Contract Marriage: Married to My Ex-Husband's Alpha Stepfather [BL]

Chapter 193: Had Me Lost in Time and Space

[ALEK]

Staring at the television, the senator couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was not going to lean into it.

He trusted Katya.

Surely the omega wasn’t doing wrong, no?

But even if Katya wasn’t doing something wrong, there was something about the way that Sergei Moskowsky had responded to the questions Sierra had asked that had Alek’s gut pulling at him.

Sierra had been right, yet at the same time, Sergei was also right.

They didn’t need to be that close to each other. Yet work brought them together.

The scales were tipping, and Alek didn’t like what he was feeling about it all.

He had been dating Katya Romanov for sixteen months now. They were going strong. The omega was always honest with him. Never lied, not even once.

And Alek didn’t have a reason to doubt Katya.

But Sergei?

Oh, Alek hated where this was heading, but he wasn’t blind to the little things.

The way the alpha texted Katya when Katya got home every evening.

The way that Sergei made sure to walk Katya to his car, even if Alek was waiting inside.

The way that Sergei’s eyes lingered a little longer on the omega.

The way lunches had been blocked even on weekends by Katya.

"He just needs a friend to talk to," Katya had told him the first time he mentioned the lunches. And honestly, it had been that for Katya.

The problem was Sergei Moskowsky.

He didn’t look at Katya like Katya looked at him.

His eyes were tender when Katya’s were professional.

His hands lingered ghostly where Katya kept his to himself.

They had had a small fight the night of the auction. The night Katya had spent nearly a billion on a man who didn’t even need the money.

But Katya was insistent that it had been for the kids. It was such a thing that made Alek feel like a bad person for asking why his omega was always prioritizing the barbarian’s feelings.

Yet for Katya, it wasn’t even that.

Alek knew it.

Alek saw how Katya’s responses were to Sergei.

And yes, it was not something Alek was proud of. Snooping through Katya’s phone after so many blocked lunches.

But he got nothing.

Just a man talking to his friend.

And a barbarian whose language was not that of a friend.

And for months, Alek had thought himself insane.

Until Sergei used the most professional deflector statement in the history of deflection.

"My employees’ private lives are none of my business"

And Alek knew there and then that there was more between the two. More than what anyone in their right mind could admit to.

Because Sergei Moskowsky was the devil of Frolo.

And the devil of Frolo wasn’t the kind to send fifty texts in a day, talking about how his day went, like he was updating Katya on every little thing in his life.

So, Alek decided to test a theory. One that could end in so many ways, with him getting the roughest end of the stick.

It was dangerous, but what the hell, right?

"Sir, are you sure?" Leon, his aide and oldest friend, asked when the alpha asked him to punch him.

"Yup. I can’t doubt Katya, man. He’s the kindest soul there, and I know he cares for that barbarian like a normal person. It’s the barbarian’s intentions that I’m worried about," Alek explained, and Leon sighed.

His boss had been so happy with Katya that this was insanity. The cool, calm boss he always worked with was slowly fading, and in his place was an alpha who was starting to be possessive. Or maybe he had always been possessive and today had just triggered him.

They had seen them, alright.

The whispers and the rumors. Hell, even a forum note for Sergei talking about keeping a lunch pact with a smiley face emoji.

That one had hit Alek the hardest.

Because Sergei Moskowsky’s hands were covered in blood. That man murdered many before he could even know how to call a person properly.

Yet he was typing on the company forum and avoiding it later.

Yet he was always contacting Katya all the time.

Sure, Katya responded to his endless stream of texts with a lower rate, but it didn’t make it any better.

"Hold on, what will your explanation be? You know he hates it when you get hurt," Leon argued, and Alek stopped to think for a moment.

His friend was right.

Katya was against violence. Always.

So, it made no sense that he stayed around Sergei like that. Then again, Sergei’s violent reputation had quieted considerably over the past months.

"Wait, don’t punch me in the face. Break my arm. That will be more believable. I can just say it snapped while I was in the gym," Alek said, and Leon sighed.

This was not going to end well.

But then Alek was an alpha wolf who was watching another alpha reach for his omega.

It was only right that he tried to get his answers before he did something that he would forever regret, yeah?

"If he finds out I was the one who did this to you, his friends will kill me. You know that too, right?" Leon said like he wanted to know he covered all bases.

Svet and Andre were insane.

That was the one truth the entire city knew of them.

The friends who would stand in front of bullets for the Romanov omega and have no regrets about it.

The friends who were too unhinged and yet somehow still managed to be very good law-abiding citizens.

Gods, they were scary.

"Svet won’t break your leg again, I promise. Katya already talked to them. They’re nicer now... Even to me," Alek said as if that was supposed to be comforting.

And Leon stared at his friend.

"Only because you make their friend happy," Leon argued, and Alek sighed.

"Break the arm, man. I have to get that cast as soon as possible before I start looking like that insane barbarian," Alek said.

Leon sighed for what felt like the hundredth time.

He could already feel the phantom pain from when Svet ’accidentally’ broke his leg for calling Katya hot.

"I’m leaving the country after this," Leon said before he snapped his boss’s arm. The sound of bones breaking ripped through the office, and Alek felt like he had just been ripped in half.

Damn, his friend was strong.

But he needed this.

"You okay, man?" Leon asked worriedly, and Alek nodded, gritting his teeth.

"Call the doctor," Alek said, and Leon rushed to make the dial.

Meanwhile, the senator stares at his own phone, wondering if he should tell his omega or not.

He didn’t want Katya to worry, but he also didn’t want to make this seem like he had done it intentionally. So, he put his phone down and waited for the doctor to come.

That doctor would be their selling point to all of this.

And the media would pick it up fast.

"What if you’re being worried for nothing?" Leon asked after making the call.

There was a really high chance that he had read it all wrong, too, but then that was impossible. His instincts never lied to him.

And as much as he wished that to be true, months of hearing whispers about the Moskowsky boss going soft were not just something to be ignored.

"I know I’m right. Sergei Moskowsky has a thing for my omega," Alek insisted as they waited.

But damn was it a painful wait.

"Oh, man," Leon sighed when the doctor seemed to be taking too long.

"I need to change into gym clothes. Get some of the dirty ones from my dawn run and help me put them on. It would be weird if he came and found me in a suit," Alek said, and Leon just nodded, helping him out.

His friend was losing his mind, but then anyone with eyes could tell that there was something there.

The senator wasn’t delusional.

Because if he was, then it meant that the entire nation was delusional too, given that everyone with eyes was slowly coming to the same conclusion that was why Sergei had been invited to the Sierra segment.

That was impossible, right?

"I hope you’re right after all this," Leon said, and Alek smiled at him even though he was in so much pain.

"If I’m wrong, then that’s one less thing to worry about, yeah?"