Caught by the Mad Alpha King-Chapter 247: Uncomfortable questions (Win - Win)
Chris sat at the small round table near the windows, sleeves rolled, with a plate he was actively eating from, an achievement Mia had noted with visible approval. Andrew sat opposite him, jacket discarded, posture casual in the way that meant he was listening closely rather than relaxing.
Mia broke the silence first. "You look better than yesterday."
"That’s because I was threatened with supplements and supervision," Chris replied mildly. "Medical fear is very motivating."
Andrew snorted. "Good. You scared Dax."
Chris glanced up. "I did?"
"Well. Something adjacent to it," Andrew said, idly turning his fork while watching him. "Denise told me you were ambushed by Adelaide Malek."
"Yes," Chris said. "She spoke to me for less than five minutes, but it was enough." He set his cutlery down with delicate care. "Andrew, I wanted to ask you something."
Andrew’s gaze became more focused.
"Adelaide said that our parents asked, in their will, for the Maleks not to be informed of their deaths if it occurred before I was twenty." Chris folded his hands together. "Why?"
Andrew considered his answer for a long moment.
"I honestly don’t know," he said finally. "I knew the contents of the will in a technical sense. You remember Claude, he was obsessive about making sure we knew our rights before anything else happened."
"I remember," Chris said. "So they didn’t tell you either."
"No. Mia was too young, and you were ten when our parents stopped attending anything related to the main family. I didn’t mind at the time. I was eighteen and couldn’t care less about gatherings where no one actually wanted us."
Mia, wisely, did not comment. She had been eleven when their parents died in the car accident.
"But was it really just an accident?" Chris asked, interlacing his fingers and resting his chin on them.
Andrew exhaled slowly. "From everything I could gather at the time, yes. With the Black family’s resources, I could dig deeper now, but I doubt we’d uncover anything new."
"I see," Chris said. Then, quieter, "I already asked Dax to find out what happened to Elara."
Both Andrew and Mia looked at him.
"Adelaide said our parents cut off the main family after they learned what happened to her," Chris continued. "Which means they knew something. Enough to be afraid."
Mia leaned forward. "Afraid of whom?"
"That’s the question," Chris replied. "And I think they knew what I was long before I did."
Andrew’s expression tightened. "A dominant omega."
"Yes," Chris said calmly. "Which makes the timing, the isolation, and the silence make a lot more sense."
Mia’s mouth curved into something sharp. "So they weren’t protecting you from society."
"They were protecting me from people," Chris agreed.
Andrew was quiet for a moment. Then, "If Elara was sold to someone powerful enough to scare them into silence..."
"...then that power didn’t disappear," Mia finished.
Chris leaned back in his chair, gaze unfocused on the garden beyond the windows. "Yes. And I assume it’s what I feared all along, that the Maleks would have sold me the moment they learned what my secondary gender was." He paused, then added evenly, "Elara is probably dead. By age alone, she’d be over a hundred. But I still want to know what was done to her."
Mia scoffed, irritation sharp and unfiltered. "The Maleks are the worst. They couldn’t reach you through Andrew, so they tried through me." Her fingers curled against the table. "And I had to smile and play polite because this is about you, not me."
"I noticed," Chris said dryly. "Which brings me to something else." He straightened slightly. "We’re being circled by the extended family. The ones without real power who try to borrow it through proximity. Who’s at the top of that structure?"
Andrew didn’t hesitate. "Adonis Malek. Viscount of Clearstone."
Chris hummed. "Old blood?"
"Yes. Old enough to remember Elara personally," Andrew replied. "Old enough to know exactly what her disappearance meant."
Mia’s eyes narrowed. "And ambitious enough to test boundaries again now that you’re visible."
Chris nodded once. "Then he’s our starting point."
Andrew frowned. "Carefully."
"Obviously," Chris said. "I’m not interested in provoking them. I want inside information. Anything that explains why my parents were afraid enough to cut an entire branch of the family off."
"And if it leads somewhere unpleasant?" Mia asked.
Chris’s expression didn’t change. "Then at least it will be the truth."
Dessert arrived with merciful timing.
A servant placed small plates on the table, something light, carefully arranged, and sweet enough to signal a deliberate change of subject. Mia watched the plates settle, then leaned back decisively.
"Enough," she said. "I refuse to eat sugar while we’re dissecting family trauma." She glanced at Chris, eyes sharp and entirely too casual. "So. Are you pregnant?"
Chris nearly aspirated his drink.
He coughed, hard enough that Andrew reached out automatically to steady the glass. "What... no," Chris said once he could breathe again. "Absolutely not."
Mia blinked. "Really?"
"No," Chris repeated, flat. "Nadia already checked. I just had an extended heat. That’s it."
Andrew didn’t smile. He studied Chris instead. "And you weren’t pressured?"
Chris frowned. "By Dax? No. Not even remotely."
"That’s..." Andrew hesitated. "Unexpected."
Chris tilted his head. "Why?"
"Because the opposition is already circling the other two," Andrew said. "Hard."
Chris paused. "...Other two?"
Andrew looked at him in disbelief. "You’ve never met Dax’s brothers?"
"No," Chris said slowly. "I haven’t."
Mia’s expression shifted, the amusement draining from her face. "They’re underage. Nineteen and fifteen."
Chris went still.
"They’re kept out of sight intentionally," Andrew continued. "After Cornelia."
The name landed heavily.
Chris dragged his hands over his face, letting out a long sigh. "Please tell me those two children didn’t become orphans because of me."
"They didn’t," Andrew said quietly. "Cornelia did that with her own hands."
Chris lowered his hands. "That is not reassuring."
Andrew exhaled, slow and measured. "You’ll have to speak with the King about that directly. What we’re saying is this: the opposition was already making noise about Dax not having children, despite the fact that he’s thirty-five this year."
Mia picked up the thread without hesitation. "Your bond with him changed the narrative. Overnight. Even his failed engagements, ones people used to weaponize, were quietly reclassified as his fault rather than a political risk."
Chris frowned. "But dominants can only have children or bond with other dominants; the past fiancees weren’t dominants," he said. "That wasn’t Dax’s fault." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
"No," Andrew agreed. "But context has never stopped ambition."
He leaned back, expression sharpening. "Dax took the throne by force from three of his older brothers. He killed them. Their loyalists were dismantled, but not erased."
Mia’s voice was calm, but there was nothing gentle in it. "Some of them are still alive. Contained for the moment."
"In Parliament," Andrew finished.
The weight of that settled slowly.
Chris absorbed it in silence, then nodded once. "So I didn’t create the danger," he said quietly. "I just made it visible."
"Yes," Andrew replied. "And stable."
Mia’s gaze flicked to him, assessing. "Which makes you inconveniently important."
Chris huffed softly. "That seems to be a recurring theme."
Outside, the palace moved as it always did. Inside, the lines were clearer now. Not comforting. But clear.
