by Emilia Rose
He growled, his jaw twitching violently. “I will tear whoever has that fucking stone piece by fucking piece, rip it right out of their power-hungry body, and take it for myself.”
My eyes widened, and I wrapped my arms around myself.
Oh, Moon Goddess, no.
No. No. No. No. No.
This was what I never wanted to happen. This was why I’d told him not to mark me. I had hoped—prayed—that he wouldn’t do that to me … but deep down, I had known he would. The stone had given me a second chance, and now, it was about to destroy me.
“Ready the warriors,” Ares said. “We run to Elijah’s tonight.”
I swallowed hard and tried not to look so guilty. Someone, save me, please.
This man was a god with an insatiable hunger for violence, for war, for fury, and for rage. When I’d told him to ruin me, I hadn’t meant like this.
Chapter 20
Ares
Aurora had a fucking secret.
Something she obviously didn’t want me to know about.
From the second I’d mentioned Elijah’s name, she had gone white. Numerous scout reports and just common knowledge had told me all I needed to know about the Darkmoon Pack’s relationship with Alpha Elijah. They worked closely together, trained together, fought together.
Too fucking close.
“Elijah?” I asked through clenched teeth.
Aurora sucked in her cheek and gazed at the ground, unable to look me in the fucking eyes. “I already told you. I-I don’t know, Ares,” she said, voice strong … but I didn’t miss the way she’d stuttered.
I should’ve marked her right then and there. I should’ve shown her that she was mine and only mine. I should’ve taken her so mercilessly that she knew not to play with me like this.
But instead, I balled my hands into fists and let out a murderous growl.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Aurora and Elijah had fucked.
What wolf would be able to keep his paws off of Aurora? She was a fucking goddess.
But she was mine now.
“Anything you want to tell me about?” I asked, pushing her to admit it. I’d let him off easier … I wouldn’t hurt him that bad … but if she wanted to keep it a big secret from me, then I’d let him have it.
She covered her neck with her hand. Nervous. My mate was nervous because she was hiding it … and she thought I wouldn’t notice.
I had already taken care of Tony.
Elijah was next.
Chapter 21
Aurora
I excused myself from the conversation, speed-walked back to the pack house to find my phone, and dialed Elijah’s number. It was saved under my Emergency Contacts, like Jeremy had instructed me to do years ago before he was killed by that scar-faced monster.
Ares wouldn’t even give me a few moments to myself, so I had to make this quick. I hid myself in Ruffles’s room and bounced on my toes, listening to the ring.
“Aurora?”
“I can’t talk for long. Ares is going to attack your pack tonight. Be prepared,” I said.
There was some shuffling in the house, and I glanced at the door. Ares was here, trying to find me, because I wasn’t supposed to leave his damn sight and I had.
A breeze gently blew the yellow curtains against the bed.
“What do you mean? Why?”
“He’s looking for the stone.”
Elijah became deathly quiet, as if Ares were there with him and he were trying not to say a single word. “Aurora, you didn’t tell him, did you?”
“No,” I said, grasping the phone tighter.
The shuffling outside became louder. I plastered myself to the wall and scooted down it. Ruffles walked over to me, brushing herself against my legs and showing me her butt.
“But Ares knows. Someone must’ve found out somehow. Did you tell anyone? Anyone at all?”
“I haven’t spoken a word about it. I’ll ask the doctor who performed the operation—”
“Aurora!” Ares shouted from somewhere in the house, his voice booming.
I ushered Ruffles into the closet and shut the door in case he decided to come into the room. If he found out about the stone and about Ruffles, Moon Goddess … he’d do more than just kill me.
“Are you with Ares?” Elijah asked.
“Yes,” I whispered.
More footsteps.
“Listen to me carefully.” He took a deep breath, and all I could imagine was him running a hand through his thick hair in an attempt to think quick. “Don’t tell him about your stone. I don’t care what he tries to do to me, but if he finds out that you have it, he will hurt you. He’s been looking for that fucking thing for years. He has killed so many people for it, and he will not have a problem doing that to you.”
I gulped and squeezed my eyes shut, inhaling Ares’s strong hazelnut scent. He had to be right outside the damn door.
“Okay,” I whispered. “I have to go.” I pressed my finger on the End Call button and stood up, my heart pounding. There were so many thoughts rushing through my head that I couldn’t keep them straight.
Ares’s scent was strong, but I couldn’t hear a single sound. And I’d bet this was what it was like to be hunted by him. Not knowing where in the damn world he was, but knowing that he was close and that he was coming for you.
I hurried to the door to get out of Ruffles’s room before he had a chance to find her. My fingers trembled as I tried to delete Elijah’s call as quickly as I could, but Ares stood outside the door with his arms crossed over his chest and a wrathful look on his face.
“I told you not to leave my fucking sight,” he said.
I fumbled with my phone, trying to stuff it into my pocket. Think positive, Aurora. Think about last night when you were sharing pretzels and cheese, when you were up until four a.m., talking about life, when he told you that he wanted you forever.
Ares glanced at my pocket. “Who were you talking to?”
