Chapter 18 A blackmailer
Outside the Academy, a hundred eyes stared at me, stunned. In the background, Hale drove off in his tinted ride.
It was mortally impossible to hide my smirk as I walked down the corridor.
Did they really think it would be so easy to take my place after twenty-four years of perseverance?
“Lys?” A stupefied voice called from behind, footsteps racing towards me.
I spun away from the elevator, yanking my hand from the button.
“Silver above. You’re walking!”
The elevator doors slid close as Caroline pulled me into a hug. She stepped back, her eyes traveling up from my legs back to my face. Then she beamed, eyes glassy with tears.
“You just managed to ruin Celeste’s day.” She leaned around me and punched the button on the elevator again.
“Celeste?” I stepped into the cart, our arms curled around one another’s waist.
Celeste was our Alpha’s daughter.
The one Dad called puppet-Alpha when he was out of earshot. He was in charge of our pack as Hale preferred to operate from the background, just like the dragon.
“She managed to audition for every single act you were in. The results will be announced this morning,” Carolina explained as the cart shot right up, moving past all the floors of several other sports to our pack’s art academy.
A sudden buzz started between my legs. I gasped, my eyes bulging.
“Lys. Are you OK?”
“Yes, yes.” I said hurriedly, and smiled reassuringly at her. The buzz stopped just as quickly as it started.
The doors slid open then.
“OK,” Calroline said as we walked out of the elevator. “And before you hear it from anyone else, let me tell you that…”
“I’ve returned to take my place?”
My spine stiffened.
My head whipped back, and there she stood. The Devil’s mistress.
“Hello big sister,” Gianna grinned, brown eyes shining with mischief.
Desire, arousal, Hearthrown Alphas, all dissipated from my mind as I stared at her.
Taking a deep, calming breath, I turned away from her with my hand still around Carolina.
We were halfway down the corridor that opened into Motion Hall when her voice reached me again.
“Don’t you think it’s foolish to ignore me when I can tell everyone how you regained your ability to walk?”
My legs skidded to a halt. And I spun around, livid for the first time since she caused my accident.
“I will join you, Caroline.”
I did not mind everyone learning that I belonged to Hearthrown Alphas now. If anything, it would earn me more respect.
But that would immediately disqualify me from the tournament. The organizer would not want to risk public uproar that the tournament was rigged in my favor as the gods’ pet.
There was also the President and this lie Mom and Dad created that I was going to be their bride as soon as I could walk again.
I pounded towards where she stood with that stupid smirk, and grabbed her arm.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” My growl bounded off the walls as Carolina disappeared.
My eyes flashed. And Rhea stretched inside me, excited at the rare opportunity to fight.
“You’ve done enough. Back the hell off!”
“Sweet Lys, cursing?” Gianna giggled. “Ah, company really corrupts. How was your night? I’m dying to know what it feels like fuckin…”
As if on cue, the vibration started between my legs again. I groaned, momentarily closing my eyes.
Tightening my grip around her arm till she screamed, I yanked, dragging her to a quiet corner of the hallway as the strength of the vibration started to wane.
“What do you think Mom and Dad would do to you, if you ruined their plans?” I released her arm roughly.
“Nothing worse than they have already done.” She glared.
I winced. I hated hurting anyone. I never want to repeat history.
“What do you really want from me, Gianna? I could rip your throat out for what you did to me.” I panted, muscles tense from trying to hold Rhea back. “But you’re my sister, my kid sister. Return to your fashion house, and leave me alone. New York Fashion Week is less than two months away!”
I had taken just two steps when she said, “Sweet Lys.”
There was something in her voice that made me freeze.
Her heels clicked, deliberately, as she closed the distance between us.
She circled me, an unhurried performance, finally stopping in front of me.
“Are you so slow?” Her head tilted left. “Why can’t you see it? YOU are my business, my motivation, my goal.” Her eyes burned bright, that maniac smile on her lips.
And fool that I was, I just wanted to hug her. She wouldn’t be like this if Mom and Dad did not break her.
“Help free my friend, and I’ll let you have a month’s rest.”
“What?”
“Don’t be greedy. With so much on your plate right now, a month of rest is quite generous. You can even win a couple more medals in that time.”
She stuck a hand out and rested it on my shoulder, massaging painfully. “What do you say?”
“What friend?”
“The one who sent you tumbling down. The one Dad said he had in the silver cage? She will be handed over to the council by the weekend and I cannot let that happen.”
Lucia!
Gianna had just one friend, a younger woman as hateful as her. Dark too. Dark enough to cast a spell so cruel on a person who did nothing to her.
“She’s a dark witch. She doesn’t need my help.”
Gianna frowned in irritation. “Have you forgotten who created that cage? No one can break out of it.”
“And you think I can break someone out of it?”
“You’re Grandma’s pet. Why do you think I’m asking you?”
A small group of young adults in bright-colored corsets and tutus, purple, blue, yellow, walked past us. They whispered excitedly, and we waited silently till they were out of earshot.
I yanked Gianna closer, “You expect me to steal a spell from Grandma? Have you gone crazy?”
“Yes!” She shrieked. “I have gone crazy. That’s my best friend, and you’ll do it or the academy will find out how you got your pretty little legs back.”
“Why can’t the Academy find out?” came a male voice from behind her.
The buzz returned between my legs, and I realized that the other times I felt it had been warm-ups. This one practically knocked the breath out of me.
How did the Hearthtown Alphas expect me to function with this all day?
How did they expect me to maintain a neutral expression when the man who was supposed to be my fiancé in no time was standing before me now.
My heart gave a painful kick as our eyes met.
Fentone, sleek in a gray 3-piece blazer that looked like the designer had sewn right onto his body, stared at me now the way he had always done.
Almost starstuck.
“Fentone.” I whispered, sweating, because the buzz had not stopped. It was getting so damn difficult to stand still. To pretend that something was not zapping against my pussy and pooling desire in my lower belly.
He moved closer, calm footsteps as always.
Taking my hand gently, he leaned down to press his lips to the back of it, completely ignoring Gianna’s presence.
Finally, the buzzing stopped.
“Thank the Goddess, that was quick,” he said in his deep voice, eyes traveling to my legs.
I swallowed, unable to think of a response. My heartbeats were only now returning to a normal pace.
He turned to Gianna, eyes hard, “Since when did supernatural healing become taboo in a pack academy?”
His voice was the only sound in the hallway.
Our eyes met again. “Why can’t the academy find out the doctors are not responsible for your healing?”
I opened my lips to speak, but no sounds came out. Gianna flashed a dark, dark smile.