by Emilia Rose
While Mr. Barrett disappeared into the kitchen to finish cooking, I gazed around at the cozy interior. A fireplace in the living room, moonflowers in a flowerpot on the table, and family pictures hanging on the walls. Gaze drifting from picture to picture, I stopped and stared at one of their entire family.
It looked as if it had been taken years ago—when Mars appeared to be in his early teens. Mrs. Barrett stood behind him, her arms around his shoulders, her chin resting on top of his head. Mars had this huge boyish grin on his face, his eyes closed in utter delight. I had never seen him look so happy.
After following my gaze, Mars frowned at the picture, placed a tense hand on my inner thigh, and squeezed lightly. I could feel all of his hurt. The pain in his veins. The ache in his bones. The spears jutting right through his heart. I wasn’t sure he’d even tell me what had happened to her if I asked.
Mr. Barrett placed a heaping bowl of mashed potatoes in the center of the table and sat across from Mars. And before I knew it, they fell into an easy conversation with each other.
Though Mars and Ares were nearly a spitting image of their father, Ares didn’t act anything like him. Always stone-faced, tense, guarded even. Mars acted almost exactly like him. But still I frowned and wondered what had hurt Ares so bad to have him change from that smiling boy to the distant and domineering man he was today.
All I wanted was to see him happy like that again, all the time.
“Has Mars cooked for you yet, Aurora?” Mr. Barrett asked.
I raised a brow at Mars. “He knows how to cook?”
Mr. Barrett gave him a pointed stare. “You haven’t made your mate dinner?”
“He’s made me pretzels and cheese,” I said, playfully elbowing Mars.
Mr. Barrett’s stare softened, and he chuckled. “Mars and his mother always used to make those together. That was their go-to midnight snack, wasn’t it?”
Though I could tell that he was still a bit annoyed, he smiled tenderly and nodded. I placed my hand on his thigh and grasped lightly. My heart warmed at the thought of him being so comfortable with me that he’d let me in on the nightly tradition he used to have with his mother.
All those rumors about Alpha Ares slowly started to fade into an abyss. Ares wasn’t heartless; he was heartbroken.
When dinner was over, Mars took my hand and led me down a hallway decorated with pictures of his mother and him. He pushed open a door and walked into a room that looked to be the remnants of a playroom. Football posters and crayon drawings hung from the brightly colored walls, blocks were stacked almost a foot in the air near the teal leather couch, and a wooden toy box, which had a pink teddy bear and a family picture on it, sat in the corner of the room.
“When the pack house got too hectic, my family came here.” Mars closed the door behind us and pulled back the curtains to stare out into the woods. “My mom used to bring Charolette and me here to play.”
I walked to the picture and smiled, grasping it in my hands. Something about it was so terribly sad, yet I didn’t know what it was. I gazed down at the picture, feeling Mars’s fingers glide across my waist from behind me. He rested his head on my shoulder, pulled me closer to him, and smiled.
“I wish that you could’ve met her. She would’ve loved you,” he whispered in my ear.
After a few moments of debating on whether or not I should ask him, I placed the frame down and parted my lips. “Mars, wh—”
He gently placed one arm over my shoulder and drew his fingers down my lips, his other hand wandering to my breast. I gently shoved him away.
“What are you doing?” I asked, but I knew exactly what he was doing.
He didn’t want to talk about what had happened, and this was his attempt to change the subject.
And, Goddess, was it going to work.
“You’re more amazing than I ever imagined my mate being.” He trailed his nose up the side of my neck, making me shiver and lean into him. “All I want to do is worship you, Kitten, all the fucking time.”
I swallowed, my pussy warming, and playfully pushed him away. “Well, not here. We’re at your father’s house.” I hurried to the door and pulled it open to escape, thinking I still had a chance.
Mars placed his palm against the door and shut it before I had time to slip out of the room. He turned me around, curled a hand around my throat, and pulled me closer to him. “I didn’t dismiss you.”
