Chosen To Be The Alpha's Surrogate

** Malachi I**

I wake to darkness and the taste of copper in my mouth. For a moment, disorientation clouds my mind.

*Where am I? What happened?*

Then memory crashes back: the island, Penelope, the fight. Rook and Jax.

*Failure.*

I try to move, but my limbs feel leaden, uncooperative. The sedatives they've pumped into me still cling to my consciousness, making the world shift and blur at the edges. My wounds from the fight throb with dull, persistent pain-wounds that should have healed by now if not for whatever they've drugged me with.

*Silver.*

They've been dosing me with diluted silver to slow my healing, to keep me weak.

Rage bubbles up. I lunge forward, only to be stopped short by heavy chains. The metal bites into my wrists, and the familiar burn tells me they're silver-lined. Designed specifically to contain an Alpha.

"Finally awake, I see."

The voice drifts from the shadows beyond my cell. I squint, trying to make out the figure leaning against the stone wall.

"Rook," I snarl, my voice raw and rough. "Where is she? Where's Penelope?"

He steps closer, into the faint light filtering through a high, barred window. His

expression is infuriatingly calm, almost sympathetic.

"Recovering," he says simply. "The baby came quickly."

The words nearly knock the breath from my lungs.

*My son. My son is here, in this world, and I wasn't there to witness his first breath. To hold Penelope's hand as she brought him into this world.*

"You had no right," I growl, straining against the chains despite the burning pain. "That's my child. My mate."

"Was," Rook corrects, his tone maddeningly even. "She bears Jax's mark now."

"Under duress," I snap. "She didn't choose him."

Rook's eyes narrow slightly. "Are you so sure? The true mate bond isn't something that can be forced, Malachi. It responds to what's already there.”

I lunge for him again, chains cutting into my flesh, the pain nothing compared to the fury coursing through me. "Let me see her. Let me see my son."

"Your son," Rook repeats, something flickering in his eyes. "Interesting that you should mention him. I've been wondering what kind of father sells his unborn child's future for political advantage."

Ice replaces the fire in my veins. "What are you talking about?"

Rook's smile is cold. "Jackson talks quite a lot when properly motivated. Your arrangement with him-your son for his daughter-was quite the revelation."

Shame and defiance war within me. "I did what I had to do to find her. To bring her home."

"And look how well that turned out," Rook says, gesturing to my chained form. "Now you're both my guests."

"*Prisoners*,” I correct. "Don't dress it up with pretty words."noveldrama

A growl of frustration escapes me as I test the chains again. Every instinct in me is screaming to break free, to find Penelope and our son, to get them away from here. But the silver has done its work well. I'm trapped, helpless. The thought is enough to make bile rise in my throat.

A sound from further down the corridor catches my attention the scrape of a door opening, followed by heavy footsteps. A familiar scent drifts to me, and despite my weakened state, I bare my teeth in a snarl.

"Jackson."

Rook steps aside as two guards drag Jackson into view. Like me, he's been beaten and chained, though he looks considerably worse for wear. His face is a map of bruises, one eye swollen shut, his normally immaculate appearance reduced to bloodstained rags. "Special delivery," one of the guards says with a smirk, shoving Jackson into the cell across from mine. "Thought you two might want to catch up."

As the guards retreat, Jackson slumps against the wall of his cell, his one good eye finding mine across the narrow corridor.

"Malachi," he wheezes, the word barely audible. "Didn't expect to see you here." "Likewise," I reply coldly. "What happened to your elite forces?"

Jackson coughs, a wet, ugly sound. "Ambushed. Someone knew we were coming."

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My eyes dart to Rook, who watches our exchange with detached interest. "Someone had inside information."

"Don't look at me," Rook says with a slight shrug. "Your operation was compromised long before you reached my shores."

The implications of his words send a chill down my spine. If we were betrayed before we even reached the island, that means someone close to me someone in my inner circle is a traitor.

"Why are we still alive?" Jackson asks the question that's been brewing in my own mind. "Two Alphas, both contenders for Continental King. It would be simpler to kill us outright."

Rook's expression shifts then, something darker passing across his features. "Because dead men can't be useful. And I have plans for both of you."

"What plans?" I demand.

But Rook is already turning away. "Rest while you can, Malachi. You're going to need your strength." At the door, he pauses. "Oh, and congratulations. Your son has your eyes."

The door closes behind him, leaving Jackson and me alone in the dim corridor.

For a long moment, neither of us speaks. The silence stretches, filled only with the sound of our labored breathing and the distant drip of water somewhere in the darkness.

"They killed my best warriors," Jackson finally says, his voice hollow. "And for what? A rescue mission that was doomed from the start."

"She's my mate," I say simply, as if that explains everything. And to me, it does. Jackson's laugh is bitter, edged with pain. "And you promised your son to my daughter for the chance to get her back. Was it worth it?"

The question hangs in the air heavy between us.

*Was it worth it? Selling my unborn child's future for a failed rescue attempt? Putting

my entire pack at risk? Making a decision that Penelope will likely never forgive me for?

*

"I don't know," I admit, the words tasting like ash. "I don't know anymore."

Jackson shifts, chains rattling with the movement. "Do you know what I find interesting?" he asks, his tone conversational despite our dire circumstances. "Rook could have killed us both. Should have, really. It would have eliminated two of his strongest competitors in one stroke."

I frown, considering his words. "What do you think he wants?"

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"I don't know," Jackson replies. "But whatever it is, we don't have a say in the matter."

Before I can respond, a howl cuts through the night-distant but unmistakable. My wolf stirs within me, recognizing the birth announcement even through the fog of drugs and pain.

*My son. My son is officially being presented to the pack.*

*...*

*Without me.*

I close my eyes, a different kind of pain washing over me. In wolf tradition, a father's howl should be the first to acknowledge his pup's arrival. Instead, it's Rook's voice that rises into the night, claiming my son as part of his pack.

Jackson watches me from across the corridor, his expression unreadable in the

shadows. "What will you do?" he asks softly. "If you get out of here?"

The question ignites something deep inside me-not just rage or desperation, but a

cold, clear purpose that cuts through the haze of drugs and defeat.

"I'll take what's mine," I say, my voice low and dangerous. "My mate. My son. And I'll make them all pay for what they've done."

"Even her?" Jackson's question is careful, probing. "Even Penelope, who I hear now bears another wolf's mark?"

The thought makes my vision flash red at the edges, my wolf clawing to break free despite the silver burning my skin. "She's mine," I growl. "She'll always be mine. And I'll take our son and go somewhere they'll never find us."

The threat hangs in the air, a promise I'm not sure I mean but can't take back. In this moment, with pain and betrayal burning through me, it feels like the only path forward -to reclaim what's mine and disappear.

Another howl joins the first, deeper and more powerful. I recognize it instantly.

Jax. The true mate. Acknowledging my son as if he has any right.

I throw my head back, an animalistic growl erupting from the back of my throat.

*I'll kill them... I'll kill them all.*

I might be chained and drugged, locked away in the bowels of this fortress, but I am

still Alpha. Still father to the child born tonight. And somehow, some way, I will find a path back to them both.

Even if it means burning this entire island to the ground.