Catch Me, Alpha (God of War Book 2)

by Emilia Rose

  To my surprise, Marcel lifted one shoulder in an attempt to shrug. “He was your beta and best friend for years. I don’t blame you for not killing him,” he said with a tight voice. It almost sounded like he blamed himself for not ripping out Liam’s throat.

  I sat back in a chair and stared up at the twinkling star and moon lights hanging from the ceiling. If I were Marcel, I would’ve killed him as soon as I found out that Liam was sleeping with my mate. I didn’t know what had held Marcel back from doing just that. His reputation perhaps?

  “I don’t like how there’s a fuckin’ hound on our property,” Marcel said, staring out the window at the townspeople. He lifted his nose into the air and breathed in gently, as if he smelled something enticing. “How’d they even get onto the property without being detected?”

  “I bet it was fucking Fenris,” Ares said through clenched teeth, hands balling into fists. “He has more control than most hounds. He knows exactly what he’s doing.” Ares placed his hand on my knee and squeezed tightly, claws ripping through my jeans. “He wants to weaken us, and Liam knows all our secrets.”

  Trailing my fingers around the edges of the mason jar filled with my water, I laid my other hand on top of Ares’s in hopes of calming him down. Fenris was the one who had taken my brother and raped Ares’s mother, and now, he was sneaking onto our property.

  He was getting more dangerous by the day.

  Charolette walked into the café, hair in blonde curls on her shoulders. Marcel breathed in deeply again and instinctively sat up straight, his pupils dilating but his jaw tensing. She sauntered over to us, eyes narrowing at Marcel’s back.

  “Ares, I didn’t know that you’d be here!” Charolette said after grabbing a bagel at the counter. She wrinkled her nose at Marcel, who glared at the window and acted as if he were ignoring her. Once she took a seat next to Marcel, so close that their forearms brushed against each other, she stabbed her bagel with a plastic knife. “I should’ve known you were up to something, Aurora,” she murmured.

  My lips curled into a smirk, and I mouthed the words, You’re welcome, to her so that Ares wouldn’t hear. While I knew today wouldn’t turn out to be the double date I’d hoped for, I was still glad that they’d get to spend some time together in public.

  Ares caught sight of our interaction and cleared his throat. “I need a beta, Marcel.”

  “What do you want me to do about it?” he said, voice tense, as he pulled his arm away from Charolette’s. “There aren’t too many people in this pack who know the ins and outs of it the way that Liam did.”

  I rolled my eyes at his cluelessness. “He means, you.”

  Charolette snorted. “You want Marcel to be your beta?”

  “What’s your fucking problem?” Marcel growled, whirling in his seat and glaring down at her with passion and anger, hurt and anguish in his eyes. He shook his head, sending pieces of his long white hair flying. “I’m never fucking good enough for you, huh?” he asked, voice raw and full of emotion.

  While I understood why Charolette didn’t want to get close to Marcel, seeing how much it affected him made my heart hurt too. He wanted to love her so fucking much, yet her cancer was holding her back.

  “I never said that.” She jutted out her chin. “All I’m saying is that you’re no leader. You can’t even finish your duties when they need to be finished, you never give your all, you never—”

  “So, that’s what this is about?” Marcel interrupted. “This morning.”

  They bickered back and forth, talking so cryptically, careful not to hint to Ares that they were mates, fated to be together for eternity.

  Ares leaned closer to me, bumping my knee with his. “Is something going on with them?”

  I pressed my lips together to hold back the biggest grin. “Hmm, I don’t know.”

  “You’re lying. Did he do something to her?”

  Charolette hummed angrily and slammed her hands down on the table, making the torch-like candle flicker. She scooted off the couch, face red with rage, and yanked Marcel up. “We need to talk in private.” She stormed out of the diner, leaving her purse and bagel.

  Once they left the café, Ares pulled out his phone and texted Vulcan. There was no more time to waste. We needed as much information as possible because these hounds were now attacking us, killing us, and wandering onto our property without being caught.

