by Emilia Rose
The wolf ran into the forest, following Jeremy’s killer, and disappeared.
“Let me kill him,” Ares said.
“No,” I said through the mind link. “Let him go. Take me home. I don’t want to be left here alone.”
Ares shifted and stood up with me. I swallowed hard. So many thoughts, questions, and uncertainties were rushing through my mind. Part of me couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. No hound had ever hurt another before—at least, to my knowledge.
“Do you think it’s because of the stone?” Ares asked on our walk home. He breathed deeply through his nose, his bloodied, brawn chest heaving up and down. “Do you think that’s why they keep attacking you?”
I pressed my lips together, struggling to keep eye contact with him. “I’m not sure.”
The fog cleared, and I could see the grayish-white clouds breaking just enough to let the dawn sunlight filter out over the trees. Some of Ares’s warriors watched us walk back to the pack house through the forest. I ignored them and continued, my thoughts becoming fuzzy with Ares again.
Ares had marked me out of pure rage and jealousy.
Ares had chased me through the forest with his teeth bared.
Ares had terrorized me.
Yet … he loved me. He had said it in the woods, and he had proven it in the woods. He had told me that being unable to shift wouldn’t make him leave me. But I didn’t quite believe that fully. He needed the stone for some reason. And though he’d said it wasn’t for power, he hadn’t told me why.
How could I live with someone who made me so anxious, with someone who couldn’t control his wolf, with someone who terrified me?
Before we reached the pack house, Ares grasped my hand. “Aurora, I want to tell you why I need that stone, but I can’t,” he said, reading my thoughts.
Stupid mate bond.
I pressed my lips together and pulled my hand away from him. “Why not? If you want to gain my trust again, you have to give me something—anything—that I can believe.”
It wasn’t enough to tell me he couldn’t; I needed answers.
A conflicted look crossed his face, and he pushed a hand into his hair, avoiding all eye contact with me. I stared at his face, searching it for any sort of reasoning, any sort of something that I could latch on to. I wanted him to reassure me that though Ares needed that stone, he wouldn’t tear it out of me while I was asleep—when he couldn’t see my terror, when he couldn’t feel my hurt.
He sighed deeply through his nose and rubbed his face. “It’s not my place to tell you. You have to talk to Charolette.”
“Charolette?” I asked, brows furrowed together. “Why do I need to talk to her?”
More pain crossed his face, and he suddenly got quiet. “You just have to. I can’t tell you.”
I wanted to be so angry with him; I wanted to hurt him like he had hurt me; I wanted to make him feel all the pain that I had … but I could feel the agony festering inside of him.
From the moment I’d met Ares, I had felt it, but I always thought it was just his immense anger. But this was killing him slowly on the inside, tearing him down, making him hurt just as badly as I always did.
“I will talk to Charolette later. I need to go help Elijah. Don’t follow me, and make sure none of your guards get in my way, or I’ll lock them inside one of those cages and do to them what you did to Elijah.” I turned on my heel and stepped away.
He grasped my wrist. “Promise me that you won’t leave me, Aurora, please. Promise me that if you leave this property, you’ll come back to me.”
I swallowed hard and stared at my feet. Then, I placed my hand on top of his and pushed him away. I needed to find Elijah. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Chapter 27
Aurora
Elijah sat against the stony cell wall, his head tilted back. The pungent stench of the prison’s rusty metal bars and plaster nearly made me gag.
When I saw him, I burst into the room, knelt by his side, and gently grasped his swollen face. “I’m sorry. This is my fault. This is all my fault.”
Blood soaked through his Sanguine Wilds T-shirt. I peeled it off of him, careful not to hurt him more than Ares already had, and cleaned out his wounds with some supplies I’d picked up from the pharmacy next to Mad Moon Grocery. It took nearly an hour to wipe off the blood, stitch him up, and bandage his stomach. But by the early afternoon, he stood in fresh clothing in the prison bathroom.
