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

Chapter 196: It Swallowed Me Whole, This Lunatic

[FROLO]

"I can work from home today. Don’t do anything crazy like moving your arm before I get there," Katya said to his boyfriend when he got a call from Leon about Alek hurting himself.

It was still early in the day, and while that didn’t matter, he wanted to go. He could skip work for a day and compensate later.

"I’m fine, little rose. I’m a big boy, I can handle myself," Alek had argued, and Katya sighed, shoving his documents into his backpack.

The backpack that had never carried anything other than a sweater, a scarf, and an unused water bottle, even to this day.

It was like those were the things that he didn’t want to throw away, despite how much time had passed. The water bottle had started looking old thanks to the time that had gone by, yet even so, it had stayed in there.

"I’ll see for myself then," Katya said, not giving Alek a chance to talk him out of it.

And he drove to the senator’s residence, ditching his driver. Ditching his boss. Pressing pause on everything. He had a loved one to care for.

When he walked through the front door and saw Alek’s arm in a cast, Katya felt his heart break.

The senator still smiled at him warmly, like he didn’t have a damn cast on him. The senator still looked at him with soft eyes even when he was in pain.

"No more gym for a month. And I’m staying with you until you get better. The Senate can wait. The world can wait," Katya had said as he checked the cast out.

He was careful not to hurt his boyfriend even more, but he couldn’t even help the tears that had brimmed in his eyes.

This was the one thing that he couldn’t undo for his boyfriend. He couldn’t even kiss it better. Couldn’t even try to fix anything because anything he fixed would hurt.

"Little rose," Alek called out softly when he saw Katya wipe his tears shakily.

"I’m sorry. I just... you’re hurt, and I can’t make it better," the omega sniffled as he stared defeatedly at the cast on Aleks arm.

"I’ll be fine. I promise. Leon didn’t need to call you; he was exaggerating," Alek said, like it wasn’t even his idea in the first place.

But for Katya, this was a pain.

Katya hated it when people suffered. He always wanted to make life bearable for everyone around him. Which was why seeing his boyfriend with a broken arm was tearing him apart.

Alek knew that.

"You can’t just bench press loads of weight like that. You’re not allowed to get hurt. You can’t ju—" Katya rambled as he tried to formulate a sentence.

He wasn’t sure what to do, and it was pissing him off.

And Alek shut his omega up with a kiss, surprising Katya.

The omega pulled back suddenly, smacking Alek lightly on the arm that wasn’t hurt.

"You’re going to hurt yourself even more," Katya pouted, and Alek chuckled as the room slowly cleared out, leaving the senator and his boyfriend.

Alek sniffed him.

...

Katya didn’t smell like Sergei.

"You’re hurting the patient, oww," Alek whined.

Katya stared at him defeatedly, his soft eyes morphing into worried eyes.

"I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to," Katya sniffled, and Alek chuckled softly.

"I’ll bring you a change of clothes and clean you up. Gimme a minute," Katya said, but Alek pulled him onto him.

The alpha was seated on the bed while Katya was standing on his side.

"Don’t go yet..."

"The bathroom is less than ten feet away, Alek."

"I’m sorry you had to come back home like this," Alek said in earnest, and Katya smiled at him as he came with cleaner clothes.

"You’re hurt. Of course I’ll come home," Katya said, like that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. And Alek felt a pang of guilt in his chest.

His little rose was focused on him.

Didn’t smell like the barbarian.

His little rose, who had never given him a reason to doubt him. He had broken his little rose’s workday just to prove the obvious to him, and Alek felt like a terrible boyfriend.

It was one thing to be jealous of an alpha, but to have Katya come home like this, and that too in the middle of the week, wasn’t fair.

Yet even then, Katya wiped him up gently, helping him change clothes like it was routine. Like it was something he was not opposed to, like this was just a regular day for him.

The fact that Katya had undone his scent patch to keep Alek calm was all the alpha needed to know that his omega was just friends with the barbarian.

And even better, that he had reinforced the boundaries between him and the barbarian.

"Get some rest. I’ll be here when you wake up," Katya said, gently pushing Alek onto the bed and covering him up.

Then he joined him on the bed, his work tools on his lap, like this was just a normal day, not one that Alek had hijacked.

And fuck it was haunting the senator.

Maybe that was why when Alek woke up an hour later, his arm still hurting, the alpha...

"Little rose... If we stay like this any longer, you won’t be able to work," Alek said softly, nuzzling his head on Katya’s lap.

"Are you feeling any pain?" Katya asked in earnest, lifting his head from his work to look at his boyfriend, who was snuggling even more.

"No... But you have to go back to the office," Alek said, words that even he couldn’t believe had come from his lips.

But it was the truth now, was it not?

"I can take care of you," Katya said quietly, like he didn’t understand why Alek was pushing him away.

"I know. But you also know you need to work. And if you and I stay here like this, you won’t be able to get any work done," Alek pointed out the obvious.

Katya sighed softly.

"My sched—"

"Is always jam-packed on Wednesdays. I have a copy, remember? The nurses are around. The maidservants, too. I know you want to take care of me, and I really appreciate it.

"But you have other people depending on you, too," Alek said, and Katya raised a brow at him.

It wasn’t surprising that his Wednesdays were full, but was Alek really alright with him leaving?

"But I want to take care of you," Katya said, as if it were the most obvious thing.

"I know... How about this... go back to the office, finish your work as soon as you can, then you’ll come home to me, yeah?" Alek reasoned, and Katya stared in uncertainty.

"Are you sure?"

"Never been more certain about anything. Besides, I don’t want to share you with your work. The sooner you’re done, the sooner I can get my boyfriend back," Alek said, like it was the most genius of things.

Maybe because it was still midmorning and he had just realized he broke his arm for nothing. Or maybe because he trusted his boyfriend even more.

Not that his suspicions about Sergei had dwindled.

They were still the same.

But his boyfriend...

His little rose was all that he needed to calm down and think straight.

"Okay," Katya agreed, begrudgingly agreeing to go back to work.

"I’ll call you if anything happens. Scout’s honor," Alek said, and Katya laughed lightly at the man.

***

That was seven hours ago.