“You don’t have to dismiss me,” I said, staring up into his lovely gold wolf eyes.
With his hand still around my neck, he pinned me to the door. “You’re right, but I don’t let my mate leave me when I can smell how wet I’m making her.”
“You’re not making me wet.”
He tightened his grip on my neck, yanked up the front of my dress, pushed down my panties, and drew two fingers over my slit. After sliding them inside of me, he pulled them out and brushed his wet fingers against my lips. “This isn’t wet to you?”
My pussy pulsed, and I swallowed hard, my heart pounding in my chest. He smirked and trailed his fingers back down my body to my pussy again, thrusting them inside of me. I clenched and let out a soft whimper.
“We’re at your father’s house,” I whispered.
He grazed his canines against the bare side of my neck and growled lowly in my ear. “And my mate is wet.”
“Mars …”
Grabbing my hand, he placed it right over the bulge in his white jeans, making me feel just how hard he was for me. I bit my lip and found myself slowly stroking him. Goddess, this was not the place for this. His whole family was sitting in the other room, probably wondering why the hell we were taking so long to come back out for dessert.
His fingers moved around in circles, massaging my G-spot. I stroked him faster, unable to control myself, and pressed my lips together, so I wouldn’t moan out loud. He felt so fucking big inside his jeans, and all I could imagine was him inside of me again.
That was all I seemed to want lately. My wolf was desperate for him, especially after he had accepted us. She was horny all the time, and I was not complaining about it. Ares and Mars knew how to fuck so good that I had to beg them to stop.
My wolf howled inside of me, wanting Mars to mark me and wanting to mark him.
“Take them off of me,” he said into my ear.
I fumbled with his button, pulled down his zipper, and wrapped my hand around his cock. With one hand, he held me against the door by my throat, and with the other, he grabbed my leg, hiked it into the air, and rested my thigh in the crook of his elbow. He positioned the head of his cock against my glistening pussy.
He slapped a hand over my mouth. “Don’t make a sound, Kitten,” he said into my ear.
My brows furrowed together, and I whimpered when he plunged himself into me.
He sucked on the skin just below my ear. “I said not to make a sound. You don’t want my family to hear you, do you?”
I arched my back, my pussy aching. Every inch of him slid inside of me with ease, and he began pumping himself in and out.
“Tug on your nipples for me,” he said.
My pussy clenched on his cock, and I groped my breasts through my dress to pinch my already-hard nipples.
“Fuck,” he groaned, staring at my tits through the dress. “Just like that. Make your tight little pussy clench on my cock.”
“Aurora! Mars!” Charolette called down the hallway.
My eyes widened, and I pulled his hand away from my mouth. Stop, I mouthed.
“I didn’t tell you to stop touching yourself, did I? Continue,” he said. I parted my lips to protest when he tightened his grip around my throat. “Don’t make me tell you again.”
Hesitantly, I placed my hands back on my breasts and tugged on my nipples through the dress. Mars continued to pound into me, his thrusts becoming faster and rougher.
“You guys are going to miss dessert!” she shouted.
“We’ll be out in a minute, Charolette.” He gazed down at my brea
sts. “Harder,” he said quietly to me. “Tug on them harder.”
I tugged on my nipples harder, my pussy pulsing on his cock. He slammed himself deep inside of me, his teeth grazing against my neck, and my body trembled back and forth. I slapped a hand over my mouth and squeezed my eyes closed.
Holy … fuck.
Wave after wave of pleasure rushed through me. I leaned my head against the door and cursed under my breath, opening my eyes to see his brows furrowed together and lips parted slightly. He stilled inside of me, filling me with his cum.
“Your pussy’s so tight.”
When he pulled out, my pussy lips were coated in a thick layer of his cum. Some slid down my inner thighs.
Mars grabbed my underwear and pulled them up my legs, ruining them. “We’ll get you others,” he said, lips curling into a smirk. “Don’t worry about that, Kitten.”
