Catch Me, Alpha (God of War Book 2)

by Emilia Rose

  But I didn’t stop thrusting up into her until my cum was deep inside of her. I kissed the mark I’d left on her neck and grunted against it, making sure every last drop was inside before I pulled out.

  She slowly lifted her hips off me and stared down with wide eyes. “Did you come?”

  “Yes.”

  “None is coming out,” she said, glancing down between her hips.

  Goddess, she made me rock hard again.

  “I pushed it too deep. It’s not going to come out of you.” I chuckled and pulled her to my chest, sucking her bottom lip between my teeth. “One day, Aurora, I’m going to put a pup inside of you. Maybe today’s that day. Maybe you’ll start growing my babies.”

  Chapter 30

  Aurora

  “Can you get your nasty-ass hands off Aurora?” Charolette asked Mars, standing at our bedroom door, which she’d opened. Dressed in a white sundress and a pair of pink sandals, she scrunched her nose and turned away from us. “I need to help prepare her for the ceremony, and you need to get ready too, Mars.”

  Picking me up off the bed, Mars placed me on the ground, grasped my face, and kissed me softly. “Go, get ready with her before she screams at me.” He looked back over at her. “And you’re not off the hook, Charolette. We’ll talk tomorrow about what you did.”

  After tugging on my clothes, I hurried down the hall with Charolette.

  “You shouldn’t be doing that kind of stuff before the Luna Ceremony!” Charolette whisper-yelled at me. “It’s supposed to be a sacred time. What if our Moon Goddess finds out about it? She’ll rain down hell.”

  Wanting to keep the conversation light, I laughed and walked into Ruffles’s spare bedroom. Ruffles sat on her yellow blankets with her head in a bag of potato chips and a thick layer of salt and grease covering her whiskers.

  “No Pringle today?”

  She cut her eyes to me and meowed, stuffing her face with chips again.

  Charolette bumped her hip against mine and reached for my dress that hung in the closet. “Pringle will be at the ceremony. I had to drag Ruffles away from him today. She wouldn’t leave his side.”

  Once I took a quick shower, Charolette wrapped me in a plush silver robe and sat me in the bathroom chair, pushing a comb through my hair. “Someone is in love,” Charolette hummed at Ruffles, who lifted her nose into the air in a so what manner.

  I smiled at Ruffles, and then gazed at Charolette through the mirror’s reflection. “I know I can’t persuade you to use the stone, and I know that even if we find another one, you won’t want to use that either … but please, talk to your brother. Make sure he knows that you love him and that you’re doing this for yourself. Not because you feel like a burden. Not because you feel guilty about what happened to your mother. Yourself.” I hardened my stare. “And if you’re not doing it for yourself, maybe you should reconsider it.”

  Charolette stopped the comb mid-brush and frowned at me, guilt washing through her expression. She glided her tongue across her front teeth. “I—”

  Someone knocked on the bedroom door, and Charolette happily hurried over to it. By the look on her face and sadness in her eyes, I hoped that my words had struck a chord inside of her and changed her mind. We both knew that she wasn’t doing this for herself, but because she felt guilty about her mother’s death.

  Dressed in a black suit, Elijah raced past Charolette and into the room with fearful, wide eyes. “You might not be able to put the stone inside of you tonight.”

  Charolette shut the door behind him. “Why can’t she? Is your doctor okay?”

  “It all makes sense. I didn’t want it to make sense, but it does.” He pushed his thick black frames up his nose and shook his head. “What you’ve told me so far is that wolves die and then are brought back to life by those white orbs that faintly resemble dust particles that you saw at the cave. It turned them into hounds, correct?”

  Unsure about where he was going with this, I nodded.

  “We didn’t put two and two together until now.” He placed a manila folder on Ruffles’s bed and laid out a bunch of papers across the blanket. Ruffles stood to give him room and stared down at the strong cursive writing as if she understood what they meant. “You are a hound, Aurora, because you died and came back to life, using magic.”