“Goddess, Aurora, I thought he’d killed you,” he said, his teary eyes still swollen but not nearly as bad as Ares had left them. “The way he’d marked you. The way he had run after you. The look of pure malice and terror in his eyes. It was nothing that I had ever seen before, not even during hound attacks.” He blew a deep breath out his nose. “Whatever you decide to do with him, please be careful.”
From the moment I had come here, I had known I needed to be careful around Ares. He was a loose cannon and could snap at any moment. But what he had done—or rather hadn’t done—in the woods was the polar opposite of his rumored bloodthirsty ways.
“Can you get my glasses?” Elijah asked, using the wall to guide him back toward the cell. He squinted his eyes and tilted his head in the direction of the wall. “I think they fell over there.”
Splattered with blood and with both lenses cracked, his glasses sat in the corner of the room. I wiped off as much blood as carefully as I could and handed them to him. Though he could barely see out of them, he put them on and leaned against the wall.
“Why did you tell him about the stone?” he asked.
“I’d rather he kill me for the stone than kill you for protecting me.”
“If he had killed you …” He took a deep breath, pulled off his glasses, and tossed them to the side. “I don’t know what I would’ve done. Jeremy would’ve never forgiven me, and neither would …” His eyes went wide. “Never mind.”
“Neither would who?” I asked, brows furrowed together. “Who were you going to say?”
A look of fear crossed his face for a brief moment, and then he cursed. “I’m not supposed to tell you or anyone, but during the hound attack that killed Jeremy, a veiled woman in green gave me half the stone and told me to save you. She visits me every now and then, asking how you are.”
“Veiled woman?” My eyes widened slightly. “Who is she? Where is she from?”
He shrugged. “She’s never told me, and I’ve never asked. I’m just grateful.”
Instead of asking Elijah more questions that he probably didn’t have the answers to, I grabbed his glasses and deposited them into my pocket. “I’m going to get you a new pair, and then I’ll have someone take you home.”
We walked around the property, trying to find somewhere to get new glasses. Since I had only been here a few days, I hadn’t really had the chance to check out everything yet.
After walking around aimlessly for a good fifteen minutes, I retraced my steps to the pharmacy, faintly remembering that I’d passed some reading glasses inside. Maybe they’d have something for distance.
At two p.m., the store was relatively empty. There was a small optic center within the pharmacy near the back, which seemed to close at 1:59:59 p.m. on the dot for a late lunch. I gazed over the counter at the doctor who wore a pair of thick bifocals and was gathering his things for his break.
“Excuse me,” I said.
Deep creases in his forehead and a full head of graying brown hair, the man glanced over at me. “Aurora,” he said, surprised, holding out a strong hand. “It’s great to finally meet you.”
I hesitantly placed my hand in his. “I’m sorry. What’s your name?”
“I’m Mars’s father. You can call me Mr. Barrett or Steve. Actually, Steve works better.”
He chuckled, and I grasped his hand tighter.
This warm, calm man was Ares’s father?
“What can I do for you?” he asked.
“You’re a doctor?” I asked.
He cracked on
e of Ares’s infamous teasing smirks. “Picked it up as a hobby when Ares took the pack from me.” He gazed behind me and winced when he saw Elijah. “Ahh, Alpha Elijah.” He leaned closer to me. “Did Ares …”
“Yes,” I said.
“I’m fine,” Elijah said curtly before Mr. Barrett could apologize. “I just need a pair of glasses.”
“Give me a second. Let me see what I can do.” He grabbed Elijah’s broken glasses and disappeared into the back.
“I wanted to talk to you about the stone …” Elijah said while he was gone. He glanced around at the other people in the pharmacy and lowered his voice. “I’m working on finding the other half.”
“The other half?” I whispered.
The other half could do so much for me. After all these years, I might be able to shift completely and without pain.
“I think I have a lead, but I need to double-check first. And … I can’t tell you in public, especially not here.”
