Chapter 450: That All-Consuming Cotton Feeling

[FROLO]

Alek looked at the people in the room.

Those who were quick to get him into the slaughter zone, and he couldn’t help but laugh while he tried to wrap his head around the statement Chief Zhenya had put out.

The dare was open and challenging; it would be madness, yet Aleksandr, for all he believed in, knew what the outcome of that would be. He knew what the sacrifice would turn him into, and he knew so well what this would look like.

Sergei Moskowsky was brutal.

But Sergei was the devil reincarnate.

Going after Katya Romanov was not something that Alek was willing to sacrifice himself for. Not when he knew he would be dead before he knocked on the Romanov or even the Moskowsky gates.

He would not let them use him to eliminate Sergei or even deal with their problem.

So looking at Chief Zhenya, Alek made his choice painfully clear.

Maybe he was risking it all.

But what was the difference between dying today and dying the day that Sergei murdered him within the week, right?

"No. I will not kill my ex-boyfriend just because you have a point to prove. You want to kick me out of the team? Fine. Do it like a man instead of trying to pit me against the omega we all know Sergei Moskowsky cares the most about.

"And about me leaving, don’t worry, I quit. You can drag the humiliation on the papers for as long as you wish. Excuse me," Alek said angrily. He knew what the risks were.

He knew they were setting him up for failure, and he knew for a fact that the presidential palace had its own agenda with Sergei that went beyond the control of the mad man.

If these people wouldn’t help him get justice for Joe at the hands of Sergei, then Alek would go where the other alliance seemed profitable.

He would choose Latif.

He would go with the crazy man who thought it was okay to make threats while smiling like the world was a white canvas that neither of them could figure out with ease.

It was scary what life had become for them, but what the hell kind of life was he bound for at this rate anyway, yeah?

The door didn’t open for Aleksandr.

"Nice try. But you either give us proof that you didn’t sabotage us or you’re leaving," Zhenya said, not minding the fact that Aleksandr was innocent and this would probably be just another dance that wouldn’t end well. Perhaps it would be so.

Perhaps.

But at the end of the day, something had to give.

And Aleksandr was the current workable target.

"I don’t care what you do to me, Zhenya. If it’s my life you want to threaten to put on the line, Sergei has it under control. I allied with you guys because you said you would help me get rid of the man.

"And now you are putting me in the line of fire because someone betrayed you lot, and you can’t come up with a better reason than my scared ass backing out of the agreement.

"Whatever you are going to do to me, do it fast. If not, get out of my way. I have far crueler troubles to deal with than you threatening me with the other thing that is bound to kill me at the end of the day," Aleksandr said boldly and tiredly.

He looked like he wanted to leave here.

Like all of this was not going to make sense to him for the longest time, and like he was just fine with that. It didn’t matter how chaotic things got because he knew the kind of hell waiting for him.

Rastenkin haunted him far worse than the bunch of soldiers anyway.

"Wait," President Boris said, and Alek turned to him.

"You cannot threaten me with anything, Boris. You walked into my home with Governor Morozov. You funded your operations. You knew what you were getting into.

"I have done and have been doing my part faithfully for a while. Each day I lose men to the Moskowsky camps because I agreed to this madness.

"I did not agree to sacrifice my men daily just for you lot to summon me here and tell me to go and kill Katya. Do you just not even have empathy?" Alek asked, and Zhenya scoffed at him.

"Empathy is for people with hearts, Aleksandr, and you are not going to stand here and talk to us about empathy when you have been doing every little thing possible to sabotage your relationship with Katya Romanov.

"The omega finally chose an alpha, and you are standing here still whining over it. Empathy is dead. It was dead the moment you agreed to this shit. So save us the dramatics," Zhenya spat.

Alek glared at him.

He always knew Zhenya Levin had no heart, and with every word that came from this man’s mouth, Aleksandr was more convinced that Zhenya Levin and humanity knew nothing of each other.

What kind of a man was so comfortable with doom and fucked up life cycles to the point that he didn’t care what was lost and gotten?

"Masha Romanova was out here begging for her son to be returned to her. The city is waiting, and the only thing you have to give a mourning mother is for me to murder her son? After five weeks?" Alek scoffed too.

He was sick of the games in this room.

The former senator knew he was burning so many bridges with his little speech, but someone had to say something. Someone had to hold the door open for things not to work right, and if he had to be that person, he would.

He was not saying he was a good person.

He was only questioning their humanity.

Because this?

This was messed up.

Even if there were extremely high chances that going after Katya was already a lost cause.

"If it wasn’t you, then who led Sergei to our bunker? That place is supposed to be unidentifiable," President Boris pointed out, and Alek sighed exaggeratedly again.

He couldn’t believe they were looking at him for this.

He just couldn’t believe this shit was real right now.

"We went after Sergei. SERGEI. The man murdering our people and pretending to be depressed back at his home. The man who didn’t show up in public for five weeks, and his first real sighting was at the bunker.

"Are you really all just stupid, or did you forget why the man is the freaking Devil of Frolo?" Alek asked, like this couldn’t be the means they were using to think of strategies against Sergei.

They were already losing before they even began, which didn’t make it any easier right now. Perhaps they needed to take a step back and go to the drawing board, because who the fuck even forgot about Sergei?

Who?

"You don’t know that," Zhenya said, and this time Alek stared at him right in the eyes.

"You went after the devil’s most precious possession, and you expected him to sit still? That man knew where we had Katya on the first day, yet he didn’t come for Katya.

"And suddenly you think he got a premonition and is forgiving for getting Katya back? Please. Anyway, what do I know. I already quit. I’ll go now.

"If you want your funding, I’ll get you what is left after compensating my dead men’s families. Good luck getting turned into manure for Sergei’s farms when you go after Katya," Aleksandr said.

Then he left, calling Latif on his way out of the palace.

He would agree to Latif’s deal.