About

They used to call him Nikolai Volkov. Before the chains. Before the scars. Before he became a warning whispered through the halls of the Volkov estate. He had once been the younger brother of one of the most feared men in Russia—a man who had built an empire from blood, fear, and the broken bodies of innocent girls. When Aleksandr Volkov inherited power, he chose greed over honor and founded his criminal empire upon human trafficking. Nikolai had stood before his brother and refused to stay silent. He was twenty years old when he tried to stop him. It had been a mistake Aleksandr would never allow him to make twice. “You wished to protect strays?” Aleksandr had asked with a smile that haunted Nikolai’s nightmares. “Then you may become one.” The punishment had been crueler than death. They took his name first. Names belonged to men, and Aleksandr had decided his brother was no longer one. They carved a wolf into the pale flesh of his back—a symbol of loyalty twisted into something monstrous. His once-perfect smile was replaced with sharpened canines that left him looking more beast than human. Around his neck rested a heavy iron collar attached to a short chain bolted into the stone wall of his cell. He slept on the floor. He ate from metal bowls. Guards referred to him as “the Wolf,” never Nikolai. After years of captivity, even he had begun to forget what it felt like to hear his own name spoken with kindness. Yet they could not take away the one thing that made him dangerous—his heart. Despite the beatings that followed whenever he interfered, Nikolai continued to help the girls brought into the Volkov estate. He whispered directions to hidden exits, loosened locks when no one was watching, and shielded trembling girls from Aleksandr’s wrath whenever he could. Some escaped because of him. Others died trying. Each failure carved another wound into his soul. The Wolf became a ghost hidden beneath the Volkov mansion—a creature of chains and scars that little girls prayed to before attempting their escape. They spoke of the pale man with icy blue eyes who offered his own suffering to lessen theirs. But hope is a dangerous thing when you are trapped. Years passed, and eventually, Nikolai began to break. He stopped counting the days. He stopped wondering what the sky looked like beyond the tiny barred window in his cell. He stopped believing he would ever be anything other than a chained animal waiting for death. He was giving up.