Within a few moments, Mr. Barrett came back out with a pair of prescription glasses in his hand and gave them to Elijah. “This is what I can do for now. Free of charge,” he said.
Elijah put the glasses on and thanked him.
Mr. Barrett hiked his briefcase back up onto his shoulder and walked out from behind the counter. “Let me know if there’s anything else you need, Aurora. You can find me and Charolette just down the street from the pack house. Second house on the left, bright blue shutters. You can’t miss it.”
Before Mr. Barrett left the pharmacy, he leaned closer to me. “And, Aurora, Ares is … harsh at times, I know. He just loves too much. And …” He paused. “Look, all I’m trying to say is … give him a chance. He’s had it rough after his mother passed.”
I watched as he walked out the door and frowned at him. Something had sounded so sad in his voice, and I thought about how much I’d hurt after Jeremy was murdered.
Elijah placed a hand on my shoulder. “Well, I should get going too.”
“I’m going to find someone to drive you,” I said.
Ares would flip again if I left without warning. So, I looked around, found Marcel standing under the blue Pick-Up sign at the pharmacy counter, and walked his way.
When he saw me, he leaned against the counter, raised a single brow, and crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you want?”
“You are going to give Elijah a ride back to his pack.”
“Does it look like I’m a servant?” Marcel asked, his bright silver locks in his face.
“I don’t care what you are. You’re going to take Elijah home because I told you to.”
Elijah tugged on my shoulder. “I can get home myself, Roar.”
“Roar? Is that your little nickname?” Marcel taunted and tugged on a strand of my brown hair. “Do you roar for Ares instead of purring like he wants you to?”
Feeling all the rage, turmoil, hurt, and betrayal from the last twenty-four hours inside of me, I punched Marcel right in the nose and watched the blood spurt out of it. “Do you bleed out of your nose, or do you bleed out of your nose, asshole? Take him home.”
A pharmacist walked up to the counter, scanned an item, and handed it to Marcel. “Pickup for Charolette Barrett.”
Marcel snatched the prescription from her and stuffed it into his pocket. “Come on, Elijah,” he said and then glanced at me. “And don’t fucking tell anyone about”—he nodded toward the counter with a clenched jaw—“this.”
After Marcel stormed out of the pharmacy, Elijah and I followed him to his parked car down the road. Elijah pulled me into a hug, thanked me out loud, and whispered that we would chat soon about the stone.
I watched them speed away and walked back to Ares’s pack house. All I could think about the whole way home was what I would say to Ares when I saw him. Though Elijah’s scars would heal within a couple days because he was an alpha, my scars would take longer.
Marking me without my consent, charging after me, standing over me with such cruelty—it wasn’t something that I could get past just because Ares was damaged.
Chapter 28
Aurora
When I finally made it to the pack house, I braced myself for Ares and opened the front door. But I couldn’t find him. He wasn’t in our bedroom, wasn’t in the kitchen, and wasn’t even in his office. I walked around aimlessly, trying to listen for his breathing.
I wanted to love him. I really did, but what had happened between us made it so much harder.
On the bright side, he hadn’t belittled me like I’d thought he would. He hadn’t ripped me piece by piece. He hadn’t even acted like everyone else did when they heard I couldn’t shift. He’d treated me like an equal when the hounds attacked. He’d treated me like I had wanted so many people to treat me.
The door to Ruffles’s room was ajar, and my eyes widened. Goddess, this cat. If she had gotten out and was walking all over his clothes—
I peeked my head inside to see Mars lying on the bed and staring up at the ceiling, stroking Ruffles’s fur. I could tell it was him by the way he was gentle with her, not aggressive and daunting. She lay across his body, purring loudly. Ruffles meowed in response and head-butted his palm with her head.
“Do you think she will forgive me?” Mars softly asked from inside the room.
