AURORA
My whole body shook with pleasure, my eyes rolling back in my head. I could feel his canines inside of me, sliding deeper and deeper into my flesh as he claimed me as his mate. My wolf let out a lascivious purr, and I dug my fingers into his shoulders.
He had marked me. My mate had just marked me.
Though my wolf loved every single second of it, I didn’t. Mars wasn’t the one to mark me like he’d wanted to, like he had told me the other night. Ares had marked me out of pure possessiveness and jealousy. Taking everything away from Mars.
I slammed my hands into his chest, but my fingers curled into his muscles instead of pushing him away from me. He relaxed under my touch, his whole body slouching forward. A satisfied moan escaped his mouth, his breath warming my neck.
When he pulled his teeth out of me, he was back as Mars. Not angry Ares. Not that terrifying god of war. Just plain old Mars. My Mars.
He gazed longingly at me and then at my neck, and his eyes widened. “Oh my Goddess.” He gently held my face, staring at my mark as if he had no recollection of actually doing it. “You’re marked. I … Ares marked you.”
Just like that, Ares was gone. But I knew that with one wrong move, Ares would appear again, and this time, since he had claimed me, he’d think that I would willingly submit to him.
Mars’s lips quivered, and I swore that if he wasn’t holding my face, he would’ve fallen to the ground. “I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he said as if he was lost for words.
He searched my face for something, and I tried to hold back the tears.
Tears that Ares had taken my moment from me. Tears that Ares was going to kill me.
Elijah grunted and turned onto his side on the cold cement.
Mars’s eyes flashed gold. “I’m so s-s—” He grasped my face harder, shaking his head and trying to stay in control of Ares. “I didn’t me-me-mean to,” he stuttered.
Though he had just marked me, my heart hurt for him. Mars was fighting that innate evil inside of him. He was fighting a demon that he would lose against time and time again. He was fighting Ares—the man who never apologized, the man who didn’t give in until he finished the job.
He shook his head again, his eyes glowing brown for a long time, and then squeezed his eyes closed. “I-I—” he said. His eyes snapped open. That lovely, luscious brown had turned into a burning gold.
Mars was gone.
My mark tingled, and my wolf purred at the mere sight of Ares.
“We’re not sorry,” Ares said, moving closer to me.
I stepped back, heart pounding wildly again.
“We should complete our bond, thrust you against the wall in front of Elijah, take you so you know never to think of another man again.”
Elijah grunted once more, and Ares snapped his head in his direction.
“But I haven’t been this close to the stone ever, and I’m going to find it.” Ares stormed back to Elijah and snatched him by the neck, his claws sinking into his flesh.
“Stop, Ares.” I grabbed his bicep, trying to pull him away from Elijah.
“Aurora, stop,” Elijah said, voice barely audible. Brows furrowed together, eyes barely open, Elijah begged me to leave. “Go before you watch your mate kill me and see the side of him that you don’t ever want to see.”
My fingers were shaking, trembling. All of my fears, all of my insecurities boiled down to this moment, and I didn’t even know if I was strong enough to walk out of this cell and never turn back.
Ares’s mark was burning my skin, searing it, connecting me to him. And I hated it. I wished that he had never done it because now … now, I didn’t want to go. That was exactly what he had wanted too. He didn’t want me to leave him.
“Ares, stop, please.”
Tears welled up in my eyes at the sight of Ares doing this to him, of Ares the monster. He pushed Elijah further against the wall and held him there by the throat. The silver chains dug into his skin, blistering it. Elijah tensed, trying not to cry out and show Ares that this was killing him from the inside out, but Ares didn’t need to hear it to know that Elijah was breaking.
He just didn’t know that I was breaking too.
“I’ll tell you where it is, Ares! I know where the stone is!” I shouted at him.
Ares shifted his head toward me, eyes flickering gold. “You fucking know? Or are you lying to protect him?”
“I know,” I whispered. “I really know.”
Elijah shook his head. “Don’t, Aurora.” He seized the silver chain in his palms, burning the skin right off of them. “Please, don’t. I promised your brother that I would take care of you. I can’t protect you if you tell him.”
Ares shook with anger. “Aurora, I swear to the Moon Goddess that if you don’t tell me where it is, I will snap Elijah’s neck.”
“Please,” Elijah pleaded with me.
I gazed back and forth between the two of them, my chest tightening by the second. It was now or never. Now or fucking never. I parted my lips to say something, to say anything, but my wolf wouldn’t let me speak.
“If you don’t want to fucking tell me …” Ares grabbed my wrist and jerked me toward him. He placed my hand on Elijah’s throat, his hand over my hand, making me grip his neck in my hand. “You’ll fucking do it.”
Though I always thought that Elijah was strong, his throat felt so fragile against my palm. Like … if I squeezed any harder, it’d snap. I would snap it. Jeremy would hate me. I couldn’t form coherent words. Tears streamed down my face. Why was he doing this to me?
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on between you two, but one of you will break and tell me where that fucking stone is,” Ares said.
Moon Goddess, Ares really was crazy. He’d snap my throat in a second … but I would rather be dead than kill the only man who had helped me survive that hound attack.
“Do it,” Elijah said, his face turning a deeper shade of purple. “Do it, so I can see your brother again.”
My heart ached. “Ares, don’t make me, please.”
Don’t make me say it. Don’t make me make you hate me. Don’t make me tell you exactly what you want to hear.
I couldn’t handle this. I felt like I was falling apart. I shouldn’t have kept this secret to myself, but I wanted to tell him when I was ready. Not like this.
He would hate me. Just like Mom. Just like I hated myself.
“Now, Aurora,” he said through clenched teeth. “Every fucking minute that you waste is another minute—”
“Another minute what?” I asked, desperately trying to buy myself time to think of a plan.
“Another minute that your precious Elijah gets tortured by your hand.”
A blood vessel broke in Elijah’s eye, making it red with blood. Another tear slipped down my cheek. He parted his lips to say something else, but Ares just tightened our hands around his throat.
Ten more seconds. He had ten fucking seconds. I could feel it.
When Elijah’s eyes slowly closed, I screamed, “Okay! Okay! Just stop!”
Ares let go of my hand, and Elijah’s body smacked against the concrete floor.
Elijah rolled onto his hands and knees, gasping for breath. “Aurora … don’t,” he pleaded.
I gazed up at an angry Ares, fear running through my veins.
“Now, Aurora,” he said, “tell me.”
I glanced at the cell door and inched my way closer. Once I told him, I would make a run for it. I wouldn’t get far, but it was my only option. I gulped nervously and faced all of my fears.
“It’s me,” I said quietly. “It’s me. I have the stone.”