AURORA
Ares growled, the sound rumbling through the forest like thunder on this foggy day. It came out vicious and jarring, but all I heard was the pain and heartbreak behind it. This must’ve been what had stolen that boyish smile from him. His mother must’ve committed suicide, and he must’ve found her.
Before I could settle my racing thoughts, the yard before me turned into a battlefield. Ares’s warriors pounced on Mom’s warriors, all of them clawing at each other’s underbellies, ripping fur from their enemies’ flesh, blood spilling everywhere.
Wolves leaped into the air around me, latching their teeth into each other’s neck. I gazed around at everyone who moved too quickly for me to keep up with and locked eyes with my furious mother. She howled to the dawn sky, her voice cutting through my mind link, like it had done hundreds of times before.
“What have you done?” she asked, shifting into her wolf. “We will die because of you.”
I clenched my jaw. “This isn’t my fault. We came here peacefully.”
She killed one of Ares’s warriors, her canines digging into his flesh. With bloodied teeth, she looked over at me. “You brought him here, knowing he’d kill us.” She turned away from me and ran through the pack, finding other warriors to fight.
But she was wrong.
Since I had been with Ares, he hadn’t killed anyone, except hounds. And I didn’t think he would willingly kill unless provoked so much that his wolf took total control of Ares and Mars.
In the distance, my father howled. Marcel stood over him in his large silver-furred wolf with teeth dripping with blood.
I sprinted as fast as I could and threw my body in front of my father’s, holding out a hand. “No,” I said up at Marcel, feeling his wolf’s thick saliva fall onto my thighs. I pointed at him, hoping to the Moon Goddess that he wouldn’t attack him or me. “Not my father. Anyone but my father.”
Marcel stared at me with rage, and I stared back just as strongly.
“An order from your luna.”
After growling under his breath, he ran back through the crowd.
Dad pushed his head against my forehead. “Aurora, you need to get out of here.”
I shook my head. “You need to get out of here. Find somewhere to hide once this is all over. Get the rest of this pack to safety. We will talk when I get back to Ares’s pack.”
“I can’t leave your mother,” he said through the mind link. A flash of lightning cut through the fog. “She’s my mate. I need to protect her with everything I have.”
I frowned at him, my heart hurting. Mom was cruel to me, and he sometimes fought her because of it … but he loved her like all mates did. No matter what, how could I think he’d leave her? But I wanted someone in my family to survive this.
“Just, please, don’t get hurt.”
“Tell Ares to stand down,” he said, brushing his snout into my hair.
The touch was so soft, and I remembered how he used to do that when Jeremy and I were both pups. We’d run around the backyard, and Dad would chase us. We had been happy. So fucking happy.
I pushed my face into his, feeling torn. “I can’t.”
“You’re his mate. You can tame him.”
“I could.” I definitely could. “But I don’t want to.”
The words made Dad recoil and stare at me with such confusion. “Aurora …” His voice sounded so fragile in my mind, like he didn’t recognize the name or who I was anymore. “He’s changing you.”
My chin trembled slightly, and I shook my head. “No, he’s not, Dad. He’s giving me a backbone. He’s making me strong.”
“He’s killing your pack members. He’s turning you against us. For no good reason at all.”
Dad slowly backed away from me, and I reached out to touch his fur one last time. Yet he recoiled again. And I felt that common feeling of loneliness and rejection that I had always felt in this pack … just not ever this much from him.
“Dad, he’s a good man. I promise.”
After staring at me for another few long moments, Dad turned away from me and ran toward Mom. I sat there on my knees and tried hard to hold back my cries. Every single time I was here, I just hurt and hurt and hurt, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me.
Why had the Moon Goddess given me this life? Why couldn’t my family just love me for me? Was that too much to ask of her?
Ares growled harshly, and I broke my gaze with Dad’s departing figure. The stench of blood was unsettling, and I screamed at the top of my lungs for everyone to stop, but nobody heard me. I hadn’t wanted this to happen. I hadn’t wanted there to be a fight.
Blood dripped from my mate’s mouth, off of every single tooth. His eyes were so black that I couldn’t see any trace of his browns or golds. Those claws dug viciously into anyone that got in his way. I watched two, three, four of Mom’s warriors die by his hand.
He was darkness. He was war. All he wanted was for everyone to hurt.
My heart clenched, and I stared around at everyone. Everything seemed as if it were moving in slow motion. Men. Women. Wolves. Everyone was fighting, and nobody knew the reasons why. They were fighting to fight. They were fighting because they had been born into war, born with these innate feelings to kill to protect. They were fighting because they didn’t know any better.
And I could do nothing about it.
I reached behind me into my pocket, wanting to grasp my silver knife for protection because I didn’t know if Mom would command her warriors to capture and kill me too. I wouldn’t put it past her to try to break Ares. But when I went to grab for it, it wasn’t there. I must’ve dropped it somewhere.
After scanning the bloody battlefield, the knife shimmered under another flash of lightning just at the edge of the field before the woods. I sprinted to it, weaving through the wolves attacking from every direction. And just as I was about to grab it, someone latched their teeth into my shoulder and shoved me to my back.
