by Emilia Rose
Approaching the two prison guards, I clasped my hands together. “How’s my father?”
They looked at each other and then back at me.
“Angry. Won’t eat. Same old, same old.”
Annoyed that he still hadn’t eaten, I opened the door and stepped inside the dungeon. The stairs creaked as I walked down them. Lights flickering from above illuminated the many cobwebs that decorated the ceiling. When I made it to the bottom, the door shut behind me with a thud.
Dad sat in the same cell with his back against the stone wall, a scowl on his face and tightly clenched fists. I stepped in front of the bars and eyed the unlocked cell, dumbfounded as to why he hadn’t left yet. Nothing stopped him from escaping without telling me good-bye.
Not knowing how to start a conversation with him, I asked, “Why haven’t you left yet?”
He didn’t have to live here in misery if he didn’t want to.
When he didn’t answer me, I pushed more to try to get a rise out of him. I needed something from him. It had been forever since I’d heard his voice, the same voice that used to sing me to sleep every night when I was a baby.
“The Luna Ceremony is in a few days,” I said, hoping to see any emotion cross his face.
I hoped for happiness, but there wasn’t any. It hurt me beyond words because I wasn’t his little girl anymore. I wasn’t the person he had sung to or played with or even cared about. I was nothing to him, and my own father would never look at me the same way ever again.
“I would really like you to be there.”
“No.”
I glanced down at my feet as a lump formed in my throat. All I wanted was for him to be happy again. He didn’t have to stay here. He could go back home, join another pack. Some alpha would definitely take him in because he had a vast knowledge of war from his family history. He could start a whole new life.
“I don’t want to see you mated to that fiend. I don’t want to see you at all.”
My chest tightened. From the moment he’d let Mom trade me for their safety, he had made it clear that he didn’t want me. Yet, stupid me, I kept coming back like a lost dog, hoping he’d change his mind, wishing he’d be the father he always had been to Jeremy, wanting things to switch back to my childhood for just one more moment.
Hell, if he smiled at me again, I’d savor the memory for my entire life.
But he wouldn’t, and I needed to get that through my head. My father despised me.
Not wanting him to see how weak I was, I crossed my arms and turned my back to him. “I’m going to Syncome Mountains with Ares, Alpha Vulcan, and some other warriors in a few days. More hounds have been attacking our pack. We need information about how to stop them.”
“Syncome Mountains?” Dad asked, rustling with something behind me. I glanced back to see him shuffling to his feet but still keeping a distance from me. “Syncome Mountains are where you go to die.”
Being the pissy daughter that he’d made me, I almost asked if he wanted to come. But I quickly scolded myself for thinking such thoughts. I was turning into more of a monster than I already had been, thinking things only Ares—the god of war—would.
“Thanks for having faith in us,” I said harshly, eyeing the bloodstained cement floor. Tears threatened to well up in my eyes. I hated feeling like such a loser; I hated it so much. “Maybe going to Syncome Mountains would be best for us. I’d be out of your hair once and for all, like you’ve always wanted.”
Dad growled and stepped toward me. “I’m telling you that because I don’t want you to die, Aurora. Those lands are cursed. An entire pack turned into stone three days after they went there. You have to be careful.”
I bit my tongue to hold back the pain of my own thoughts. Dad had said he didn’t want me to die, but if I’d died all those years ago instead of Jeremy, if it were me who had gotten ripped to shreds, his life would’ve been so much better. He would have had a son who could follow in his footsteps to become the most powerful warrior wolf on the entire planet, a force to be reckoned with.
Instead, he got me—Aurora, a woman who could barely shift, mated to Ares, the most powerful alpha on the entire planet.
“Any tips on how to stay alive?” I asked dryly, turning toward the stairs.
Originally, I had come down here for closure. Yet somehow, he had only managed to make me feel worse. Family wasn’t supposed to hate you and not care about you. They were supposed to support you, no matter what. I guessed I’d gotten the short end of the stick in that department.
