AURORA
Medusa stared at me with both immense fear and great pride. Inside my back, the stone cast power down my spine and through every bone in my body, the sheer force fabricating the idea that I could both destroy and repair our lonely world with just one growl.
When she stepped closer to me, she smiled. “You have more power than you think you do, Aurora.”
“It’s the stone,” I whispered. “The stone is giving me power.”
“It’s not the stone.” She grasped my chin and stroked her thumb against my jaw. “It’s you.”
Surely, she had to be joking. I had never been strong or wielded any sort of power. If I had been truly powerful, I wouldn’t have been treated so poorly as a child, right? Mom would’ve been ecstatic to make me alpha.
After she pulled the sea-foam veil over her face, she turned back to the other alphas. “The stone can be put into the back of any human, any creature, and any demon. But no creature knows how to wield it; they are taken by power, by strength, and by gods and goddesses of the darkness and dusk.”
My stomach tightened, and I shuffled my bare feet against the stone floor. Did that mean that I wasn’t a werewolf? Or maybe I really was an undead hound, one of the first who could control thoughts, feelings, and actions. I shook my head and shivered at the thought.
“You see”—she stalked around each of the alphas, the wolf-like snakes atop her head baring their small yet vicious canines at everyone, except me—“there are plenty of Malavite Stones in the world, but if wolves found them … the underworld would rise. There would be no peace, just violence.”
“More stones?” Ares asked, standing straighter. “Where are there more stones?”
“Did you not just hear her?” I grasped his hand and yanked him to me. “We can’t give the stone to your sister, especially if she doesn’t know how to wield it. If Charolette dies because she doesn’t have the knowledge on how to wield the stone, she will have the same fate as if she didn’t have the stone at all.”
“She’s my sister,” Ares snapped, eyes shifting from brown to gold. “She’s my sister. I’m going to do everything I can to save her. If the stone can give her a few years, then I’m going to get her another one and fucking hope she’ll reconsider after she sees how it transforms you.”
Medusa paused for a few moments to let us argue and then drew the white curtains closed. She trailed her fingers across the cloth until a glowing green illustration of an empty field toward the summit of the mountain appeared. “They call this place Stone Valley. It’s promised to have hundreds of Malavite Stones, but no mortal has found them, and no mortal will.”
Staring at the image, I knotted my brows. With hundreds of Malavite Stones there somewhere, shouldn’t the field be guarded by some hellish fiend or a divinity or some sort of immortal creature? Why was it so empty and bare? If others knew about this place, thousands of people would flock there daily to search and vie for power comparable to the gods.
“We’re going,” Ares said, pulling me toward the door.
“What’s there?” I asked Medusa, yanking him back.
After staying quiet for a few moments, Medusa tapped her finger against the curtains, the image rendering clearer. Stone Valley wasn’t just an empty field; inside it lay a battlefield with hundreds, if not thousands, of warriors who all looked to be fighting invisible monsters.
Dad’s warning.
“Blood. Death. And hell.” She pulled her fingers from the curtain, the drawing disappearing. “You must never travel there.”
“We have to go,” Ares said.
“Then, I must warn you that some people who travel there don’t come back. They turn to stone, die, and disappear from this world forever. Thousands of men and women just like yourselves. They all came to me and most disappeared into the darkness.”
My heart thumped loud against my chest. Dad … all his stories …
If Medusa was telling the truth, those weren’t old fables that Dad used to tell me. All those rumors about people becoming stone and hellish fiends walking this earth were real.
“What do you mean, they turn to stone?” I asked, brows furrowed. “Those are real people?”
“Yes, men, women, and immortals,” she started, her voice cracking softly.
All the ancient myths warned people away from Medusa, as if she were nothing but a fury-ridden monster. But seeing her bloodshot eyes and listening to her speak with such sorrow made her seem so misunderstood and, dare I say, motherly.
“The entrance of the underworld lies northwest of and above the Stone Valley. As a wolf, it’s a one-hour run.”
Heart racing, I grasped onto Ares’s hand and hoped that he would reconsider. The entrance to the underworld lay so close to us. Monsters that we weren’t ready to fight probably roamed around these mountains and the dark forest behind us. We should leave.
“We have to go,” Ares said. “Now.”
