Chapter 11 – Blackmail

The photo arrived at noon.

I was sitting in the dining hall, pushing food around my plate, trying to ignore the way everyone was staring at me. The whispers had been constant since the arena—she's not human, her eyes glowed, she threw Freya across the room—but today felt different.

Today, the whispers had teeth.

I looked up.

A girl at the next table was holding her phone. She was looking at me. Smiling.

Not a nice smile.

She turned the phone toward me.

And my blood turned to ice.

---

The screen showed a photo.

Me. Nikolai. In my room. His hands in my hair. My hands on his chest. Our faces inches apart, lips almost touching, the moment frozen forever in perfect, damning clarity.

When was this taken?

How did someone—

And then I remembered.

The window.

The shape in the darkness.

Lukas's green eyes gleaming in the shadows.

Got you.

---

I found him in the library.

He was sitting in a high-backed chair by the window, a book open on his lap, looking for all the world like he didn't have a care in existence. The afternoon sun lit his blonde hair like a halo.

He looked like an angel.

He was a monster.

"Sit down, Ela." He didn't look up from his book. "You're blocking my light."

I didn't sit.

"Delete the photo."

Now he looked up. Those green eyes—beautiful, empty, cruel—swept over my face like a caress.

"Which photo?" he asked. "I have several."

My stomach dropped.

"Several?"

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. Swiped through the screen. Turned it toward me.

Photo after photo after photo.

Me and Nikolai in my room. Me and Nikolai in the hallway outside his quarters. Me and Nikolai in the forest, him naked and blood-streaked, me staring at him with an expression I didn't recognize on my own face.

There were even photos I didn't remember being taken.

Me sleeping in Nikolai's room, his blanket tucked around me, his pillow under my head.

Me walking through the courtyard, Nikolai's eyes following me from across the lawn.

Me at the dinner with Lukas, the candlelight casting shadows across my face, his lips pressed to my knuckles.

"You've been watching me," I said. "For days."

"Weeks." Lukas set his phone down. "I've been watching you since before you arrived, Ela. Did you think the invitation was a coincidence?"

"The headmaster sent the invitation."

"The headmaster approved the invitation. I suggested it." He smiled. "I've been waiting for you for a very long time."

---

I wanted to run.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to grab his phone and smash it against the wall and watch the pieces scatter across the floor like broken bones.

But I didn't.

Because Lukas was still smiling.

And that smile told me everything I needed to know.

He wasn't afraid of me.

He was counting on me to react.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Finally." He closed his book and set it aside. "A sensible question."

He stood up. Walked toward me. Stopped when he was close enough that I could smell him—pine and snow, just like Nikolai, but wrong somehow. Artificial. Like a perfume trying to imitate something real.

"I want you to stop seeing Nikolai," he said.

"That's not your decision."

"It is now." He pulled out his phone again, scrolling through the photos. "Because if you don't, I release these. Not just to the students, Ela. To the Council. To the Shadowborn. To every wolf in this academy who would love nothing more than to tear apart a human who thinks she can steal one of their alphas."

"They already know about me and Nikolai."

"They know you're his fated mate." Lukas's smile widened. "They don't know that you've been sleeping with him."

"I haven't—"

"They don't care about the truth." He stepped closer. "They care about the story. And the story I'll tell is that you spread your legs for the most powerful alpha in the academy to protect yourself. That you used your body to buy his protection."

"That's disgusting."

"Yes," he agreed. "It is. But it's also believable. And in this world, Ela, believability is more powerful than truth."

---

My hands were shaking.

My whole body was shaking.

I wanted to hit him. Wanted to bite him like I'd bitten his lip at the dinner. Wanted to throw him across the room like I'd thrown Freya.

But I couldn't.

Because he was right.

The wolves would believe the worst of me. They already did. I was the human, the outsider, the girl who didn't belong. Of course I would use my body to survive. Of course I would seduce an alpha. Of course I would—

"Stop," I whispered.

"Stop what?"

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you've already won."

Lukas tilted his head. For a moment, the smile flickered. Something else crossed his face—something that looked almost like respect.

"I haven't won," he said. "Not yet. But I will."

He held out his phone.

"Here."

I stared at it. "What?"

"Take it. Look at the photos. Really look at them." His voice dropped. "And then tell me if you still think you have a choice."

---

I took the phone.

The screen was warm from his fingers. The photos were arranged in a grid—dozens of them, maybe hundreds. I scrolled through them, my heart sinking lower with each image.

Me and Nikolai in the forest, him naked, me staring at him.

Me and Nikolai in his room, me sleeping, him watching me from the bed.

Me and Nikolai in the hallway outside my room, his hands on my face, my lips parted, his head bent toward mine.

In every photo, I looked...

I looked like I belonged with him.

Like I was his.

"Is this what you wanted?" I asked. "Proof that we're close?"

