by Emilia Rose
Ruffles hissed when I placed the bag in the cart.
“Ruffles, come on. You can’t eat the fatty stuff all the time.”
She swatted my chin with her paw.
“Ruffles …”
“Meow.”
I rolled my eyes and put the Reduced Fat chips back on the shelf, getting her favorite original Ruffles chips instead. She purred delightfully, rubbing her face against mine. This girl was more addicted to chips than Ares was to war.
“Now, get back into the backpack,” I said.
She hopped into the backpack, her purrs vibrating through it. Tapping my fingers against the cart, I hummed and continued walking, my thoughts consumed by my mate. Ares and Mars were the same person but so entirely different. I didn’t really understand it.
It was like he had a dual personality or something—with Mars being so soft and gentle, and Ares being so incredibly savage and ruthless and … sexy.
I blinked a few times, trying to get him out of my head. What was I even thinking? I didn’t like Ares. He was too pushy, too arrogant, too fucking dominant and tempting. Why was I so addicted to such a monster?
Someone bumped into my cart as I turned the corner.
“I’m sorry!” Charolette said, running her hand over her pin-straight hair. Her pink lips softened into a smile. “Oh, it’s you.”
My cheeks flushed. I still couldn’t believe that she was his sister. Not his lover. Not his trophy. His sister. Stupid, jealous me had made a fool out of myself earlier. I’d let my guard down and acted as if I cared about Ares in the slightest.
She stuck out her hand. “By the way, I’m Charolette!” she said.
I took her hand in mine and inhaled the scent of roses.
“Sorry about earlier. If I had known that Mars hadn’t told you about me, I wouldn’t have been so close to him.”
I shook my head, my cheeks flushing even more. “No, it’s my fault. Don’t apologize. My wolf … I …” I gave her a smile. “I let Marcel talk me into getting jealous.” Because I wasn’t jealous. Nope, not at all. I didn’t like Ares. I couldn’t like Ares.
She rolled her eyes and walked down the aisle with me, a shopping basket hanging off her arm. “Moon Goddess, Marcel. Don’t listen to a word he says unless it has to do with fighting. He’s a major player, and he will probably try to get into your pants more than once. Just avoid him at all costs, trust me.”
“I’m sure Ares will make sure of that.”
She giggled, picked up some Fruit Loops, and put them into her basket. “I’m glad Mars found you. You’re going to be good for his crazy ass. Ares can be hella hard to tame.”
I let out a laugh, trying to figure out if Ares or Mars was just a nickname for him, and smiled at her. Charolette seemed fun, like she’d be a good friend. And damn, did I need a friend to talk to after what had just happened. Besides Tony and Elijah, I didn’t have any friends back home.
“Amen to that,” I said, glancing at the ground. “I just don’t know if he’s going to be good for me.”
“He’ll drive you insane, but”—she quieted down—“it’s because he cares about you. It can be hard to deal with both of them, but it’ll be worth it. They love hard.”
“Both of them?” I asked, hoping to get some more information about his two polar opposite personalities.
“Mars and Ares,” she clarified. “He has dissociative identity disorder. We met Ares over a decade ago. We rarely see Mars anymore. It was a hard transition for my dad and me, but it was even harder for Mars. He … hurt himself over it and some other stuff.” The last words came in a whisper.
“Dissociative identity disorder,” I whispered to myself.
My mate had two personalities, and I had already seen both of them despite Charolette saying that Mars wasn’t as active anymore, if that was even the right way of saying that.
It made so much more sense now, but why’d Ares suddenly appear? Did something happen to him?
Just as I was about to ask, Charolette gazed in my cart—which was full of cat litter, cat treats, cat toys, and chips—and steered the conversation elsewhere. “You know, I didn’t think he’d ever find someone he liked enough to let her bring a cat into his house.”
And so I dropped my question, deciding that it was too personal right now.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“He didn’t tell you?” she asked, brow arched. “He’s allergic.”