“One last thing before you go,” Medusa said to us. “Killing the true leader of the undead is a feat that no mortal could accomplish alone, but when the leader of the hounds dies, so will the rest of them. That’s the prophecy I spoke to your pack thousands of years ago, Ares and Aurora. Be careful out there.”
Squeezing Ares’s hand, I let her words sink in. This must’ve been that curse Ares had spoken about a couple days ago. If we killed Fenris, then the hounds would die. We wouldn’t have to deal with this anymore and could live happy, healthy, and vibrant lives.
But it would be arduous.
Fenris was stronger and smarter and stealthier than we’d originally thought.
If we wanted to destroy the hounds for good, we had to throw all our best weapons and warriors at Fenris because I didn’t want to lose any more family or pack members. I would fight to the end of time to make this world a better and safer place, and nobody would stop me.
Ares, Minerva, and Vulcan walked outside to prepare our warriors.
But before I could depart, Medusa grasped my wrist, pulled the veil back over her face, and smiled at me. “My dear, we will meet again. But when we do, it’ll be one of the last times I see you for quite some time.” She glanced down my body and then back up. “If you want a family, hold off the hounds for as long as you can, birth a pup, and love her with all that you have.” She brushed her fingers against my cheekbone, as if she was reminiscing on her life, and stared into my eyes. “You never know when you’ll have to give her up to keep her safe or to give her a better life.”
Her words were filled with so much sorrow that I had to bite back my own whimper. My heart swelled, and I wanted to stay with her and talk, but I had more pressing matters, like a determined-to-die alpha mate who I needed to protect.
Instead, I hugged her and rested my head on her shoulder, breathing in her woodsy scent. The snake-like wolves on her head curled around my body and pulled me in even tighter, and I enjoyed this moment with a woman I had never met but seemed like I had known for millennia.
“Ares, I don’t think this is a good idea,” I said through the mind link as we ran up the mountain’s edge toward Stone Valley and passed divine after divine captured in rock. With every statue we saw, Medusa’s warning about traveling here repeated in my mind. People who came here didn’t always come back.
If we didn’t come back, we wouldn’t be able to hold off the hounds for our people, wouldn’t be able to have a family, and would be forever damned and memorialized in stone. I didn’t ever want that to happen to me. Our lives might be shitty at the moment, but we had so much to live for.
Either way, Ares and the other alphas seemed set on finding more stones. Even Minerva, who always thought through battles and plans, had urged us to Stone Valley. I guessed the desire for power far outweighed a content life. It was an incredible force that would drive so many people to death someday.
Despite my pleas to leave, we continued to run up the rocky path that encircled the mountain. I cursed myself for following him, but I couldn’t let anything happen to my mate. Overcome with need to help his sister, Ares wasn’t thinking straight. Neither was anyone, apparently.
The farther we ran up the mountain, the more my wolf claimed control, pulling me forward and refusing to turn back now. Like some innate radar, we could both feel the immense energy radiating from the stone in my back and the Malavite Stones hidden in Stone Valley.
When we reached the foggy summit, the alphas halted, their paws grinding into the rocky terrain. While no life had grown anywhere else on the mountain, up here, trees had been uprooted, struck in half, burned almost to the ground, leaving nothing but stumps and ash.
Unable to stop myself, I led the group and walked through the woods. I paused at the entrance to a mile-long field of stone. “Stone Valley,” I whispered, shifting into my human with ease and walking aimlessly onto the field while the others stayed behind.
Hundreds of ruthless warriors—both in human and wolf form—had been preserved in stone, mid-fight. Some were doubled over in pain and grasping open wounds in their abdomens. Others were mid-bite with nothing but air between their canines. I stared at them with wide eyes. These people were my ancestors.
With every step I took, more and more energy surged inside of me. I glanced around at the impeccably undamaged and unharmed statues and wondered how fog, rain, hail, and snow hadn’t worn their bodies away at all. It had been hundreds of years since the War of the Lycans. Their fragile fingers should’ve been broken off by the winter’s harsh winds, their bodies eroded by the rainfall. Not so perfectly preserved.
Suddenly, the statue of a human warrior with a spear crumbled into hundreds of pieces, the sound of falling rock echoing throughout Stone Valley. My eyes widened at the unexpected fall, and I nervously looked around at the other warriors to see if the same would happen to them. None did.
