by Emilia Rose
Someone knocked on the door.
“Ares, we need to talk about our agreement,” Mom said.
I pressed my lips together and growled under my breath at her for ruining the moment and my life.
“We’ll finish this conversation later,” Ares said. He pulled away from me and walked to the door. Before he opened it, he glanced back at me. “Call me what you want, Kitten, but I’d prefer you call me Mars.”
Chapter 7
Aurora
When I turned back to my suitcase, Ruffles had one leg up in the air, her toes stretched out, as she licked her belly. She looked up at me briefly and narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that, Ruffles,” I said, trying to calm myself down. “My wolf can’t help it.”
She meowed and glanced past me, her pupils dilating. Someone cleared their throat. Goddess, why couldn’t I be left alone for one damn moment? All I needed was time to clear my head and to figure out how I would survive living with Ares for the rest of my life.
Tony closed my bedroom door, rubbing the claw marks on his neck. His dirty-blond hair was a disheveled mess with streaks of red blood in it. He cautiously stepped into the room. “Aurora.”
“What, Tony?” I asked, seething.
“Come on, A. Don’t do that.” He took my hand.
His woodsy scent, which used to be so comforting, suddenly made me shiver in disgust and step back.
“Don’t do what?”
He brushed a piece of hair from my face and frowned. “Act all … distant.”
“My mother just sold me out to the alpha that she’s been terrified of for years.” I growled, realization finally setting in. She’d really traded me, really gotten rid of me like I was nothing. “I can be distant if I want to.”
He intertwined my fingers with his, brushing his thumb over my knuckles. “You don’t have to be distant with me.”
“Well, seeing as I’m going to live with Ares, we’re about to be quite distant,” I said, stepping away from him.
“We can still meet at the lake every night to spend time together.”
Tony stepped closer to me, and I pursed my lips.
“You know the only reason she sold me out was so you could lead,” I said.
Tony was beta, second-in-command, the strongest person to lead if there was no successor. There was no other reason and could be no other reason. I was weak in her eyes. So fucking weak.
After brushing a strand of hair out of my face, he frowned. “That’s not true.” He gave me a small, supportive smile. “She’s been shaping you to be alpha since Jeremy died.”
“She didn’t ask me to go to the meeting that you attended with the other alphas. She didn’t wake me when Ares was attacking. She sold me out without a second thought.” My heart ached. What had I done to deserve this?
He tilted his head to the side and lightly seized my hips. I could feel his breath on my lips, could smell the sweet scent of his mint gum. He brushed his nose against mine, and for a moment, I closed my eyes and enjoyed it.
Then, I turned my head away. “I can’t, Tony.”
“Aurora,” he said, lips brushing against my ear. He pushed his hips further against me, letting me feel his hardness pressed against the front of his pants. “Just one last time before you leave me.”
“No, Tony, I—”
He glided a finger across my chin and forced his lips onto mine. Hard.
I shoved him back, adrenaline pumping through me. “I said, no.”
He grabbed my hands and held them to his chest. “Aurora, look at me,” he said.
I clenched my jaw and gazed over at him.
“I’m sorry. What do you want me to say? I can’t make it better. It’s not my decision. I never thought that your mother would ever actually go through with the—”
Before he could continue, he stopped himself. My eyes widened. All I felt was anger and rage, a need to hurt someone because Mom had hurt me long enough.
“This was her … plan, her proposition?”
“No. This was the worst-case scenario.” He glanced over at my closed bedroom door, pulled me closer to him, and lowered his voice. “Let Ares take you. I’ll ascend as alpha. We’ll buy ourselves time to form a plan and an army to destroy him. And when we do, I’ll take you back, and you’ll become my luna.”
Ascend as alpha? Become his luna?
I’d bet this was his stupid fucking plan all along. He wanted my place, and he wanted me to be his little plaything.
