Konstantin: The Heartless Beta novel Chapter 40

Konstantin

“Are you okay?” Kai asks after I walk downstairs for a breather. I just went to check on Lily, but she was passed out with the babies.

I give him a tight smile as I enter the kitchen. “I’ll learn to bear it, don’t worry. I knew the consequences and would do it again in a heartbeat.” I say and take a bottle of beer from the refrigerator. I’ll have to work through it, I know. This first time surprised me, but I’ll be ready for it next time.

I think.

“Marle is busy contacting the blonde bitch so we can do the deal. Apparently, all she needs is a lock of the baby’s hair to create an image of it. The image will disappear as soon as the bitch runs away with what she wants.” Kai says, thankfully changing the subject.

“Do we trust the bitch not to come after us when she discovers she’s been fooled?” I ask, seeing a giant loophole in that plan.

Kai grins. “Leave it to me,” he says, then leans forward on the kitchen island. “Caterina touched the child by accident and saw her future alongside my daughter.”

I nearly drop the bottle when he says this. “Daughter?! You have a daughter?!” I ask, feeling ecstatic for my brother, my heart hammering at the proud smile on his face when he nods.

“Apparently so; Kira will rule fiercely with Kaia at her side. Or so Caterina’s vision tells her.” He says, chuckling. “You named your daughter after me, by the way.”

“Yeah, as if you need a bigger head,” I roll my eyes and grumble when he slaps me on my back.

This feels nice, just laughing and shooting the shit. I know that it won’t last and that we have a significant problem to sort out, but we need this laugh for now.

“We’ve got a lot of shit to sort out after this,” Kai says, downing the last bit of his whiskey and looking pensive.

“Yeah,” is all I answer, knowing that the list of shit we needed to sort out is growing by the fucking day. What can you do? Kai’s the leader, and I’m his Beta; people are depending on us.

We both look to the door when Marle walks in, and she nods her head when she sees me. “Once you have a lock of the child’s hair, come meet me in the living room.” She says, then walks out again.

I down my last bit of beer and let out a sigh. “I’ll be right back,” I tell my brother, then plod back up the stairs. Fuck, I hope this works. After everything we’ve been through, it’s the least we deserve.

Walking past the room Nikolai is currently passed out in, I hear him growling and talking to himself in there. Already on edge, I walk towards the door and open it… but something feels off, especially when I walk towards the bed and see his eyes are wide open and rolled back in his head.

/“Kai, get your ass to Nikolai’s room with Marle!”/ I call my brother over the link when something fucked up comes to mind.

A few seconds later, they walk into the room looking utterly confused. I point to my little brother. “He was with the blonde cunt for a long time; would she have added a mind-controlling parasite as well?” I ask.

Marle's eyes widen at the mention of this, and she rushes towards the bed, placing her hands on Nikolai’s head and speaking softly - just like she did to Dimitri earlier on. She stops chanting, and her head snaps to us with a look of dismay crossing her eyes.

“There’s one in here,” she whispers, then without another word, she proceeds to chant in a different tongue and both me and Kai watch as our little brother thrashes around while his body tries to fight off the spell.

I don’t know what made me think of this, but I think if we left Nikolai like this with the parasite in him, that bitch would have ordered him to take my daughter just like she did with Dimitri.

Marle then stops her chanting and lifts up her hand from Nikolai’s forehead, pulling out a wiggling slug-like wisp out of him. The thing gives a screech then evaporates into a cloud of green smoke.

Before we can breathe easy, Nikolai jumps up from the bed and screams, falling to the floor and calling out to Kai.

My brother runs to him and takes our little brother’s face in his hands. “Shhh, Nikolai, I’m here; you’re safe. It’s okay,” he murmurs, watching as Nikolai comes down from whatever nightmare he was trapped in. He blinks while trying to control his breathing and frowns.

“Kai? How… How am I here?” he mumbles, looking around the room. “How… Did you save me?! Did you finally come for me?!” He asks, sobbing as Kai wraps his arms around him. I blanch at my little brother’s words and get down on my haunches.