Chapter 103: Get Your Soldiers, Tell ’Em That The Break Is Over
[FROLO]
"But I gave him everything?" Sergei asked weakly.
He couldn’t understand, really, why Katya would even consider looking at someone else. It was crazy and something that was not welcome in Sergei’s point of view.
"Did you?" Anya asked, her question so simple, so polite, yet the kind of question that held so much uncertainty for the alpha before her.
"What does that mean?" Sergei asked, still not liking how the conversation had shifted.
What happened to Naya kicking him out?
Why would she ask him that even now?
"What will you do if he says yes to the senator’s coffee date?" Anya asked calmly, her nuts still in her hand like she was definitely not going to let this chance pass her by.
Sergei, on the other hand, looked like he was about to commit a thousand and one very respectful murders and make sure they were never traced back to him.
But maybe that was not a lot, right?
"He wouldn’t..." Sergei breathed instead.
There was just no way.
This was his Solnyshka they were talking about.
This was his omega.
Katya wouldn’t do that to him. Right?
But did Katya even know what Sergei was thinking?
"Sergei..." Anya trailed off when she realized the alpha was starting to pull back into the one place in his mind where denial was the only language. The only working currency and things like that never ended well for Sergei.
Ever.
"He called me Vladimir," Sergei insisted, holding onto that statement like it was the only thing that stood between his sanity and him completely crashing out.
Katya cared about him.
Anya knew that, too, no?
"Oh, dear goddess, please save me from this idiot," Anya sighed again as she glared daggers at the oblivious alpha.
How a man so powerful, so intelligent could be reduced to whatever the fuck this was, was honestly unsettling.
What the heck was even going on?
"He cares about me," Sergei insisted.
He didn’t read things wrong.
He couldn’t have.
Which is why Katya wouldn’t say yes to the coffee date.
Right?
Right??
"Sergei..." Anya trailed off.
"I... I don’t understand," the alpha said in earnest.
He really didn’t, this time.
He had done everything right. He had made things better for Katya. He hadn’t asked for anything in return. So why would Katya leave or even consider waving?
Oh, but the alpha was a pathetic mess.
"Have you ever considered sticking to the business of killing since you’re such a doofus in romance?" Anya suggested as if that was going to make the barbarian step back from the one thing he had spent seven years chasing.
But maybe with the freedom he had so willingly given, maybe it was time for Sergei to find himself other avenues, right? Besides, he had to keep living now that he had pulled himself willingly out of Katya’s space.
"I bought romance 101 books. Read them all weekend," Sergei said, and some of the nuts in Anya’s hands spilled to the floor, making Anya groan.
But that didn’t make the alphas’ situation a little less hilarious.
When Anya had come to check on Sergei, she had stumbled upon an entire library of romance 101 books. It was the most pathetic she had ever seen the alpha, and honestly, it was peak comedy.
Watching Sergei read books to try and understand an omega he couldn’t even face without stumbling over air.
"And pray tell, boy genius. What did they say?" Anya chuckled in pure amusement.
"If you love someone, you let them go; they will come back," Sergei said, and Anya snorted a little too loud even for her liking.
For a moment, she was sure the moon goddess had sent her into Sergei’s life as a punishment.
How could a highly intelligent person have an entire library of books and still manage to understand nothing from the said books?
"Sergei, what the fuck?" Anya asked amid laughter.
She couldn’t believe the man.
And the fact that Sergei was dead serious even as he held onto the throw pillows on the couch like he didn’t want Anya to swat his head off with one was just insane and unpredictable. But damn, was this man a goner.
"I didn’t make it up, I swear!" Sergei defended, so ready to even go and get the book to show Anya.
The book was in his office.
It was the latest he had been reading last night before he came to work, and figured he could continue reading it now that he was not the chairman anymore.
He had a lot of time on his hands, and he would spend all that time learning to be a good person.
Being someone that Katya wouldn’t be scared of.
Someone Katya wouldn’t try to run away from eventually.
Sergei only ever wanted to be good for Katya.
Oh, Sergei.
"I know. You’re too stupid to think about that on your own... But I’m pretty sure that isn’t what the book said," Anya said, trying to reason with the alpha.
"How would you know that?! I was the one who read the book, not you..." Sergei defended fiercely like his life depended on it.
Well, his relationship with Katya was very dependent on it right now.
He had to be someone worthy, and that meant reading more books, watching a lot of movies and series, because he had to be perfect. His entire catalogue was ready.
But then Anya wasn’t being nice this morning, and he didn’t like it.
"Because it’s a common phrase, doofus," Anya said as she stared at him as if to explain the basics of life and what life was supposed to be like.
"Common?" Sergei asked, the genuine confusion on his face the reminder that Anya needed to know that this man had really shut down after Vitya had left.
There was no hope for Sergei at all.
"You’ll pay me for being your therapist and for wasting my time in the morning," Anya said, and Sergei smiled suddenly like this right here was better than any olive branch anyone could offer him at the moment.
"Half a million... Just tell me what you mean," Sergei said as if money wasn’t a problem.
Well, it wasn’t.
But still. It went to show just how desperate he was for things to work between him and Katya.
The same Katya he was terrified of saying the wrong thing to.
"If you love someone, you let them go. If they come back to you, then it was meant to be," Anya said exaggeratedly, throwing one nut in Sergei’s direction as if to snap the alpha out of whatever hellhole he had chosen to get into this time.
This man was hopeless in his quest for Katya’s approval and affection.
"That sounds familiar..." Sergei said, scratching the back of his head as if he had just realized he was missing a few important details.
But he would just read the books again.
That wasn’t an issue, anyway.
"Because that is what you read. You missed part of the phrase in your excitement," Anya reminded as she walked back to her seat, having gotten tired of leaning against the table.
Maybe this time, Sergei would leave and let her work.
"No, I didn’t..." Sergei said, his denial obvious.
"Yes, you did," Anya insisted.
"No, I didn’t," Sergei said right as he heard Rahim talk to Katya for a moment.
"Sir, these flowers came for you," Rahim said, and Sergei froze.
Flowers?
"Did you send them?" Anya asked like this was the one time she wouldn’t tease the poor old man on her couch.
But Sergei was just staring, too focused to listen, yet he was hearing everything.
"What?"
"The flowers, Mr. Chairman," Anya snorted like she knew something that the alpha didn’t. Something that would definitely drive the barbarian nuts.
"There’s no name or card on it, Rahim..." Katya asked in the distance, and Sergei tiptoed to the closed door, determined to hear more. There was just no way this was happening.
Oh, he would kill people.
Or maybe he sent the flowers and forgot?
Then again, Sergei never forgot anything about Katya, or anything that was related to Katya.
Hell, the man still remembered the scent of Katya’s perfume the first time Yaroslav had come to introduce Katya as his boyfriend seven years ago.
Sergei had bought sashes of that perfume over the years, throwing away the expired ones only to get more and keep them in his penthouse.
"No, sir. They came like that," Rahim said.
"Alright, thank you."
"So, the romance books told you to send cardless flower bouquets in the morning?" Anya asked when the conversation died on the other side of the door.
"No, why would I send fl— wait, what? Somebody sent flowers?" Sergei asked, his brain finally catching up.
