Chapter 68 BEFORE THE TRUTH SPEAKS
Kenna
“Fuckkk!!!”
The scream rips out of me before I can contain it. It echoes off the walls of my room, wild and unhinged, vibrating through the crystal vases like a curse unleashed.
He found her.
He found that fucking human trash!
The words Maria just told me replay in my mind like torture. Varkos found Ginnie.
Alive.
And he’s with her right now.
My hands shake violently as I grab the nearest object to me—a silver goblet—and hurl it across the room. It smashes against the wall, shattering into pieces that scatter across the floor.
“Take it easy, Kenna!” Maria flinches at the sound of it. Before she can part her lips to speak again, I turn to face her, my chest rising and falling heavily.
“You said he would die!” I snap. “You boasted to me of how perfect your plan was! Now look what happened!”
of how perfect your trap was!”
Maria stands stiffly near the fireplace, her usual composure cracked but not yet broken. Her lips press into a thin line.
“My plan was perfect, Kenna.” She insists, though there’s an ounce of doubt beneath her voice, “I’m still trying to figure out how Varkos outfought seven rogues. No Alpha ever walks away from that.”
“Well, Varkos just did!” I snap.
The image rushes through me in an instant—Varkos kneeling beside that pathetic human, holding her as she matters, like she’s his entire world.
It should have been me!
I was supposed to be standing at his side as Luna by now. The wedding ceremony would have been completed, and I would have been declared Varkos’s wife.
Instead?
He’s in his chambers with her.
With the woman who ruined my entire plan.
“You told me kidnapping her would break him,” I say, stepping closer to Maria. “You said the grief would weaken him…make him walk into the trap blinded.”
“He did,” Maria replies sharply. “That part worked.”
A bitter laughter tears out of me before I can stop it. “Then why the hell is he still alive?”
The question explodes between us. Maria’s jaw tightens because she knows the answer, but she’s too much of a coward to admit it.
And I see it now—the flicker behind her eyes, not fear of me. Fear of Varkos…but most especially it’s the fear of what Ginnie must have told him by now.
“There is….another complication,” Maria turns away slightly, pacing once before stopping again.
“What complication?”
“I’m very sure Ginnie must have seen his face,” Maria says carefully. “The rogue Lycan who attacked her.”
My stomach drops.
“What?”
“She saw his face.”
For a moment, the entire room feels too small. I can’t even breathe properly now, just a little sound coming out of me.
“And if she tells Varkos,” Maria continues, her voice dropping to a low whisper, meant only to my hearing. “You know fully well what Varkos would do to that Lycan.”
“And?”
Maria’s eyes snap to mine.
“And the Lycan knows who paid him.”
I step back slowly, trying to steady myself from collapsing entirely from what Maria just said.
If Varkos finds that rogue—
If he gets him to confess—
Maria is dead.
But worse…if Maria is exposed. So am I. Because even if I didn’t plan every detail, I knew enough to allow it to happen. Varkos will show no mercy, he won’t hesitate to kill both of us.
“We must stay calm,” Maria’s voice shatters through my thoughts. She inhales slowly, trying to regain control. “Panicking will destroy us faster than Varkos ever could.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I hissed. “You want me to stay calm while that human trash is in his bed right now?”
Maria’s composure fractures for a second.
“Being angry will not help us achieve anything, Kenna.”
“I let you handle it,” I shot back, stepping closer to her till there is no inch of space between us. “I allowed your so-called plan to unfold, and let you promise me results.”
My voice drops dangerously.
“And now look where we are.”
“You think I don’t understand the stakes?” she snaps. “If that Lycan speaks, I die. Do you think Varkos will spare you once he uncovers your true motives?”
For a moment, I don’t say anything. Because she’s right, and I despise the fact that she’s absolutely right. But for the first time since this began, I realize something terrifying—
We underestimated Varkos.
We underestimated the extent to which he would go for her. Varkos was always ruthless…but for Ginnie?
He’s unstoppable.
Maria rubs her temples, her voice steadier now. “We need another plan, Kenna. There is no backing down now.”
Another laughter tears out of me again—nothing funny about its tone, “You had a strategy.”
“And it failed,” she shot back. “So we have to adapt.”
Adapt?
The word settles inside me, and slowly..my breathing steadies. If Maria’s plan had failed, then I would make my own.
“You’ve had your way long enough,” I say quietly.
“What do you mean?” Her brows furrow in an unsettling manner.
“I mean,” I reply, walking to the window and staring out into the dark courtyard below, “that from now on, we’re going to do things my way.”
“And what exactly is your way?”
I turn back to face her. “No one expects me to strike,” I say softly, “they’re all expecting me to be completely heartbroken by what Varkos did to me. Humiliated. Rejected.” A sly smirk tugs at the corner of my lips.
“We’re going to let them think that way.”
For a second Maria stands there, studying me carefully to try to figure out what I meant by that. “What are you planning, Kenna?”
“We need to find the rogue Lycan,” I say. “Before Varkos does.”
“He’s likely already gone into hiding.”
“Then we drag him out.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
I step closer now, lowering my voice. “He won’t hide far, he wants his payment right? He’s going to need protection. And I’m sure he’s not smart enough to vanish completely.”
Maria watches me, cautious.
“And once we find him?”
“We kill him.”
The words are steady. Final.
Maria hesitates.
“What if Varkos finds him before we do?”
“Then we make sure he never speaks.”
Silence lingers between us for a while, but then Maria breaks the tension, she studies my face like she’s seeing the kind of monster I am for the first time
“This is dangerous,” she folds her arms. “And who exactly do you intend to send after the Lycan? We cannot involve any pack warriors…that would raise suspicion.”
The smile at the corner of my lips grows wider now. “I know.”
“Then who?”
“There’s someone who owes me more than his life,” I say, “Someone ruthless enough to handle this job.”
Maria’s expression darkens.
“Who?”
I don’t answer her immediately, if anything I let the anticipation stretch. Because even Maria would never see this coming.