  Ares: We leave in two days.

  I rested my head on Ares’s shoulder and read the message coming through.

  Vulcan: My warriors are ready. I believe Minerva and her warriors are coming too.

  Good. The more warriors, the less likely we’d all die from a surprise attack.

  Ares deposited the phone back into his pocket and sighed. “Don’t you think they’re taking a bit long?” Ares asked, glancing at the café door.

  Marcel and Charolette had disappeared behind the building and out of view, probably doing the nasty.

  And if they were, my plan to get them together had worked.

  Two cats appeared at the glass door, Ruffles peering through at me. Someone opened the door for them, and Ruffles and Pringle walked in together. She jumped onto my lap and rubbed against me as Pringle hopped into Marcel’s seat on the other side.

  “Meow.”

  Ruffles sank her little teeth into my wrist and tugged gently. When I didn’t budge, she bit down harder and nodded toward the door. “Meow.” She gave me that look she always did whenever she saw Ares and me sleeping together—pure disgust. “Meow.”

  “Girl, stop,” I scolded her because I knew she had probably seen Marcel and Charolette outside. I didn’t want her giving out any information to Ares about his sister and now-beta. “It’s not like you weren’t just doing that with Pringle last night,” I whisper-yelled when she bit me again.

  “Doing what?” Ares asked.

  “Meow.”

  I flared my nostrils down at her and placed a finger to her mouth to get her to shut up. But then she stared out the window and then at me. Looking back and forth, as if something was urgent and that something wasn’t our two friends having sex in the forest.

  “What is it?” I asked, stroking her soft fur.

  “Meow.”

  Urgency and fear lay heavily in her eyes.

  “Did you see something?”

  When the diner door reopened, Charolette and Marcel walked back into the room. Charolette was glowing, radiating with happiness, a grin stretched across her face. And Marcel looked a lot more relieved.

  “Why the fuck is there a cat in my seat?” Marcel asked, staring down at Pringle, who was perched on the cushion, whiskers coated in some sort of salt. Marcel went to gently push him off when Ruffles put two paws on the table and hissed at him. After grumbling under his breath, Marcel sat next to him, Charolette following.

  Ares gave Charolette a long, hard look.

  “It’s my sister, isn’t it?” he asked me through the mind link. “The girl dating Marcel.”

  I tensed and placed a hand on his thigh. “I wouldn’t say they’re dating …”

  “MEOW!”

  Ruffles gnawed on my wrist again and bit down hard enough to draw blood. Suddenly, she pushed her ears back and turned her attention to the window, where we could see some warriors rushing to Moon’s.

  A man shifted and hurried into the diner, completely naked. “Alpha,” he said, hands on his knees and gasping for breath. “We found Liam, the rogue, and the rogue’s child, but you have to come quickly. It’s—”

  Ares slammed his fist down on the table and shot up from his seat. “You found them?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Move, Aurora,” Ares said, trying to get past me.

  “Alpha, I wouldn’t act rashly. Hounds were spotted close to the borders too.”

  Jaw clenched, muscles tense, eyes searching the surrounding area, Ares hurried toward the exit with Marcel hot on his heels. Although warriors had spotted hounds forty miles east of our property, Ares didn�
�t listen to warnings and shifted into his wolf, running through the forest to Liam.

  “Prepare,” Marcel said through the mind link to our warriors, stepping into his beta position without a second thought. Scanning the town for any threats, he ran after his alpha.

  I cursed at the men who didn’t listen to reason and chased behind Marcel. If true danger lay in the forest, Ares wasn’t going to fight them alone. I might be a cripple, but once I shifted, I was just as strong as he was.

  The farther Marcel and Ares ran toward the borders, the quicker I lost them. Picking up their scent, I listened to the forest become quieter by the second. My stomach tightened at the thought of it being midday and nothing—not even birds—were making a sound.

  And then I heard it.

  A desperate howl. Something so raw and sorrowful. From Ares.