“Any tips?” He laughed emptily. “Don’t go.”
Balling my hands into tight fists, I stormed to the steps. Fuck this. I shouldn’t have ever even come down here. I just wanted to have family who still loved me, who supported me, but I didn’t have shit. All I had was a moody father and a dead mother.
“Aurora, wait.”
I stopped on the stairs, knuckles turning white around the dry wooden railing.
“My ancestors were the wolves turned into stone. Only my great-great-grandmother survived. She was just a child and was taken in by another pack. They had all gone out to Syncome Mountains to fight hounds and never come back. I don’t …” He paused, voice softening. “I don’t want that happening to you.”
Lips parting, I wanted to turn around. I wanted to run into his arms for saying the bare minimum, for telling me that he didn’t want me to die. But I didn’t let my emotions control me. I stood my ground on those stairs and didn’t look back.
“You’re going to go whether or not I tell you to, but if you don’t listen to me and you do go, make sure you never let your guard down. There are fucked-up things on those mountains that I don’t even believe I saw for myself when I visited the outskirts years back.”
“Like what?” I asked, staring at the cobblestone step.
“Dark magic. Hellish zombies. Only things witnessed in your worst nightmares.”
I tilted my head to the side and glanced back to see an expression on Dad’s face that told me he feared Syncome Mountains more than he ever feared Ares and his wrath.
He grasped the silver bars and swallowed hard, brows furrowed. “Once you go there, you’ll wish you never had.”
Chapter 17
Mars
Aurora had left earlier this morning to talk to her father, and then shop for dresses with Charolette while I had the honor of preparing for the pups to come over tonight. Between Ares, my family, and my therapist, Denise, I had other people helping me with my life. It felt refreshing to be able to aid these pups in their recovery process now.
“Don’t stress about it, Mars. I’m sure you already have everything set out,” Denise said over the phone, her motherly voice reminding me of Mom.
It had been months since I’d last seen her; usually, when she checked up on me, Ares had control. And Ares hated her.
I sighed through the phone. “You know me too well.”
She paused. “What’s wrong? You sound off.”
“I have a lot on my mind.” I pulled the broom out of the closet to clean up some of Ruffles’s balls of gray fur. She shed like crazy all over our carpets. “I want Charolette to have the stone, but Aurora needs it to become stronger. I can’t let her walk around, helpless.”
“She’s not helpless, Mars. She’s capable.”
“But she could be stronger, so much stronger. She could shift with ease and run through the forest, not be held back by her disability.”
Ruffles jumped right back onto the carpet and rolled under the coffee table, shedding her fur everywhere again. I rolled my eyes and swatted at her butt to move her, but she just rubbed against my hand. Deciding that she’d do it again if I swept, I put it back into the closet and lay on the ground with her.
“I know how difficult it is to live with a disability,” I said, staring up at the high ceiling. “If this stone could change her life, then I want her to have it.”
My lips curled into a smile. Though Ares wanted her to have the Malavite
Stone for safety reasons, I wanted her to have it because living with a disability was so damn hard sometimes. And I wanted to make my mate’s life as comfortable as it could be.
Chapter 18
Aurora
“We’re going dress shopping! I have been waiting for this day forever!” Charolette squealed, curling her arm around mine as we walked through town. Sun rays beamed down upon us, a nice break from the thick fog Sanguine Wilds had been experiencing. “I have always dreamed of being Ares’s mate’s best friend and helping her pick out her dress, and—oh, I didn’t tell you, but I invited a few people along!”
It was Tuesday morning, ten a.m. sharp. While I wanted to be excited to pick out my dress, all I could think about was my conversation with Dad the other night and the terror in his eyes, warning me to stay away from Syncome Mountains.
She pulled me into Lucy’s Boutique, the only dress shop in town. Elijah, Adrian, Ruffles, and Pringle sat on the royal-blue couch near the entrance, talking and meowing to each other. I smiled at them, knowing that Jeremy would’ve loved to be here.
