Konstantin: The Heartless Beta

Lily

My head is killing me, and the sunlight peeking through the window is not helping. I sit up and notice that I have been moved yet again, and this time Stefan has me shackled to the bed. I don't know how long I've been knocked out; all I can remember is that when my supposed “mother’ returned, she injected me with something.

I guess she knew that I suspected her.

I don't know what Stefan has planned this time around, but my heart won't stop thundering, and from the movement of the babies, they must feel it as well.

I hear footsteps at the door and expect Stefan to walk in, but instead, voices get carried through the door. Did they think I'm still knocked out?

"... this better be the truth,” Stefan says, the anger in his voice making me lay down and clamp my eyes shut.

“Have I ever lied to you?”

The second voice made me sit up so fast that I saw white spots in my eyes. What the fuck? I know who that is... I fucking know them! But why are they here? Why...?

“No, you haven't,” Stefan says, but whatever else he says gets drowned out by the keys in the locks as he opens them. When he walks in, I don't see the person behind him but know for a fact that it was someone I am supposedly close to.

“My bride, it's time!” he calls out, and before I can ask what he means, he scents me with so much of his sulphur that I fall back on the bed, unable to move. “Wait...”

Stefan rips off my clothing then unclasps the shackles at my ankle before scooping me up in his arms and walking out of the room.

This Scenting is what he has been doing since he locked me up, and it is what keeps me complacent enough for him to do whatever he wants to me. It also does something to the Succubus side of me and makes me crave him. But from what he has done now, it seems like he could always control the lust pheromone in his scent.

Fucking asshole.

"Where... taking...” I can only get these words out, but I know he understands what I am asking. We're going downwards, and all I can smell is dampness, dust and blood.

Stefan chuckles. “You'll see soon,” he says, then when we come to a stop in front of a marble door, he barks at a soldier to open it.

I look around the white room and notice that it is made out of the same material as the door. Inscriptions are etched into the stone on every surface of the room, and in the middle stood a flat black stone altar. I can see the legs of someone lying next to it but don’t know who it could be. Stefan places me gingerly on the altar, and when he shackles my wrists and feet to the stone, pain sears right into my bone. Silver; he’s tying me down with silver chains. I try to fight him off, but his fucking scent has made me weak. “Wait...” I mumble.

“Shhh,” he says with a grin, placing one hand on my belly and holding the other in the air. Then he starts a chant in an unknown tongue, and his eyes flash that disgusting yellow colour.

Then pain overtakes my body; the feeling of my first shift amplified and on repeat.

I scream out and move, but every movement sends waves of throbbing pain through my entire body. I've never felt pain like this before, not even when Fenriz broke me in at the fighting pits. Every bone felt like it was being broken and repaired over and over again with no end to the pain in sight.

Stefan takes his hands from my belly and walks out of the room, but the pain remains; no matter how much I scream and cry out, it doesn't lessen at all.

I feel exhausted and like I am close to vomiting, but there seems to be nothing I could do about the pain and shifting of the children in my womb. Surely this pain would stop soon, right? Surely there's an end to this magnified pain, this nauseating feeling of something tearing me apart from the inside.

I'm not sure, and I am not ready to give up because of it; my wolf told me that my mate would come. I need to believe in her words!

I pause for a moment and take a deep breath. Perhaps if I can shift my focus away from the pain, it'd be easier to manage.

Wait! Wasn't someone lying on the floor next to this altar?

Taking a deep breath, I find the chains to be a bit slack and pull myself up on my elbows, cringing at the pain of both the baby's movements. I hope they're not dead, but looking at the blood pooled at their head, I'm pretty sure they are close to it.

"Hey..." I called out, letting out a whimper instead of another scream. “Hey, wake up!”

The person lying on his side shifts his body, and when he does, I get a familiar scent from him. “Hey, are you okay?" I ask.

He should be blonde, but the blood in his hair has tainted it to more of an orange colour. His face, naked upper body and arms are caked in dried and fresh blood; as if he had been tortured over and over. Knowing Stefan, this is most likely the case. But why is he here along with me?

He groans and moves again, and when he turns on his back, I let out a gasp so loud that a searing pain shoots up my side, and I scream.

"NIKOLAI!"

This is Konstantin’s youngest brother! It looks like he has lost weight; he has a gaunt face, bruised body, and his hair seems longer. What the fuck is he doing here?! How long has he been here?! “Nikolai, wake up! It's me; it's Lily!" I call until he eventually opens his eyes and turns his head to face me. He tries to focus his eyes, then he frowns.

“Lily? What... Why the hell are you here?” he mumbles and tries to sit up, faltering.

“Wait, easy. Why are you not healing?” I ask.

Nikolai eventually sits up and holds his side. “I don't know; the fucking blonde bitch keeps on scenting me with something that smells like catpiss left in a hot car. Ever since then, I can't heal as fast as I used to.” He says, groaning, then looks up at me again.

"Why are you here?”

“I can ask you the same question,” I say, only just noticing he's also shackled to the floor by his left arm and leg.

Nikolai holds his head and breathes out. “The blonde bitch called me the youngest blood sacrifice for when the child in the host's body dies. Apparently, I'm needed by her Master. She spoke a lot of fucked up things while she tortured me, but I tuned out to most of it.” He says.

My bottom lip trembles at his words, knowing full well what they meant. If Konstantin’s child dies, Nikolai is to be used as a sacrifice and by the sounds of it, they need the blood of the youngest Volkov.

He looks up at me and frowns. “What about you? Why are you here?”

“I'm the host,” I say with a sad smile - and this is when he sees my stomach.

"What the fuck, Lily?!" he asks with wide eyes and stares at me dumbfounded. “Are you not Kon's mate?"

I'm taken aback by this question, my heart hammering. “Wait, you all know?”

Nikolai nods. “We were going to come looking for you after our search for Caterina, but I got taken the night we fought the vamps by a tattooed guy who looked like Ilya. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was him turning one of the dead vamps into someone who looked like me and then tearing the body in two.”

I blanch; Caterina? Vamps?

He sees the confusion on my face and blinks. “Oh, yeah, you've been gone for a while. Caterina is Kai's mate, and it's a long, long fucking story.” He says, then lays back on the cold floor and closes his eyes. “I guess they think I'm dead; that's why they haven't looked for me.”

Did Kai find his mate?

The pain in my belly intensifies, and I lay back down when the marble doors open again. Stefan walks in with the blonde woman Nikolai spoke about, but her face matches Tienette; this must be her true form.

Walking over, she places a hand on my stomach. “The labour has been moved forward; it is time for him to be risen.” She says and looks lovingly up at Stefan.

My heart pounds in my ears, but this is eclipsed by the harsh movements in my womb. I'm dying today, and Stefan's Master will finally be born.