  “What are you talking about? I never died …”

  “You died during the stone surgery,” Elijah said, lowering his voice. “Your injuries from the hound attack were far too bad to treat. We revived you three times …” He held three fingers up for emphasis. “Three times, your heart stopped beating. It must’ve been buried in the files somewhere, but we found it.”

  Charolette ushered me back to the bathroom to finish my hair.

  “The last time you died, we thought we’d lost you for good. You were dead for a solid five minutes, and we were about to extract the stone from your back because we thought it was useless. But you opened your eyes. The stone must’ve brought you back from the dead, as fully functioning, unlike hounds.”

  “So, are you saying that this necromancer grinds up stones and uses the dust to bring the dead back to life?” I asked, watching Charolette work her magic on my hair.

  But it did make sense. If Hella the necromancer and Fenris the hound master used complete stones on each hound, then the stones would make them able to think freely and for themselves again. Maybe she only used stone dust, so she could control the beasts.

  Maybe we didn’t need to kill Fenris at all but Hella.

  “I don’t know if we’ll be able to do the surgery because you might need to be dead in order for us to do it.” Elijah frowned at me. “We can try, but there is no guarantee that it will work despite whatever you learned at Syncome Mountains today.”

  “We’ll try it. Just don’t tell Ares. I want this ceremony to be peaceful.” I glanced at Charolette and frowned. “I’ll tell him right before the surgery and hope that he won’t freak out.”

  My stomach tightened at the thought. I needed to go through with this either way. The hounds were coming, and nothing could stop them, except maybe me, if I wielded both halves of the stone.

  After Charolette finished my hair, I grabbed the stone from my dresser’s silver safe, where I’d had it locked up for weeks now, and thrust it into Elijah’s hand. “Take it and prepare. I want it done right after the after-party. I had someone set aside a place at the hospital.”

  Elijah stared down at the glistening stone through his glasses, gulped, and enclosed it in his hand. “Aurora, I don’t want to hurt you. I want you to live. If we can’t put it inside of you tonight, we can’t kill you to try.”

  “This is the only way and the only time you’ll be able to do it,” I said. Medusa had said that it had to be done tonight during the full moon. If we waited any longer, we’d be dead. “I can’t pass up this opportunity now. I’ve lost too much already. I need to do this. I need to save this pack.”

  Less than an hour later, I stood outside the pack house with Charolette and Elijah.

  Charolette bounced on her toes and grinned at me, her blonde hair flowing in the fall breeze. She smoothed out some wrinkles on my colorful pastel dress and clapped her hands together. “It’s time! I can’t believe the Luna Ceremony is finally here. I’ve been waiting my entire life for Ares to find his partner and finally claim her. And I’m so happy that it’s you!”

  “Let’s go sit.” Elijah grasped her shoulders and guided her into the forest. He glanced over his shoulder. “If I don’t get a chance to talk to you after the ceremony, I’ll meet you at the hospital at midnight for the surgery.”

  After they disappeared, I took a deep breath and stared up at the moon. From the hounds to this ceremony, so many thoughts rushed through my mind. I wished so many people could’ve been here with me to witness this moment and help us fight, like Jeremy, Mom, Dad, and some of my old packmates.

  But things changed, and I had to make the best out of this ceremony. It might not be the ceremony
or timing of my dreams, but I was with the best, most loving man that I had ever met. Ares and Mars both had shown up to prove themselves to me, both had laid their lives on the line. I couldn’t imagine being mated to anyone else.

  As I stared up at the full moon that glowed extra bright this evening, I swore I heard a divine female’s voice drift through the air. “I wish I could be there with you,” the woman whispered. “You look stunning and are destined for great things.”

  Lips curling into a smile, I walked toward the ceremony with my dress swaying in the breeze. Silver ribbon was wrapped around a path of trees leading to our pack, who stood in a semicircle around Mars. Pups sat in front, crisscrossed on the dirt, pulling dry grass out of the ground. Elders stood off to the sides and awed in admiration. Warriors stood behind Mars and watched as I moved up through the crowd.

