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

[KATYA]

"Well, well, well. Look who got himself a private room," Yaroslav’s voice hit Katya’s ears, snapping the omega awake.

Katya didn’t know how long he had been asleep, but he knew it couldn’t have been that long if he was still hearing Yaroslav in his head.

Turning to his side, the omega looked at the time. He still had places to be instead of dealing with the cheater who had just woken him up.

"I see you got guts. Checking the time right in front of me? Darling, you know that hurts," Yaroslav mocked, and Katya stiffened.

Not from his husband’s words.

But from the time on the clock.

It was five o’clock in the evening.

Katya had slept for seven hours.

"No..." Katya whimpered, the promise of meeting his father now an undone one.

He checked his phone, and there were several missed calls that had suddenly stopped. His papa probably was done trying to reach him, and hell if that didn’t hurt Katya. He should have been awake.

He should have been woken up by the alarm.

So why had he not?

"Sir, you’re awake," a nurse walked in, and Katya recognized her from before. She was the one Sergei had kicked out earlier, and now she was back. Oh, Katya had so many questions.

"What happened to me? Why did I sleep for so long?" Katya wondered desperately. He knew there wasn’t much he could use to defend himself when he met his father again, but he had to have something. He had to find some sense in how he had ended up like that.

Yaroslav stared in disbelief as his husband ignored him and focused on the nurse. He looked impatient, and yet for some reason, he stayed on the sidelines and watched. Perhaps because his conversation with Katya wasn’t one that he wanted anyone to know of.

"You were sedated, sir. I’ll go call the doctors," the nurse said.

Before Katya could protest, she was out the door, leaving him with the cheating husband.

Oh, this was not going to end well.

"The way you walked out yesterday, no one would have known you’d end up wasting my money in a private ward. But hey, tell me, honey, how the fuck did you end up here?" Yaroslav asked.

He stressed the ’honey’ like it was to remind Katya that bridges had been burned and there was no point in playing pretend anymore.

Katya looked at Yaroslav.

Really looked at the man he had loved for ten years.

The omega was angry and wanted to make his husband feel even an ounce of the pain he was in. But that too was an impossibility because at the end of the day, Katya was just an omega.

And his husband was a powerful beta who could turn everyone against him in mere minutes. That was not what Katya had subscribed to in their marriage and their relationship, but was there even a need to think of it like that anymore?

"Yaro... I..." Katya trailed off weakly, and Yaroslav stared as if he were wondering where he had gotten this omega from.

"Honestly, I don’t care what you did or how you ended up here. I just need a good explanation for the media because they somehow know you are here. One of Milan’s friends saw your name on a chart and called me.

"Makes me wonder what the heck you got yourself into. Do you not have any shame? Hospital? Really Katya? Of all the damn places you could have ended up.

"Now everyone will start wondering what happened to my precious omega," Yaroslav laughed mockingly as he stared at the state Katya was in.

The IV drips and the beeping monitors that were telling Yaroslav more than Katya wanted to let him know. Everything was out there in the open, and yet Yaroslav had chosen to focus on the one thing that made no sense right now.

His reputation.

"I fell. I’m sorry," Katya apologized on instinct, and Yaroslav casually and slowly closed the distance between him and the omega’s bed. He looked like he wanted to tear the omega out of there, but he couldn’t because of the media attention. Oh, but it was something.

"Right. People fall all the time, and somehow you decided to waste my resources stuffing yourself in a VIP ward," Yaroslav seethed, a first sight for Katya.

Katya had never seen Yaroslav’s anger directed towards him. He was always the one calming Yaro down, but right now, as the beta stared at him, eyes so cold and detached like the man wanted to ruin Katya, the omega instinctively thought back to Sergei.

Sergei Moskowsky. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"I didn’t mean to," Katya whimpered softly.

Yaroslav laughed at that.

"Your father called earlier. Said something about the company going under and your mother being in this hospital. I didn’t tell him I already knew where you were. I was busy with far more important things.

"Anyway, I am here now," Yaroslav said confidently, as if he were here to do his duty or even charity.

Katya stared at him in confusion.

Who was this person, and where was the man Katya had known for ten years?

Surely there had to be a mistake somewhere, right? Because Yaroslav had never been that cruel. Not like that. Never. Yaroslav couldn’t have known he was in the hospital and still chose to come hours later. Yaroslav couldn’t have pretended about everything.

Yaroslav loved him.

This had to be a mistake.

There was no other valid explanation.

"Wh... What?" Katya forced out, tears brimming in his eyes.

"I know I cheated. It shouldn’t have happened. At least not on our anniversary. But that is in the past now, yeah? I just came to tell you to forget what happened. It’s not worth holding onto.

"I’ll keep Milan away from our house, and you won’t tell anyone I cheated. In return, I’ll pay all the bills and buy you more shares in the Romanov empire so your father’s company doesn’t go down.

"That way, we can go back to being the happy couple we always have been. What do you think, honey?" Yaroslav said, adding the last bit sweetly like he had just offered his husband the best deal of his life.

And maybe he had.

Maybe Katya would have considered this before.

Maybe.

But then, too many things had been broken for this to fix anything.

’Did Sergei play me with hope?’ the omega sighed internally at the thought.

Katya felt himself drifting away, wondering if Sergei had lied to him. If the alpha had just come with that contract to laugh in his face, how desperate he was. It was not something he could put past the devil of Frolo.

But just this once, Katya had dared to trust.

Even if he had been backed into impossible choices. He had dared to dream, and now there was a chance that he had bargained himself for nothing at all. Especially if Yaroslav was here and talking about paying the bills.

Oh, how fate was doing a number on Katya.

"Go back to being happy?" Katya breathed like the words were foreign to his ears.

Honestly, happiness, at this point, was foreign.

"Of course. You. Me. And our childless marriage."