“Oh,” I said, nodding as if this all made perfect sense. “What a great plan!” Have a beta who knew nothing about the threats this family had faced and about the stone in my spine, which had helped fix me, become the alpha of this pack and lead us straight into ruins.
My nails lengthened into claws behind my back. Damn her. Was she stupid? Did she not understand that trading me to Ares wouldn’t stop the hounds from attacking our pack? Could she even comprehend that she’d lose another child?
Tony smiled at me, nose grazing against mine. “I won’t let him hurt you, I promise.”
And then as if kissing me would make up for everything, he pressed his lips to mine, grabbing me harshly and pulling me to him. I pushed him away again, harder this time, my mind all over the place.
Just as I was about to sink my claws into his neck and tell him to never touch me like that again, he was ripped from me and thrown against the wall. He hit it with a thud and fell right onto Ruffles. Ruffles hissed and swatted at his face, scratching him across the cheek and immediately drawing blood.
Ares stood in front of me, back muscles rippling against his shirt, staring at the man who had touched his mate. He scooped him up by his neck, thrust him against the wall again, and held him there. This time, he held nothing back. His claws pierced his skin, and blood ran down Tony’s neck and stained his white shirt.
I narrowed my eyes at Tony and watched him squirm in Ares’s death grip, trying so desperately to breathe and to get out of his hold, but he was too weak.
And Mom wanted him as the next alpha.
Pinning him to the wall, Ares stepped closer, his lips next to Tony’s ear. “What did I fucking tell you?” he asked, voice impeccably calm.
Tony didn’t say anything.
“I told you not to touch my fucking mate again, didn’t I?”
Tony grasped his wrists, but Ares just tightened his grip. His biceps flexed hard, and his canines lengthened past his lips.
“Didn’t I?”
When Tony still didn’t say anything, Ares squeezed his neck harder.
I yanked his arm away. “Ares, stop.” But he didn’t. “Ares.”
His eyes were gold. Pure wolfish gold. I didn’t know what to do to get him to calm down. I wanted to punish Tony for touching me, but I didn’t want him to die. He would be the next alpha of our pack whether I liked it or not.
“Mars,” I said, hoping to the Goddess that he’d stop. Ares’s eyes softened at the mention of his name. “Let him go.”
“So you can let him fuck you?” Ares growled.
“No, so I can kick him out of my room,” I said. “Now, stop it.”
Ares glared at Tony, whose cheeks had turned purple. “Pathetic.” He gave him one last shove against the wall. “Next time you think about touching my mate, I will snap your fucking neck.”
Ares stepped back, and Tony fell to the ground again. Ruffles hissed at him, narrowing her eyes and lengthening her claws. She went to smack at him again, but he shuffled out of the room, holding his neck and slamming the door shut.
“I could’ve handled that myself,” I said through clenched teeth. Why did all of the damn men in my life want to be saviors? I swore they all had damn problems, called being an alpha-hole.
“Get your things,” he said through his teeth. “We leave in ten minutes.”
Before he walked out of the room, I grabbed his arm. “You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone in my pack if I went with you.”
He growled lowl
y, baring his canines at me, his mate. “I also said that I was going to have to take care of Tony, didn’t I?” He stepped closer to me, towering over me and making me feel terrifyingly small. But something about his possessiveness made me weak for him. “I gave him a chance. If he hadn’t come into your room, touched you, flirted with you, kissed you, maybe I wouldn’t have.”
“You’re over the top and out of fucking control.”
“Out of control?” He stepped toward me again, a sinister look in his eye.
I never thought I would see it, but it was there. The look of a god, the look of war, the look of utter chaos. I sucked in a breath, never having been turned on at the sight of such a man.
He snatched my jaw and gently caressed my cheek with his thumb. “Aurora, you have not seen me out of control.” He was deathly calm, and it scared me more than it should have. “If I were out of control, you would be on your knees with my cock down this throat of yours”—he trailed his fingers down the column of my throat—“until you were gasping for breath.”
