Konstantin: The Heartless Beta novel Chapter 43

Konstantin

“You sure about this?” I ask Kai as I press the elevator button. My brother has had a bad feeling about Dimitri since we left here last night, and he couldn’t keep quiet about it. Lily told me to go with him to see what it could be about, or we would not hear the end of it.

“You can’t tell me you don’t think this has all ended a bit too easily,” he says, keying in the code to Dimitri’s penthouse and gritting his teeth.

No, I didn’t want to fucking think about it. We’ve been through so fucking much already, and I didn’t want to dig up more problems. I wanted to remain blissfully ignorant until I couldn’t take it anymore.

“It’s always something,” I grumble and lean back against the railing with my arms crossed. Damn it, give me a break!

“You’re right; it is always fucking something with our family and pack. But as the Alpha and Beta, we owe it to them to make sure they’re safe while they remain blissfully ignorant.” He says, giving me a look that shuts me up immediately.

Fuck, did I say that over the link?

The elevator door opens, and we immediately catch the scent of blood. Kai’s eyes switch to crimson, and I follow him as he runs to the room we had Dimitri locked up in. He breaks the door down, both of us expecting a bloodbath, but what we find leaves us confused.

Dimitri is lying on the floor right next to a puddle of vomit that looks like blood.

Kai goes to him and picks him up. “He’s burning up,” he says, holding our brother in his arms. “Dimitri, brother, wake up!”

Dimitri stirs and mumbles something while Kai carries him over to the bed. “Dimitri!”

His eyes shoot open, and he looks at Kai with a terrified expression. “K-Kai? What…?” He says, glancing between me and then Kai again.

I walk towards him and sit down, drawing my hand up to his forehead. “Are you okay?” I ask.

He blinks, then looks down at the vomit on the floor. “I don’t… I don’t know. I keep having these dreams where I’m doing terrible things.”

I glance at Kai momentarily, then back at Dimitri. “Dreams? What kind of dreams?”

“I kill people - a lot of them before eating them. My last dream saw me tearing someone who looked like an older Nikolai in half. That’s why there’s a puddle of that on the floor,” he says as shame slips into his scent.

Kai sighs and slaps Dimitri on his shoulder before standing up. “Come with us; you’re probably hungry.”

/“What the fuck are you doing?”/ I ask Kai over the link.

/“Follow my lead.”/ He answers while I glare at him.

/“What happened to 'Dimitri is dead to me?'"/

/“Konstantin.”/

He says my name, and I immediately stop talking. I know I’m being a fucking asshole right now, but I can’t see myself forgiving Dimitri yet, even if he has been under the influence of something sinister for over a decade. The fact that he knew something was wrong with him for so long and didn’t come to us with it proves just how much he trusted us.

I don’t care if he said that he didn’t want to burden us with his problems, but that’s exactly what family is for; to help you sort out your problems, no matter how small. I used to think we were closer than that, but Dimitri’s actions have proved different.

Kai leads Dimitri to the kitchen and tells him to sit at the island in the middle while he removes eggs, bacon and whatever else from the refrigerator. Dimitri sits down and glances up at me before looking away and down at his hands again.

“I did something to you as well, didn’t I?” He murmurs before peering back up at me again. “I can tell by the look in your eyes.”

I sigh. “Yes, you did. You fucked us all around, Dimitri and betrayed us in the worst way possible-”

“Konstantin,” Kai says with his back to us from across the room.

“What? We can’t fucking baby him forever, Kai. He needs to know what he’s done.” I argue, pinching the bridge of my nose. “You didn’t trust us enough to help you, and now we don’t trust you at all.”

If Kai isn’t going to call him out on his bullshit, then I will. I’ve always been the asshole, I know this. It’s part of the reason I got my Heartless Beta nickname, but I won’t ever hesitate to call anyone out on their shit, even if it is my brother.

I hear Kai sigh and walk over to us, putting a plate in front of Dimitri then levelling me with a glare.