I leaned closer to Charolette. “I’m surprised you didn’t invite Marcel.”
Charolette shoved my shoulder. “Do you think I spend every waking moment gushing over him? Because I don’t.” She glanced away, chewing on the inside of her lip, and pulled me toward our friends. “I don’t even think about him.”
“You don’t think about him ever?”
“Nope.”
“You’re a liar. You’re probably thinking about him now.”
Though she tried, she couldn’t hide her smile. Goddess, she was head over heels for Marcel, and it was the cutest fucking thing I’d had the chance to witness—aside from Ruffles and her man, Pringle. Now that Ruffles had her own boy to flirt with, we were back on good terms.
No more stealing my man.
“Definitely not,” she said as we approached the guys.
“Aurora! Tunnels are underway,” Adrian said, throwing one arm around my shoulders. “They started this morning. We’re re-cementing the hideouts from the War of the Lycans. There are four located near the pack house, which we’re working on first, and then a handful of others around the property lines. It should be done within a couple weeks.”
“That’s wonderful,” I said honestly. It wasn’t what I’d wanted to finish before a war, but it was something. Hopefully, the project—at least, cementing the hideouts—would be complete before we left for Syncome Mountains.
My gaze shifted to Elijah, who stood pretty damn close to Adrian, and I wiggled my brows. Dimples forming on his cheeks, Elijah looked at the ground and grinned. My heart warmed, and I vowed to bother Elijah about all the details later.
Dressed in a brown sweater dress and an orange blazer, Lucy, the store owner, walked out from a back room and grinned at us. “Luna!” she said, tucking some white-blonde hair behind her ear. “It’s nice to finally meet you! I’m so excited you chose to shop for your Luna Ceremony gown here. I already have some gowns laid out for you to try on that I think would go wonderfully with your figure!”
Charolette pushed me toward her. “Make her even more beautiful. She deserves it.”
Lucy took my hand and ushered me to the dressing room, presenting me with three silver-colored dresses—a silk column dress, a velvet mermaid dress, and a lace ballgown. And while butterflies fluttered in my stomach as I tried on all of them, none of them felt right.
After forcing Charolette to come into the fitting room with me and after trying on six more unsuccessful dresses, I grabbed a simple, strapless silver dress with lace near the edges from the hanger.
“When are you going to let Marcel finally bite you?” I asked Charolette, desperately trying to pull the dress over my hips.
I must’ve gained a few extra pounds from all the training that Ares made me do. I had to be putting muscle on in all the right places … or maybe this weight was from all those late-night pretzel sessions with Mars.
“Marcel? Let him bite me?” she asked, fumbling with the zipper. “You mean, mark?”
I smirked into the mirror. “Or bite you in other places.”
She wrinkled her nose, pulled the zipper up, and gave me a hard stare. “Gross.” She glanced down at my dress to hide the sadness washing over her face. “I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again, he’s not my type.”
“Is that what you really think?” I asked, turning around to face her. Strands of her blonde hair fell into her face, and I pushed them away. “Or do you think you’re not his type because he has a new girl every week?”
Letting out an exasperated sigh, she shook her head. “We’re totally different people. He’s a warrior. I hate training. He’s a player. I just want one guy who loves me. He deserves someone to be happy with forever. And I can’t give him forever … I don’t even know if I could give him one more year,” she whispered the last part.
My heart ached at her words. I grasped her face, forcing her to look at me through her teary eyes. And at that moment, I finally really understood what was holding her back and why she set herself on arguing with Marcel all the time instead of loving him.
“Stop it,” I whispered, pushing fallen tears off her face with my thumbs. “You’re good enough for him. It doesn’t matter how long you have left. Make your life worth it. Do something crazy. Fall in love with Marcel and make this next year the best of your entire life.”