“I’m not worried about that.” I stepped away from him and smoothed my dress out. “I’m worried about how you’re going to be able to control yourself, knowing that your mate is filled with all your cum at the dinner table and that when we get home, your mate’s going to let you fuck her again …” I brushed my lips against his ear, fingers drawing up his tense abdomen. “Or that your mate can’t wait to plunge her teeth into your neck and claim you.”
He growled under his breath, and I pulled the door open and walked out of the room. His dark golden eyes flickered down my body, and he followed after me, his fingers never leaving my hips.
Charolette and Liam sat at the dining table.
“Did Mars show you our old toy room?”
I nodded my head and smiled back at her, trying to hide my flushed cheeks. My phone buzzed on the table, and Elijah’s name popped up on the screen.
Elijah, finally!
“I have to take this,” I said to them, excusing myself from the room. “Elijah! Did you get my message?”
“Do you have time to talk?” he asked.
“Yes.” I walked back down the hallway. “Do you have any idea who might know where the stone is?”
He sighed deeply through his nose and then said, “I do, but you’re not going to like it.”
“Who?” I asked, heart racing.
“Tony.”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” I gritted out through my teeth, gripping the phone so tightly that my fingers hurt.
Tony?
All this fucking time, Tony had fucking known where the other half of the stone was. I could’ve been able to shift; I could’ve become the alpha that Mom always wanted me to be; I could’ve been happy.
But instead, that little shit had hidden this from me.
Mars stared at me from down the hall, his voice ringing through the mind link, asking me if everything was okay. I gave him a curt nod and stepped back into his old playroom, shutting the door behind me.
“I don’t think he has it,” Elijah said as I walked toward the window. “But since he told Ares I knew where the stone was, I have had warriors watching him.”
Balling my hand into a fist, I stared out into the night. Moonlight flooded in through the window and shimmered against Mr. Barrett’s pool, the water rippling in the wind. I rested my forehead against the window and growled. My wolf wanted to run right on Mom’s pack and kill Tony herself.
Why had he caused all this trouble? What was the point? To drive Ares insane? Maybe it wasn’t his plan at all, but Mom’s. Tony might’ve been strong like all alphas had to be, but that boy was stupid with a capital S.
“What makes you think he knows where it is?”
“He met with a hound.”
My chest tightened. A hound? Tony had met with the fucking hounds who had been trying to kill me for years since Jeremy’s death? The same hounds who had ripped him piece by fucking piece? I balled my hand tighter and let my claws cut through the skin on my palms.
“Have you seen him before?” I asked. “Was it the one from the attack that killed Jeremy?”
“My warriors didn’t get a good look.” Elijah paused. “Ares isn’t listening in, is he?”
I glanced back at the closed door, unable to think clearly. “No.”
“Meet me at Pink Moon Tavern, near the cave you and Jeremy used to run to when you were kids. I can tell you more there. Come without Ares. He thinks with his emotions too much. I need you to help me come up with a solid plan.”
“I’ll be there in twenty.” I ended the call and dialed Marcel’s number.
The Pink Moon Tavern was near Hound Territory, and I knew that Ares wouldn’t let me go alone. Hell, it’d be difficult to persuade him to let me go without him, but I needed to because Elijah was right. As soon as he heard that Tony might have the stone, he’d run on Mom’s pack without a clear thought in his mind. He’d go there for blood, and he’d get it, but he wouldn’t find the stone that way.
Marcel answered on the third ring. “What?”
“Marcel, I need you—”
“You’re not the only one who needs me at the moment, Princess.”
I heard a woman moan in the background and scrunched up my nose. “Are you fucking someone right now?” I shook my head. “Forget it. You need to pick me up outside Mr. Barrett’s house in two minutes.”
“I’m busy.”
“Two minutes, Marcel.”
After I hung up and shoved my phone into my dress pocket, I walked back down the hall to the dining table. I looked at Mars, who had a slice of some very delicious cheesecake in front of him, and nodded to the other room.