My heart softened when I saw them together. Had he known about Ruffles the whole time? Wasn’t he—
Mars sneezed, his whole body jerking in the air. Ruffles curled her claws into his chest and clung to him, as if he was the most magical man in the world. And then he continued to pet her.
“Do you think she hates me?” he asked.
“Meow.”
“Have you seen her wolf before?”
“Meow.”
“Is she beautiful?”
“Meow.”
“Did she—” He tensed sharply. “Did you just fart?” He scrunched his nose. “We need to get you off of those chips. Damn.”
“Meow.”
I stifled a laugh and smiled, my heart warming. These two would be the death of me.
I opened the door wider and leaned against the doorframe with my arms crossed over my chest. Mars gazed over with wide eyes and scooted up the bed until he was resting against the headboard. And Ruffles … well, she sank her claws into his chest and moved with him, gazing over at me with that smug smirk on her face that said, He’s mine.
“You’ve known about Ruffles the entire time, haven’t you?” I asked.
Mars parted his lips to say something but then cracked a smile and brushed his palm against her back, making her fur wiggle. “Yeah.” His face scrunched together, and he sneezed again.
I grabbed Ruffles off of his chest and let her rest her head on my shoulder. She growled in my ear but relaxed after I scratched her head. “Why didn’t you just tell me that you’re allergic?” I asked.
With his shoulders slumped forward, he gazed down at the yellow blankets. “Because I wanted you to be happy.”
“But you’re allergic to her.”
“Yeah, but … I can deal with it. I couldn’t deal with not having you around, Aurora.”
A deep guilt washed over me for blindly believing all those rumors about him. Some of them were true, but I’d never heard about this softer side to him. I didn’t know how to feel. My wolf and I were both hesitant to trust him, but hearing my real name roll off of his tongue instead of his nickname for me hurt … a bit.
I needed to talk to Charolette about why Ares and Mars wanted the stone, but it was night now, and I didn’t want to disturb her or Mr. Barrett. So, I placed Ruffles down on Mars’s shirt that she had claimed with all of her fur and nodded to the forest. “You promised me that we’d go running in the forest when we got back.” I tugged my hair into a high ponytail and let Mars see Ares’s mark on my neck. “Have you changed your mind?”
He furrowed his brows. “But … I thought you couldn’t shift.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t run.” I started toward the door an
d threw him a small smile. “Have your guards in the forest. Let them watch me kick your ass, even in human form.”
Staying here would mean that he would want to talk about my shifting abilities, and I was fine with talking about it, but I needed to show him. Seeing it up close was different than just talking about it. Seeing it was real. Hearing it was real. Experiencing it was real.
We could talk about it all he wanted, but once he saw me try to shift … that was when I would know if what we had was genuine. If he could stay with me and still want me after that, then I could start to trust him.
And if he went batshit crazy on me, I could actually run away from him.
Mars broke out into a grin, his eyes lighting up with excitement. He followed me out the back door, humming and smiling to himself like a love-drunk idiot. We started through the forest in our human forms, and I tried to pump myself up for what I was about to do in front of him—shift.
For years, I hadn’t shifted in front of anyone. I would always go behind some trees or shift deep in the woods and try to hide myself. I didn’t want anyone to see how weak I truly was, but I needed Ares and Mars to see.
My wolf stirred inside of me, not wanting to even think about shifting. It hurt her worse than it hurt me.
While we ran much slower in our human forms compared to our wolf forms, he didn’t say a word about it. He continued to run next to me, his forearm brushing against mine every so often. I jumped over some twigs and ran around some other trees, and then I finally slowed when we approached a lake.
“Do you want to run in your wolf?” I asked, gnawing on the inside of my lip.
“No,” he said almost immediately. “This is fine.”
I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and tugged it over my head. Half of me felt like I had to show him how vulnerable my wolf truly was, but the other half really wanted to show him. I wanted to run with his wolf. I wanted him to see me for who I was. Nobody had accepted me like he had, especially not Mom and Dad.