My wolf purred at the thought, but I didn’t want her to feel anything toward such a violent, savage creature even if he could make us feel so much while barely touching us.
“If you are anything like the man you were earlier when you had Tony’s throat in your hands, I’m sure I’d be highly disappointed. That wasn’t dominance; that was called being fucked u—”
He snatched my throat in his hand, squeezing lightly. “You want to see me out of control, Aurora?” he asked, lips grazing against mine. As his hardness pressed against my stomach, I clenched. “Get on your knees.”
My breath caught in my throat, and I parted my lips to speak. But I couldn’t say a word. Goddess, I wanted this more than anything. He pushed me away slightly, his eyes a mix of gold and brown.
“Knees,” he said. “Before I have to push you down onto them.”
I boldly brushed my fingers against the front of his pants and swore to myself at how big he felt inside of them. All I could picture was him inside of me, thrusting in and out until I could barely stand.
He suddenly lowered his hand, and I stumbled down onto my knees, my face close to his crotch. This was wrong. So wrong. But damn, did it make me feel good to be with someone who knew exactly what I wanted.
“Unzip my pants.”
My heart was racing, and I didn’t know what to say. All I knew was that my pussy was pulsing and that heat was crawling up my body until I felt like I was on fire. I willingly unzipped his black jeans and stared at his hard cock through a pair of gray briefs.
I didn’t care how long I’d known him or how much I hated him at that moment. I couldn’t think about anything other than the ache growing between my legs, the heat festering inside of me, my wolf begging me to please our mate like he had pleased us last night.
He pulled down his briefs, his cock springing out of them.
My pussy tightened at the sight. “Out of control,” I said, sneering up at him. I wanted him to get angry, wanted him to show me what he looked like when he was out of control.
“This is out of control, Aurora.” He grabbed his cock and rubbed it against my lips, and then he snatched my chin and the top of my head and pulled me toward him, making me take his length in my mouth.
He pushed himself into me ruthlessly, immediately hitting the back of my throat. I pushed my hands against his thighs, gagging.
But he refused to move, just stayed there and said, “All the way down.”
I furrowed my brows together and pushed more of him down my throat until my lips were at the base of his cock.
“Fuck,” he said under his breath. “Just like that.”
He pushed his hips closer to my lips and thrust in and out of my mouth. I dug my nails into his thighs, my core warming. Goddess, nothing had ever felt so good. All I wanted was for him to touch me and my pussy again, rub it until I screamed.
With every thrust, he became rougher, and he tightened his hand around my neck. “Fuck, my cock feels so good down your throat.” He took my hand and placed it against my throat, holding his hand over it and making me feel him inside.
I moaned on his cock, a wave of pleasure rolling through me. I pressed my thighs together and moved my hips side to side, trying to ease the throbbing between them.
He pushed himself all the way down my throat and stilled. “Let me see your eyes.”
I gazed up at him through teary eyes and pushed a hand into my pants.
His eyes flashed gold, and he pulled his cock out of me. “Look at you. Loved it so much, you can’t even resist touching yourself for me.” He swept his thumb against my bottom lip. “You want more, don’t you, Kitten?” he asked.
I growled under my breath—my wolf taking control—and rubbed my clit in quick, rough circles.
“What do you say?”
“Fuck you,” I said, spit dripping down my chin. My nipples were pressing hard against my bra, and all I wanted was for him to reach down and tug on them. Touch me in any way he wanted.
“You say, Yes, Alpha.” He grabbed my chin harsher in his hand. He shoved himself down my throat, and I clenched. “Let’s try it again.”
“Ares,” someone said from outside the door.
Ares curled his fingers in my hair, gently tugging on it. He stared down at me, jaw tight, ignoring the man. My eyes watered when I looked up at him. Moon Goddess, I fucking loved this.
“Ares,” the man said again.
