Contract Marriage: Married to My Ex-Husband's Alpha Stepfather [BL]

[SERGEI]

A rattle of chains when Sergei turned woke the alpha up instantly. The last thing he remembered was Anya knocking him unconscious because of what he had said, and after that, it was all too blank.

Instinctively, he listened to the heartbeats around him, not daring to open his eyes lest whoever had restrained him was still there. But the familiarity of the nearest scent had him opening his eyes, fast.

Anya.

"You hit me h—" Sergei began, so ready to complain about his woes and justify his obsession with Katya. However, the familiarity of the ceiling from his view had him stop.

This couldn’t be real, no?

He was home.

At the penthouse, he had avoided for two whole years like his life depended on it.

Surely Anya wouldn’t have brought him back here after everything, right?

Then again, they were here.

There was no denying it.

And the way that Anya was so calm about it was a tad surprising because Sergei didn’t remember much of what had happened.

Scanning the room, Sergei listened, like he wanted to understand everything at the same time. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

Anya being in his room wasn’t even surprising. This woman had once woken him up with a bucket of cold water. There was not a thing he could put past her.

But the lack of voices in the background. The lack of clutter in a penthouse that had always been so busy was interesting. He couldn’t even say that it was because he hadn’t come by for two years.

This penthouse always had movement.

It usually felt more alive than it was at the moment.

There were no staff, no noise.

Absolutely nothing.

So, the blank space just didn’t make any sense. Besides, if Anya was here, then there had to be even more clutter because Anya was a clean freak. She managed the house like she managed sanities, with one of them being Sergei’s.

But there was nothing.

If anything, the only thing Sergei had noticed was that there were four people.

Four heartbeats in a penthouse should have had fifteen was a red flag. Hell, his men would come here to get food, too, and rest, seeing as there were so many rooms here.

Sergei’s penthouse was run like a community center while he went out and fed his obsession.

So, four was certainly not a number he took lightly.

The heartbeats were different.

Anya’s heartbeats were calm.

Two others were frantic. Panicked and with some sense of urgency.

And the last one...

One heart was beating like its hold on life was fading fast.

That slow heartbeat...

Was it why Sergei was here?

"Sergei," Anya began, her tone gentle and suspiciously kind for someone who had smacked him into unconsciousness.

Maybe this was her way of apologizing, but Anya Kavinsky never apologized, not when it came to Sergei. Because if there was one thing this barbarian did, it was to raise her blood pressure and keep her life on a long line of maybes.

So, this was insane.

"Anya..." Sergei trailed off, like he had tried to understand.

It made no sense.

"You’re awake," Anya pointed out, and Sergei glared at her.

This was not what he thought he could wake up to. Hell, he hadn’t even imagined he would go from the village to his very penthouse. There had to be more.

And Sergei made a move, but the rattle was once again hitting his ears.

The chains...

They were on him.

For a moment, Sergei panicked.

Not because he was so surprised to be chained, but because this right here was proof that something had gone terribly wrong. Something that needed him to be restrained and regret hit him in the worst of ways.

Maybe he had truly lost control.

Maybe that was why someone was slowly fading in the distance.

Maybe that was why everyone had left.

And gods, Sergei had questions.

"Anya..." Sergei trailed off, the worry in his voice as he took a good look at himself.

"How long was I out for?" Sergei added, his desperation clear as he tried to wrap his head around the sight.

He had always had terrible days, and Anya had always opted to sedate him for the sake of his own sanity and even more for the sake of his workers.

Only that the penthouse that was always warming with heartbeats, was only having four.

And the chains on him were different.

Way too different from the usual ones Anya used whenever he tried extremes.

These were heavier, longer, twisted in the kind of way that screamed safety for the people who interacted with him. His hands and legs were chained. Hell, he even had a collared chain around his neck.

This...

This was new.

"What did I do?" Sergei asked in pure horror.

He knew he had to have done something if Anya had sedated him and made sure he was back in his own penthouse. The fact that there were very few people here made so much sense with the chains.

But it did not answer the question of what he had done to trigger this.

Had he gone feral again?

Had he killed more people than he always did?

Had he hurt someone he cared about?

"The villagers... did I hurt them? Is that why I’m chained?" Sergei asked frantically.

He wasn’t bothered about the chains. He couldn’t care less for them because he could snap out if he wanted to. But the actions that led to such extreme consequences?

He needed to know.

Needed to understand.

"Was it... my son?" Sergei panicked, before adding, "Is Yaroslav okay?"

The thought of his own son getting hurt because of him was something he could not fathom.

He may have despised the kid for being a cheat, but Sergei loved his son with everything. There was just no way he would have hurt Yaroslav, right?

"Say something, please," Sergei practically begged when Anya didn’t say a word.

And when the woman got closer to him, when she stared at him with grief in her eyes, Sergei felt like he was going to lose his shit for whatever was about to come from her lips.

"The chains will keep you steady," Anya said, and Sergei stared blankly.

Surely Anya knew he was an alpha wolf, right?

Then again, that was quite the assumption, given he had known this woman his whole life.

"Anya..." Sergei spoke again; this time, he sat up to untangle himself.

But the chains were heavy.

And worse, they were laced with silver.

That right there was the first red flag.

This wasn’t just about keeping Sergei steady.

This was about making sure Sergei Moskowsky was in one place the entire time. Contained.

"Ten days," Anya said softly, too carefully.

Sergei, who had been struggling with the chains, the silver burning through his skin bitterly, froze.

"What?"

Ten days.

He had been sedated for ten days.

"It was the only way," Anya said, like that was normal. Like that was the only reasonable explanation.

Maybe it was.

But what were the odds?

Sergei sighed at the new information.

"Alright then. I can... I can understand the timeline. But why am I in these chains, Anya?"

"Sergei... I chained you... today."