  With Charolette close behind, I hurried to my mate. What if those hounds had taken his father or maybe some of the pups or—

  When I saw it, I froze. Charolette let out a piercing scream and ran forward, but I caught her arm and held her back to me, so she couldn’t move. She struggled. Hard. But I wrapped my arms around her and forced her to turn around, so she wouldn’t see the blood because, Goddess, there was tons of it.

  I turned my head to the side to glance back and shuddered in disgust. Hanging on ropes by their left ankles, Liam, the rogue, and the rogue’s child swayed dead from a single tree branch, bodies covered in deep claw marks, skin decorated with bites, and heads on stakes underneath them.

  Chapter 21

  Ares

  “Get them fucking down now,” I said, staring at the three hanging corpses.

  As warriors scrambled to remove them from the tree, I shifted my gaze to the pale faces and heads impaled on silver stakes. Blood leaked down the poles, the silver still sizzling against the wolves’ brains.

  All I felt was anger at the hounds for doing this and sadness for my pack members. Liam had been my best friend since childhood, helped Mars through Mom’s death, and stuck around when Mars’s personality split and I barreled into their lives.

  And now, he was dead.

  Glancing at the pup dangling by his ankle, I balled my hands into fists. At barely ten years old, that boy shouldn’t have been brought into this mess at all. I should’ve invited him to the pack house the other night; I should’ve done something other than reject his mother, which in turn rejected him.

  He had shown signs of superiority and ruthlessness.

  I could’ve made him stronger.

  I could’ve made him a warrior.

  I could’ve protected him.

  Marcel grabbed the boy, but I seized his wrist and pulled him back.

  “I got him,” I said quietly, untying the rope with shaky hands and taking the headless pup in my arms. I pulled the stake from the ground and walked into the woods, far away from my warriors so they wouldn’t see me break down.

  He hadn’t deserved to live as a rogue, just because his mother subjected him to it. He hadn’t deserved to witness the hounds rip off Liam’s head and his mother’s head. He hadn’t deserved to die so horridly to beasts that should’ve stayed dead.

  After fifteen minutes of wandering aimlessly through the entire forest, I found myself in the cave. Alone. Without backup, without Aurora, and without anyone to fight with me if something turned out bad. Once I found a place to bury the boy, I laid him on the ground and started digging with my bare hands. I could only imagine the fear, the helplessness, the sorrow, and the guilt rushing through his mind in his final moments. Unable to stop the hounds from hurting his mother.

  It hit too close to home, felt too much like watching Mom get raped and not being able to stop it, thinking that I should, knowing that it was the right thing to do, but unable to move from the fucking spot in the closet as it happened.

  Why couldn’t I protect the people I loved? First Mom, and then an innocent pack member. Who was next? Aurora?

  An inescapable hollow feeling lay heavily in my heart. Something told me that this pain wasn’t going to pass quickly. I’d hold this pup’s agony for as long as I lived, just like I boarded up the torment I felt with Mom and Charolette and even Dad.

  My entire pack relied on me.

  And I couldn’t even protect them.

  “Ares,” Aurora said through the mind link, “are you okay?”

  I pressed my lips together and cut the connection between us right now, knowing that if I responded to her, it’d only be with another painful howl. I hated feeling so helpless in front of her. I wanted to be her rock, like I was with Mars. But sometimes, holding the entire world on my shoulders hurt too fucking bad.

  Once I dug a hole deep enough for him just outside the cave’s entrance, I laid the boy to rest and covered him with dirt. I wanted to plant a moonflower over his grave, but nothing would grow this time of year, especially not with all this fog.

  Pounding against the dirt until it solidified, I stood and walked to the back of the cave to stare down into the hole where Fenris had raised the dead. Against my better judgment, I jumped down into it, hitting the ground with a thud, and collapsed onto all fours.

  Nobody was here.

  It seemed like they hadn’t been here for days now, yet my wolf snarled. I sprinted through the cave in my wolf form, wanting to find someone or something to kill to release all this anger and hurt. How could they have done this to innocent people? How could they have killed a pup? Was it all for Aurora, or was there more?