But one stone man caught my eye.
Naked, muscular, and made of white stone. Unlike most other statues, the man stood stoically in the center of the field. He looked even more divine than Ares did during a fight, and Ares reminded me of a god himself. What seemed even more majestic was that a single ray of sunlight shone through the thick fog and illuminated his chiseled face, giving the white stone a goldish tint.
Despite Ares calling my name, I found myself drawn to and walking toward the man. When I stood before him, what seemed to be thousands of years’ worth of memories rushed through my mind. I tried to grasp onto any of them, but I couldn’t quite seem to visualize them fully.
A thriving vine of small sunflowers wrapped around his leg and up his muscular thighs, the petals and seeds all facing toward the sky. I glanced back up at him, brushed my fingers against his shoulder, and immediately pulled my hand away, feeling power swell in my body. Whoever this man was, the stone had drawn me to him for some reason. I studied him to try to remember if I knew him from somewhere.
Yet … I was certain that I had never seen him before in my entire life.
But I could feel this odd connection to him.
“Don’t ogle him,” Ares growled at me, snatching my hand and pulling me away from the godlike man. Canines bared, he dragged me through the field of stone. “We’re here to find the fucking stones, Aurora, not to stare at naked fucking men.”
After shifting my gaze to other statues, I pulled my hand away. “I’m not here for the stones, Ares. You heard Medusa. It could kill Charolette, and I’m not willing to take that risk. But by all means, go find it for yourself.”
He snarled and stormed away. Along with all the warriors, he searched the perimeter for the Malavite Stones. But while we stood in an entire field of stone, nobody could find the ones they searched for.
The Malavite Stone glowed a bright white color, was about a quarter in diameter, and looked almost gem-like. They would have to search for days just to find it, days that we couldn’t dedicate to something so deadly.
Rolling my eyes at how foolish the desire for power made wolves, I glanced around at the other statues and locked eyes with … him. Preserved in stone on the other side of the field, Dad stood in his wolf form with his head held high and his nose pointed into the air, as if he was howling to the moon.
Once I sprinted across the field, I collapsed beside him. “No,” I whispered, shaking my head from side to side. “No … please, Moon Goddess, no. Don’t let it be.”
I grasped his stone face in my hands and could almost feel the fur graze against my palms, but it wasn’t really there. It was all my imagination. It was what I wanted to believe.
Dad was the only fucking family I had left, and now, he was really gone for eternity too.
Had he come here to spend the rest of his life with his family? Was that why he’d refused to stay with Ares and me and why he’d wanted to be a lone wolf? I had so many questions that would be left unanswered.
I rubbed my hands over his snout and pulled myself toward him, wrapping my arms around his wolf for the very last time. If he had chosen to live in Sanguine Wilds, I might have seen him again … but this way, I wouldn’t.
“It’s not fucking here,” Ares barked hours later, storming through the bodies of stone and toward the center of the valley, where I sat with my head in my hands, still trying to come to terms with Dad being gone for good.
We had been here for three hours, and everyone had searched every inch of this place themselves. Some had started digging around the statues, which I’d strongly advised against because this seemed like sacred land. Destroying anything here would have consequences, but they hadn’t seemed to care.
“Medusa said it would be hard to find,” I snapped.
“What’s your problem today, Aurora?” Ares asked me, brows furrowed together in a ruthless glare.
With his big, muscular arms crossed over his chest and that divine aura radiating off him again, I would’ve let him intimidate me if I hadn’t known better.
I stood to my feet. “One, we’ve been here for hours. Two, the stones shouldn’t be tampered with because nobody knows how to use them. Three, we’re close to the underworld’s entrance. And four, we are surrounded by thousands of people who turned to stone in this very field! My problem is that I want to survive, Ares. I want to have a family with you. I want to live my life until I can’t anymore. I don’t want to be here.”
He cursed under his breath and gazed off into the dark sky. “We have to leave to get you back to our pack for the Luna Ceremony and so Elijah can put the other half of the stone inside of you, but I’m coming back here with more warriors right after that.”
Overcome with emotion, I shook my head and held back my tears. “And what if you never come back to me?” I whispered, voice cracking. “You’re going to travel back here after seeing all of this.” I gestured back toward the hundreds upon hundreds of stone people. “You’re going to leave me and one day turn to stone too?”