“Allergic?” I asked, my heart clenching.
He hadn’t wanted me to bring Ruffles because he was allergic to cats, and I’d brought her anyway. I’d thought he was just being heartless and cruel.
I needed to find another place to keep her. I thought about asking Charolette to watch her until I got things sorted out … but Ruffles would never forgive me for it. I hadn’t spent more than a day without her since she stumbled into my life after Jeremy died, and it was way too soon to ask strangers for favors.
Maybe I could store her away in one of the spare rooms that he never went into, play with her when he was taking over some pack and trying to find that stone, feed her early in the morning when he was still sleeping. I didn’t want him to—
Suddenly, a window near the front of the store shattered into a million pieces. Mothers pulled their pups to their chests, leaving their carts and hurrying to the back exit. People started yelling and screaming in panic, sprinting down the aisles toward us.
A vicious growl echoed throughout the store, and I froze. That wasn’t the growl of an average wolf … that was the sound of a hound. I clutched my backpack and Charolette’s hand and ran toward the rear exit.
Hundreds of people crowded around the door and tried to squeeze out of it. I swung my backpack over my shoulder, grabbed the silver knife from the side pocket, and told Charolette to guard Ruffles with her life.
“What are you doing?” she asked, shaking her head. “We need to get out of here. Ares will be here to stop—”
Another growl ripped through the room, and a hound turned down our aisle. He stared at me, ignoring all other wolves around him, and sprinted in my direction. Bloodied saliva dripped from his sharp canines, his piercing yellow eyes fixed on me.
I clutched the knife until my knuckles turned white. There was no escaping these monstrosities. For years, I had tried to hide from them … but they always seemed to find me.
With terrifying yellow eyes, the hound rushed down the aisle, springing himself forward on his two hind legs. Foam oozing from his mouth, teeth dripping with blood, he was coming for me. They always came for me.
I stepped in front of Charolette and Ruffles, determined to protect them with my life. The silver knife burned my palm, but the pain was never as bad as the pain of watching a loved one being torn apart by ruthless animals.
When he leaped into the air, all I could see was Jeremy. Being severed to pieces. His limbs being ripped off. The hounds devouring his flesh. The images were forever lodged into my memory. Never to leave.
“Aurora!” Charolette screamed.
The hound dug his claws into my arm, and I howled out in pain. Moon Goddess, I wanted to shift. I wanted to kill him with my teeth. I wanted him to pay for everything that his kind had done to me. But I hated that I couldn’t shift and despised myself for it.
I clutched the knife harder, pretended that the gash in my arm wasn’t bleeding profusely, and hopped out of the way before he could hurt me again. I sprinted down the aisle to get him away from the others and stood between the chips and my cart of cat litter.
Just as I’d hoped, he turned on his paw, wildly shook his head, and stalked toward me once more. I would kill this piece of shit before he could hurt anyone ever again.
In the distance, I heard Ares growl, claws tearing into fur, and the whimpers of the hounds. My wolf called out to our mate, and I forced her to shut up. I could handle this beast myself.
Coming at me faster this time, the hound sprinted down the aisle. When he leaped at me, I crouched down, stepped o
ut of the way, and stabbed the damn thing right in his neck. The monster growled in pain and fell to the ground on his back.
I crawled on top of the animal, straddling his waist to keep him in place, and stabbed him over and over, right into the jugular. This was for everything that had happened to me. This was for my inability to shift. This was for Jeremy.
Blood sprayed onto my face and gushed out of the open wound in my arm. Tears welled up in my eyes. But I didn’t stop. I hated them so much. Thoughts of them tortured me every single fucking day.
“Aurora,” Charolette called.
The hound lay limply under me, yet I took the blade, cut right through the few threads of skin left holding the hound’s head in place, and ripped off the skin to make sure this fucker didn’t come back.
I saw red.
Figuratively and literally.
“Aurora!” she shouted again.
