Konstantin: The Heartless Beta
30. Mission Start

Konstantin

Since we arrived a few minutes ago, something has felt off, and it's not the dagger takingoccupancy in my holster.

“Did you guys take out all the men already?” I mutter as we make our way onto the property aftersearching. We are currently crouched down at the northern entrance and have not seen a soul.

Kai and I have known the layout since we killed Cat's family last time. Stefan had men on constantpatrol at his villa in Jersey, so where were they now?

“No, it was like this when we arrived two hours ago; no movement from inside,” Ryker replies fromthe south entrance.

“Same thing on the west and east entrances, as well as the woods behind the estate,” Cain says."We've searched the place twice, not a soul or scent out of place.”

I look at Kai, not liking this one bit. “It's way too fucking quiet here,” I say, and he nods.

“It's like they knew we would be coming,” Cain says, then lets out a grunt. “Best bet would be toadvance. Kai?"

I look at my brother for a response since he’s basically the leader in this entire operation. Hebreathes out and pinches the bridge of his nose; when he opens his eyes, they're crimson."Affirmative; let's go.”

We advanced inside the mansion, but there was still no one to be seen at all. “Do you guys smellanything?” I ask, uneasiness creeping into my resolve as I sniff the air. “I can’t smell a fucking thinghere, not even dust.”

“Same here,” Blight mutters.

“Same this si-"

"VAMPS!” Cain cries out, and the sounds of fighting echo through our earpieces. Kai looks at me,and we run towards the area they're in to help.

Hordes of vamps descend, and everything turns into a literal bloodbath. Kai uses his guns andknives, and I follow suit, the Horsemen use their claws, and the Rogues use multiple tactical knives. Ican see everyone is fighting cautiously and for good fucking reason; If one drop of vamp blood getsinto our bloodstream, that's it for us.

No wonder we couldn't fucking smell them; the fuckers are scentless.

The fact that Stefan has vamps at his disposal pisses me the fuck off. Not only was the fucker indeep with Westcott by the look of things, but if he has the vamps on his side, it means that theentire so-called kidnapping of Cat at the time was only a means to get their hands on Nikolai.

But how the fuck did they get it right to fool us, and whose body did we burn?!

The horde starts thinning out, but I don't have fucking time to fight here. If Stefan prepared vampsto fight us, then they knew we were coming today. But who the fuck would have told him? Everyonehere is a pure wolf, and they're fighting for their lives right now!

“Kail” I called out. “They knew we were coming!”

The way my brother tears off two vamps' heads off using only his claws lets me know that he thinksthe same. If there's one thing Kai hates more than witches, it's betrayal.

“They're thinning out; let's leave the rest to them and search the place.” He says and heads in thedirection of the basement.

I nod and run towards him, but a headache so blinding hits me, and I drop to the ground seeingnothing but white. “What the fuck!” I cry out and hear the others do the same. "KAI!"

The anger and hate coming off my brother's scent force me to wretch my eyes open and focus myeyes on what he’s staring at. He's advancing towards someone, and when I look in the direction he'swalking to, I frown.

"How are you not dropping?!” Someone exclaims, and I hear Kai laugh.

“Because I'm not only a fucking wolf, Alyosha,” he says and grabs the person by his neck beforeholding him up by the throat. My eyes widen; this man looks like Ilya, just with tattoos all over hisbody.

“I'm the God you fought so hard to kill,” Kai says, then extends his claws and rips out the witch'sheart before tearing off his head.

Alyosha: the mastermind behind the twins betrayal, Viktor's death and everything else that hashappened to us since Cat came to us. His family also aided the wolves who helped kill the Silver Sunpack.

Kai just got revenge for all of us.

The pain in my head stops with Alyosha's death, and when Kai turns around, I see the grin on hisface. “The fact that he was here means we're heading in the right direction.” He says and holds hishand for me to take.

Lily

“No!” I cry out, the tearing inside of me getting worse as soon as the blonde woman places herhand on my forehead and starts to chant. The children in my womb started to thrash around at hervoice, and I could taste blood in my mouth.

Nikolai is strung up by his wrists with silver chains, a dagger sticking out of his side, and shecontinues to chant and hold me down even after Stefan leaves.

