AURORA
Ferocious snarls rumbled through the dark forest. Men, women, and children ran in every direction to safety. Warrior wolves and patrol guards alerted us of the hundreds of hounds sprinting toward our property, some of their voices cutting from our minds suddenly.
Death.
The hounds had come with one goal—to kill us.
“Get the pups!” I screamed, hurrying to gather as many as I could find to lead them to the underground homes, where they’d be safe. But everyone started to shift to protect themselves and their families from the fiends. “Someone, get the pups to safety!”
After rallying as many as I could, I designated an older woman as their caretaker for now and hurried with them to the pack house, ushering them into the underground fort. Once I secured the door, I ran back out into the chaos to find more.
There had to be others. That wasn’t all of them. I needed to find—
A huge brown wolf latched its teeth into my wrist. I snatched myself away, about to kick him in the snout when I realized it was Ares. He grabbed my wrist in his sharp bite and dragged me toward the pack house.
“Someone, tell Elijah to get to the pack house now,” Ares said through the mind link.
We didn’t have time to get to the hospital for the surgery. It was too far.
Ares quickly shifted into his human, grabbed my hand, and pulled me through the groups of warriors. Most of them I didn’t recognize. They weren’t Minerva’s warriors. They weren’t Vulcan’s. They weren’t even ours. But they looked familiar, as if they were—
I inhaled deeply.
The stone people.
Some old, others young, they fought against the beasts with everything they had left. My gaze traveled across the battlefield as I tried desperately to find my father. He had to be here. He had to—
A hound sprinted right at us and knocked us onto the ground. He stalked toward me, bloodied saliva dripping from his teeth and black pits for eyes. Ares regained his balance, shielded me with his arm, and bared his colossal canines, his eyes endless, chaotic pits of red. Red.
When someone ripped the hound off us, Ares grabbed my hand and stood. With glowing bronze skin and golden eyes, the man who had once been a statue of white stone snapped the beast’s jaw in a moment.
“Go,” he said to us as the hounds leaped at him from all directions and piled on top. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”
“Who are you?” I asked, staring at him with wide eyes. “Why are you—”
Chucking the hounds off himself, he said, “Go! If you survive the night with the stone, we’ll have eternity for questions.”
Not wasting any more time, Ares grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the pack house, sprinting faster than he ever had. I sprinted right along with him, knowing that we should stay out here and help protect our people but needing to have the stone inside of me. If I did this, I could save so many lives.
So many people and so many pups wouldn’t have to endure a life of pain like I had.
Just as we approached the pack house, Ares stopped and cursed.
“What is—”
I gasped and stared at the hounds entering and exiting the pack house through the windows, glass shattering everywhere, chewing on couches, ripping apart clothes, eating up food. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I bit back a scream.
Everything … everything was getting torn to shreds. Everything was …
“Ruffles,” I said, heart dropping. “I need to find Ruffles.”
Ares wrapped his arms around my waist to hold me back, dragging me away from the pack house. “Trust her to hide and to stay safe. We have to go find another place for the surgery.”
But I needed her. She was the only family I had left. I loved her with all my damn heart. She couldn’t be gone. I couldn’t let the hounds have her. They had my entire family. Finding Ruffles dead would be the end of me.
After picking up my flailing body and throwing me over his shoulder, Ares rushed through the vicious creatures toward one of the other bunkers built into a hillside. With no pups here, we wouldn’t have to risk the hounds killing them if they found us.
Opening the door, he forced me into the room and mind linked someone to find Elijah.
I shoved his chest, trying to push him away so I could get back out there to find my cat. “Ares, please, let me go. I need to find her. She can’t die.”
Snatching my chin in his hand, he stared at me with both rage and fear in his eyes. “No. You need to be strong for your pack. You’ll get the stone inside of you. You’ll fight, and you’ll fight, and when you wake up from this surgery, you’ll continue to fight, no matter what you see outside.”
Lips quivering, I shakily nodded. I didn’t want to. I wanted to fight now.
But I had been preparing for this time to come. I knew what I had to do.
Someone banged on the door, and Elijah shouted, “Let me in! I have the stone.”
When Ares opened the door, Elijah and Dr. Farral hurried into the room.
