“What was so important about your father that he was chosen to be Alpha over me? Huh?” Spittle flew from his mouth and landed on my cheek. “But, that’s a question without an answer because,” he pushed his mouth up against my ear and whispered, “I killed him where he laid and his pretty wife and children, too. Too bad the servants got away with you, or I wouldn’t have this little problem now.”
Loud buzzing filled my ears as I fell to the stage again, discarded like a broken doll. His face contorted with rage and he turned, throwing out an arm, pointing at the others in the auditorium to “Leave!” They listened because he was terrifying and there was a power coming out of him that made my insides hurt. It pressed against my head, against my bones and skin, pushing me down, grinding me to dust. It was all I could do to pull in a breath and survive.
I curled into a ball and covered my head with my arms, praying it would end soon. My brain wanted to explode, my heart pushed viciously against my ribs, I gasped as a wash of endless darkness rushed over me then sobbed when it receded at the last second. At least there would have been peace in the darkness.
“Get up.” The command was delivered with a snarl of impatience. When I didn’t respond right away he pointed into the auditorium. “Get up or your little boyfriend will become more than just a diversion.”
I looked out at the chairs where Bash still slumped, unconscious, and shook my head. “What? No, leave him alone.”
Viktor chuckled. “So fierce. Don’t worry, I won’t kill him. You can’t ransom off a dead kid.” He arched an eyebrow. “But you can chop off a few unnecessary parts.”
The blood drained from my face. I believed him, Old Ones, I believed he was crazy enough to do what he threatened. My limbs wouldn’t work right, they were rubbery and weak, but I struggled to stand. I’d felt the sting of his hand on my face and knew he’d kick me if I didn’t follow his demands. Since I didn’t feel like having broken ribs on top of my dislocated shoulder, I pushed shakily to my feet and swayed.
He looked me up and down with a look of disgust twisting his lips. “You’re just like your parents,” he spat out. “Weak and useless. A shadow of the family you were born into.” He drew his shoulders back and gazed down at me. “But you don’t even know who you are, do you little wolf?”
He paused and waited until I shook my head, then reached out a hand to smooth back a strand of hair from my face. “You look so much like him you know.” He shook his head and pulled his hand back. “Darling child, you are Elenora Galina Dom Volkov, youngest child of Alexander and Katarina Dom Volkov,” his lips pulled back to show his teeth again, “and heir to the Alphaship of Russia.”
I stared at him, swaying precariously, and just blinked. He had to be wrong, this was insane. My parents… I frowned, he was saying my parents weren’t my parents. But, that didn’t make sense. I looked like my mom, sort of. Not the way I looked like this lunatic, but still.
“No.” I shook my head slowly, afraid to fall if I loved too suddenly. “No, my parents are Bradley and Gretchen Jensen and I’ve never even been to Russia.”
His brilliant blue eyes glittered with annoyance and pity. “You were born in Russia and stolen away in the dead of the night by a maid. Saved from a quick death by a member of The Sisterhood, or so I’m told.” He cocked an eyebrow and scowled. “I’ll be rectifying that mistake today.”
His words took a moment to sink in. The mistake had been my salvation. His rectification could only mean my death.
“How can you be sure?” I blurted, taking a stumbling step away from him. “You say I’m your niece and, yeah, we have the same weird eyes, but how can you be sure that I’m her? What if you’ve got the wrong girl?”
He chuckled. “You’re a fast thinker, you get that from me. Your father was always just a tad slower than necessary. His vision was stunted, he couldn’t see beyond tradition and expectations.” His breath came quicker now and anger lined his forehead. “I was born to rule! He would have taken us back to the Dark Ages.”
His shouts lingered in the air, echoing through the room. I gritted my teeth to stop them from chattering and wished I had something solid to hold onto.
“But,” he continued as if he hadn’t just exploded, “to answer your question, even though I don’t need to, once I discovered you were here, I had your DNA analyzed. The results were conclusive. You are Elenora Dom Volkov.”
“You’re lying!” I shouted, letting my overwrought emotions spill free.
He just shrugged. “I lie all the time, it’s an unfortunate side effect of murdering one's own family for power, but I have no reason to lie to you, little wolf. You’ll be dead soon and I’ve had to hold my tongue for far too long.” He took a step towards me.
I stumbled back, throwing up my hands to ward him off. “Why now then? Why wait until I was surrounded by security and brick walls to come for me?” I had to focus on staying alive, on asking him questions and keeping him talking. I couldn’t sink into the dread of comprehension that he wasn’t lying, that my entire life was a lie.
He chewed on his lip for a moment, considering me. “I had no reason to care before Sylvie LaFlamme,” he spat out her name, “was granted Alphaship of Canada. Women couldn’t rule, so why would I care if you lived or died? But now…”
The pieces came together so quickly the words bubbled out of me. “Now that women are taking power you’re afraid I’ll have a claim to the Alphaship of Russia.”
His eyes gleamed with fury and confirmation. “I’m afraid of no one, little wolf.”
“Then you’d have sent someone to kill me,” I said in a slide of words. “You didn’t have to come here yourself and tell me any of this. You put yourself at risk to what, terrorize someone you don’t claim to care about, for shits and giggles?” My knees came up against something solid and I reached back to steady myself with my good arm.
He was on me in a second, his big hands wrapping tightly around my throat as he stared down at me with my own eyes. Except they weren’t my eyes, they were hard and cold, and filled with rage and vileness. They were the eyes of a murderer and a madman.
I wrapped my hands around his wrist, trying desperately to pull it away so I could breathe. My shoulder screamed but what was pain when he was choking the life out of me?
Stars burst in my line of vision just like the time I’d dived too deep into the natural spring pool at my friend’s cabin. The water had been freezing and I’d been stunned by it, enough that I’d gotten turned around in the dark water and not known which direction to swim. My lungs had screamed then and lights had flashed before my eyes, and I’d known that I hadn’t long to live without oxygen. I’d surfaced and gulped in air, then gotten out and refused to ever go back in.
I was dying now and there was no surface to fight towards. He was so much bigger than me and I was tired, injured, and out of time.
I squeezed my eyes shut and saw my parent’s faces, smiling at me. A feeling of lightness and peace filled me, luring me to a place where the pain and fear would end. I wanted to give in, to let go and just be there, in the light, but something stopped me. My father’s face changed, his smile melting away as he shook his head and made that tutting sound he made when he was disappointed.
I felt the words rather than heard them and they struck me hard. Never stop fighting. Be brave. Be fierce.
I had no time to think. I let go of his wrist with my right arm and raised it high above my head. With every ounce of strength I had left, I twisted it and brought it down, smashing my elbow into his forearm and breaking his hold on me.