ARES
“Ares!” Aurora shouted from the kitchen window, the yellow curtains blowing out into the night. She leaned over it and stared down at me, brows furrowed. “Ares, have you seen the pups?”
“Pups?” I asked, eyes flickering to the bonfire about a mile east.
Some pack members had invited us to an elder’s eightieth birthday party. Aurora had been complaining all day about not wanting to go. Hell, I didn’t want to fucking go either. It was the first time in ages we were alone.
“Yes, Ares. Our pups.” She waved me off, disappearing for a moment, and then walking out of the back door, arching a brow at me. “Where are they? I told them to be back by seven, and it’s”—she looked down at the glowing numbers on her phone—“eight forty-five p.m.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer. “They’re out of our hair, which means I get to spend time with”—I grasped her jaw—“my mate. I hope that you’re not trying to get out of that, are you?”
She rolled her blue eyes, strands of hair blowing into her face. “No, I—”
Suddenly, someone shrieked from deep within the forest. “The kids! The kids!”
With wide eyes, Aurora grabbed my hand and took off running toward the screeching woman. My heart pounded in my chest as we ran through dense fog that seemed to roll in front of us. The further we got, the air became thicker, making it harder to see.
“Someone get Alpha Ares and Luna Aurora! Quick!” the woman yelled.
When we approached the woman, Aurora doubled over and screamed, “No! My babies, no!”
I stopped dead in my tracks to see our four decapitated pups hanging by their ankles with their heads on stakes. I dropped to my knees and shook my head in disbelief. No. No. No. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t fucking be happening. Our pups. Our only pups were gone. Killed by those ruthless, sinister, piece-of-shit hounds.
Jerking awake, I lay in the bed in a puddle of sweat. I fucking hated nightmares, fucking loathed those shitty-ass dreams. I stared up emptily at the ceiling and thanked the Moon Goddess that I’d had it instead of Mars because to live through that would’ve shattered him. He might have short visions of it, but to fucking feel every emotion… I could barely do it.