“If all these people turned to stone here, why haven’t we?” he asked.
“I don’t fucking know, Ares! But there are people here who were in the middle of battle. My dad is here!”
“Your dad?” he asked.
“Yes, Ares. He’s stuck in stone forever now. Not only him, but warriors and gods are here. If we survive today, it doesn’t mean you’ll survive the next time you come.”
Ares growled and turned away from me, canines emerging from under his lips.
I grasped his wrist and stared at his profile. “Do you really never want to see me again? Do you not want a family with me?”
It was a selfish question to ask because he was doing this for Charolette. But we didn’t even know if it would work, and Charolette didn’t want the stone. No matter how hard Ares tried to convince her, she wouldn’t even consider putting half of it inside of her.
“Aurora, you know that’s not true,” he said through clenched teeth. “I love you.”
“Well then, think about the consequences of your actions,” I said, pulling away from him as my chest tightened. “I know it’s hard for you because all you feel is pain and heartbreak, but think about what you really want. If you want that stone for Charolette—even though you know she won’t accept it—over me, then come back here.”
I turned away from him, acting as if I didn’t give a shit anymore. But I did.
I loved Ares and Mars too fucking much.
If he came back here, I’d stupidly accompany him to protect my mate.
“Kitten …” Ares grasped my hand and pulled me back toward him. “I’m sorry. I just …” For a moment, Mars flashed in his eyes, but then he was gone. “I need it for her, for Charolette.” He paused and wiped a tear off my cheek. “But I need you more. I can’t—”
Lightning flashed through the fog, accompanied with a thunderous roar, northwest of the mountaintop. Suddenly, the dark sky cracked open, a whirling fiery-orange portal with black flames expanding above it.
Heart hammering, I curled my hand around Ares’s bicep in fear. What the hell was that?
The portal stayed ajar for a few moments, and then a wolf with two diagonal scars running across his face jumped out of it. Fenris stood atop the mountain beside us and raised his snout to the gateway, howling.
And then hundreds of hounds flooded out of the portal, circling around Fenris and baring their teeth, as if ready for war. I stared wide-eyed at the scene, nails lengthening into claws and puncturing Ares’s bicep.
My Goddess, my fucking Goddess. We’re screwed.
When Ares saw Fenris, he lunged forward, about to shift into his wolf and destroy him with everything he had, but as the hounds continued to pour from the portal, I grasped his wrist tightly and pulled him back.
“No,” I said sternly.
Even being three mighty packs strong, we didn’t stand a chance.
We couldn’t run to death. We needed to return home for the stone.
“We have to go,” I pleaded with Ares.
While Ares nodded in agreement, Vulcan shifted and growled at Fenris, catching his attention. I didn’t know what had possessed him to do such a thing, but I fucking cursed him out for it inside my head. This could kill us for good, for fucking good.
When Fenris looked over at me, I sucked in a deep breath. We needed to get out of here now. No more looking for the stone. No more fucking waiting. This was life or death, and some fucking wolves didn’t understand that.
Instead of running after us, like I’d thought Fenris would, he stood atop the mountain like a god, mouth moving yet no words being spoken. Then, suddenly, he lifted his nose to the air again and howled.
A blanket of wind swept across Syncome Mountains. Bones that some warriors had dug up and even broken statue pieces formed back together, just as the hounds had done in the cave. We were surrounded from all sides with hundreds of more hounds coming to life.
“We have to go. We can’t kill them all. Not with the others on top of that mountain,” I said, pleading to Ares. I shifted into my wolf quickly and easily, and nudged his thigh. “Please, I don’t want to die before we have a family.”
“This is how hounds are made?” Minerva asked, brows furrowed. She surveyed the area and nodded toward the man with sunflowers around his thigh. “To the east, there are less of them. If we hurry, we can lose them in the forest.”
So, we fled off the field. Sprinting for our lives. Slaughtering as many hounds as we could. Trying to escape Fenris’s wrath. And as soon as everyone ran off the field, I looked over my shoulder at the man, made of white stone and sunflowers, wanting to see him one last time.
I swore he’d turned his head toward me and whispered, “Go, Aurora. Live.”