ARES
As soon as Charolette and Aurora disappeared upstairs, Dad cleared his throat. “There’s something else too.” He paused for a moment until he heard Charolette shut her door. “I didn’t tell you when you became alpha because I thought that it’d ended with your mother.”
Knowing that there was more bullshit that I needed to listen to, I sat in the chair. “What?”
Dad peeled a piece of fallen pizza from his lap and wiped a napkin over the sauce. “During the War of the Lycans, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, a divinity prophesied the future of our pack.”
I growled under my breath and clenched my hands into fists on the table. Marcel looked at me, and then back at my dad, tensing. Dad raised his brow at me and gave me that stern look he had used when he wanted Mars to calm down when he was younger. But I didn’t know how to calm down without Aurora.
“What’s the curse?” I asked him outright, voice teetering.
Dad never beat around the bush. He said what he needed to say, like true alphas did.
“The prophecy was that a luna from this pack would be taken by the leader of the hounds.”
“What do you mean, she’d be fucking taken?”
“Some people believe she would be taken as a mate. Others think that version of the prophecy has been bastardized and that the true prophecy means that the luna would become leader of the hounds.”
“No,” I growled, unable to displace all my rage. “She will not.”
“What’s the entire prophecy?” Marcel asked with the same bewildered expression.
Dad threw a dirty napkin into the center of the messy table. “The prophecy is that we’d lose our luna to the hound leader and that being with the hounds would kill her, but when she dies, this war with the hounds would end for good.” He gulped and stared emptily at the table. “I thought this woman who’d end the hounds for good was your mother, but they’re back.”
I shook in rage. Nobody would take Aurora from me. Not physically. Not sexually. Not emotionally. Aurora was mine and only mine. Nobody would lay a hand on her body. She wouldn’t leave. Mars and I wouldn’t let her.
Marcel cleared his throat and stared down at the table. “It’s just a prophecy,” he said, trying to play it off lightly. But it didn’t feel like just a prophecy. It felt fucking real. “We can stop it from happening. You can always stop prophecies from happening. It is the first thing that we learned in warrior training.”
“The divinity who spoke the prophecy provided a way to end it, but you’re not going to like it.” He blew out a deep breath. “If Aurora is the one the hounds will take, you can find that man’s weakness and kill him with it or offer an alpha in place of Aurora.” He paused. “Because Aurora is an alpha, you can replace her life with someone else’s to protect her. I believe you must speak with someone in the underworld named Hella, though I’m sure if an alpha is actually willing to sacrifice himself while fighting Fenris, it could work and stop him, especially because he takes direct part in the prophecy.”
“I’ll do it.”
It wasn’t even a question. I would do anything for that woman. She was my entire world.
Dad’s eyes hardened. “I’d prefer the first option.”
“Me too, but if sacrificing myself is what it takes to keep Aurora safe, then I will.” I thought about all the nights I had spent with Aurora, all the early mornings, watching her shift in her sleep, the way she smiled up at me when I whispered her name. I wouldn’t ever let her die.
Marcel cleared his throat. “Let’s focus on finding his weakness.”
“My mother was his weakness, but she’s gone.” I glanced over at Dad. “If you thought this prophecy was about Mom, if you knew that they’d try to take her away from us, why didn’t you surrender yourself for her?”
Dad glanced down at the table in guilt. I wanted to hate him for not doing it himself, but I wouldn’t be half the man I was today if he hadn’t grown up to teach me the way to lead. No matter how hard he was on me, he always made me stronger.
“I had to choose between my children and this entire pack, and your mother.” Tears welled up in his eyes. “If I had known for sure that your mother would be able to raise you and wouldn’t end up taking her life in the end, I would’ve. But your mother was unstable after he raped her. I didn’t want you and Charolette to grow up without parents.” He wiped a tear off his cheek. “I should’ve done things differently, but I have to live with my decision for the rest of my life.”
Letting it all sink in, I paced the room and ran a hand through my hair.
“What do you plan to do with the other half of the stone? Charolette isn’t going to take it. She hasn’t budged once, and I don’t think she will.” Dad glanced over at Marcel, who clenched his jaw, as if he was genuinely angry at Charolette’s decision. It wasn’t an expression I saw often from him. He and Charolette fought all the damn time.
“You think Fenris wants Aurora for the stone, don’t you?” I asked, worry plaguing me.
After a curt nod, he said, “Yes, but I think giving her the other half of it would do her more good than harm. I was watching her fight you in practice earlier. She’s extremely talented and already so strong. With the other half of the stone, she’d be able to do more than just shift easily.”
“I think the same,” Marcel said. “Charolette really doesn’t fucking want it.”
“Maybe with the stone, you will be able to defeat the hounds without her being taken,” Dad said. “I don’t know though. There wasn’t any mention of the stone in the prophecy. I’m not even sure that they knew about it at the time. It could be another loophole. Just be careful. There has only been one person to ever wield the entire stone in their body. She—”
Upstairs, the door opened. Aurora’s and Charolette’s scents drifted down the stairs.
I furrowed my brows at him, waiting for him to continue. “What?”
“I’ll tell you later. I just wanted you to know that I couldn’t protect your mother, but you must protect Aurora at all costs, especially because she has the stone. But most importantly, because if she has the other half of the stone, she will be the strongest werewolf to ever grace these lands.”