  My heart pounded, another vicious growl exiting my throat.

  I wanted blood. I wanted fur. I wanted to kill those fucking bastards.

  I wasn’t backing down. We weren’t going to let this go. We would track Fenris down—even if we had to go to hell and back to catch him. Nobody would get away with torturing an innocent pup and murdering my friend and former beta. Liam might’ve deserved to be hurt but not dead.

  Scratching the walls. Digging into the dirt. Howl, growl, snarl, and nip at the musty air. I couldn’t stop myself, and I didn’t want to stop myself. I fucking hated hounds with everything I had. They had destroyed my life, Aurora’s life, everyone’s fucking life.

  After what seemed like hours, I walked back to the hole in the ceiling and leaped out of it, landing on all fours in the cave. Scrapes covered my fur from colliding into the cave walls over and over and over again.

  I had wanted to feel pain today because I deserved it. I was a shit alpha and let my people die. So many bad memories haunted my mind, and I thought back to the times after Mom died. How terrible I’d felt. How I’d thought I deserved all the pain. How I’d wanted to hurt myself because it made me feel better. Even the thought of death had sounded … it’d sounded …

  At the thought, agonizing physical pain shot through my body. I hung my head low and whimpered, suddenly only able to think about Aurora. It was my wolf, begging me not to think destructively anymore. We had someone who cared about us now. We always did, but we needed to be strong for her.

  We couldn’t think about doing what Mom had done to herself. We fucking couldn’t.

  But Aurora knew that she couldn’t fix us. She knew that she couldn’t heal us. But she would stay by my side if we slipped, right? She would be there for us. She would love us still for who we were.

  My wolf let out another growl and demanded that I stop now. Denise had taught me to spot the early signs of when I started to slip into negative thoughts, to not feed that side of me, but it was fucking hard sometimes.

  I thought about cutting myself again.

  I wanted to do it again.

  It would ease the pain even if it was only for a moment.

  It was the only real thing I could control.

  But I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t.

  I shifted into my human and walked to the cave’s exit, glancing at the pup’s grave. “Run with the wolves,” I whispered. “Run with the wolves.”

  Chapter 22

  Aurora

  After A
res disappeared with the boy’s body, I ached to chase after him to ensure that he wouldn’t do anything stupid. The god of war was a reckless mess, driven by his rage for war and his sorrow for his people. And I had never seen him so sullen.

  “This is all my fault,” Charolette sobbed before I could go after him. She shook uncontrollably with fat tears streaming down her cheeks and rolling down her neck. “My fault.”

  The warriors around us stared at me and waited for my orders, but I didn’t know what to do. Mom had never once given me this much responsibility, nothing even close to this. While I was an alpha, I never had the blood of my pack members on my hands like this. Maybe during the second hound attack on my old pack, but I had desperately tried to warn everyone.

  This time, I hadn’t because I didn’t think Fenris could wander onto our property, kill two guards, help Liam and his rogue girlfriend and child escape, and flee as if he had never even been here. Whatever magic he was using was more than just hound powers or necromancy sorcery.

  Nobody here should’ve died. Nobody should’ve been taken. Nobody should’ve been on our property last night. After glancing around the gloomy and foggy forest to see if Ares was coming back, I gulped and rubbed Charolette’s back.

  “Bury them,” I ordered a group of warriors.

  “But he betrayed us,” one said, hiking his thumb back at Liam.

  “He betrayed us and paid with his life. Let the dead rest.”

  “Don’t make your luna tell you again,” Marcel said with a scowl, staring at the warriors carrying Liam’s body. By the look on his face, I could tell he didn’t want to bury Liam either, but he wasn’t going to disagree with me, not when Ares would be on his ass about it later. “Bury them.”

  With the carcasses and heads, the warriors disappeared into the forest and headed west to the cemetery. I would’ve gone with them, but Ares had brought me there once to talk about his mother, and the thought of going back now that I knew the hounds were undead freaked me out.