Suddenly, someone scooped me into their strong arms and picked me up off the hound. My silver dagger slipped out of my hand, and the scent of hazelnut engulfed me. My body relaxed in Ares’s arms, but all I wanted to do was continue to make the hound hurt, displace all this pain I’d been carrying around for the past ten years.
Blood dripped from Ares’s canines. His chest was stained red. All I could see was wrath in his eyes. I squirmed in his hold, yet he didn’t let me down. The hound was lying dead in the middle of the store, and I could only imagine that there were others dead in the forest. Ares pulled me closer to him, letting me feel his raging heartbeat.
I took a deep breath, breathing with the rhythm. Calm, Aurora. Calm.
He walked to Charolette, placed me onto the ground, and looked at Marcel, who was drenched in blood from head to toe next to her. “Double security around the borders. Nobody comes onto the property, and nobody leaves the property without me knowing. Kill anyone who disobeys.”
Marcel nodded, glanced quickly at me, his lips curling into a smirk, and handed me my silver knife. I growled and snatched it from him, wanting to cut all of his locks of stupid silver hair and keep it as a trophy.
When Marcel left, Ares examined Charolette to make sure she was okay, and then he snatched my wrist and dragged me toward the exit of the store. “We’re leaving, Aurora.”
I pulled myself away and glared back. My mind was reeling. Anger. Violence. Pure adrenaline. But I wasn’t about to leave Ruffles without her proper necessities. I didn’t care what anyone said. She would always come first. She had found me when Jeremy died and stayed with me ever since.
“I came here for things, and I don’t plan on leaving without them.”
He growled under his breath, jaw twitching violently. “You just got attacked by a fucking hound. These things can wait.”
I flared my nostrils. “No, they can’t. Now, you’re going to wait while I get them.”
“Get what you need to get, but you’re not leaving my sight,” he said through clenched teeth.
After a few moments, I decided that he wasn’t kidding. “Fine.”
I frowned at my backpack that Charolette was clutching to her chest. Ruffles deserved more than to have no place to poop or pee. If I didn’t buy some litter soon for her, she’d start peeing all over Ares’s clothes, and then he’d have an allergy attack.
I swallowed hard. “Just … give me a second.”
I walked toward Charolette, holding my arm to stop the blood, but Ares followed. “And stay here, or you won’t be getting any breakfast tomorrow,” I said.
That’d teach him.
When I reached Charolette, she handed me my backpack. “Are you okay? I can take care of my brother for you, if you need me to. All he needs is a good kick in the ass when he gets too protective.”
“No,” I said, glancing back at him.
Ares raised a brow at me, a scowl set deeply on his face, and I pulled Charolette even closer.
“Ares doesn’t know about Ruffles. I thought he was just being an asshole when he told me not to bring her. Now, I have to hide her. I was going to hide her in one of his spare rooms and buy her litter, but he won’t let me out of his sight. Could you get some for me? I know this is a huge favor to ask of you.”
She smiled widely at me. “Ooh, I like you already.” She grabbed my hand, her manicured pink fingernails lightly digging into my palm. “He doesn’t usually go into the spare room, three doors down from his bedroom, the one with the yellow curtains. I’ll bring some litter and a litter box over and leave it in there tonight.” She grabbed my bag back from me. “I’ll bring Ruffles too. Spare room. Yellow curtains. She’ll be in there.”
I pulled her into a hug, squeezing her tight. “Thank you so much. I owe you my life.”
Chapter 15
Mars
When I’d found Aurora in her human form with a deep gash down the side of her arm, straddling the rogue and stabbing him relentlessly in his neck, all I could feel was an intense fear. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t want her to become like Ares.
From the doorway, I crossed my arms over my chest and watched the doctor clean her arm with alcohol. Two times. We had been attacked by hounds two times since I had been with her, and she hadn’t shifted once. If I’d lost her today—before I even had a chance to get to know her—because she didn’t shift, I would’ve lost it.
