AURORA
As soon as the words left my mouth, I sprinted out of the cell, slammed the silver bars to buy myself some much-needed time, and ran out of the underground prison like my life depended on it … because it did. Ares growled viciously, the sound echoing deep into the night and sending shivers down my spine.
After pushing through all the guards who were rushing down the stairs to help their alpha, I bolted through the woods. Running. Running fast. Running as fast as I could. Needing to get away from him and go somewhere my mate would never find me.
But where could I go?
Mom wouldn’t have me … and even if she would, Ares would rip her to pieces to get to me. Elijah’s pack would be too obvious. Maybe I could go to Hound Territory. After I’d told him I was scared of them, he wouldn’t even think I’d go there.
In the night, the trees looked like soaring soot-colored monsters, looming over me and waiting to attack, their branches jutting out at all different angles like deformed limbs against the moonlight. I blindly rushed forward through the thick fog and prayed to the Moon Goddess to help me move at swiftly.
I must’ve been three miles from Ares’s property when I heard another one of his growls rip through the forest, warning me to keep running. To run faster. Because he was coming. For me. For his mate.
My human legs wouldn’t take me all the way to Hound Territory that quickly. And it would take a good ten minutes to even shift into my wolf, especially since I hadn’t done it for a while. I knew I had to be smart, but so many distracting and vile thoughts rushed through my mind that I couldn’t think straight.
“Get back here, Aurora,” Ares said roughly through the mind link, which had formed the second he marked me.
My heart raced quicker than it ever had. My lungs felt so dry that I could barely breathe. I hid behind a tree, knowing that I could never outrun him like this. And even in dire situations, even when my life depended on it, I couldn’t shift as quickly as I needed to shift.
I held a hand to my mouth, trying to muffle my ragged breathing and my cries. My mate was going to kill me, just like the hounds had killed my brother. He’d rip me piece by piece by piece until only the stone was left for him to have, like the fucking king he was.
Twigs snapped around me. The forest was so quiet that the smallest sounds were deafening. Sweat rolled down my chest, and my heart raced so fast that I could hear it in my ears. I curled my arms around my body and willed myself not to make a sound unless I wanted Ares to find me.
About twenty yards away, I listened to him shift into his human form, his thick bones loudly snapping back into place. He walked around the woods, crunching leaves and breaking twigs. Every step he took closer to me made it harder and harder for me to breathe.
This couldn’t be happening. Goddess, I should’ve just gone with Tony. Maybe I’d have been able to use him as a human shield or something. Keep Ares distracted instead of focused on killing me. His mate. His only mate.
I held my knees to my chest and stopped breathing, my body trembling.
“Come here, Kitten,” he said, his voice low and daunting. Yet I could hear the excitement in it. This wasn’t the Ares that I had lain with earlier, nor the Mars who had promised me that he’d never hurt me.
This was terror.
Complete and utter terror.
I squeezed my eyes closed and shook my head. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I didn’t want my life to end like this. I’d thought I’d die on the battlefield as a respected alpha, not as a fragile young woman.
One moment passed.
Two moments.
Three.
“If you want to make this a game, I’m happy to play with you.”
He walked closer to me, and I thought about Ruffles, the only one who had ever loved me. What would he do to her? Would he kill her too? Maybe he’d make me watch him kill her. Or even worse, make me do it. Tears threatened to spill from my eyes. She didn’t deserve to die. And neither did I.
Another branch broke.
“Purr for me, Aurora.”
I held my hand over my mouth.
This was all a game to him. All a fucking game.
He dropped down onto all fours and shifted again, his bones cracking. No matter how dirty I was from running in the mud and forest, Ares’s wolf would be able to smell me. I had to run. I had no other choice.
Forcing me onto all fours, my wolf wanted me to shift more than anything to get away from the man hunting her, who was really supposed to love her. All my wolf felt was pain and betrayal. She just wanted to be happy with her only mate.
I let out an ear-splitting scream as my bones broke, yet I didn’t transform into a normal werewolf. Instead, my bones snapped back and forth, my vision intensified and dulled, my jaw lengthened and shortened, all in a painful attempt to shift from human to werewolf. Every part of my body ached, and when I heard Ares growl, my heart broke.
This was it. This was how my life was going to end.
I turned onto my back to find Ares’s huge black wolf standing over me. I stared up into his big, vicious eyes and scurried away from him on my hands and heels. Tears streamed down my face. All I could feel was pain.
“Please don’t kill me, Ares. Please. Please. I’ll do anything,” I pleaded.
I backed up until I hit a tree. I parted my lips, a frail cry escaping them. This was who I was. An embarrassing alpha. A weak alpha. A powerless woman who was about to be killed by her mate.
He stalked forward with his head held low and his eyes fixed on me. My fingers trembled so hard that I had to dig my claws into my palms to stop them from shaking.
I parted my lips, feeling my salty tears on them, pulled my hair behind my shoulders, and bared my neck to him. “Please, if you’re going to kill me, make it easy. The stone is in my spine, at the base of my neck. C7.”
Stepping closer to me, he pushed his snout against my neck and let his teeth graze against the back of it. I curled my arms around my body, sticking my face into my knees and shielding myself from him, waiting for my mate to kill me.
“Pl-please don’t tear me limb from limb. I don’t want to end up like Jeremy.”