Brows furrowed together, hands holding my hips, he followed me. “What’s wrong, Kitten?”
I placed my hand on his chest, hoping to calm him down before he even got riled up. “I need to go meet with Elijah. It’s important … like stone-related important.”
Eyes darkening, I saw Ares for a moment. “He knows where it is, doesn’t he?” He dug his fingers into my hip bone. “I should’ve kept him here, should’ve gotten as much as I could out of him.”
I grasped his chin in my hand and forced him to look at me. “Settle down, please, Mars.” Before Ares appeared and decided things for himself. “I have to go. I promise that when I come home tonight, I will tell you everything that I know.”
“You can’t go alone. It’s not safe.”
“Marcel is going with me.”
“You asked Marcel to go?” he asked, canines emerging from under his lips. All I could see was hurt on his face.
I glanced out the window to see a car pull up to the side of the road.
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
“Because you make irrational decisions sometimes.” I took a deep breath and hardened my stare. Nearly killing Elijah, chasing me out into the forest, the list went on and on and on, but I didn’t want to bring any specific instance up. I didn’t want him to feel bad for wanting to protect his sister because if I had another chance … I’d do anything to protect Jeremy.
After taking his face in my hands and bringing it down to mine, I placed a kiss right on his lips. “I love you,” I whispered before I could stop myself.
My eyes widened.
Love? I loved Mars?
I hadn’t even known that I had fallen so hard for such a vicious, daunting man. Yet here I was, telling him that I loved him and watching his beautiful golden wolf eyes shift through a thousand shades until they melted into his chocolate browns.
Love, he mouthed. He grabbed my hands, held them to his chest, and grinned down at me with the same boyish smile I had seen in that picture he had taken with his mother.
“I have to go, Mars.” I kissed him again, my eyes closing softly, and smiled. “I’ll be back in an hour. If you need me, text me.”
Mars nodded his head, eyes in a daze, as if he was still thinking about how I loved him, how I wanted to be with him forever, how I never wanted to let him go, and how he’d always be mine.
I gazed over his shoulder, smiling at Mr. Barrett and Charolette. “I have to go,” I said to them. “Thank you so m
uch for dinner. Hopefully, next time, I can stay for dessert.”
Someone laid on the car horn outside, and Charolette got up from her seat.
“That’s Marcel, isn’t it? Goddess, it sounds like that car is shrieking.” She hooked her arm in mine. “I’ll walk you out.”
After saying my good-byes, she pulled me down the stairs. I glanced back at Mars, who had sat down at the table and was grinning down at his cheesecake. And in that moment, I knew that I really was in love with that man.
It hadn’t just been said in the heat of the moment. It was real.
Stupid, young love. Real stupid, young love.
Charolette pulled me outside and gave Marcel the finger from the door. I hurried to his car and hopped into it, my mind still buzzing with thoughts of my Mars and how three silly little words meant the world to him.
Marcel stared at me and then at Charolette and clenched his jaw. “You had dinner with them?” He pressed on the gas, and the car lurched forward. “Liam is there, isn’t he?” he asked, gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. “Fucking idiot,” Marcel said under his breath and then stepped on the gas harder, heading toward the pack exit.
It seemed like someone was jealous. And this time, it wasn’t Ares.
Chapter 33
Aurora
The Pink Moon Tavern was relatively empty tonight, only a few high schoolers sipping on milkshakes out front. Elijah sat in a turquoise booth in the back, drinking a Moscow mule. While his eyes were still bruised, the swelling had disappeared completely, and most of his wounds had healed already.
Gaze traveling from me to Marcel, Elijah raised a brow at me in question.
“It was the only way Ares would let me come,” I said, sliding into the booth. “What did the hound look like?” I asked, foregoing the chitchat. Elijah’s gaze lingered on Marcel for a moment longer, and I waved a hand to dismiss Marcel. “Don’t worry about him.”