Chapter 59 FINDING GINNIE
Varkos
The ring feels heavier than iron as it rests between my fingers, hanging mid-air like a verdict not yet spoken. It's diamond reflection catching the chandeliers’ light as if mocking me for hesitating. The silence in the hall is suffocating—dense, expectant, alive, while everyone's eyes are fixed on my hand.
Waiting.
“Varkos?” Kenna’s whispers, her fingers trembling beneath mine. Her voice is tight, strained thin by impatience.
But I don’t hear her.
My gaze is still fixated on the crowd, hoping that Ginnie would somehow manage to show up right at this point when I need her the most. My chest tightens sharply, like a blade driven between my ribs.
Has she really left?
The thought slams into me with brutal clarity—Ginnie choosing not to show up for this ceremony, choosing absence over watching me bind myself to another woman.
“Varkos?”Kenna calls out my name for the second time, louder this time, “What are you doing?”
But her voice still doesn’t resonate through my mind. Good, I tell myself coldly. If Ginnie thought it best to leave, then I don’t give two shits about it.
Fuck!
Then why does it feel like my lungs are collapsing?
“Varkos!”
Kenna’s fingers twitch, brushing mine—in a possessive and grounding manner that brings me back into the suffocating present. I blink, the sounds of the hall snapping me back into reality.
“I’m sorry,” the words leave my mouth before my brain could think, forging my gaze to Kenna’s face. “I was a bit…distracted,” I add. “Nervous.”
She is beautiful.
Flawless. Radiant. Her white lace wedding gown clung to her body like a second skin, her dark hair crowned with silver, eyes shining with triumph and expectation the moment our eyes meet.
Kenna’s smile blooms instantly— relief softening her sharp edges.“Well,” she murmurs, lifting her hand slightly, “there’s nothing to be nervous about. Just put the ring on my finger.”
I nod once.
I lift the ring again, guiding it toward her outstretched hand to finally get this done and over with.
Just fucking do it, Varkos!
End it.
Be done.
The diamond ring brushes her skin.
“MISTER VARKOS!”
A scream thunders through the hall. My head snaps up the instant the doors at the back of the hall burst open.
What the—
Lily.
She stands there, her small Frankie body trembling violently, hair wild, face streaked with tears and dirt. Her chest is rising and falling in heavy gasps as if she’s been running for her life. The sight of her is so wrong—so utterly out of place in this room full of people she didn’t belong with, and for a split second, my brain refuses to process it.
“Mister Varkos!” She cries again, her voice breaking. “Please…Ginnie….Ginnie’s in danger!”
The ring slips from my fingers the moment she echoes Ginnie’s name. It hits the marble floor with a sharp, echoing clang.
My heart stops.
“What did you say?” I demand, already moving towards her direction, instinct tearing me forward. Lily too runs towards me, her small legs carrying her down the aisle, dodging the shocked guests, tripping once but catching herself while tears stream down her face.
“She’s—she’s being attacked by a strange man!” Lily sobs. “A strange man…with claws…he’s hurting her! Please—please help her!”
Something primal and violent rips free inside my chest. My wolf explodes against my skin, rage flooding my veins so fast it steals my breath. But before I can reach Lily, fingers clamp painfully around my arm.
Kenna.
“You gotta be kidding me!” She barks, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Her nails dig into my sleeve, her eyes blazing with fury and disbelief. “You will not leave me standing here because of that dirty human trash!”
The words snap something loose.
I turn slowly.
“Let. Go. Of. Me.” My voice comes out as a low, and dangerous whisper.
She scoffs, tightening her grip even more. “Have you lost your mind? This is our wedding…and I’m not letting go of your hand until you finish what you started.”
“Remove your hand,” I lean closer to Kenna, lowering my voice until it’s nothing but steel and threat. “Or I will make you remove it the hard way.”
Her eyes widen in shock—just for a second.
Then a bitter laughter tears out of her, a sharp, hysterical sound. She releases me abruptly and turns towards the crowd, her arms flinging outward as if she’s been struck.
“Oh—look at this!” she cries suddenly, tears spilling perfectly down her cheeks. “How else can a woman be humiliated more than this! Abandoned at my own wedding!”
The hall erupts in murmurs.
“All because of a human slave!” Kenna shrieks, pointing toward Lily, “That little nobody who should have died like the worthless human she is!”
Lily flinches at the tone of Kenna’s voice, staggering back a little.
“Varkos,” Lady Ravenna rises from her seat with lethal grace, her voice thunders through the crowd, sharp as a blade. “You will not disgrace this pack, and you certainly won’t disgrace me as your mother!”
“If you even think of taking one more step away from that altar,” she continues coldly, “Get ready to kiss your position as Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack. And as leader of Bleeding Rose…because I will strip you of everything.”
Before I can open my mouth to talk back to her, Lily reaches me. She clutches my leg desperately, sobbing so hard her body shakes. “Mister please…help me save Ginnie,” she cries. “He hit her. She told me to run.”
Something inside me shatters completely.
I drop to one knee, gripping Lily’s small shoulders, forcing myself to meet her terrified eyes.
“Where is Ginnie right now?” I ask, my voice no longer entirely human. “Take me to her. Now.”
“VARKOS!”
Kenna screams, lunging towards me, her composure gone, face twisted with fury and desperation. “If you walk away from this altar, don’t ever come back! I will destroy you! I will destroy her!”
I rise slowly, turning my head just enough to meet my mother’s gaze. “You raised me to protect what’s mine,” I say flatly, “This is me doing exactly that.”
Then I face Kenna fully.
Her face is blotched with tears, mascara streaked, fury unraveling her beauty into something ugly and desperate.
“This wedding,” I say coldly, every word deliberate, meant to cause even more excruciating pain. “It's over.”
Her mouth opens in a scream.
But I don’t wait to hear whatever she has to say. I take Lily’s hand, both of us running towards the Blood Moon Pack villa.
“COME BACK, VARKOS!” Kenna’s voice cracks and breaks as she screams my name again and again, humiliation tearing through her at the altar.
“YOU BELONG TO ME!”