  I walked toward Mars, who stood under a wooden arch draped with silver ribbons and olive branches. Despite the hounds and the war approaching, I set my lips into a soft smile and vowed to cherish this moment forever.

  When I reached him, I grabbed his hands and interlocked my fingers with his. “I’m so excited!” I said through the mind link.

  Dressed in a tux with his dark hair parted at the side, Mars beamed at me. “I’m just waiting until I can take you back home and ravish you,” he said through the link.

  My cheeks flushed, and I resisted the urge to playfully slap him across the chest. This was supposed to be a sacred ritual, not sexual. But I wouldn’t trade his dirty mouth for the world. He could ravish me the whole night for all I cared. Hell, even tomorrow too.

  Mr. Barrett stood before us and looked around the pack. “Welcome to the—”

  “MEOW!”

  Everyone stopped, looked back, and parted as Ruffles sauntered down the path with a silver ribbon wrapped around her, swaying her tail, with Pringle in tow. She stopped at our feet, and Mars leaned closer to me, reaching into his pocket.

  “I didn’t want Ruffles to feel left out, so I got her something.”

  He crouched, pulled a pair of circle sunglasses from his pocket, and placed them on her face, the frames the same color as my dress. “Charolette mentioned that you’d picked out a pastel dress instead of the traditional silver dress, so I thought it was only fair …”

  I playfully rolled my eyes at him and giggled, so grateful that he could make me laugh in dire times. Moonlight flooded through the trees and created patterns on his tanned face.

  I couldn’t love anyone more than I loved him. He was mine. All mine. And nobody would take him away from me. Ever.

  “As I was saying,” Mr. Barrett said after Ruffles lay on her stomach with those glasses, “I’m deeply saddened that my mate couldn’t be here to watch this special day. I’m sure she would’ve loved to be here with everyone to celebrate our new luna.”

  Mars held my hands tighter, blinking a few times, as if not wanting any bad memories to rush to the surface. I brushed my thumb across his knuckles. I wished his mother could’ve been here too. There were so many things I wished I could’ve talked to her about.

  “But we are here to celebrate the addition of a strong warrior luna and—Mars wanted me to add—alpha to our pack,” Mr. Barrett said.

  My heart warmed at Mars’s and Ares’s constant appreciation for my strengths as an alpha.

  The pups from my old pack cheered and waved moonflowers in the air. “Yay! Alpha Aurora!”

  After smiling at them, I glanced back up at Mars.

  “I can’t wait to have pups with you,” he whispered, leaning into me.

  Butterflies erupted through my stomach at the thought.

  “Now”—Mr. Barrett looked around the crowd—“does anyone wish to reject our luna?”

  I glared down at Ruffles, who gave me a mischievous smirk, daring her to try to claim Mars for herself. She waved her tail and had the damn audacity to stand. I narrowed my eyes even more and smiled when she cuddled next to Pringle.

  When nobody stood, Mr. Barrett placed a hand on each of our shoulders. “I’m pleased to announce our new luna.”

  The pups tossed their moonflowers into the air, watching them glow brightly like snowflakes as they drifted back to the ground.

  Mars wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer for a big, wet, sloppy kiss. “My luna,” he whispered against my lips. “All mine.”

  Chapter 31

  Mars

  “I want to sneak you away and have my way with you,” I whispered into Aurora’s ear an hour into the after-party, dragging my canines against her neck.

  We had spent the last hour talking to nearly half the pack because most wolves hadn’t even had a chance to introduce themselves to her yet.

  She gave me a halfhearted smile. “Well, before we do any of that, I need to talk to you.”

  As she pulled me aside, the elders chuckled, gave us knowing looks, and dispersed into the forest to celebrate with everyone else.

  She tugged me behind a couple of ribbon-decorated oak trees and slumped her shoulders forward, moonlight bouncing off her skin. “Don’t freak out.”

  “What is it?” I asked, gripping her hands tighter and tighter. “What’s wrong?”

  After glancing up at the moon, she grimaced. “It’s almost midnight, and the stone …”

  My eyes widened. “We need to get you to the hospital, don’t we?”

