AURORA
One week had passed since I’d killed Jeremy. There hadn’t been another hound attack, and the Malavite Stone had stayed where I put it—locked in my nightstand. Everything had returned back to as normal as it could get.
But I needed to do a couple things, including talk to Dad, before I could say anything was normal. To say that I was nervous to see him was the understatement of the damn century. Nightmares filled with Jeremy’s dull and dead eyes had haunted my dreams and kept me up every night.
And since last night hadn’t been any different, I hopped out of bed at five a.m., kissed Ares on the forehead, and decided that I would get it out of the way and talk to Dad. He hadn’t asked to see me or to be let out of the cage either. But Ares went down there every day to make sure he was being fed well and had everything he needed.
When I reached the prison doors, the guards nodded to me and parted. I took a deep breath, walked down the creaky wooden stairs, and watched sunlight flood in from above.
Dad slept against the stone wall instead of on the mattress I’d made some of the guards bring down earlier this week. I stood there for a good ten minutes, just staring at him and wondering what the hell I was going to say to my father.
“Dad,” I whispered, stepping away from the silver bars.
He grumbled to himself and moved around to get into a more comfortable position.
“Dad, it’s me, Aurora.”
After blinking his eyes open, he clenched his jaw. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you,” I said.
“After a week, you finally want to see me?” He leaned against the wall and shook his head at me. “You should’ve come see me right after you killed your brother.” His words sounded so vile, so hateful, so full of grief.
I pressed my lips together. I had taken everything away from him … his mate and his son.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” I said, trying so hard to keep my voice steady. “He’d begged me to do it, so the hounds couldn’t.”
“Elijah had the damn courage to come down here, and you didn’t.” His jaw twitched. “And that, Aurora, is the reason your mother didn’t want you to be alpha. You don’t have the strength to deal with half the shit it takes to lead a pack.”
I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling the tears well up in my eyes. Had I done this to him? Had I made him so hateful and so angry with me that he thought I didn’t deserve to lead?
He stood to his feet and snatched some fresh bread from the only table inside the cell with him. “At first, I thought that Ares wasn’t a good fit for you. But now, I see that you two are perfect for each other. You don’t care who you hurt or what you take from people. You just do it without a single care in the world.”
Something inside of me snapped. He could talk about me all he wanted, but he couldn’t continue to disrespect Ares when he didn’t have the first clue as to who he truly was.
I stepped closer to the silver bars, jaw clenched. “You want to know what?”
Dad looked over, surprised I had raised my voice to him, but I didn’t care anymore.
My whole life, I had grown up in fear of Ares’s pack and of Ares himself … but I shouldn’t have been. I should’ve been afraid of believing in these lies that people made up to make me fear him. I should’ve been terrified of Mom and Dad for believing them too.
“I’m done with everyone judging Ares based on those rumors. The whole fucking time I’ve been here, the only people he has killed were hounds because they attacked us,” I said, feeling the anger pump through my veins. “Yes, we went to Elijah’s. And, yes, Ares hurt him … but he didn’t kill any wolves. Not until Tony hurt him.”
“He’s ruthless,” Dad said, taking a threatening step toward me.
“Did you ever think that the rumors were just rumors because people have seen him fight in battle, because he’s relentless and he stops at nothing to make sure his pack is happy and healthy and protected?”
Dad suddenly became quiet, turned back around, and picked at the bread again. Dull light shone in through one of the small windows up above, hitting the dirty concrete below his feet.
I took a deep breath, hoping to calm myself down before I broke even more. “I’m the monster, not him. If you’re going to blame anyone for all your misery, blame me because he doesn’t deserve it, and I’m not going to let him feel any more hurt.” The world had been too harsh to him already. “I’m the one who brought Ares and a few of his warriors to your pack, but all I wanted was to try to do some good. Hell, all I ever wanted was to help people, and that’s why I wanted to be alpha.”
“And who the fuck were you helping when you brought them to slaughter everyone in your mother’s pack?” Dad asked, knocking the bread off the table and glaring over his shoulder at me. “Were you helping yourself?”
“I didn’t think he’d kill anyone because he hadn’t. Tony provoked him,” I clarified. “We didn’t go there to slaughter anyone … but I was helping Charolette, Ares’s sister. She has cancer. And Tony—the man who betrayed you—knew the hounds had the other half of the stone, which could help her.” I shook my head. “The stone heals people. It healed me. It healed Jeremy.”
If only I could’ve kept him alive …
“Your mother wanted to help her people too,” Dad said. “That’s why she traded you.”
“That’s a fucking excuse, Dad, and you know it,” I snapped. “She’d groomed Tony for years. She thought I was too weak. She gave me book after book after book to get out of her hair.” The pain inside of me festered until I could barely hold myself together. “She wasn’t a good person. She didn’t even try to protect us. Ever.” I took a deep breath and finally came to terms with what had happened all those years ago. “She let Jeremy die.”
Dad stormed up to the silver bars, grabbed them in his hands, and shook them. “Don’t you say that about your mother.”
“All I’m speaking is the truth.” I stepped closer to him and stared him right in the eye to show him that I wasn’t afraid or intimidated by him anymore. “She let him die, and then she did nothing to protect her pack.”
“She made the underground tunnels to save the pups if there ever was another attack, Aurora. Did you forget about that?”
“That was my idea, Dad. While she was recovering from the loss of her son—my brother—I’m the one who came up with that idea. I was the one who assumed the alpha position when she was too overcome with grief. It was never her, no matter what she told everyone else.” My jaw twitched. “I deserved to be alpha more than she did, more than Tony did, more than anyone in that fucking pack did.”
I turned away from him, tears welling up in my eyes again. “And now, I deserve all this pain from seeing my friends and family gone.” It was hard to admit, but I was strong enough to acknowledge my faults, to accept that I wasn’t the best person … but damn, did I try to be.
After taking a deep breath, I decided that I was done talking to him for now. I walked to the stairs. “Don’t think that your mate was an angel because she wasn’t, and neither are you.” And with that, I walked right out of the prison and slammed the door behind me.
I didn’t know what I could’ve done to be a better daughter or a better alpha in their eyes. To them, I had been and I always would be weak. But I knew that I wasn’t weak. I was stronger than they gave me credit for.
And if I hadn’t had Ares, I never would’ve realized it.