Ares pulled his cock out of my mouth, and I gasped for breath. I posted my hands on the ground and looked down, chest rising and falling. He brushed a finger under my chin and lifted until I was gazing up into his bold brown eyes.
Why did I feel so good?
“What, Liam?” he asked harshly.
There was a pause.
“Charolette’s on the phone, says she needs to talk to you.”
His eyes immediately softened.
Charolette? Who was Charolette? And why was she calling my mate?
He released my chin from his hand, redid his pants, and walked to the door. Leaving me kneeling on my bedroom floor for him.
Ruffles walked over and rubbed herself against me, purring.
“Ten minutes,” he said, pulling the door open and gazing back at Ruffles and not me. “And no cat.”
Chapter 8
Ares
“When will you be home?” Charolette asked over the phone.
I blew a breath through my nose, hearing her soothing voice, and leaned against the car that the Darkmoon Pack had graciously lent me to bring Aurora home. Tony stood at the edge of the forest, arms crossed over his chest, talking to Aurora’s parents. I let out a growl directed at him. Goddess, he was lucky I hadn’t ripped him piece by piece.
I’d promised Mars I’d take it slow with Aurora. But when I had seen Tony kissing her, I hadn’t given a fuck about promises anymore. He had been kissing what was and what would stay mine.
“Hello?” Charolette said again.
There was some rustling in the background, and then she yelled to Marcel—my warrior in charge of guarding her and training the pack—to shut up.
“Soon,” I said.
“When you get home, come over. I have something for you.”
Aurora’s mother approached me, arms crossed over her chest.
I glanced up at the sky and suppressed another growl. “I have to go, Charolette. I’ll see you soon.”
She hummed. And before I hung up the phone, she mumbled a sweet, “I love you.”
It was enough to calm me down for now, but I knew it wouldn’t last. All I could smell was lemon drifting through the air from Aurora’s bedroom window, driving my wolf crazy. He wanted to run back up the stairs to show her what a true alpha male felt like, to prove to her that Tony was less than nothing, to make her obedient.
The mere thought of turning such a strong woman into a puddle for me …
I clenched my jaw and held back a groan, composing myself as Alpha Theia started talki
ng my fucking ear off about this agreement.
It was all nonsense I didn’t listen to because I wasn’t going to let her tell me how to treat my mate.
All I needed was the answer to one question and one question only. “Why wasn’t Aurora on the battlefield this morning?”
Alpha Theia and her mate, Theron, glanced at each other. An eerie silence erupted throughout the entire forest, and some of the wolves from her pack stared over at us, waiting for her response.
My gaze drifted from Theia to Theron. Though Theron was from one of the greatest warrior families, he looked so weak, so exhausted after a short battle. Letting his mate do all the talking. Having no say in any decisions she made. It was pitiful.
Theia stepped forward and pressed her lips together, dark hair blowing in the breeze, showing me all the scars on her neck and shoulders from years of fighting. “We wanted to protect her from you,” she said strongly, but her gaze faltered.
Shame.
Written on her face. Etched into every one of her wrinkles. Shown in her slouched shoulders. Yet she tried to hide it behind her commanding alpha tone, behind her strong eyes. It was pathetic how disgraceful she was, how she could barter a smart and fierce alpha without a second thought.
“Then, why’d you trade her to me so willingly?” I asked. When neither she nor her mate answered, I growled. “Why’d you not wake her when the battle began? Why didn’t you tell her she would be your pawn? She’s a warrior and an alpha. She should’ve known everything going on in this pack, not just the things you want her to know.”
I didn’t know how Aurora was treated here, but things were about to change for her. And I’d be the one to change them.
Chapter 9
Aurora
I hurled my backpack over my shoulder, rolled two suitcases to my bedroom door, and frowned at the hot-pink pillow that Ruffles always slept on. She never lay anywhere else at night, except on my chest. It was full of fur, old, and raggedy, but it was hers. So, I grabbed it, wanting nothing more than to keep it forever and ever.