Ares would’ve taken full control, slaughtered every single hound in that goddamn forest, slaughtered innocent people, slaughtered our own people. We couldn’t lose Aurora to hounds, especially not after we had lost Mom.
After the doctor wrapped some gauze around Aurora’s arm to stop the bleeding, I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the grocery store. Stars danced against the dark night sky, and all I wanted was to enjoy this night with her. Take her out to the lake, show her the waterfall, pull her under the water with me, and admire her smile. Run free with her wolf.
I was even going to let her mark me tonight.
When I’d mentioned it earlier and her small little body got all tense, I could barely contain myself. I wanted her to accept me and Ares, accept that we were two crazy pieces of one man who’d do anything for her. I wanted to show her that I was more than that ghoulish monster all the rumors had made me out to be.
But that couldn’t happen. These hounds had been out of control these past few days … maybe even after her, like Liam had said. It was hard to believe that my mate had so much history with the hounds that they wanted her dead.
On our walk back to the pack house, she snatched her arm away from me, but I grabbed her hand back and held it close to me, as if I’d lose her if I didn’t.
“Why are the hounds after you?”
Aurora tensed and glanced at her feet. “They’re not after me,” she said a bit too quickly. “They were never this violent before I met you.”
“Well, they never attacked my pack before I met you.” I opened the pack house door for her and followed her up the stairs, watching her ass sway back and forth.
Mad Moon Grocery was on the edge of our property; they had to have had a good reason to kill two guards at the borders to get Aurora.
Ever since I had taken over as alpha, hounds hadn’t dared to step on my property. They knew to stay away.
She pushed our bedroom door open. “That’s not my fault, Ares.”
I growled at the name, feeling him slowly awaken inside of me. I thought I had suppressed Ares earlier, but he had just been waiting to take control, to scream at her for not shifting, for not protecting herself the way she should have.
“Tomorrow, you start training,” I said. “With Marcel.”
She turned on her heel, blue eyes wide. “What! Are you serious?”
“Yes, Marcel will train you to react with your wolf in that kind of situation.”
“But you hate him. I hate him!”
It was true. I hated his guts. But I couldn’t let Aurora get hurt. I wouldn’t be able to handle Charolette’s death if it happened, and I really wouldn’t be able to handle A
urora’s too. Marcel could make her stronger. He was my best warrior and the greatest trainer in the pack. He had pushed me to be better than I’d thought I could be, had trained Ares relentlessly to make him unstoppable. But I wouldn’t let her ever be alone with that asshole.
She stared up at me with a blazing fire in her blue eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t need training. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve killed two hounds within the last two days. I think I know how to defend myself.”
I growled, feeling Ares stir inside of me, and stepped toward her. “Then, why didn’t you shift, Aurora, huh?”
Moon Goddess, did she not know how? How was it that she hadn’t shifted once when there was a threat? Did her wolf not sense it? Or maybe she just didn’t think she had to. Whatever the reason, it was unacceptable. This wasn’t a game of strength or pride.
“Those hounds will kill you. If more than one were coming at you, you wouldn’t be strong enough to defeat them without your wolf.”
“Not strong enough?” She growled and met my glare with an intense one.
All I wanted to do was shove her against the wall and take her right there. Those wide eyes. The pure heat radiating off of her. Her strength. It was everything that I had ever dreamed of having in a mate.
“I am strong enough to defeat them.”
I snatched her chin in my hand, squeezing roughly. “If you’re strong enough, then push me away,” I said.
She shoved her hands right into my chest, but I didn’t move.
I stepped closer to her, growling. “Do it, Aurora.”
She shoved her hands right into me again, harder but not hard enough.
“What’re you waiting for?” I stepped closer, pinning her to the wall with just my hand. “Shove me away.”
She struggled, and Ares took complete control from me.
Ares
“Ares”—she seethed—“let me go. I don’t have to prove shit to you.”