Elijah scanned the room for a few moments, found a metal table, and threw all their supplies onto it. “Guard that door with your life, Ares. And I’ll guard Aurora with mine.” He ushered me to the table. “Lie down and pray to the Moon Goddess that this goes smoothly.”
Lying down, I stared up at the stone ceiling and tried to even my breathing, but all I could do was focus on everyone’s ragged and rapid heartbeats. Ares locked and bolted the door, standing with his hands flat on the metal and his back to me.
“Ares,” I whimpered, reaching out for him.
He held out one hand for me, our fingertips mere inches from each other. Though my Ares was the god of war, I saw the fear in his eyes as his pack screamed just outside the door.
“Calm down, Aurora,” Elijah instructed as the doctor prepared as quickly as he could.
Since we weren’t near a hospital or even the pharmacy, this procedure was bound to be tougher than expected.
After pulling out a knife, bandages, and a bottle of pills, Dr. Farral took a deep breath. “Please, calm down, Aurora. You’re hyperventilating. You need to breathe in order for me to do this correctly.”
I furrowed my brows. Ares … I wanted Ares over here with me. I was terrified. What if they killed me and I didn’t wake back up? I’d leave him on this earth with nothing but pain. I wouldn’t get to see my Ruffles again. All I wanted was to hold her one last time, to let her know that I loved her.
“Ares, I—”
Outside, a hound slammed against the door. They must’ve known we were in here; they must’ve sensed it. My chest tightened. My throat closed up. Tears raced down my cheeks. I struggled to stand, my wolf forcing me to hug Ares one last time.
Elijah pushed me back down and clasped my wrists in his hands. “Stop it, Aurora.”
“Kitten,” Ares said, hands flat on the door to hold it closed. “I will do anything for you, anything to protect you from all this darkness. Don’t worry about me. Don’t worry if I’m not here when you wake up. You’re strong enough to lead this pack yourself.”
“No! Stop talking like that. Nothing’s going to happen to you,” I screamed as I struggled against Elijah, my body trembling. “Don’t say that! Please, please, don’t say that. It’s not true.”
But something deep in my heart told me that it was.
Something bad was going to happen. Something bad was happening.
Elijah climbed onto the table, straddled my waist, and pinned me down. “We need to do this, Aurora,” he said, his eyes pleading with me from above. “Please, stay still.”
Overcome with so many emotions, I twisted and turned and tried hard to get out of his hold, but Elijah just held me tighter.
“Ares! Ares, please, be strong. Please, don’t go out there.”
The hound slammed into the door again, leaving an indent the size of a human body in the door. The muscles in Ares’s back flexed as he tried to hold it shut, but the hinges were starting to come undone. I wiggled some more, my chin trembling uncontrollably.
“Aurora.” Dr. Farral moved beside me, a bottle filled with purple liquid in his hand. “Aurora, listen to me. You have to drink this. It will calm you down and put you out for a while as we complete the surgery.”
Not wanting to never see Ares again, I pressed my lips together and shook my head. By the way Ares had talked, it’d sounded like he was about to make the ultimate sacrifice for me. And I wouldn’t let it happen. I needed him just as much as that man needed me. I couldn’t let him just die. I … I couldn’t.
Elijah tightened his grip on my wrists and growled down at me. “Aurora, stop,” he said in his alpha command, trying to get me to calm down, but my heart wouldn’t stop racing.
“Ares, tell Mars that I love him,” I said through the mind link, but I wasn’t sure he’d heard me. I struggled some more as the doctor shoved the bottle between my lips and clamped my lips closed around it.
Another hound hit the door, making an even deeper indent, slamming against it over and over and over. The door flew open, and Ares was thrust back and slammed against the table. Two hounds sprinted into the room, and I tried to struggle toward Ares to help him, but my vision became cloudy.
“He’s going to die! Stop him. Sto … sto … hi … him …”
My eyes closed, but I struggled to stay conscious. I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again.
All I could hear was inhuman growling, claws slashing against fur, canines digging into flesh, coming from both inside the shelter and outside in the forest.
But the very last thing I caught before I passed out was Mars’s voice through the mind link. “I love you too, Kitten.”