  “No.” She shook her head and bit her lower lip. “Before the Luna Ceremony, Elijah said that I’m a hound, that I died during the first surgery, and that’s how they were able to successfully place the stone inside of my spine. That’s how it worked.”

  “You’re a hound?” I whispered back at her, and then I shook my head. “You can’t be. You have free will. You … you are able to think for yourself. You’re not vicious. You can shift. You’re exactly like … Fenris.” His name soured my tongue.

  She glanced at the dirt and then back up at me with tears in her eyes. “That’s not all.”

  My heart stopped, everything around us seeming to slow. “Please, don’t tell me that you have to die again for Elijah’s doctor to perform the surgery?” I asked tensely, taking deep breaths so as not to startle Ares.

  But deep inside of me, I felt him rumble.

  “Aurora …” I grasped her hands. “Please, tell me that you don’t have to die because I won’t allow it. I can’t have you leave me. You can’t die, especially if we don’t know if the complete stone will certainly bring you back.”

  “I don’t know what needs to happen,” she whispered, gulping and tucking some hair behind my ear. “Neither does Elijah.”

  While she needed the damn stone to survive, she needed to die for it. It didn’t make an ounce of sense.

  I shook my head, refusing to accept this. “What if you don’t come back to life? What if I lose you forever, all because of a stone?”

  “This is the only way,” she said, fingers curling into my chest. “You heard what Medusa said. Tonight is the only night I am able to do it. Those hounds are coming, and I can’t risk not being strong enough to protect everyone.”

  “Aurora—”

  She took my face in her hands. “Mars, I love you. Please, accept this. I know it’s difficult, but it’s the only way that we have a chance to survive this. If there is hope, it has to be this and nothing else.”

  Though I didn’t want to admit it, she was right. I had to stop thinking about myself and had to start thinking about what this could do for my pack and the entire werewolf species. If the hounds easily destroyed my pack, they’d be able to demolish the entire world.

  After I hesitantly nodded, she kissed me and gave me the most breathtaking smile. “I love you more than anything. Thank you for this. I promise to be strong for you when I wake up out of surgery. I will protect you, and I will protect this pack. As you said, I’m not only a luna, but an alpha too.”

  The corner of my lips twitched up into a smile. It wasn’t a real one, but one that I faked. I didn’t want her to do thi
s. I didn’t accept this. I didn’t think that this was all right one damn bit. But I smiled for her because … because I couldn’t lose her, especially not to hounds.

  “Can I break you two lovebirds apart?” Charolette interrupted, butting right into our conversation. She grabbed Aurora’s hands and pulled her away from me. “I wanna dance with our luna! This is my favorite song!”

  As Charolette pulled her onto the moonflower-decorated, leaf-carpeted dance floor, Dad walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Son, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, but with everything going on … I haven’t found the time.”

  “What is it?” I asked, brows furrowed.

  He parted his lips and then pressed them back together. It wasn’t like him to ever be lost for words or nervous about what he had to say. The last time I had seen him like this was the night he invited Aurora and me over to his house to tell us that Fenris was Mom’s mate.

  “It’s about the stone,” he finally said. “I know you’re thinking about putting it inside of Aurora right after the party, and while I think she’d be great with it, you must know—”

  “I’m not thinking anymore about putting the stone inside of her. She’ll have it in her tonight before dawn,” I said.

  There were no more ifs, ands, or buts about this. It was going to happen whether or not I liked it. Aurora had full autonomy over her body and could make her own choices as alpha and luna. She was by far stronger and smarter than me. And I had seen those hounds, the way they eyed her with hunger. They were coming. For her.

  “Listen to me, son,” he said sharply, gripping my shoulder harsher. “I’m not saying don’t put it inside of her. I want you to know what you’re getting into before you do.” He paused as someone walked by and gave them his best forced smile. “There have been many occurrences of the stone being placed in the wrong person, but there has only been one confirmed person that the stone has been put inside of and worked for eternity.”