Chapter 332: Survived The Fight, Now Survive The Night

[FROLO]

Katya’s eyes never left the screen.

Not when Anya told him to sit down and hydrate.

Not when someone brought him a shawl, and he refused to take it because Sergei said he didn’t need to hide.

And certainly not when he heard a second loud growl from the screen.

The man on there was not the same man who’d cleaned him up and asked him what he wanted. Wasn’t the same man who’d walked out on him and told him to sleep.

This man was different.

He looked like he could rip Katya apart without even trying so hard. He had huge claws; his eyes were red, a stark contrast to the yellow Katya had seen last night.

The walls around him were made of stone, yet somehow, they still managed to have deep claw marks.

This...

This was the man Sergei was saving Katya from last night.

The beast beneath it all.

"He hasn’t had a proper rut in thirty years," Katya heard Anya explain her choices to him. And frankly, looking at the way his alpha was clawing and growling and smashing the bed in the room against the wall...

Katya believed her.

"How long has he... Will he be like this?" Katya asked, hand over his mouth because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but at the same time, he... Loved this Sergei too?

Oh, he was too far gone to be cursing over a feral man who would clearly smack the life out of him in seconds.

"It’s been three days, and this is the calmest he’s been," Anya said so casually, and Katya paused.

Three days.

That was a lot of time to be in pain and be chained like that. Katya could see the silver burn marks on Sergei’s human form even as Anya showed him footage of Sergei in his wolf form.

Well, Katya wasn’t exactly against loving animals now, was he?

But then again, three days.

It had been three days.

And he woke up... Today???

"Ah yeah, took you long enough to wake up. I thought you were dead until that little shit tried to break your door, demanding to breathe you in," Anya said calmly as Katya was missing three days of his life.

But was there a thing to miss if he’d been knocked out in that time?

"You used a tranquilizer on me too?" Katya asked in disbelief, like that was the actual betrayal.

"Nope, but I will if you don’t slow down with your questions," Anya said before she stepped out of the living room, leaving Katya with Rahim and Volkov alongside other people from the Moskowsky team.

Or rather, rescue team apparently.

"She didn’t drug you," Volkov said in reassurance, and Katya didn’t believe him.

"I’ve been out for three days," Katya screeched lowly, terrified that Anya would definitely use the damn horse tranquilizers.

"Did your alpha tell you to sleep?" Rahim asked.

She’d called Sergei his alpha.

And Katya...

He smiled at that.

"Oh, my goodness, you cannot be seriously swooning over the demon spawn who tried to snap my neck and half the people in this room for days!" Volkov complained, but Katya didn’t seem to care about that.

But maybe Rahim was right.

That night...

"He used his alpha voice on me... Told me to sleep; I don’t remember much after that other than sleeping," Katya said, connecting the dots on his own.

His alpha really cared about him.

"I’m going to get air before I do something the barbarian will have my head for," Volkov grumbled, stepping out when Katya’s scent got sweeter.

Of course, they knew what that meant.

The omega was in Sergei’s clothes for fuck’s sake.

The omega wasn’t terrified of beast Sergei.

They were doomed.

It was the only logical explanation. Because none of the people in there saw the shy, reserved Katya. Hell, they didn’t even see traces of the Moskowsky Group chairman.

They saw an omega waiting for his alpha, and somehow that risked their lives more than when Katya was just stoic and pretending Sergei didn’t exist.

"He’ll be out in a day or two," Rahim explained, and Katya just stared at the screen.

Gods, this man was handsome.

Or this beast?

Katya didn’t care.

He was owed a knot, and he’d get it. From the beast or the human, he wouldn’t give a shit.

And so, for two days, Katya and the Moskowsky team watched Sergei’s painful rut.

They watched as the alpha called out for Katya in his haze. How Sergei’s body curled onto the floor on some occasions. And the only thing on his lips was Solnyshka. They watched as the alpha tried to walk at times, only to stumble.

And in the very countable moments when Sergei was conscious enough, he’d ask about Katya. About what happened to his omega. He’d question them. But of course, Anya’s answer had remained the same.

"Your omega is still sleeping. Waiting for you to come back to him," she’d say to Sergei, whose answer revolved around him not being safe enough for Katya just yet.

Him not being in the right mind to be around Katya.

Him not trusting himself to be proper.

Katya watched them lie to his alpha just to get him through his rut.

"Why won’t you tell him I’m awake?" Katya had asked somewhere along the way.

"Because you’re the reason we had to use horse tranquilizers on him," Anya had said, and Katya stared flatly like he didn’t believe them.

And of course...

They had footage.

The damn Moskowskys.

Well, he couldn’t even be mad at them because that footage was both horrendous and hilarious.

Sergei had somehow gotten out of the guestroom. Looking all proper and lying to his team that he was fine, only for him to breathe Katya in and try to walk through the wall to get to him. Like the door was suddenly an obstacle he didn’t care to walk through.

He watched how they had tried to knock Sergei out each time and failed. And how the only option that worked was three horse tranquilizers.

"He wanted me," Katya had said, only for Anya to smack him with a pillow.

"My life would have been easier in a retirement home than with you two out here undiagnosed," Anya groaned.

By the fourth day, Sergei’s rut had gone down.

The alpha’s rut had lasted seven days.

Seven days of torture.

Seven days of so much pain.

Yet the first thing a lucid Sergei asked about:

"Please tell me I didn’t claim him when he was in pain," he’d mumbled in shame and horror, like he was terrified he’d broken his promise to Katya Romanov.

He wouldn’t live with himself.

Even if it was probably because of his rut.

"Let him tell you himself, huh? But if you do more than talk inside this room, I am killing both of you," Anya warned, and Sergei gulped, like he knew she would act on that threat.

"No, wait... I don’t have proper clothes, and I haven’t cleaned up in a week," Sergei argued, and Anya smirked at him.

"That, boy genius, is not my problem. Now excuse me while I catch up on sleep," Anya laughed sinisterly before she walked out, leaving Sergei groaning and hoping the door didn’t open.

But then the door opened.

And in the doorway stood Katya Romanov, in his clothes, looking like his bane and the weapon formed against him.

"H... Hi," the alpha greeted awkwardly.

"I missed you... Alpha," Katya purred.

Yeah, Sergei was fucked.