Chapter 276: Storing Up On The Summer Glow

[KATYA]

None of this made sense.

At all.

At first, Katya had been quiet, didn’t think too much about the public feud between Sergei and Alek.

He’d left the alphas to do whatever they wanted for months now, throwing jabs at each other. Indirectly attacking each other. The delayed permits. The increased inspections. The panicking investors and many other pointers.

He figured that it was all collateral damage in a battle of two of the most powerful alphas.

Until the public outrage over Senator Aleksandr.

Until he watched videos of Alek and the bratva and their dealings.

Until he looked back at everything that had been happening between him and Alek for the past six months.

And Katya...

He didn’t want to believe the conclusion he was coming to. It was a dangerous conclusion. One that would break not just his heart but the hearts of many. It wasn’t a conclusion he wanted to embrace because if he did...

Then there would be nothing left between them anymore.

So, he postponed the idea.

Didn’t even encourage it.

Instead, that evening, as the public swooned over the idea of Sergei having a beloved, as the public raged over the possibility that Alek had really been working with the bratva, Katya went home.

Not to his penthouse, no.

He went to Alek’s residence.

After all, there was nothing questionable about an omega going to comfort his alpha after a long day, no?

But it was empty. Or at least that was what he saw. There was nearly no sign of life, save for the media personnel camped up at the gates.

Katya didn’t even wave at them as he drove himself in. He knew they had questions, but how could Katya even tell them that he, too, had questions?

That there was a chance he had misunderstood the link Alek had to the bratva all this time?

That maybe the truth was something else that he wasn’t even sure he was ready to give up on his own?

It was a dangerous assumption, and he knew it too. Because at the end of the day, there would only be facts.

And Katya...

His facts were too unhinged.

The staff at the senator’s residence were somehow unavailable for the day. It was worrying, really, because the only other people Katya saw there were the guards at the gate.

Inside the house, there was no one other than a sleeping Alek. One who was so tired and stressed out.

Katya felt bad for him. He knew this wasn’t how Alek had planned his day. He knew this wasn’t any easier because of what Sergei had said.

But for the first time since he had accepted that coffee date and became the senator’s boyfriend, Katya Romanov was suspicious of the senator.

And it wasn’t helping his line of thought at all.

"Alek..." Katya shook the sleeping senator gently once he had made some coffee.

He had been expecting the man to wake up on smelling his scent, but there was nothing. Not even a reaction when Katya walked past him. The man was dead asleep.

"No, no, no, not Katya, no!" The alpha shouted suddenly when Katya shook him a little harder.

He looked genuinely scared of whatever he was thinking of, and for a moment, Katya stared at the senator, confused. He knew he had his own suspicions, but the sincere terror in the man’s voice at his shout didn’t make any sense.

"I’m here," Katya breathed as he pulled the alpha into a hug, when Alek sat up suddenly. The man seemed to have been having nightmares, and it didn’t make any sense to Katya.

Not at this moment anyway.

"What?" Alek grumbled when he saw Katya, and for a moment, Katya wondered what it was that was wrong with the senator.

"Alek..." he called out softly, and when the senator finally met his eyes, the man let out a sigh of relief. Holding Katya so close, like he was terrified that this was the last time they would be seeing each other.

"I’m okay, Alek," Katya reassured, his eyes studying the alpha keenly.

Katya hated what he was doing. He hated how the past few months had turned both of them into different people.

Life was supposed to be easy. Life was supposed to be lived, not fought day and night. Life wasn’t supposed to be whatever the fuck they were having right now because, honestly, this was fucked up.

"You’re okay," the alpha breathed, and Katya just nodded.

"I’m sorry about what happened today," Alek apologized in earnest, and Katya listened.

He was still confused, too, because there was really no need for the alphas to be going that hard against each other. It made no sense to be that obsessed.

Frankly, it would have made a little bit of sense if it were all triggered by jealousy.

Maybe Alek was jealous.

But Sergei?

Sergei had spent the entire day protecting Aleksandr’s relationship with Katya. The alpha had been doing that from the very beginning, so there was no valid reason for Katya to believe Sergei was jealous of him and Alek.

And that only added to Katya’s realization, before, the one thing that he was afraid of speaking out loud, because he knew once he let the thought out, he would never be able to get it all back inside.

It was worse each time, and fuck if that wasn’t more confusing for Katya.

"You had a long day... I understand," Katya said softly before he added, "I prepared some coffee."

Alek looked at the coffee cups on the table, then at Katya, and he pulled Katya into a hug before pulling back and breathing Katya’s scent directly from the scent gland.

It was like he was hungry for something, anything.

He was desperate for a feel of Katya in his system, yet for the first time, Katya didn’t feel it like that.

"Vladimir didn’t touch me," Katya said tiredly.

Alek froze.

"What?" Alek froze before he pulled back gently, confusion written on his face.

"He didn’t leave his scent on me. We are professional colleagues," Katya said, putting considerable distance between them before grabbing one of the coffees and handing it to Alek.

The alpha didn’t know what to say for the first time. So, he just took the coffee cup and held it.

What was he even to say to that?

"You’ve been sniffing me for his scent since we started being distant from each other. You keep hoping to find his scent on me, which is interesting because;

"... I love you, and Sergei respects my relationship with you even if he loves me," Katya said flatly, like he didn’t want to pretend anymore.

Like he was done being on the sidelines while his boyfriend hid behind distrust and acted like the sun and moon were never really the aspects of a life they were living anymore.

"Little rose..." Alek trailed off, tripping over his words because for the first time, he wasn’t sure what to say to that.

Katya had been noticing?

Fuck.

"You still don’t trust me," Katya laughed humorlessly, sipping his coffee like it was the only way to get things out of his chest.

But he wasn’t hiding.

He had had a long day at the office, too, with two of his researchers, and he needed his boyfriend.

"I trust you," Alek said confidently.

"Enough to tell me why you really went to the bratva? Because we both know it wasn’t out of jealousy."