The pain that once felt dull and distant has now escalated to sharp and burning. It subsided attimes, only to flare up again and with seemingly increased intensity whenever they moved inside ofme.

"P-please...” I beg through blood and tears. “Please make...make it stop...”

She continues to stare ahead, ignoring my pleas. I watch as horns extend from her forehead, andwith that, a pain so nauseating has me in its grips that I heave and splash blood all over her whitedress.

I don't think I am going to survive this at all; no matter what my wolf told me, I can see that no onewill come to my rescue. That little bit of hope was extinguished as soon as Stefan brought me downhere, and I realise now this child in my womb, Nikolai, and I will all perish tonight.

I hear footsteps through the waves of pain, and Stefan comes to a stop next to her. “They're here;we need to hurry this along.” He whispers to her and looks at me. “Rip him from her womb if needbe.”

She stops. “You know I cannot do that; inducing the birth takes hours, but we only have a few moreminutes to go. Do you want this to be all for nought? Do you want to wait for another millenniumfor him to be reborn?” The blonde woman says. “Hold them off for as long as you can; that's thereason you enlisted the vampires, isn't it?”

Then she starts her chanting again when Stefan doesn't answer her. He huffs then is about to walkaway when I hear snarling behind me.

“Morganna-" He says and is immediately silenced by more wolves growling.

I must be imagining things; surely this pain is leading me to hallucinate wolves snarling. It's onlywhen the woman takes her hand off my forehead and stops her chanting that the pain lessens andthe children settle down again.

Please... don't give me hope like this. Please, just let me die, don't be this fucking cruel!

When I open my eyes, I see Stefan taking a step back and the horror on the woman's face. “NO!”She screams, and it reverberates throughout the entire room. “YOU CAN NOT HAVE THEM!"

I scream as wolves speed past me, but before they can grab the woman, she turns into a cloud ofgreen smoke and escapes. Stefan is not so lucky; three huge unknown people have him pinnedagainst the wall on the opposite side.

Is this really happening? Are we being rescued?! No... this must be one of Stefan’s tricks to break medown further, or I'm close to death and hallucinating all of this. The latter seems plausible."NIKOLAI!"

My body stills at the voice of the man who used to be my Alpha, and I look up at the youngestVolkov next to me, his head whipping towards his older brother's voice. His face crumples up, andhe starts to sob as Kai runs over to him.

Nikolai shakes his head. “I'm fine; get Lily first,” he says and looks at me. Kai turns and is about towalk to me when he nods and walks back to Nikolai.

Sandalwood, heady amber and leather... I catch his scent before I even hear his voice, and it shattersmy heart to pieces.

I'm dead; I must be dead. There is no way this is truly happening and no way a demon-like Stefancould be defeated so easily. All of this is a fucking dream!

“Lily,” he calls, and I hear his footsteps as he walks over to me, but I shake my head and refuse tolook at him. Of all the things Stefan has ever done to me...

I close my eyes and shake my head, sobbing when I feel his body heat next to me and smell hisscent when he covers my naked body with something. How did Stefan replicate his scent soperfectly?! My entire body relaxes as he starts to scent me; even the labour pains go away.

"Why are you being so cruel!” I cry out, “Please, just let me die and get it over with! Don't torture mewith this!”

Someone growls. “Blight, get her shackles,” I hear a somewhat familiar voice rasping and feel thechains getting removed from my arms and legs, lessening the burn of the silver as I heal.

“Shhh, you're safe now, Lily,” the voice of Konstantin came again, breaking through my sobs. I stillhaven't opened my eyes to look at him, and I'm scared that I'll see Stefan's disgusting yellow eyes ifI do.

“Look at me, please,” he says, cupping my cheek and covering me in his scent again. “Lily, I'm here;it's me."

Breathing out a sigh, I slowly open my eyes, and what I see causes my body to shake with evenmore sobs as he caresses my cheek.

“Konstantin?” I whisper, tears streaming down my face as I look into his deep brown eyes, and thebond pulls.

He nods and gives me that smile I love so much. “It's me; I'm sorry for being late,” he says, thenleans down and kisses my forehead. “I'm taking you home and never letting go again. But I'm goingto ask you to wait just a little longer because I need to kill this fucker for what he's done to you.”