More tears streamed down her face. “But … I-I just … I don’t want him to hurt. I don’t want him to care about me. I don’t want to fall in love with him.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because it’ll make it harder for me to leave him. He makes me want to fight, want to get stronger. But I … I miss my mom. I want to see her again. I don’t want to be miserable forever. Nothing can heal my pain. Marcel can dull it, but it’s always there, nipping at me, piece by piece until all I want to do is give in to it.”
While I still pondered over Jeremy and his death, I had never once thought about life like Charolette did. I never thought about suicide or letting a disease take away my life, just to see him again. I didn’t think I’d ever understand the pain and heartbreak both she and Ares went through every day.
I hugged her and assured her that she meant the world to her pack. Nothing could bring her mother back to life—except those damn hounds—but she cared about so many other people. What her mother had done wasn’t her fault. And before I pulled away, I made sure she knew that Marcel would walk through hell for her. He had even seen her without her wig and not run away.
She rested her head on my shoulder and hiccuped. “Sometimes, I … I think about what life would be like if my mom didn’t kill herself. I wonder what a happy and whole family would be like with me, her, and … and Fenris.”
My eyes widened. “Fenris?” I asked, patting her back. “Why Fenris?”
“He’s my dad, my real dad …” She blew out a breath. “I wonder what he’s like, if he knows who I am to him, and if he cares about me.” She paused and looked up from my shoulder. “You’re not saying anything. Do you think that’s weird?”
Remembering the nightmare that Mars had had the other night, I swallowed hard. Why did Charolette want to know about the man who had raped her mother? If my mother had been raped by a hound, I’d have hated that man for my entire life, not wondered about him.
“Aurora?”
“Uh, no, I guess not.”
What else could I have said to a broken woman who just wanted to live the rest of her life in peace? Should I have made her feel bad about it? Scolded her for even thinking that Fenris was a good guy?
Even after Dad had made it clear he didn’t want me, I tried to find solace with him. If Charolette was just thinking about it, it couldn’t hurt her, right?
I shook my head and pulled away, glancing back in the grand full-length mirror. I smoothed out my dress and frowned. “Why don’t we go out for milkshakes at Pink Moon Tavern tomorrow night?”
&
nbsp; “I’d like that.”
What she didn’t know about this milkshake date was that Marcel might coincidentally show up and it might accidentally become a double date. I was definitely not secretly planning every detail in my head at this very moment.
After grabbing my hand, she pulled me out of the room toward the guys and the cats. I stood on the stand and twirled around to see how terrible I looked in the mirror. Dressed in silver with white lace accents, I looked like a flop. The silver against my pale skin made me look even whiter somehow. Every dress I had tried on so far didn’t complement me at all.
“Do you have any other colors? Maybe something pink, blue, something softer?”
“But the traditional luna dress is silver,” Lucy said.
“I just … don’t think it’s for me.”
I wanted to make a statement with this dress. I wasn’t just a luna. I was an alpha too.
Lucy smiled. “I finished stitching up a beautiful gown yesterday. Go get changed. I think it could be everything you are looking for.”
She disappeared into one of the back rooms, and I waddled to the dressing room in this too-tight-to-walk dress.
A few moments later, Lucy handed me a blush-pink, baby-blue, and soft-yellow gown. Colorful wasn’t normally my style, but something drew me to this dress, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It reminded me of dawn mornings when Jeremy and I would go to the cave and watch the sunrise over the trees, the pinks and blues and tans mixing together in a breathtaking sight.
And yet, somehow, it reminded me of more than mornings with Jeremy. It reminded me of dawns with Ares that I was sure hadn’t happened yet, in places far more tranquil than Sanguine Wilds. It was hope in a world of uncertainty.
As soon as I slipped the dress on, I grinned. It was exactly what I wanted and what I needed for my Luna Ceremony. This dress made me feel like a goddess, awakening the wolves every morning with soft pastels to start new days.
Elijah beamed when he saw me. “You look so damn beautiful, Aurora. Ares will love it.”