Chapter 48 #3
Another wave of quiet plagues the fields, and the only sound filling the air is the truck’s rough idle.
Alexey’s gaze falls to the road as if he’s tracing the small cracks in the pavement.
He sits this way for minutes. Hours, it seems. Then, he fights his wobbly legs and stands, using the vehicle for leverage.
Alexey nods a few times and clicks his tongue off the roof of his mouth. He pulls the pack of cigarettes from his breast pocket, lights the end of one, and wheezes out smoke to circle above him. “Anyone else?” he asks and holds the pack in our direction.
I shake my head, and Clément does the same. Dimitri doesn’t move, he only stares at Alexey in disbelief.
After a few drags, he drops the cigarette to the road and snuffs it out beneath his heel.
“If I’m going to die, I die human. Not some fucking monster.
No offense, Nikolai,” Alexey says with a small snort, reaching for his hip and unclipping the holstered handgun.
He pulls the slide to chamber a round and dangles it from his trembling finger. “Big man. Will you do me the honor?”
Dimitri balls his fists at his sides, each knuckle flushing. There’s a slight glisten in his eyes, tears he has to tense his entire body to hold back. “No, I will not fucking honor you.”
Alexey continues to look at him, head tilted, and an unusual sense of calm taking over his features.
He lifts the uniform top up his stomach, revealing the scar Dimitri sutured and the tattoo beneath it.
“Everyone in my unit got the same one. You were right, it is Latin. It means not by them. A pact that no monster would ever kill us. Please, moy brat. Let me fulfill that promise.”
I try and step forward but Dimitri’s large hand falls to my shoulder, giving me pause.
He reluctantly takes the gun from Alexey, flips off the safety, and inspects the chambered round.
The wolves and even Clément lower their heads in respect.
I can’t, though. No, the only thing I do is watch the soldier that stitched me up years ago.
The man that never treated me like a monster.
The human I call a part of my pack. And Alexey does little else than force a grin when the barrel lifts in his direction.
Dimitri raises his shaking arm, squinting as he lines up the front and rear sights.
Alexey smiles fully now. No fear. No remorse. He only smiles at us and nods. “Do svidaniya, my friends.”
“Do svidaniya,” Dimitri says, his voice cracking. “Moy brat.”
I close my eyes when the gunshot explodes, only catching a small glimpse of the orange and yellow muzzle flash.
I don’t need to see it, not when I’m forced to listen to the bullet spiral through his skin and other organs.
His body slamming lifelessly against the pavement.
The last few beats until his heart finally gives out.
Dimitri drops to his knees and screams. Not a word.
Not Alexey’s name. Just the heavy sound of every emotion he normally holds in.
The gun slips from his fingers and clatters near his feet.
No one says anything. We stand there in silence, an undeniable helplessness passing through us all.
Clément lost most of his pack because of me, and now, I’ve lost a piece of mine.
If this is what it means to be an alpha, to watch the people you care about die, then I don’t want it.
I would rather let my father turn this world to ash than lead anyone else to their death. He’s won. He always fucking wins.
We wrap Alexey’s body in what we can find and load him into the back of the truck, leaving his uniform top reading Sarkov draped over his chest. And ten minutes later, we’re gone, driving down the vacant road with fields stretching for miles in every direction.
Dimitri at the wheel, I insist on keeping the windows down to track her scent, knowing we’re not far off now.
“Nikolai?” Dimitri finally asks, breaking the silence. “What do we do now?”
I draw in a deep breath and glance at the few clouds rolling overhead.
The sun continues to lift to its rightful place in the sky, but it won’t stay there forever.
There’s no telling if those things will come after Clément’s pack again at dusk.
After her. “I don’t know. We need to find Natalia first. She’ll have shifted back by now, and she’s not alone. ”
He turns to me, his reddened eyes widening. “The soulless?”
I shake my head, breathing in her scent and the one I locked onto a few miles from the compound.
It wasn’t a smell I immediately recognized, not when I haven’t stepped foot in my family’s home for years.
Even then, he made it a point to avoid me after Ida’s death.
Whether it was guilt for telling my father I turned her or he was afraid of what I might do to his other leg, I’m not sure.
All I know is he isn’t chasing Natalia. He’s running with her.
“No …” I say, clenching my jaw. “She’s with another wolf.”