Tony landed on top of me, paws on each of my shoulders, his soft eyes staring down. “We have to go.” He looked toward the forest, as if searching for something, and then turned back to me.
I shoved my hands into his chest and pushed him off of me. “What is your fucking problem?” I clutched my shoulder to stop the bleeding. “I’m not going anywhere with you. How do you know so much about Ares? Why have you been meeting with the hounds? What are you planning, you stupid piece of—”
Something growled deep in the woods, and my heart stopped.
Oh Goddess, no. Please don’t let that be what I think that is. Please don’t let it be hounds. Anything but hounds.
“Please, Aurora. If you come with me, they won’t hurt you.” Tony grabbed my hand between his teeth and pulled me through the crowd of wolves, away from this side of the forest.
He’d said the words with too much certainty that I knew something wasn’t right.
I yanked my hand out of his mouth and watched the first hound run from the forest and toward the packs. And then it hit me.
Tony was a fucking traitor. A traitor that I couldn’t fucking kill.
“Stop!” I screamed at everyone around me. “This is a setup! A setup!”
Everyone continued to fight, not listening to a single word I’d said.
I stared at Ares, hoping that he’d hear me. “Ares! Please, stop! Please!”
My heart pounded in my ears when he didn’t turn around. I tried the mind link, but he must’ve been too overcome with bloodlust that he couldn’t hear me.
Tony growled and tugged on my hand again.
I kicked him right in the underbelly. “Leave, you fucking piece of shit.” I seethed at him, and then I kicked him right in his tiny little balls and watched him scurry away and off the property like the fucking coward he was.
Hounds emerged from the forest, their black eyes piercing right through the thick fog.
I grasped on to someone, not caring who it was, and tugged hard on their fur, pointing to the forest. “Hounds! The hounds are coming!”
Mom’s warrior growled harshly at me and turned away. I shook my head, tears filling my eyes. Why wasn’t anyone listening to me? Why couldn’t they see that they were all about to die?
My mind became fuzzy, my arms heavy. I screamed again, but it seemed like I was mute. Nobody could hear me. Maybe I wasn’t even making any noise.
More hounds continued to emerge from the forest until we were surrounded. All I could imagine was Jeremy across the field, the hounds attacking him, killing him, slaughtering him. Ripping him to pieces, his blood splattering onto my face, him reaching out his hand for me, me never seeing him again.
We had been set up that day, just like we had been set up today. Because of that, Jeremy’s death had been especially heart-breaking, and today wouldn’t be any different … I could feel it already. People I loved were going to be slaughtered.
I shook my head at the thought of him. I couldn’t run from this again. I would stay and fight, and if I died, then I would die while protecting the people I cared about. Ares. Mars. Ruffles. Charolette. Dad. And stupid fucking Marcel.
One ran toward Marcel, who had his back turned. I sprinted toward him, shoving him out of the way just in time. The hound fastened his canines into my leg, ripping a chunk of my muscle from my thigh. I cried out in pain, clutching my leg, and scurried away.
Ares turned toward us, dropped a warrior from his teeth, jolted to us, and killed the hound within a moment. The blood from his enemies dripped from his mouth and stained my clothes. I brushed my hand over his fur and let the tears fall.
More hounds ran into the chaos, foam dripping from their lips, beady black eyes on their prey. Ares stood in front of me and lunged at anyone who tried to get close. I put as much pressure on my wound as I could, hoping they’d go away. But they were closing in on him from all directions.
I prayed to the Moon Goddess that Ares wouldn’t die because I fucking loved him more than I loved anyone in the entire world right now.
Totally surrounded by hounds, Ares disappeared from my view.
My heart raced. No. No!
“Ares!” I screamed. Tears … so many tears. “Ares, please come back.”
I placed my hand on the ground behind me, trying to stand up, but someone snatched my hand in their teeth, latching their canines so deeply inside of me that I couldn’t break free.
Thrashing and flailing in his hold, I fought the wolf as hard as I could. Instead of fighting back, he dragged me through the woods—opposite to where the hounds had come from. Twigs dug into my back, leaves gathered in my hair, the fog became thicker and thicker until I couldn’t see my pack anymore.
I screamed and I punched and I kicked, and the more I fought, the harder it was to see straight. I grasped my leg, trying to stop the blood from gushing out of it. My arms felt heavier than they had before, so heavy I could barely hold them up.
“Ares,” I said through the mind link, succumbing to the pain and lying flat in the dirt, letting this wolf drag me wherever he wanted. My body couldn’t physically handle it anymore. Every part of me felt so heavy.
He didn’t respond, and I cried fat, ugly tears. I would never see him again. The hounds would rip him piece by piece, like they’d done to Jeremy. I would be brotherless and mateless, all because of Tony.
I gathered all the strength I had left and tried to connect with him one last time through the mind link. “I love you, mate. All of you, every single bit. I hope you remember that forever and always. You have become my only strength.” My lips quivered. “I wanted to have pups with you, to watch you play with them, to see you as happy as you were in that picture with your mother. You deserve to be happy.”