Chapter 481: My Darling, Let Me Save You

[BRATVA]

Aleksandr had been sure he had time.

But now...

One month.

That was all he had to get his affairs in order.

Once upon a time, he’d despised the serum Joram had introduced him to. He had hated every bit of it because it was the reminder of what he had lost. The reminder of what he would never get back again.

Alek had hated that serum with everything he had and didn’t have.

He’d never wanted it.

But he’d been injected with it.

The worst bit about it all?

It was a short-term serum to help him survive for six months as an alpha. Because that was how long Joram had calculated it would take for Sergei and his men to come after Alek and realize Alek was innocent.

It was just enough to help Aleksandr keep going. But then anger got Aleksandr going.

The revenge that Joram hadn’t intended for him. Not the kindness his boyfriend had believed in.

Rage.

Unfiltered rage.

And he had one target.

Sergei.

He hadn’t cared what he had to do to survive everything.

Then Kenzo reminded him of the serum that was constantly depleting. And in a fit of rage, Aleksandr made the one choice that he was so sure at the time he’d never regret.

He tracked down the doctor who had made the first serum.

He was just a resident at the time in one of the smaller hospitals in Frolo, hence harder to pay attention to.

But the deal Alek offered was one that Theo couldn’t refuse.

Give me the serum, and I’ll finance your research and elevate your career.

It was something that a teenage Aleksandr had offered. And Theo hadn’t disputed it because he knew what the Smirnov cartel stood for. He knew what they were a part of.

So he didn’t even doubt that Alek could finance it all.

And thus began the relationship between a teenage beta and the only doctor capable of making him into something he was not.

An alpha for six months.

The dosage had stayed steady over the years.

And the relationship had been so good even then.

But now...

Now Theo was dead.

Sergei had not even hesitated with the shot.

He’d not made one that would allow the doctor to survive. Perhaps it was the real cost of the life they had chosen to live.

Alek had watched a little too helplessly through it all.

He’d tried to be rational, but there was no rationality when he had a damaged arm that would never be fixed, and now he was running the risk of being made into the sort of frauds in Frolo.

He’d had a good career as a senator.

Maybe he should have stuck to it. Maybe his life would have been easier.

Because there was nothing left anymore other than constant anxiety.

Because Aleksandr knew Sergei wasn’t even close to done with him.

Not at the very least.

There was no way of predicting WHAT Sergei Moskowsky would ever do.

That was Alek’s greatest worry.

And for the first time since he’d set off on a path for revenge, Aleksandr didn’t know who he truly was or who he had become in the quest for something that was ruining him.

He knew he needed to stop.

But he loved Joe.

He lived for Joe.

And Sergei had taken Joe from him.

If Alek was going to die, he wouldn’t die before avenging Joe. That was the only reason he was still willing to fight despite the way things had turned out.

He was a dead man walking by the decree of the Moskowsky camp.

Yet he would not stop.

Not until he got justice for his Joe.

More like vengeance.

But the lines had long gotten blurry between the two, no?

"Alek..." Kenzo said as he rushed into the room.

He’d been off on another mission Alek had sent him on and returned when he heard of Theo’s death. It was the most unexpected of things, especially given the way the hospital press release had been.

"There were vials of an alpha serum beside the manager, and it is believed that he was trying to turn himself into an alpha and the experiment backfired," was the statement Frolo General Hospital had given.

And Kenzo knew there and then that this was not right.

He knew someone had done it to the manager.

Seeing Alek here right now, looking like he’d lost every will to live, Kenzo understood. So he just rushed to the beta and gave him a hug. It was probably what Alek needed more than anything.

Because right now there was nothing he could do to bring back the serum.

They had been ruined alongside the dead doctor.

"We can’t find another doctor," Alek sighed defeatedly into the hug, but Kenzo wasn’t about to give up.

He had been told to serve this man for the rest of his life and that was what he was going to do.

Because at the end of the day, hope and love were what mattered in their broken world, right?

"We can. I found one years ago. We just have to figure out where she is and her station because so far, she has been good at hiding herself," Kenzo said, and Alek looked at him tiredly.

He needed that hope.

He really did.

But at the same time, the odds of that not working were also high. Because Sergei probably already murdered all the doctors who could have helped Aleksandr out.

"That’s impossible. You know it. There is no one with the same efficiency and prowess like Theo," Alek said, trying to keep a level head.

He understood what hope at a time like this meant, and if he was being honest, he just didn’t know how shit it would be for him anymore.

The fear of him fast-forwarding all his plans against Sergei while the serum efficiency deteriorated in his body was one that held him hostage. Because there was no way to hide around them.

No way.

Three decades, and the only reason he had kept going was now gone.

He couldn’t even go to the hospital to claim Theo’s body because there was no explanation that he could give to the hospital staff.

Besides, no one knew what had happened to the one who murdered Theo. Of course, other than Alek, anyway.

This...

This was fucked up.

"There’s a doctor, Alek. A specialist..." Kenzo said carefully, trying to give him hope. But Aleksandr had gone through the records. He’d tried to see if there was another doctor.

Sure, Kenzo must have known more people than Alek because he’d been on the job for a little longer, but it didn’t make it any easier for Aleksandr right now.

All he wanted was to sleep his sorrows away.

"There is no one, Kenzo. The sooner we accept this; the sooner things will be done and dusted. Besides, I already bought myself three years, and nothing good came of it.

"Maybe I was just meant to stay a beta," Alek sighed defeatedly.

Deep down, he knew his men and the people he worked with would never look at him the same way again if it was revealed he was a beta.

Alek had built his entire identity around being an alpha and getting revenge. Without that identity, there was never going to be a way around it. There was just no way.

"There is. Doctor Mahin Nazar," Kenzo said, and Alek’s eyes lit up.