I brushed past him and walked to our bedroom. Oh Goddess, I was calling it ours now.
“Nobody,” I said.
He clenched his jaw and followed me. “Who, Aurora? Who’d you tell that I was going to attack their pack tonight?” He waited as if he wanted me to admit it.
My eyes widened slightly, but I continued walking. He had heard me from all the way downstairs? I’d tried to keep myself quiet, and he’d still fucking heard me.
“Nobody.” I stepped into the room and headed right for the bathroom to take a long shower, so I could wash away all the dirt and sweat and lies.
But before I could pull the door open, he placed his hand on it, snapped it closed, and spun me around to face him. “Give me your phone.” His eyes were a dangerous kind of gold, the kind that I had only seen before—when he was about to rip out Marcel’s throat the other day for disrespecting me.
“Why?” He had to know who I called. Maybe he just wanted to see it for himself.
“I will not ask again.”
“No.”
He reached for the pocket in my leggings, and I grasped his wrist to try to stop him. But after we fumbled with each other for a few moments, he snatched the phone from me. I grabbed for it, clawed for it, hoping that it had magically deleted the call history itself, but he lifted my phone out of my reach.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I can’t have even one bit of privacy with you. You won’t let me shower alone, you won’t let me out of your sight, and now, you want to look at my damn phone?”
He growled, reading the names in my Recents.
“You’re cra—”
“Don’t finish your fucking sentence.” He turned around to face me, eyes blazing. “Don’t tell me I’m fucking crazy when you were talking to Elijah. Elijah out of all fucking people.” He threw the phone to the ground and stepped closer to me.
Instead of screaming at me, he became silent. Deathly silent.
He didn’t say anything for one, two, three long moments, and I was scared.
Ares closed his eyes, and I had the urge to jump out the second-story window and run away from him this very second. But he looked so peaceful with his eyes closed and his entire face relaxed completely.
“I am enough for you, Kitten, aren’t I?” he asked calmly.
For a moment, I thought Mars was back, that I could talk some sense into him, that he wasn’t about to explode on me. But when he opened his eyes, their wrath golden flares seemed to burn right through me.
My heart pounded in my chest, and I stepped back. I didn’t know what to do anymore. Should I tell him about the stone? Yes, but not when he was looking at me like this, not when he was angry because it’d make him even angrier.
“Yes,” I whispered. “You are enough.”
He placed his hand on my chest, right over my heart, his claws softly digging into my flesh. He could rip it right out; I knew he was strong enough to do it.
“Your heart’s beating awfully fast. Are you lying to me, Aurora?”
Help me, Goddess. Help me, please.
“No, you are enough for me.” I held my breath, hoping that it’d still my racing heart, hoping that something would calm me down because his godly stare was too intense.
He paused for a long moment, tilting his head, clenching his jaw, and touching my chest like he owned the heart inside. “You are lying to me.”
It wasn’t a question this time. It was a statement.
His voice was laced with disappointment and sorrow, yet I could feel his wolf under his skin about to come out to claim what was his. Because Ares didn’t ask for permission; he took everything and dealt with no consequences.
“I’m not lying, Mars,” I said, using the name he’d asked me to use to try to soothe him.
Another growl ripped from his throat. He stepped even closer to me and shoved me against the wall. Then, he grasped my chin and held it tightly in his hand. All I could see was brutality and barbarity in his eyes—a worshipped leader who had seen war after war, curse after curse, violent past after violent past; a man who had been trapped in a god’s body for centuries upon centuries; a boy who had been wronged one too many times.
“You didn’t want me to mark you. You didn’t want to mark me. You were talking to the man who knows exactly where to find the stone and warning him that I’m coming to find it,” he said, jaw twitching. Like a spear, every word Ares said hit hard and deep in places that I knew were hurting him just as much as they were hurting me.
“I shouldn’t have warned him.” I placed my hands on his chest. Calm down, Ares. Please calm down. “I’m sorry he knows that you’re coming for him now. It won’t happen again.”
Stepping even closer to me, he pressed his body against mine. “Let me be clear, Aurora. I don’t give a fuck that he knows I’m coming for the stone. He could prepare for war for months, and I’d still run on his pack, rip each one of his warriors piece by piece, and take what is mine.” He pushed a strand of hair behind my ear in a domineering manner. “I’m angry that you went behind my back to warn him.”
All I wanted to do was to scream at him that it was me who wasn’t enough for him, not the other way around. I wanted to tell him everything that had happened to me and hoped that he wouldn’t kill me, but I couldn’t open my mouth. My wolf whimpered, and I was getting so tired of hearing her whine about her mate not wanting her, but I felt her pain.
We felt this kind of heartbreak every fucking day, and it took a damn toll on us.
He growled, his canines emerging from under his lips. Moments … he was mere moments from marking me and making himself enough for me. “Tell me how I am not enough, so I can make sure I am.”
I parted my lips and then closed them. What do I say to that?
He slid his hand down my throat, pushed my head to the side, and grazed his canines against my neck. I shuddered against him, the feeling of his teeth on my skin making my entire body react so submissively and so innately to him.
“Will this prove it to you?” he asked, canines just barely pricking my flesh.
