AURORA
Sunlight flooded into my room, creating cute patterns from the shadow of the cherry tree outside my window. Ruffles lay on my chest and licked my face, her breath smelling suspiciously like potato chips. I sank into my sheets and sighed.
Stupid Mars. Stupid Aurora for giving in to Mars so easily. Stupid feelings for my stupid mate.
I shifted in the bed, let Ruffles hop off, and sat up. What was wrong with me? Why was I letting this get to me? Maybe it was because when I had been growing up, I’d watched Jeremy and his mate sneak away at night to spend the night together. I had seen those stolen glances and smiles, those lovely words of affection they shared.
Now that Jeremy was gone and all I heard from Mom were lies about how strong and great she thought I was, I wanted to find my mate more than anything. But, Goddess, not a mate who didn’t seem to care about me at all, not a mate who had left me alone in the forest after getting me off.
My wolf whimpered, and I knew she still wanted him and his wolf.
They were fated mates after all.
In the distance, growling erupted through the woods. I yawned and opened the window wider, breathing in the crisp morning air. Practice didn’t start for another hour. What—
A patrol guard scurried through the woods toward the direction of the pack hospital, a trail of blood following him. My eyes widened. We were being attacked.
I threw on a pair of clothes as quickly as I could.
“Mom?” I asked, running through the house.
Everything was silent, and my heart dropped in my chest. I tried the mind link and didn’t get a response from anyone, which made me think the worst. Mom must’ve been right; Alpha Ares was here sooner rather than later. I could just feel it.
“Mom!”
I raced through the woods, making sure to stay hidden in the trees. Mom had known that he was here, but she hadn’t even bothered waking me up, so I could help fight.
My body ached with shame at the mere thought of her shaking her head at Dad and saying, He’ll take her first. She’s the weakest link.
After a few miles of sprinting in my human form, I stopped. Wave after wave of iron and blood hit me, and I crouched behind a tree, scrunching my nose. Through the woods, I watched the warriors fight. Wolf on wolf. Teeth on teeth. Claws on claws. Flesh and fur being torn off. Blood spewing everywhere. My pack howling for Mom to do something.
And there he was.
Alpha Ares.
Standing in the center of the two enemy packs, he circled Mom like she was some sort of prey. He stood taller and larger than the rest of the wolves, his thick midnight fur glistening under the sunlight.
There was no doubt in my mind that he would kill her.
Dad stood a few feet away, holding up a fight against a wolf large enough to be a beta. My heart raced, and I tried to think up a good plan within the next few moments. But Ares moved so fast that I barely had time to think of anything other than a surprise attack. I’d leap at him when he was about to clamp down on Mom’s neck, just when he thought he had conquered another pack.
It would ruin him. I would ruin him. And maybe it’d prove something to Mom too.
After sneaking closer to the fight, I tried to analyze his movements. I needed an opening, some type of distraction to get into the center so I could save her. But Mom ruined my entire plan when she suddenly shifted into her human.
“Stop,” she said to her warriors and to Ares. “We have a proposition. One that you won’t pass up.”
Alpha Ares growled, his teeth dripping with sanguine-colored saliva. His warriors stopped their attacks and bowed their heads to him so quickly and so effortlessly that it scared me how much power that man had over feral animals. Ares scanned Mom’s warrior wolves as if he was searching for someone, and then he shifted to his human.
My eyes widened. Mars—Ares, whoever he goddamn was—stood in front of Mom, his taut chest smeared with blood, his eyes as golden as the sun.
“Where is she?” Ares said through clenched teeth. “Where is Aurora?”
I froze behind the tree, my entire body tense. Anger and betrayal and so much hurt rushed through me. He must’ve followed my scent back through the forest, using my secret route. It was the only way he could’ve gotten on our property and caused this much damage this quickly.
He’d used me last night to get what he wanted—an unguarded entrance to my pack, an easy way to get past the warriors on patrol, for me to trust him. With that stupid-ass smirk and those stupid-ass eyes and that stupid-ass scent of hazelnut, he had manipulated me, and I’d let him.
He let out another guttural growl and stepped closer to Mom. “I’m not going to ask again.”
I dug my fingers into the hard tree bark, peering from behind it and at my mate. Moon Goddess, even when he was angry he was ho—
I shook my head. Stop it, Aurora. That man is a violent, vicious animal.
