Chapter 391: Heading To The Bottom Of The Bottle

[FROLO]

"You look beautiful today, Solnyshka," Sergei breathed when the elevator ride got too suffocating. It was just seventy floors. The elevator ride was only a minute, yet that was the longest minute of Sergei’s life.

Katya was still looking at him. That blank face was unnerving even when the elevator stopped at the penthouse door. Instead of Katya stepping out first, he waited for Sergei to step out first.

The alpha looked at the elevator numbers, as if he was still trying to figure out another way. Maybe if he convinced Katya to step out first, he would be able to speed back down eight? Still, that didn’t sound any better for where he should come.

Because this was a different kind of hell.

"You look like shit," Katya said flatly still.

Sergei stared at himself in the elevator mirror, sniffed himself, suddenly self-conscious, and Katya sighed.

They were already on the penthouse floor. What the fuck was it then?

Realizing Sergei was not going to step out first, Katya did. But now without Sergei. His small hand wrapped around the alpha’s wrist, pulling him out before Sergei could come up with an escape plan.

Fuck.

"I was going to come out," he stumbled, when Katya suddenly let go of his arm next to the couch.

"You can keep trying to run, but you can’t run forever, Sergei," Katya said, staring into the alpha’s eyes like this was one he couldn’t escape. And gods did Sergei not like hearing his name on Katya’s lips like that.

What happened to being Vladimir, alpha, his alpha perhaps? Oh, that first name had Sergei feeling like his balls were being dragged on spikes.

"Can... Can I take a shower first?" He asked, still sniffing himself.

"Sure, I’ll order takeout for us," Katya said, and Sergei breathed for a moment.

Us, Katya had said.

That was progress, right?

An hour later, they’d had dinner, and Sergei had cleaned up, not to mention Katya had changed into Sergei’s clothes for comfort.

Sergei knew he couldn’t find another excuse this time.

"I did surveil you, Solnyshka," Sergei began, breaking the silence himself. He knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, and chances were that things would change terribly after this.

But the truth was something that he owed Katya.

"Come... Let me show you something," Sergei said, and Katya stared at him skeptically. Especially when they were headed to the alpha’s bedroom.

That didn’t exactly seem like a place for them to talk since they usually couldn’t keep their hands off each other. But maybe there was more.

Katya, skeptical as he was, followed wordlessly.

When they got there, he watched Sergei open his closet, the rainforest scent hitting Katya so hard that it was almost impossible to ignore how sweet Katya’s scent had gotten.

He had to focus.

This was something they needed to talk about.

"Solnyshka..." Sergei said, turning to his omega.

"I... I have no rational explanation that will make me seem a little less dangerous to you after this. But whatever you choose when we go beyond this door, I’ll respect it," Sergei said, no longer a fidgeting alpha, but a man who knew his fate had arrived.

"What?" Katya asked, staring at the closet.

Of course, there had to be extra doors in the devil of Frolo’s penthouse. He should have expected that. Not that it was the least bit comforting for him anyway.

"I love you," Sergei said before he pulled Katya into a hug.

It felt like goodbye, Katya noticed.

Almost like Sergei knew whatever was beyond whichever door there was, was so bad that he would probably not get to see Sergei the same way again.

And it had Katya wondering about the scale of all this.

What the hell was he to expect?

"I love you... If you ever ne—"

"Open the damn door. If I were going to leave, I wouldn’t have let you mark me despite finding out the surveillance you’ve had on me," Katya said flatly, clearly tired of waiting.

He couldn’t be blamed, really.

It had been a long day, and the fact that Sergei had kept short-circuiting more times than he made proper sentences was all he needed to know that it was bad.

But also he couldn’t deny the possibility that maybe it wasn’t so bad, and that Sergei was just freaking out because he was dealing with a version of Katya he hadn’t even used to yet.

"You knew before?" Sergei asked, body stiffer than frozen fish.

"The door, Sergei," Katya reminded.

Sergei sighed, turning to the closet before pressing a button defeatedly. His mind was racing with a lot of things, but none more than the fact that Katya knew about the surveillance and still wanted him.

Was Sergei supposed to be happy?

Terrified?

Maybe he’d use this chance to run away?

To where?

"I’m sorry, little wolf," the alpha added quietly as a door opened that led to a manual elevator. Once they got in, they didn’t go down or up.

They went across. Like they were on some creepy-ass zipline in the middle of nowhere. But Katya knew they were still in the Moskowsky building.... Right?

But he waited.

To see.

To understand.

Then the elevator stopped at another door.

"I’m so sorry, Lyubim," Sergei said, pushing the door open, introducing Katya to the kind of shit that had the omega stepping back for a moment.

This...

This was insane.

Sergei Moskowsky was unhinged; he’d heard the tales, even saw some aspects.

But this...

Gods, this was worse than he had imagined.

This was easily the largest surveillance network Katya Romanov had ever seen. Hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women were seated behind desks, some in operational black jumpsuits, watching feeds and reporting what they were seeing.

There were screens all over as the multilevel open-space office was introduced to Katya. From where Katya was standing, it was impossible to tell whether they were still in the townhouse or the sixty-seventh floor.

This looked like shit out of some sick simulation.

It was bad.

"Mr. Moskowsky, we didn’t know you were coming," Rahim greeted when the alpha reached her and Volkov. She then smiled at Katya, who was staring in horror at the kind of shit that seemed normal for these people.

"Is the Solnyshka feed ready?"

"Yes, sir. Should I email it now?" Rahim asked, seeing as Sergei had told them to have it ready weeks ago.

"No. Tell the team to be ready with it. I’m coming," Sergei said, and Rahim and Volkov just nodded before they got back to work.

Katya, on the other hand, stood, still frozen from the sight.

This man was either very meticulous or he had gone mad from years and years of paranoia. There was no other valid explanation.

"Please follow me," Sergei whispered, and Katya didn’t know what else to do other than follow.

As he walked beside Sergei, his eyes still on the endless screens, Katya noticed something else.

Yaroslav. Anya. Irina. Nikolai.

There was surveillance on them too. Where they went. What they were doing, where they were even now, given most of the feeds were live.

Katya didn’t feel a little less creeped out.

Instead, he wondered what the fuck had to have happened to make Sergei this paranoid.

Because one thing Katya was sure of in this moment was that Sergei surveilling the closest people to him, those he considered family, wasn’t because he wanted to control them.

For the first time since Katya had learned he was being surveilled by Sergei, he got a new perspective.

The big bad alpha...

Was scared of loss.

’Who hurt you this bad, Vladimir?’ Katya wondered.