Konstantin: The Heartless Beta

Konstantin

I didn't mention to Dimitri how pissed off Kai sounded over the mind link, and his urgent tone is making me haul ass towards his club. I mean, I'm glad for the separation from Dimitri and his depressive funk, but if something got Kai pissed off, I would rather deal with the sad brother than the angry one.

It's 9 pm, usually the best time to keep the clubs open, but as I round the corner into Billionaire's Row, I see no cars or people - it is empty.

"What the fuck?” Dimitri asks as he unclasps his seatbelt and looks around. “Where the fuck is everybody?”

I'm feeling just as fucking confused, especially when we get closer to The Slip, and I see Kai standing outside with Nikolai next to him. They turn their heads when they see our approach and when we get out of the SUV, they walk toward us.

“What's going on?" I ask with a frown, and my confusion deepens when I see Kai's double irises on display and the absolute fucking anger in his scent. Something has pissed him off so much that it is forcing his Lycan to the surface - this cannot be good.

He grabs Dimitri's wrist and bites into it, completing his initiation back into the pack. “We will need you with us once you see what is waiting for us,” he says and walks over to The Slip.

What the fuck? I thought that he wanted to make the initiation a big thing with everyone present? When we enter the club, I catch the whiff of unknown scents and see why my brother is so angry. For the life of me, I never would have fucking anticipated this.

On the dancefloor, someone scrawled the symbol of the Five Alphas into the marble floors: it is an infinity symbol with a line running through it and five short lines running parallel to where the symbol intersects. But it's not this that has our attention; it is the fact that over the Five Alphas symbol, someone drew a large Omega symbol in Volkov wolf blood.

This might mean nothing to others, but those of lycanthrope blood know that the Omega symbol for the Greek God Ares implies war.

"What the fuck?! Who is declaring war on the Five?” I exclaim with a hammering heart and wide eyes as I turn to Kai, but he simply crosses his arms and points to the ceiling.

When I look up, I see what he means, and instead of wondering how the fuck they came into this club and killed a Volkov pup to do all this, I feel my entire body light up with fury.

A skull adorned with a crown of daggers and eight spears encircling it, and next to it was a maiden skull with a crown of roses holding a sword in a skeletal hand.

The fucking pack symbols for Alpha Bastien of the Silent Shadows and Alpha Azura of the Nightshade Maidens - two of the Five Alphas.

"What the fuck is this?!” I ball my hands into fists, repeating myself. I look at Kai again, hoping this fucking time he will give me a better answer than the ones I am coming up with. Because from what I can see, two of the five have just declared war on us.

“Ryker and Fenriz have informed me that they received similar calling cards, so they will stand with us through this. Fenriz is understandably pissed off since no one outside of his pack knows where exactly his Estate is hidden in Vegas. He has a traitor in his pack right now, probably more.” Kai says and walks towards the bar, pulling off a bottle of vodka and downing it halfway.

“I'll be seeing Ryker next week and will fill you all in on the negotiations but all three of us have come to one conclusion: They're all fucking dead,” he says through gritted teeth.

I turn to look at Dimitri, whose eyes have shimmered silver and Nikolai, who seems wrapped up in his own thoughts. So I join Kai and help myself to a bottle of bourbon.

We haven't fought a proper pack war since Serbia, when three packs banded together to take us out, but I doubt we will be rusty. In fact, I think Kai is secretly craving the bloodshed; his beast hasn't let loose since the birth of his daughter, and even then, it didn't kill anyone.

Kai slams the bottle on the counter and leans on it before pinning us all with a crimson gaze.

“We will still proceed with the training as scheduled next week, but now we know that we need to train our pack harder. No fuck ups, no excuses; we need to take this seriously.” He says, then his anger flares up again

“Nikolai! Dimitri!” he says through gritted teeth, and our two youngest brothers rush over to the bar counter where we stood. Kai levels them with a glare, causing their wolves to cringe in fear.

“Both of you need to start pulling yourselves together. Kon and I are adept at the art of war, but you two were mere pups when we engaged in the war in Serbia.” He says, then sighs and shakes his head.

“I know you're going through a difficult time with regards to your mates, but I want you to use that anger and frustration to prepare for the enemy and train our kin. This time around, I am not letting anyone die while under my protection. So tell me: can I count on you in this war?”

Nikolai steps forward with his arms crossed. “Are we allowed to kill while engaging the enemy?” He asks in a calm voice.

“I don't care what the answer is; we kill first unless otherwise stated,” Kai says with a nod, then a devilish grin crosses my youngest brother's face.

"Good. You can count me in; I've been dying to sink my teeth into something and just rip it to shreds.” He says and takes a swig of the bottle of vodka on the counter.

Kai slaps him on the back, and then his expression hardens when he looks at Dimitri. “Brother?” he asks. We all know Dimitri's stance on violence and bloodshed, so what will his answer be?

Dimitri crosses his arms and walks over to the counter, grabbing the bourbon from my hands while his silver eyes flash with anger.

“I'm a Volkov, is that a good enough answer?” he says in a flat tone devoid of emotion.

"It's a good thing I let Arya go or she would be wrapped up in this war as well,” I hear Dimitri over the link, but pretend not to since I realize that his thought might have been a private one. He takes a long drink of the bourbon, then plants himself down on a bar stool.

I look at Kai, whose surprised expression matches mine. Our peaceful brother just agreed to fight in what would no doubt be a bloody fucking war. I know he's lost his heart in that tiny human, but perhaps it's for the best. Dimitri does need to toughen up a bit, or he will become fodder once more. He needs this war to become stronger, so when he takes his mate again, he will be able to protect her.

Kai then looks at all of us with evident pride on his face and slams his fist against his chest. “We'll make them regret this declaration of war when we spit on their corpses. Raerin’s rivers will run red with Silent Bane and Nightshade Maiden blood, and their Alphas will remember why the BloodCrest Pack is feared by all and conquered by none.” He says in Russian, inciting all of us to repeat the last line.

"Feared by all, and conquered by none!” We roar, feeling the unity flowing through the pack stronger than before, so much so that Lily asks me what's going on through the mind link.

An all-out war with two of the strongest packs in the country. I know before, I would rush into anything with nothing planned out and knowing I would kill anyone in my path. But things are different now; I have a mate and two pups to think about.

And yet even as I think about this, the worry dissipates from my heart because I know that they will make me a stronger opponent. I won't allow any harm to come to those I love; that is a fucking promise.

Epilogue - 3 Years Later

Lily

I sit and hold Kaia to my chest, my heart beating so loud that I am sure Konstantin could hear it all the way in Amsterdam. Something terrible happened a few minutes ago, something I am not sure how to mention to him when he returns.

Kaia drowned.

She wandered out of the mansion when I had my back turned, and we looked all over for her until we saw her lying face down in the pool. My heart broke, even as I did chest compressions, and I could hear her little heartbeat again. I didn’t stop until she coughed out the last little bit of water from her lungs.

In that little space of ten seconds, her heart stopped - Kaia died. The link snapped, but I brought her back to life before the pain could settle. No one will notice, no one but Alpha Kai, who I am sure will have questions for me later.

But it's not that which is bothering me... it is the fact that when Kaia's eyes flew open and she coughed out the water, that I saw it. It was a split second, just a split second when she blinked, but I saw it, and my blood turned to ice.

The white of Kaia's eyes was completely black, and her irises were yellow.

Marle really meant it when she said the bind would last until their deaths: Kaia died, and the bind has now broken.