Chapter 66 A PASSIONATE REUNION
Varkos
The world around narrowed to blood and stone. Everything else—even the ache in my bones faded away until only the cliff remained.
Seven rogues versus me.
I could hear them clearly now, surrounding me slowly, deliberately. These were predators who had learned to move together. Trained. Armed. Dangerous.
But they were stupid to believe I would die here.
Good.
The first attack came without warning.
The largest of them lunged, the heavy chain in his hands flinging through the air as it whipped toward my throat. The weight alone could have crushed my bone, but I caught it mid-swing, fingers locking around the cold metal.
The impact jolted up my arm and into my shoulder as my muscles screamed in pain. I yanked him forward instead, his eyes widened just enough for me to see the shock etched across his face—too late before my elbow drove into his face with everything I had behind it.
The crack was sharp. Final.
He flew backward, hit the ground hard, and staggered across the stone, his teeth scattered like pieces of glass before he stopped moving. Then another rogue lunged fast from the left, his claws meeting my ribs in a brutal clash.
But not fast enough. I dodged, caught his wrist mid-strike, twisting until I heard the sound of his bones crack. His scream cut off when my knee slammed into his chest, ribs collapsing beneath the force.
I didn’t let go.
I hurled him toward the edge. His howl echoed for only a second before the cliff swallowed him whole.
One down, six more to go.
They began to circle me now, their boots scraping stone, weapons raised. I could see it in their eyes—the calculation, the shared understanding. They had planned this for a very long time and studied every one of my moves.
But before they could make any move, I let my shift deepen. Claws tore free from my hands, my spine arching as my wolf surged closer to the surface. Power flooded my limbs, hot and violent. My senses sharpened until every breath, every heartbeat was clear.
But rage wasn’t what drove me.
Desperation was.
I still haven’t found Ginnie!
The thought ripped through me as a blade twisted slowly. I lunged before they could regroup, my claws tore across the next rogue’s shoulder, spinning him hard. He tried to recover, but his boots slipped on stone.
Without hesitation, I snapped his neck with a single brutal twist. Another rogue wolf lunged from behind, I smelled the wolfsbane in a heartbeat before pain exploded through my side.
The blade sank deep into my sides as the poison burned instantly—cold and vicious—flooding my veins, slowing my reflexes, blurring the edges of any little vision that I had left.
I staggered.
But I did not fall.
I ripped the blade free and turned on him, slamming my forehead into his face once. Twice. Again, I shoved his body aside like trash. But the wolfsbane poison clawed deeper, dragging at my limbs, heavy and numbing.
“Alpha Varkos,” the leader of the rogue wolves hissed, his voice echoing lightly over the wind as he circled me. “Look at you. Bleeding. Alone.”
“You came exactly like she said you would.”
The words snapped something into place.
Who the hell was he talking about?
The decoy. The body. The photograph. This wasn’t just an ambush, it has been a carefully orchestrated plan since day one.
Fuck!
I dropped to one knee, letting the poison pull me down, letting them think it was working. The sound of the rogues' voices as they laughed at my downfall sent a boiling dreadful rage through me.
And then—
Her scent hit me.
Not on the dead body lying in my front….but below. My head snapped up instantly as the scent grew heavy. Broken. Fear-soaked.
But unmistakable.
Ginnie.
She’s still alive.
Something inside me shattered, and what rose in its place was not rage. It was something far more dangerous. Before my brain could think twice, I stood, forcing myself up abruptly even as the poison screamed through my veins, but my wolf roared louder, drowning it out completely.
I moved.
Fast. Relentless.
I gripped the nearest rogue by the throat and slammed him into the cliff wall hard enough that it rattled the earth underneath. Once. Twice. Again. Until his body went completely limp before I let go.
Another tried to run, but I caught him, lifted him clean off the ground, and threw him screaming into the cliff. Two more lunged at me furiously, their claws flashing in the moonlight.
I met them head-on. Breaking one’s arm and using it to beat the other unconscious before snapping his spine with a savage twist. The last tried to strike from behind, timing his attack perfectly.
I didn’t even turn.
I backhanded him with enough force to lift his body off the ground, he vanished over the edge of the cliff without a sound.
Only one remained.
The leader.
“P…please,” he gasped, dropping to his knees immediately, shaking now, eyes wide, his chest rose and fell heavily. “Alpha…have mercy—”
I slit his throat before he could finish those words. He collapsed forward, lifeless, the wind carrying his last breath away.
“Alpha!”
The voices barked my name, followed by footsteps thundering behind me.
Kael. Rhun.
“By the gods…” Kael whispered, a mixture of shock and relief etched across his face at the massacre he was looking at. I didn’t look at them.
I turned toward the cliff.
“Alpha, you’re wounded—” Rhun began.
“Ginnie is alive and she’s below the cliff,” I replied coldly, paying neither of their words any attention. Then I stepped over the edge.
No ropes.
No hesitation.
Every movement tore at my injuries, my fingers slipping, muscles screaming as I lowered myself down jagged stone. The poison still burned, but I ignored it. The pain only meant that I was closer.
Closer to finding Ginnie.
At the bottom, hidden among sharp rocks and shadow—
My eyes landed on her, curled in on herself. Barely clothed. Bruised. Shaking.
She was so small.
So fragile.
“Ginnie,” I whispered.
“Stay away from me!”Her voice cracked, raw and terrified. “Please…don’t….don’t touch me—”
I froze instantly.
“It’s me,” I said softly, forcing the Alpha command from my voice, stripping away the power, leaving only nothing but the real me. “Varkos.”
Her eyes focused slowly, the fear giving way to confusion. Then disbelief.
“V… Varkos?”
I dropped to my knees instantly, and pulled her gently—so gently into my arms as she began to break down in tears. Her sobs tore out of her, violent and broken, her fingers gripping my clothes like I might disappear if she let go.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered, my voice breaking completely. “I’ve got you. You’re safe now. I swear it.”