Chapter 482: Where We Could Have Gone

[BRATVA]

Doctor Mahin Nazar.

The ghost doctor who made miracles happen and dreams come true in the nastiest of ways.

No one had seen him, really.

They only heard tales about his work.

Maybe he was the right hope for Aleksandr.

"No one has ever seen that man, Kenzo. He’s a myth," Alek said, sitting up.

He knew it was pointless to hope, but this was the first name that didn’t sound like Kenzo drew a lot and picked the one whack who didn’t know shit about what life was doing to Aleksandr.

He needed someone with information on his misery and Doctor Mahin sounded like the person for the job.

"He works with criminals. Of course no one is ever going to really see his face. And those who have signed NDAs have never spoken about it because the serum he provides works just like Theo’s.

"His clients will always need a lifetime supply; hence, he is the most well-hidden and protected doctor. You know how that works," Kenzo said softly.

This was not going to be easy.

Not with Sergei sniffing around.

Not with the way life was constantly changing for Aleksandr too.

Yet something had to give.

There had to be a way around all this. Perhaps it was insane of Aleksandr to even consider another serum when he had not wanted the initial serum in the first place.

But Aleksandr had risen up in the ranks as a high-ranking alpha.

He had made his name as one of the people who could match Sergei, the Devil of Frolo.

If word were to come out that he had been a beta all this time, his men would probably rip him first.

Sure, Kenzo was an alpha, but fuck, this was not how Alek had wanted things to get.

Then again, he did play stupid games with Sergei Moskowsky. It was only right that he faced the consequences of it all, right?

After all, it wasn’t so bad...

Couldn’t be so bad...

Shit.

"What if he works for Sergei too? What if we are getting this olive branch because Sergei took out Theo and is dangling a little lifeline for me? What if this is just a way for him to mess with me?

"You know Sergei, and you know he is not past creating an identity that I can run to. What if Doctor Mahin works for Sergei and gives me a serum that is not even a serum?

"What if he poisons my body?" Alek asked, reeling with the possibilities of what could happen.

And the worst part of it all was that they both knew there was a chance that Aleksandr’s fears were not far-fetched.

Sergei’s reach in the underworld was unmatched. He could forge things out of nothing with the intel network he had.

If Kenzo knew about Mahin, then there was a very high chance that Sergei knew about the doctor too.

What the fuck was Aleksandr supposed to lean into if all his hope was being wiped out by the one man he had dared to fuck with?

Gods, he really should have listened to Kenzo back then and stopped targeting Katya.

Now he was fucked.

And Katya was probably happy in his home with the madman who had made Alek rethink everything.

What the hell kind of life was this for Aleksandr?

"Be positive, Alek," Kenzo said instead.

He knew he was asking far too much from a man who was on a timer and had just one functional arm, but they had to stay hopeful.

Sergei was not omniscient.

"Be positive? I don’t have a functional arm because that barbarian and my protector damaged the only other thing I could have used to fight him properly! I’m working with one arm, Kenzo. One arm.

"What good is that supposed to do me at this point in the war? I accumulated all those skills for face-to-face combat with the bastard who murdered my Joram.

"Killed. Yet he walked right through my door and took my arm. What the hell am I supposed to hope for at this point then?" Alek raged.

He hated this.

He didn’t like the idea that his life was being toyed with by Sergei.

But he couldn’t even claim that they were unprovoked because he had started this.

He had gone after Katya first.

He had targeted the Romanov omega first.

It wasn’t supposed to be this hard, though.

Katya was just one omega.

How the fuck was that omega the most dangerous man in the realm, even without having to lift a finger?

Alek was losing his mind, and frankly he couldn’t be blamed for that either.

Choices did have consequences, and he couldn’t exactly turn back time.

"Sergei can’t control everything, Aleksandr," Kenzo said sternly, as if that was supposed to snap the man out of his very deserved crash-out.

But did Kenzo even believe the words coming out of his own mouth?

"Of course he can’t. He just has stakes in everything in the underworld," Alek spat angrily.

Nothing had prepared him for this.

Not even the endless nights he had spent training. Right now he couldn’t even have his arm in a proper cast because that arm was dead. Felt nothing.

Nothing.

It was simply dead weight that had Alek having a thousand and one regrets every passing moment.

"You can still fight this. Don’t act like you’re some whimsical little boy who just realized he is up against the devil.

"You knew what you were getting into when you asked for the second dose of that serum," Kenzo said, his words a harsh slap on the face of Aleksandr.

Of course it was one thing for Alek to think of that himself, but it was another for Aleksandr to hear Kenzo say it.

He wasn’t weak.

Of course he wasn’t.

He was just the man who was bound to revert to a beta and lose eighty percent of the special abilities he had, including his heightened senses, because he was a natural beta and not an alpha.

Perhaps it wasn’t so bad, right?

"I have a dead arm, Kenzo. How the fuck am I supposed to fight with that?!" Alek shouted in rage and Kenzo sighed tiredly.

He looked like he wasn’t in the mood to deal with this, and frankly, he couldn’t even be judged harshly for that. Aleksandr was tired lately.

"THEN CUT IT OFF!!" Kenzo shouted, and Alek staggered back in silence, the chair he was sitting on stumbling for a moment.

"What?" Alek breathed in shock.

"You’re a warrior, Daniil. You know what war with Sergei costs. Clinging to an arm that is worthless won’t make you look any better or fight any better.

"The man you’re after already abandoned his empire just to come for you, and you’re worried about an arm that is useless? Cut that shit off and count your losses because Sergei won’t stop.

"You know it too," Kenzo said, and Alek sniffled.

He didn’t know what to say to that.

Instead...

"Sergei abandoned his empire to come after me?" he asked in horror, as the dots finally started connecting from the past three months.

So this was a personal war for Sergei.

What. The. Hell.