Heat rushed to my core, my wolf purring softly.
No, no … I couldn’t let this happen. I couldn’t …
“Maybe this?” He pushed two fingers against my clit and rubbed gently. “Does this make me enough for you?” He moved his fingers in small, torturous circles.
I grabbed on to his wrist, my knees close to buckling already.
“Or is it this?” He grasped my hand and placed it right on the front of his pants, letting me feel how hard he was for me.
Goddess, I just wanted a nice, relaxing day. Not this. Definitely … not … this …
“Answer me, Aurora.” He skimmed his lips against my ear, his breath warming my neck. “If you don’t”—he chuckled lowly, and I shivered—“I’ll keep you in this bedroom until I prove to you that I am everything you’ve ever been searching for and everything you’ll ever need.”
When I didn’t answer Ares, he snatched my chin and forced me to look up at him. There it was again … that same look I had only heard rumors about. Glowering with valor and strength, vengeance and cruelty, he curled his lip into an ugly smirk. And I thought it was the end for me. I thought he knew my secret. I thought he’d kill me.
“Take off your clothes.”
My eyes widened. “Ares, I—”
“It wasn’t a request.” He released my chin and stepped back, watching me. “It was a command. You can follow commands, can’t you, Kitten?”
I gulped and glanced at my feet. Well, okay, not exactly what I’d thought was going to happen. I took a deep breath and tried hard to ignore the pressure building in my core already. What the hell was wrong with me?
He crossed his big arms over his chest. “Look at me.”
Moon Goddess. My pussy was pulsing, and he hadn’t even touched me. I was supposed to be afraid of him; I was supposed to be thinking of a way to stop him from going to Elijah’s and killing him. Not this.
Before he could ask again, I found myself tearing off my shirt and pushing my leggings to the ground. My nipples were pressed hard against my cupless sports bra, and the breeze from the window didn’t make it any better.
“All of it,” Ares said.
My wolf purred inside of me, loving the attention from our mate. It didn’t make me feel any better that my wolf couldn’t make up her damn mind about him. One minute, she didn’t want him to know our secret. The next, she was willing to let him have us like he had last night.
Anything for his acceptance.
Anything to feel loved again.
I tugged off my bra and underwear, standing naked in front of him. He glanced down at my body, taking in all of me, and then stepped toward me, fingers hovering above my clit but not touching me yet.
“I bet you’re clenching for me right now, aren’t you?” he asked, staring into my eyes. “Thinking about my cock thrusting into your pussy, about your mate filling you with his cum again, about him making sure you know that you’re his and his only.”
A wave of pleasure coursed through my body. I seized his wrist and tried so desperately to pull it toward me.
“Kitten, is that enough for you already?” he asked in such a degrading manner that it actually turned me on even more. “I haven’t even started.” With his other hand, he drew his fingernails up the center of my chest and over my nipple.
I cried out and stared up at him, begging with my eyes for him to touch me more.
“You know, Kitten, I think a lot about claiming you … about taking you in the forest in the middle of the day and letting everyone within miles listen to you moan because of me. About taking you here, in the pack house, when everyone is downstairs and listening to you try to muffle those precious little whimpers of yours so nobody can hear you.”
My pussy clenched hard. “Ares, please.”
“I think about ruining you for anyone else, about you kneeling for me when I come home from war …” He grabbed my hand and placed it o
n his cock. “About you taking my cock all the way down your throat again, about throat-fucking you until I finally make you my perfect little Kitten.”
I gulped and grasped him through his shorts, aching for him to be inside of me.
He held me by a fistful of my hair and pulled me toward him. “Tell me, Aurora, do you need more than that?”
To hold in my moans, I pressed my lips together. All I wanted was for him to plunge himself inside of me like he had last night, but I didn’t foresee that happening anytime soon. Ares wanted to punish me for calling Elijah, and I didn’t blame him.
And because I wanted him to prove to me that he wouldn’t hurt me, that despite me going behind his back, he would love me for me and he wouldn’t hate me for my secret, I said, “That’s not enough.”
He growled, picked me up, and tossed me onto the bed with ease. Crawling up with me and pushing me to the headboard, he grabbed my thighs and spread them, so every fold of my pussy was bare and on full display to him. Before I could even react, he pressed his tongue against my clit, making my body jerk.
I drew my knees together to ease the tension, but he forced my legs apart again and slapped my pussy hard.
“Mine.”
He rested my thighs on his shoulders and stuck a finger inside of me, thrusting in and out as he ate me. I squirmed in his hold, trying to pull my knees together again, but he refused to let me go and hit my clit again.
“Mine.”
Fingers thrusting in and out. Tongue flicking against my sensitive clit. Stubble tickling my inner thighs. A wave of heat warmed my core and made me tighten on him.
“Ares …”
“Alpha,” he corrected.
It was one simple word but was nothing more than a statement of dominance. He slid his hand around my throat and squeezed lightly, and I knew I was moments away from releasing on him.
“Say it, Aurora.” He moved his fingers faster inside of me, hitting my G-spot every single time.
So close … I was so close. All he had to do was—