Chapter 35 WHAT THE HEART WANTS
Ginnie
The words barely made it past my lips the moment I laid eyes on Varkos. He stood in the doorway like something unreal—too alive for a man who had nearly died a few days ago.
The dim hallway light carved shadows into the hard lines of his clenched jaw, catching the faint scars at his ribs where the doctor had worked nonstop to treat him. His eyes—those dark piercing eyes locked onto mine as he turned to face me fully now.
“Yes,” Varkos said, his voice coming out as a low whisper, “I am.”
Silence stretched between us for a moment, thick and heavy. I straightened myself up, every bruise that rogue wolf had inflicted on me screaming in protest with each movement.
Varkos’s eyes flicked downward, sharp as a blade, tracing the stiff way I moved, the way my breath hitched. “You should be resting and not standing up,” he said.
A bitter laughter escaped from me before I could stop myself. It came out brittle. “So funny of you to say that… I mean coming from someone who collapsed after fighting three rogue wolves.”
His jaw tightened.
“You can’t compare your strength to mine, humans are weak of course,” he said, his voice a bit higher now. “It wouldn’t take much for me to recover…unlike you.”
There it was again.
That fucking annoying tone he had.
The one that reminded me who he was.
“And yet here I am,” I shot back, meeting his gaze head-on, “I’m still breathing, aren't I? All thanks to you.” The words tasted bitter as they rolled off my tongue.
He took one step into the room. Then another, closing the space between us instantly. The space between us shrank too quickly, as though the walls themselves were conspiring against me.
“I didn’t do it for your gratitude,” he said.
“Then why?” The question tore out of me before I could stop it. “Why did you save her when you couldn’t have damn sure chosen not to?”
“Who?”
“My sister.” My hands gripped the doorknob tighter as the lie rolled off my tongue, “Lily.”
For a terrifying second, something flickered across his face. But he quickly masked it with that same coldness he always wore.
“You saved me too,” I continued. “You didn’t hesitate, not even for a second. You fought like…” My voice cracked but I forced the words out anyway. “Like you cared.”
Varkos stood still, as if my question had ripped the very air out of him. His gaze dropped—not to the floor, but to his hands, as though he didn’t quite trust what it could do.
“I—“
“We are nothing to you,” I cut him off before he could finish his words, my voice shaking now despite my effort to steady it. “We’re just human slaves. Disposable. You’ve never been subtle about that.” I swallowed hard, “So tell me why…why you decided to risk your life for us all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know,” he growled.
The words stunned me.
“What?”
“I said,” he lifted his eyes back to mine, something raw flashing through them, “I don’t know.”
Was he seriously kidding me right now?
Varkos Draven, Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack. The man who never had any ounce of softness for humans. Didn’t know?
“When I saw Lily being taken,” he went on, his voice quieter now, “my body moved before my mind could stop it. Instinct. Rage. Something I couldn’t explain…” He shook his head once. “ I just don’t fucking know.”
“And that terrifies you,” I whispered.
His eyes snapped back to mine.
“Yes.”
For what felt like forever, we stood there—Lycan and human, caught in a moment that should not exist. Everything I had been taught screamed that this was wrong. Dangerous.
There was no fucking way anything could ever happen between us!
Yet my heart didn’t care.
His gaze drifted to my arm which was wrapped in clean bandages. Then to my ribs, my leg.
“Looks like that rogue wolf got you bad, huh?” He said.
I scoffed. “I’ve been through worse.”
“That is not an answer.”
“Does it matter?” I asked quietly.
“Yes.”
The word sliced between us.
“Why? Why does it matter so much to you?”
He didn’t say anything for a second, his jaw clenched so tightly I’d feared his teeth might break. “Have your injuries been properly treated?” he asked, changing the topic suddenly as if he didn’t want to answer my question.
“Yes,” I said. “The doctor came by and treated them.”
“You will not engage in any chores until you are well rested and healed. Do you understand?” He stated.
“W..what? You can’t be serious right now.”
“I damn sure am.” He snapped back, nothing funny about the tone of his voice now.
“We’re short-staffed,” I argued. “And I’m fine—”
“That is enough.”
His voice thundered across the staff’s quarters hallway. “I am not requesting you,” he said coldly. “It’s an order to you as my personal slave.”
Part of me was happy on hearing this, but the other part—the stubborn side of me wanted to know why Varkos was beginning to become this much caring.
“I don’t need your mercy,” I said sharply.
“It is not mercy.”
“Then what is it?” My voice cracked. “Because you can’t protect us one moment and degrade us the next and expect me not to feel—”
“What?” he demanded.
I stopped myself from completing the words.
Everything.
Fear. Hatred. Anger. Confusion.
Something else I didn’t want to give a name yet.
We were standing too close now—so close that I could smell him on me. My thighs closed together as I forced back the wet sensation creeping into my sensitive area just by looking into his eyes.
Fuck!
“We were raised to hate each other,” I said quietly. “Your kind has been killing humans for years in Bleeding Rose. This—“I gestured weakly between us, “This shouldn’t exist.”
“No,” he agreed as quickly as I said it. “It shouldn’t.”
And yet—
“MISTER!”
Lily came flying out of nowhere, her small arms instantly wrapping around Varkos’s waist with all the strength her little body could muster.
“Thank you so much, mister!” She squealed, pressing her face against him. “Thank you for saving me!”
Varkos stiffened.
For one heartbeat—just one—I saw it.
The way he melted into Lily, his hand hovered awkwardly in the air before settling lightly on her shoulder. His expression softened, something painfully human radiating through him.
But then, it disappeared as quickly as he gently but firmly pulled Lily away from him. “You’re safe,” he said, his voice controlled again, “That’s all that matters.”
He straightened. “I only came to check on you,” he said, already stepping back. “Nothing more…goodnight.”
And then he was gone.
I stood there, my heart racing while I stared at the space he’d left behind. Something has changed inside me—
And I didn’t know how to stop it.