Chapter 9 THE WALLS HAVE EARS

Ginnie**

After Kenna Blackwell’s arrival, the villa no longer felt like a place of work, it felt like a cage where monsters kept humans to inflict pain on them.

The humiliation since that day replayed in my head over and over again, no matter how hard I tried to bury it—the more it stuck in my brain.

And now…now of all places I have been assigned to clean her room. “Get ready for more humiliation, Ginnie,” I muttered more to myself on the way to Kenna’s room.

The thought alone made my stomach churn as I walked slowly down the east wing corridor, the cleaning supplies clutched to my chest like a shield.

Just go there and do your job, Ginnie.

Don’t look at her!

Act like she doesn’t exist!

Before I could gather my thoughts, I found myself standing in front of her door, my hands shaking violently as I took hold of the doorknob.

But then—

Voices began to drift through the thick wood, female voices laughing. Wonder who could have visited her?

“…I’m telling you, Kenna, he’s stalling,” a different voice said, sharp and amused. “You both have been engaged for six months and Varkos hasn’t marked you? Girl…that’s not normal.”

My heart stuttered, some part of me wanted to push the door open and clean the room, get out before she would even blink. I shouldn’t listen to something that’s none of my business.

But my feet just wouldn’t move.

“Varko’s is not normal,” Kenna’s voice sliced through the air, “He’s just too cautious and calculated.”

“Or reluctant,” her friend teased, “Maybe he doesn’t want to bind himself to a woman yet.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke, then Kenna spoke again—but her voice had changed into something colder this time.

“He will mark me,” she hissed. “Whether he wants to or not.”

A mocking laughter tries to escape me, but I force it down, placing both my hands on my mouth to silence it. I was surely going to be dead meat if Kenna had any idea I was listening to her conversation.

“You sound really confident,” her friend whispered.

“I am,” Kenna replied. “This pack needs a Luna, and I intend to secure my place permanently as one.”

“How?”

Kenna chuckled. “By forcing his hand.”

“W..what do you mean by forcing?” Her friend asked.

“I’ll push him,” Kenna replied calmly, her voice carrying every ounce of venom in it, “blackmail him so much that he’ll have no choice but to mark me. He can’t keep refusing forever.”

Refusing?

Had Varkos been refusing to mark her all this time? The thought hit me like a blow, but I pushed it aside and leaned my ear closer to the door to hear more.

“So what if this emotional blackmail doesn’t work on Varko’s?” Kenna’s friend teased, “What will you do then?”

“Then I’ll remind him what happens to Alphas who appear weak,” Kenna snapped. “A mate bond is important to prove his loyalty as Alpha and he knows that…the Council expects it.”

“Hell, even his mother wants it—“

She paused for a while, then added with a venomous smile I could hear in her tone, “If marking me publicly secures Varko's position as Alpha, he’ll surely do it.”

Shit!

Kenna was really an evil bitch after all.

I pressed myself closer to the wall, heart pounding so hard I was sure they’d hear it through the door. Kenna continued, unaware of the fact that I was listening to every word she said.

“He’s distant lately,” Kenna went on, irritation bleeding through every bit of her voice. “I’ve literally tried everything, even tried seducing him.”

Her friend let out a soft, mocking laugh. “And?”

“He just won’t budge,” Kenna snapped, “Since the day I arrived, he won’t touch me. Won’t take me to his bed, won’t even look at me the way a male should look at his future Luna…”

“…Can you imagine that humiliation?” Kenna went on, voice dripping with venom. “An Alpha who won’t claim what’s already his, but all that ends tomorrow night. Her voice dropped into a low whisper.

Wh…what did she mean by ending tomorrow?

“I don’t understand. How do you plan on achieving something like this tomorrow night?” Her friend asked.

“The engagement celebration,” Kenna replied smoothly, “I plan on dragging Varkos’s wine to weaken his restraint. Just enough to make him want what he’s been denying.”

I clutched the cleaning supplies tightly, my fingers numb at what Kenna had just said.

“He won’t remember refusing once I get him to have sex with me,” Kenna continued coldly. “Once he’s inside me, once our scents mix, he won’t have a choice because his wolf will force him to mark me.”

My pulse roared in my ears.

This evil bitch was planning to force Varkos into marking her. How far was she really willing to go?

My legs began to move before my mind caught up, I stumbled back instinctively, the cleaning supplies rattling softly in my arms as panic surged violently through my veins.

Fuck!

Fuck!

Fuck!!!

My vision blurred as I turned and fled down the corridor, fear tightening around my throat like a noose. Once Kenna is marked, her position would be unshakable.

And I would be nothing more than a disposable human in her domain.

I ducked into a nearby corridor, pressing my back against the cold stone wall as my chest rose and fell in heavy gasps.

Get it together, Ginnie! I scolded myself.

Panicking won’t save you.

If I told Varkos about this ...  I warned him, he might see it as a jealousy move because of the night we spent together six years ago.

And if I stayed silent—

Kenna would drug him and force him to mark her as Luna, and once that happened, there would be no stopping the hell that awaits Lily and me.

“What do I do?”

“Which choice were you going to make now, Ginnie?”