He stepped even closer, and Tony moved in front of Mom to protect her. Ares let out a lifeless chuckle, lip curling into a snarl, and then grabbed Tony by the throat, his entire hand wrapping around Tony’s fragile neck.
“Release him,” Mom commanded, acting like Ares’s threats didn’t intimidate her. But she glanced nervously at Tony and then at Dad. And I knew she was afraid of losing the next beta of this pack. “And we can talk.”
Ares turned around with Tony in his hold, gazing through the forest. “Come out, Aurora. I know you’re watching.” He inhaled, and I swore his features softened for just a moment. “I have your precious Tony.”
I ground my teeth together and walked through the forest to the fight. I might not be good at fighting, but I cared about my pack. They would do anything to protect each other, and I would do anything to protect them.
When Mom saw me, she growled like she always did when she didn’t want me to listen in on her shitty alpha decisions. “Aurora, get back in the pack house.”
“Put him down,” I demanded, meeting Ares’s glowing golden gaze. “Now.”
Mars—Ares’s eyes danced with excitement as he glanced at Mom. “If you don’t have the stone and have absolutely no information on its whereabouts, there’s only one deal that I would ever accept.”
Mom stepped forward, regaining her composure, and tried to posture over him. “What?”
“Aurora.”
My eyes widened as a rush of adrenaline ran through my veins. “No. Absolutely not.” I shook my head, ignoring the pleas from my wolf. “I told you yesterday that I’m not interested.”
“You saw him yesterday?” Mom asked, brow cocked at me. “I told you not to go out.”
Ares chuckled. “She doesn’t listen,” he said, a smirk stretching across his face. “But I can fix that.”
His eyes were burning into mine, and my heart was racing even harder in my chest. It was an unspoken promise, a promise to bend me over his bed and fuck me until I listened to every word he said.
He thought he had control over me, but I knew how to put him in his place. I walked right up to him, standing in a puddle of wolf blood, and stared him right in those golden eyes. “If what you plan to do is anything like your performance last night, you’d never put me in my place.”
A growl ripped from his throat, and he tightened his grip on Tony’s neck. Tony grasped his wrists, his cheeks flushing red, but Ares didn’t even flinch.
“I was going easy on you last night, pup.” He turned to Mom, rage emanating off of him. “Aurora or your pack, Alpha. One way, I take Aurora and leave, never coming back to hurt your people. The other way, I kill everyone here and still take your daughter. Your choice.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at him. Who did he think he was, demanding an alpha as his own, personal war prize? Nobody in this pack would ever let that happen.
Dad looked at Mom, not saying a single word, and Mom refused to make eye contact with me.
Instead, she pushed back her shoulders and nodded her head. “Fine.”
My eyes widened, and I dropped my arms. Fine? What the hell did she mean by fine? She thought that this was fine? She was going to just give me away to my psychotic alpha mate?
I glared at her, about to call her every possible name in the book, but I held myself back. Now that Jeremy was gone, I was her only heir, and she was giving me away like I was nothing to her. My heart hurt, and I wanted to refuse to go with him, but by the look in her eye, I knew she wouldn’t budge. She’d tell me that this was best for the pack, that we couldn’t afford another loss.
Before his pack of bloodthirsty warriors, Ares stood like he was a fucking king, praised by every one of them. Then, he smirked, cocked a finger in my direction, and said, “Come here, Kitten.”
The words sounded so disgraceful. Disgraceful to my whole legacy. To my father, who claimed to have come from the strongest warrior family in all of the nations. To my mother, the first female alpha. To me, Ares’s stupid fucking mate.
My gaze shifted from Mom to Dad to Tony, who looked so desperate in Ares’s arms. He dangled there with Ares’s claws in his neck, his eyes on me and me only. He looked so pitiful. He looked less than a beta and more like a sorry-ass rogue, begging for forgiveness.
I didn’t know if I was angry with Mom for handing over the only heir to her pack, with Ares for using me last night, or with myself for actually believing that his name was Mars. I was such a damn fool.
But for my pack, I clenched my teeth together and stormed to Ares, ripping Tony from him. “You’re a monster.”
He chuckled lowly, drew his fingers up the side of my neck, and grasped my chin in his hand like he had done last night, making me look into those golden eyes. “And you’re mine, Kitten.” He roughly brushed his thumb over my bottom lip. “All mine.”