Chapter 364: What About All The Plans That Ended In Disaster?

[BRATVA]

Alek stared at the body in the nearby bed hooked to needles and monitors. He looked so familiar, just an aged-up version, and his heart was shattering in his chest.

It had been thirty years.

Thirty years since he’d seen him dead.

Thirty since he’d been mourning his greatest love.

Thirty years since he was forced to drop his first name and live with his second as a first name.

Gods, thirty years was a long time.

Now here he was, staring at a ghost from the past. A ghost that looked so familiar yet one that he knew wasn’t possible. There was just no way this was real.

He knew it had to be some sort of game.

But he had seen him thrice in the past three months. The face that haunted his nights. The face that begged him to just live his life and stop being angry all the time.

The face that pleaded with him not to take revenge.

But then, without vengeance, Alek didn’t have anything to live for.

No one to hold onto, really.

Once upon a time, he was Daniil Aleksandrovich Petrovsky, a beta who only wanted to be happy with the love of his life. A beta who had a beautiful future ahead with the boy who owned his heart.

He had been happy, once upon a time.

Then Sergei happened.

And Daniil became Aleksandr Petrov.

Yet even now, with a changed name and all that, he still didn’t know what to say. What to do. How to work this out.

His heart ached like that day when Rastenkin fired thrice.

Two bullets to the head.

One to the heart.

Alek had seen it so well. Watched as his boyfriend bled on the cold floor, as he was stripped of life because of a madman who thought it was all right to go after people’s beloved.

"Alek..." Kenzo spoke quietly, like he was trying to make it make sense too. But then Kenzo had been in the field long enough to know that this could be true.

He had seen those bullet wounds.

They had been shot through and through.

Fired to make a point, and the thing about Sergei and his associates, they didn’t just walk away when the body was cold. They walked away once they were sure there was no chance of revival at all.

It was why the Myrtles were feared back then.

Even today.

"He looks so much like Joe," Alek sighed defeatedly.

He knew this was a setup.

Gods, he understood it so well because the fact that Rastenkin was still alive was all he needed to know that the old bastard would try to do everything just to make sure Alek never forgot that grueling past.

But even so, Alek couldn’t help but hope.

"What if we were wrong, Kenzo? What if my Joe lived? What if this is him?" Alek whimpered desperately. Oh, the things he would give to live with Joe again.

To spend his life with his alpha.

He just wanted his alpha. Was that too much for a beta to ask?

But then he wasn’t even a beta now, was he?

"The tests will most definitely feed your suspicions, Alek. The Myrtles can bring back the dead by infusing their DNA and every identifying marker. You and I know young master Joram died that night.

"That he didn’t survive. We saw the body. We saw it burn. There is no way the young master is here, after all these years," Kenzo argued, stating facts.

The Myrtles were cruel.

Had always been.

Their boss was worse, because Sergei Moskowsky never gambled. He did things. He did whatever he wanted, and he had people who knew exactly what he needed and how he needed it.

"But what... what if it’s really him, Kenzo? What if my alpha never died? What if this is him?" Alek dared to ask.

He needed hope.

He needed his alpha. He had prayed for years that things would change.

And now...

Maybe now this was the answer the universe was giving him. He was just a man who wanted his man. He wasn’t even asking for forever. Just Joe.

His Joe.

"There’s something you need to see," Kenzo said, and Alek looked at the sleeping man on the bed, hoping for any miracle.

"Not about him..." Kenzo said softly, shattering the hope Aleksandr had at the moment.

"What is it?" Alek asked tiredly.

"I think it’s best if you come see it on your own," Kenzo said, and Alek looked at the man who looked like his alpha on the bed before stepping out begrudgingly.

"He’ll still be here, I can promise that," Kenzo said, and Alek nodded before they stepped out.

The surveillance room was filled with bratva operatives who had been hired recently, while some had been part of the old team. It had been hard replacing Nadia because they hadn’t found someone who could outsmart Nadia.

Alek knew he should have been reasonable that day, but betrayal was something that didn’t sit well with him.

So now he had a legion of hackers who couldn’t even match up to one Nadia. But was there a use in crying over spilt milk at the moment?

"Here," Kenzo said as he played the tapes.

Sergei and Katya Romanov.

Katya looked ruined, visibly knotted, judging by the way he was carried, and the bite mark on his neck was obvious. He looked so claimed and fucked by the devil of Frolo.

Alek watched how Katya smiled at the fashion show. How happy he looked. How free he was, and for a moment he was truly happy for Katya.

"At least one of us got their alpha," Alek sighed defeatedly as he sat on the nearest couch. He didn’t take his eyes away from the interactions between Sergei and Katya. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

Because Alek didn’t see the man who took his omega, no.

He saw someone who was being happy with their alpha. Someone who was openly loved and claimed. Someone who was very clearly protected by endless protocols that no one could quite understand save for the devil of Frolo himself.

He saw the way Sergei looked at Katya.

Eyes tender, no sign of the devil of Frolo.

Just Katya’s alpha.

And Alek’s heart shattered again.

Because he would never have that.

He would never have his Joe looking at him the way Sergei was looking at Katya. He’d never have Joe claiming him in public without shame like Sergei. He’d never have his Joe still calling him beautiful when he was wrecked and clearly fucked out.

Alek wondered what his future with Joe would have been like.

Whether they’d have had small precious moments like Katya and Sergei. Whether his life would have changed for the better.

Whether he would have been happier like Katya visibly was.

Today Alek wasn’t even jealous or pulling an angle. Not even in the moment anyway.

He wanted that.

What Katya and Sergei had.

Because Alek knew. He knew so well that if they had not had such unfortunate fates, he and Joe would have been happier.

Their conservative families that always believed alphas and betas didn’t belong together... had long accepted them.

Only for them to be separated.

By Sergei.

"Do you think Joe would have kissed me in public like that? Marked me so everyone would know I belonged to Joram? Would we have been happy like them?" Alek asked Kenzo.

And for the first time in so long...

Kenzo didn’t have an answer.