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

Chapter 201: The Mournful Crescent Moon Hung Beyond The Window

[FROLO]

The thick scent of fresh paint and disinfectants met Katya the moment he stopped on the executive floor.

It was almost like there had been a war on this floor, save for the fact that it looked like it always did on a normal day.

Cold.

Professional.

Like the place where fates were decided, and lives were doomed at the same time.

Katya’s first stop the next morning wasn’t his office, but Sergei’s office. He walked into a Volkov, who stared at him, amusedly as if something had happened.

His head hurt so badly that he was sure it was about to fall off. If not now, then in the next ten minutes. Even the painkillers Alek had given him did him no good.

Hell, if it wasn’t for the fact that Alek had scented him, Katya wasn’t sure he would have come to work today. And the worst part? He didn’t remember a thing about last evening.

Especially after the first glass of wine.

"Is he in?" Katya asked, not even bothering with the formalities. Something had happened, and who better to know the answer than the man who was drowning with?

"Yup. He looks just like you," Volkov snorted, and Katya sighed in defeat.

But he didn’t go back.

Simply knocked on Sergei’s door and went in after hearing the man let him in.

"We definitely shouldn’t drink again," Katya groaned as he looked at Sergei. Volkov was right.

Sergei looked like Katya looked.

Tired eyes, fingers rubbing his temple, a glass of water in his hands, and probably headache pills in his drawers.

"I think we broke Anya," Sergei whispered, and Katya groaned.

"She had the entire floor painted before anyone came to the office," Sergei added.

"Alek woke me up when my alarm rang. I almost bit his hand," Katya said, and Sergei laughed like it was the kind of thing that was almost expected.

"How are you feeling, Solnyshka?" Sergei asked as he looked at the omega before him.

Last night had happened alright.

But while Katya didn’t remember anything...

Sergei remembered everything, like a curse that he was forced to endure. The memories of the previous night had Sergei feeling a lot of things.

He was tempted to go to the senator, but he couldn’t because if last night had taught him anything, it was the way Katya loved Alek. How the omega thought of his boyfriend every passing minute.

Sergei couldn’t help but wonder if ever there would come a day when his name was all that Katya would think of. When his face was the one Katya would consider handsome.

When he was the one Katya thought of, even when blackout drunk.

Then again, Sergei had waited nine years; what was a day more right? Or a month? He didn’t know.

Because he wanted Katya to choose him.

To want him.

And if that meant giving the senator more time, then he would. Even when Sergei knew that patience was slowly not becoming his strongest suit.

Not when he was close to Katya.

"Like I got run over by a truck, but other than that, maybe we should try drinking soup over wine again," Katya joked, and Sergei let out a sigh of relief before joining in.

Their friendship still lived.

That was the only thing that was keeping him from jumping Katya right now. The omega was so fucking tempting that it was a pain for Sergei.

"Alright, see you later," Katya said, excusing himself.

"Solnyshka..."

"I made this for you. It’s good for a hangover," Sergei said, handing Katya a bowl of soup. The omega hadn’t even noticed it on the mad alpha’s desk.

"Soup..."

"Anya taught me how to make it one too many times. It’s not poisonous... Might taste like shit, but it does the job," Sergei said, and Katya smiled at him.

"Thank you, Vladimir," the omega said earnestly before he took the soup and left the alpha’s office.

Meanwhile, as he walked out. Katya couldn’t help but be thankful that he’d distracted the alpha enough to keep him from committing a murder somewhere.

Maybe it was a long stretch, but it worked, because now they were both badly hungover. And if Sergei was going to order a hit, he wouldn’t be committing murder with his bare hands.

That was a little comforting for some reason.

And thus, the crazed cycle of friendship bloomed. One that had the people closest to both of them always waiting to embrace any sort of crazies.

The craziest part of the Sergei and Katya friendship adventure was the way they had shifted from drinking themselves stupid to being actual menaces experiencing life together.

They were spotted in weird get-ups running around the city like two normal people. They’d go to parks and experience life there. They’d go to malls and live mundane lives.

It was an experience that was so confusing for their inner circle because it made absolutely no sense for Sergei and Katya to be on the same page.

Yet they had stayed on the same bandwidth that even Alek, who had been jealous, stopped being jealous.

It wasn’t because Katya told him that he and Sergei were friends. But because from where he stood, Alek saw two best friends who were chaotic and doing the kind of shit that had them all praying for steady lives.

At the company, nothing had changed, which was even weirder.

Katya was still the respected chairman, and Sergei was still the most feared man in the city; the man dangerous enough to claw hearts out of chests.

Yet Alek had seen that same man be a stupid fuck when he was drunk. It was the kind of thing that was so unbelievable, yet it was believable because he had been there.

However, within the quiet that had been Frolo for two years, pieces were coming together in the kind of way that would strip away whatever peace that had been achieved.

The stakes were growing, and right in the middle of it was the omega who could launch a thousand battles. The one that everyone was ready to go to war for.

But would it matter after the news cast yesterday morning? After the entire nation had been forced to embrace the question of what the relationship between the alpha and the omega was and could become.

The whispers hadn’t stopped.

The rumors only ever got more fuel with the little things that had been seen over the past few years.

And several data points were coming to life.

The ex-husband refused to let go of a man who would never look at him the same way again.

The senator who had been loyal and loved wholly by the man who fate was threatening to strip it into three parts.

And worse...

The barbarian who smiled at the one man he’d watched for nearly a decade. The barbarian had a dead body right in the middle of his penthouse living room.

But it was life, was it not?

"Volkov!" Sergei called his secretary, who walked into his office in an instant, like he was waiting for this day.

"Yes, sir."

"The body in the penthouse... Send it to the Senate."