shake of her head before any of the others for an answer. “How’s Malik? Is he okay?”

“Yes. Him and Devon are eating pancakes in the kitchen with some of the other pups.” The Beta wolf smiled at her. “But seriously, the council want to know what’s going on.”

Thea turned her head to stare at Marcellus and Anastasia with a fearful, desperate look on her face but before one of them could say anything, Dalton was pushed to the side as elder Maverick came into the room, closely followed by the four other elders.

“Tell me why Beta Dalton told me that nothing was going on even though I could hear everything from the next room?” Maverick demanded with a deep scowl on his face and his arms crossed over his chest, staring at his son while waiting for an explanation.

Anastasia gasped at the same time Thea sent them all a questioning look.

“What are you talking about, dad? We set you up on the third floor.” Marcellus murmured quietly before turning his heads to glance at his mate.

“The shower in his bathroom didn’t work properly so I set him up in our old room last night.” Anastasia admitted. “I forgot he was in there.”

“Well, there goes with waiting to tell the council.” Thea groaned and leaned forward to bury her face in her hands, unable to believe that all of this was happening right now.

This was the exact sort of thing that she was hoping to avoid by leaving the pack and returning to her own at the first sight of dawn. Unfortunately, it appeared that she couldn’t even do that.

“Maverick, what’s going on?” Elder Harriet asked, turning her head to glance all around the room though when her eyes landed on only smiling person in the room, her lips turned down slightly at the corners. “Alpha Orpheus. Why am I not surprised that you’re in the middle of all of this?”

“Now, now!” Elder Malachi, the head of the werewolf council piped up with a deep scowl on his face. “Is that the way to speak to an Alpha?”

Instead of answering, Harriet made a show of rolling her eyes, one which it was obvious that Malachi far from appreciated.

“Nice to see you too, Luna Harriet.” He sneered at her. “Or should I say, elder Harriet?”

“Don’t speak to my mate like that, pup.” Elder Paulo growled at the blatant show of disrespect to his mate, his eyes growing darker in colour as the Alpha in question merely chuckled.

“It’s funny that you call me a pup when you have a pup running your former pack.” Orpheus snorted. “Though I see that he has some pups of his own. From what I’ve heard, he’s got two daughters, yes?”

“Don’t you dare speak about my grandchildren!” Paulo growled again but before he could lunge at the wolf, both his mate and elder Deryck held him back, more so for show as neither of them would care in the slightest if he tore the offending Alpha to pieces.

Unfortunately, that was not a possibility and no one in the room believed Paulo to stand a match against Orpheus for numerous reasons; the age difference only playing a small role in it all.

“As disgusting as that sentiment was, we have more pressing matters at hand which we need to discuss.” Maverick stated in a firm, authoritative voice, choosing to take charge of the situation. “From what I heard, Alpha Orpheus raped Thea and now after all these years, he’s now come and threatened to take both her and her child away?”

Before Orpheus could even think of denying it, she nodded her head frantically.

“Yes.” Thea stated simply, her face beginning to flush at the thought of all these people now knowing what had happened to her. The fact that her rapist was in the same room and looking at her exclusively like he was proud of what he had done just made her feel all that much worse, especially since this was exactly the kind of thing that she had wanted to avoid.

“Right.” Malachi hummed with a deep on-set frown on his face. “This is a grave crime, indeed.”

“Two consenting adults having sex is now a crime?” Orpheus questioned with an amused grin on his face before making a show of sending a pointed look toward her.

“There was absolutely no consent involved!”

“Okay, let me amend my question.” Orpheus chuckled at her quick response. “Two adults having sex is now a crime?”

“No, but rape is a crime!” Harriet piped up, not the least bit amused with how nonchalant he was regarding something as serious as rape. “Not to mention he rape of a human.”

“She was also drunk.”

“Great, that’s even worse!”

Before they knew it, an argument broke out among the wolves in the room, all of them trying to elicit a response from the criminal in question but as Thea glanced around the room, she was not surprised to find him to be kicking back and enjoying the show; clearly enjoying all the attention that was now on him.

As the moments passed and Thea continued to stare back at him, she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to him for him to turn out like such a monster. As she was the last person to be making excuses for him, but she found it difficult to believe that a person could be born this bad.

“Before this gets even more out of control,” Marcellus growled as he rose to his feet and placed Anastasia down on the chair. “I propose that we hold a trial. While it’s evident that a grave crime has been committed here, Alpha Orpheus is denying it so I think it’s only fair that we hold a trial and dish out punishments accordingly.”

“Yes, I believe that’s the only way we’re going to be able to get to the bottom of things.” Malachi announced with a firm nod, already planning on how to get everything in motion. “The trial will be held this evening as all Alpha wolves are already here.” He stated, referring to the fact that they were all visiting due to Marcellus and Anastasia’s mating ceremony having been held on the previous day.

While the other wolves in the room all hummed and nodded their responses, Orpheus rose to his feet to grab their attention.

“Thea is my mate and what I do with her is absolutely none of your concern.” Orpheus shrugged with a nonchalant, unimpressed look on his face as he glanced around the room before finally, his eyes landed on Thea who was currently staring at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“What did you just say?” She couldn’t help but voice aloud the same question that all of them were thinking.

“You heard me.” He smirked, even going as far as to wink at her.

“Alpha Orpheus, please repeat yourself.” Elder Maverick demanded in a quiet voice since he had decided to play coy.

“Thea is my mate and there’s no rape between mates. Hence, there’s absolutely no basis for this case. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to head back to my pack with my mate and my son.”

-

Please remember to like, comment, review and follow me if you haven’t already! Also, support me on PATREON to read the COMPLETED book and get EARLY ACCESS to all my other books, including the third and last book in the trilogy!

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/LaylaKnight

Layla Knight

06.12.2020