Chapter 374: Breathing Life Into Madness While Practicing Courtesy

[FROLO]

Sergei stared at the emptiness in the room, and frankly he couldn’t help but shake the tears he had sensed in Katya’s eyes. The worried look. The raw fear that had only disappeared because of Sergei’s strip show, which thankfully worked on Katya.

But he knew it wouldn’t always work like that. Katya wasn’t stupid. He would keep questioning the reception and why he was not feeling Sergei’s pain. How the alpha had fought hard, and Katya hadn’t even felt a pinch.

It was dangerous, but what the hell was he even going to do about that?

Then again, as he watched the bubbles show on the phone that was now charging, Sergei was haunted by the little fact that lay open for him to see.

His Solnyshka had been crying. For him.

A day that should have been beautiful and harmless had somehow managed to turn his omega into a mess during work hours.

Sergei knew Katya valued his time at work, and for him to be that shattered while doing the thing he loved doing? Sergei would not forgive that.

So, he stepped out, where his son, Irina, and the Myrtles were waiting. Anya and the secretaries had gone back to work, Svet and Andre too.

"How’s the patient you sent to Aleksandr?" Sergei asked Rastenkin, who was staring at a screen of vitals.

They had sent an exact replica of Aleks’s dead boyfriend to him. It was a test, more like mischief that Rastenkin and Leane did because he was bored and needed to do something interesting before he went plotting murders.

"What?" Rastenkin asked like he didn’t hear what the alpha had said.

"Don’t make me repeat myself, Rastenkin," Sergei said, tone cold. Everyone instantly straightened up. Even Yaroslav, who was most definitely bound to be immune to the chaos that was Sergei Moskovsky.

But then the alpha didn’t look too happy about anything, and Yaroslav knew why. He had to be the one to tell his father about the pending call, and judging by the pure rage on Sergei’s face, Yaroslav knew this had to do with Katya.

"His vitals are still unstable. They are trying to fix him, but they can’t fix a man who is already dying," Rastenkin said like that was supposed to be common knowledge, even for the people in Aleks’s bratva. But was it?

"Kill him. Slowly. Make it the worst kind of pain for the bratva rat," Sergei said, his rage gone and his voice empty. There was no emotion. No nothing. Just a man who was giving orders to his warrior.

"How many days, Sergio?" Rastenkin asked. He needed to know how long Sergei wanted the man to suffer, because then he would know how to make the man appear before his death.

"Three. Get me three days from Aleksandr," Sergei said, making his people look at him in understanding. They didn’t even need to ask to know what the rage was about this time.

"Will do, young master," Rastenkin said, still standing at attention like everyone else. They had been having a pretty light morning, but then they knew this was bound to eventually happen.

Alek releasing the footage had not just exposed Sergei as a murderer or even a whipped alpha. Sergei couldn’t give a shit about that, and they knew it.

But the release had shown something else to Frolo.

Katya Romanov.

Sergei had wanted Katya to live a peaceful life. He knew that being part of the media had been so exhausting over the years, and while Katya had let him announce their relationship to the world with ease, Sergei wanted his Solnyshka to have a peaceful, quiet life.

It was working because despite the whispers in Frolo and whatnot, Sergei was mentioned more than Katya. And Sergei was okay with it.

But the CCTV footage had changed that. Because not only did everyone see a whipped alpha, but they also learned how important Katya was to Sergei.

They exposed Katya’s life like it was easy for them.

They exposed the fact that Sergei was more horrified by Katya’s anger and sadness than anything else in the realm.

The privacy that he had tried to keep for Katya was now known, and by Aleksandr Petrov.

That was something that Sergei was not going to forgive, and his team knew that a little too well. There was no point in mincing their words about this because at the end of the day, life had changed.

For the better, maybe.

But the worst was here, and Sergei was championing it all.

"The weather is too cold outside. Don’t go out without a sweater, kid," Sergei said to Yaroslav as he grabbed his suit coat and headed out, while his son just nodded with a smile on his face.

Sergei was still in the shirt that had been stained by blood from the morning. Katya had given him that shirt, and while the day hadn’t exactly turned out the way that Sergei wanted it to, he was not about to extend the chaos to the shirt.

He had a date, and he was going, even if it was in the shirt his omega had told him to wear this morning.

The drive to the reservation was not as fast as Sergei had wanted it to be. He was going to see his omega. To see the man who had been crying, and he wasn’t about to freak him out even more.

He could only hope that Katya wasn’t as sad at the moment, given the chaos in the city because of the two of them.

Of course, when Sergei got there, there were eyes on him. This wasn’t the kind of attention he wanted on him and Katya. And fuck if he didn’t make a silent prayer to the Moon Goddess not to have Katya freaked out.

His omega deserved peace no matter how chaotic things were today.

But it was nothing compared to what he felt when he saw Katya headed towards their table.

His Solnyshka.

His beautiful true mate was here.

But then Katya wasn’t alone, and for a moment Sergei had to look around him and try to see if he was hallucinating. Instead, the closer Katya got, the more confused Sergei was.

His Katya was here.

With fucking Greg.

Of all the people Katya could have chosen to come with.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Sergei asked, glaring at the other alpha, who looked like this was most definitely not his idea.

And gods, it should have been comforting. After all, Greg didn’t volunteer to hijack their date. But the look on Katya’s face had Sergei breathing in, out, and in again because he had to remind himself this was a late lunch date.

Even if stupid Greg was here.

"I told him you were not a bad person and that you wouldn’t kill him," Katya said, sitting on the opposite side of the table.

"I’m not exactly feeling like a good person at the moment, Solnyshka. Really want to snap his neck for coming to our date," Sergei grumbled poutily.

Greg stiffened, and Katya sighed, staring at the poor alpha she’d convinced to come along because Sergei wasn’t a homicidal maniac.

This was really going to be a long evening.

"If you’re nicer to him, he can leave early, and it’ll be just the two of us, Vladimir," Katya bargained, biting his lip slowly while staring into his alpha’s eyes.

And Sergei’s eyes suddenly lit up.

"What would you like to eat... Greg?" Sergei said, creeping the poor alpha with his smile and tone more than his silence.

But Katya just smiled.

They were going to get along just fine.