"I wanted insurance." Lukas took the phone back. "And now I have it."

"What's stopping me from telling Nikolai? From having him destroy you and your phone and everything you've ever touched?"

Lukas laughed.

"Go ahead," he said. "Tell him. See what happens."

"I will."

"Then you don't understand Nikolai as well as you think you do." He stepped back, giving me space, but his eyes never left mine. "If you tell him about this, he'll kill me. Not threaten. Not fight. Kill. And when he does, the Council will execute him. And you'll be alone."

"He wouldn't—"

"He would." Lukas's voice was soft. Certain. "He's in love with you, Ela. The kind of love that makes men stupid. The kind of love that gets them killed."

I wanted to argue.

I couldn't.

Because I'd seen Nikolai's face when he thought I was in danger. I'd seen him kill six wolves without hesitation. I'd seen the gold in his eyes, the violence in his hands, the hunger in his soul.

He would kill for me.

And he would die for me.

And Lukas knew it.

---

"So here's how this works," Lukas said, settling back into his chair. "You stop seeing Nikolai. You stop touching him, talking to him, even looking at him. And I keep these photos to myself."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then I release them. All of them." He picked up his book, opened it to the marked page. "And everyone finds out what you really are."

"I don't even know what I really am."

"No." He looked up at me over the edge of his book. "But they will. 'A wolf in human skin.' That's what they'll call you. 'A monster wearing a girl's face.' Do you think they'll let you stay after that? Do you think they'll let you live?"

My throat closed.

"You're a blackmailer," I said.

"I'm a survivor." His voice was flat. "There's a difference."

"Not from where I'm standing."

"Then you're not looking closely enough."

---

I left the library without another word.

My legs carried me through the hallways, past students who stared and whispered, past windows that showed the gray afternoon sky, past everything I thought I knew about this place and the people in it.

Lukas had been playing me from the beginning.

The invitation. The dinner. The kiss.

None of it was real.

He didn't want me. He wanted control of me. He wanted to use me as a weapon against Nikolai, against the Volkov bloodline, against anyone who stood in his way.

And I had walked right into his trap.

---

Nikolai was waiting for me outside my room.

His back was against the wall, his arms crossed, his ice-blue eyes fixed on the door across the hall. When he saw me, he straightened.

"Ela."

"Not now, Nikolai."

"You've been crying." He stepped toward me, his hand reaching for my face. "What happened? Who did this to you?"

"No one."

"Your eyes are red. Your cheeks are wet. Someone did this."

I stepped back before he could touch me.

"Don't."

His hand froze in the air.

"Ela?"

"Don't touch me." My voice cracked. "Don't come near me. Don't talk to me. Don't even look at me."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about—" I stopped. Swallowed. Forced the words out. "I'm talking about us. This. Whatever this is. It's over."

Nikolai stared at me.

His face went pale. His hands dropped to his sides. His jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscles jumping under his skin.

"What did Lukas say to you?"

"Nothing."

"Ela, I can smell him on you. You were with him just now." His voice was dangerously quiet. "What did he say?"

"I said nothing."

"Tell me the truth."

"This is the truth." I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to stop the shaking. "I don't want to see you anymore. I don't want to be your fated mate. I don't want any of this."

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"Your eyes are glowing, Ela." His voice cracked. "They always glow when you lie."

I bit my lip.

The gold flared.

And Nikolai's face crumbled.

---

"Ela, please—"

"Stay away from me."

"Whatever he said, whatever he threatened—we can fix it. Together."

"There is no together." Tears streamed down my face, hot and fast. "There never was. It was just a bond. Just biology. Just some ancient magic forcing us together."

"You don't believe that."

"It doesn't matter what I believe." I backed toward my door, fumbling for my key. "It only matters what I do. And what I'm doing is ending this."

"Ela—"

"Benden uzak dur."

Stay away from me.

Turkish. The language Kai had learned for me. The language my mother whispered in her sleep. The language of my blood, my bones, my broken heart.

Nikolai understood.

I saw it in his eyes.

He didn't know the words, but he knew the meaning.

And it destroyed him.

---

I unlocked my door. Pushed it open. Stepped inside.

"Ela." His voice was barely a whisper. "Please."

I looked back at him.

His face was wet. Not from rain. Not from sweat.

Tears.

Nikolai Volkov, the most powerful alpha heir in the academy, the boy who had killed six wolves without flinching, the man who had looked at me like I was the sun and the moon and every star in the sky—

He was crying.

And I was the one making him cry.

"I'm sorry," I said.

Then I closed the door.

Locked it.

And slid down to the floor, my back against the wood, my hands pressed over my mouth, my whole body shaking with sobs I couldn't silence.

On the other side of the door, I heard Nikolai's breath.

His footsteps.

His fist pounding against the wall once—once, hard enough to crack the stone.

Then silence.

He was gone.

And I was alone.