Konstantin: The Heartless Beta
36. Lost Years

Konstantin

"WHY AM I IN HERE?! KAI! KON! GET ME OUT!"

We've been listening to Dimitri“s screams over and over for the last hour, with neither of us knowinghow to start with this. We're used to torture, but now we'll be torturing our own brother.

"We should get this over with, Kai; time is running out,” I say, referring to his missing child.

He nods. Then removes the silver knife from his holster and walks in with me right behind. Dimitri isnaked from the waist up and shackled against the walls in the silver anchor chains; we've alsoremoved the wolfsbane planters for now but left the humidifier in here.

“Ready to talk, brother?” Kai asks, walking towards him with the silver knife.

"How many times do I have to say this? I don't know what you're talking about!” He repeats again.I sigh and put a hand on Kai's shoulder when he’s about to stab Dimitri. “Let me,” I say.

Kai frowns and is about to hand me the knife when I shake my head. “I don't need that yet,” I sayand turn to Dimitri.

"When was the last time you turned?” I ask. Dimitri frowns when I say this, and I can tell thequestion confused Kai as well, but I know where I am going with this question.

"Uhm, two days ago? Nikolai was pissed off about something Kai had told him and needed to vent,so I took him behind the Estate and let him run off his frustrations.” He says, gritting his teethagainst the sting of the silver chains.

I turn my head to Kai. “Do you remember this?"

He nods, a stern look on his face. “He wanted to go to the fair, but I forbade him to since it wouldbe a full moon, and he couldn't control his shifting yet.”

"Yeah!" We hear Dimitri call out and turn to him. “I gave him a few tips about shifting at will andcontrolling his beast; some things Father taught me.”

I raise my eyebrow at this, and Kai gets the same idea I do.

“You can control your beast? Since when?" Kai asks.

Dimitri frowns and looks visibly confused. “What do you mean? I've always had my beast undercontrol. Father taught me how to shift and control my bloodlust before I turned 12; he did that forall of us except Nikolai. Don't you remember?”

Okay, what the fuck is going on? Dimitri may have been a good actor; a smiling viper as he calledhimself, but there is no way he can be this good.

I look to my older brother for the next step, but then he starts advancing towards Dimitri andremoving the shackles.

“Kai, what-"

“Help me get him down,” is all he says and continues to remove the shackles while I do the chains.Then Kai grabs him by the back of his neck and drags him outside the room

I follow them to the large windows in the living room, and Kai throws Dimitri down. “Shift threetimes under the moonlight,” he orders, and Dimitri“s eyes widen. Fuck, I may be older than him, butshifting still hurt like a bitch and to do it three times in succession?

“If you want me to believe you, shift right now.”

Dimitri bows to Kai's Alpha tone and nods. God, not only does shifting hurt, but the sounds can benauseating.

I stand back with my arms crossed and watch Kai inspecting Dimitri every time he shifts. Somethingfeels odd about the way he shifts back and forth, though, like he’s become slower. Before, he usedto turn whenever we went hunting once a month, but it would be lightning-quick as the rest of us.Now...

“It's like he’s not used to shifting on command,” I murmur and see Kai tense up at my words. Helooks back at me when Dimitri does his final shift back to his human form, and I see the scowl on hisface. I have a feeling that Kai picked up on this before I did.

“Is that... is that okay-" Dimitri asks out of breath, but Kai knocks him out with a blow again beforewalking over to me.

“Verdict?”

Kai removed his clothes and started to shift to his werewolf form as well, but he looks odd as hedoes it, and when he shifts back, it's within a second. He sighs and puts his clothes back on beforehe leans against the wall next to me.

"He's not lying; no one can replicate the way they used to shift when they were teenagers. Evenwhen I tried just now, my body wouldn't let me. Muscle memory won't allow for it because yourbrain wants the pain to be over quickly.”

"So what the fuck does this mean now? That the Dimitri laying there is really seventeen years old inhis head?" I ask, not wanting to believe it myself, but before Kai can answer, the elevator opens, andMarle saunters in.

The witch looks like she’s had it but knows she will have to listen to her Alpha.

“You called?”

Kai nods. “Check for any remnants of the parasite on him,” he says, and Marle nods before walkingover to the knocked out Dimitri. She places her hands on him, and her lips start to move, her eyesrolling back with only the whites showing and when she lets go, she looks up at us with a frown.

“I don't understand... it was there, embedded deep within his wolf. But now, I can't even replace a traceof it, not even on either of their souls. Not only that...now his wolf seems... younger; not the beast Isaw the other evening.” Marle says, walking over to us and looking confused as we did a fewminutes ago.

“There's also... nothing else there. His beast seems infantile, like an inexperienced young pup. Whatcould this mean?” she asks.

Kai sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “It means that the parasite has completed its missionand has either died or crawled out of him. From everything he has told me, I have gathered that thewitches made it latch on the night of the fair,” He says.

Kai then looks at me. “Something tells me that our little brother has been enslaved this entire time,but his wolf tried to fight it off, resulting in Dimitri not being in control of his own beast. However,when the parasite died or left, it took twelve years’ worth of memories with it.”

My heart drops right into my knees when he says this. “Wait, so you're fucking telling me that theDimitri we grew up with for the last twelve years has been a fake?” I exclaim, looking at my youngerbrother lying on the floor.

I don't want to fucking believe it; why would those witches do this? And how could they havepossibly known Dimitri would...

"Someone wanted a puppet within the pack, and they fucking succeeded,” Kai says, then walkstowards Dimitri, leaving me dumbfounded.

Wait, so someone has been planning the downfall of this pack since day one? Can we trust any ofour fucking allies right now if this is the case? We need to replace the blonde bitch and hear what shehas to say because I have more than a hunch that this all started with her.