ARES
I sat at the head of the table, glaring down the other alphas and waiting not-so-patiently for Aurora, so we could start this fucking meeting already. After the hound attack and these nightmares that had been plaguing my mind, I hated the thought of leaving Aurora alone.
What if something happened and I wasn’t there to stop it?
My claws cut into my palms again. Something had happened while I was around, and I still couldn’t stop it. What would I do to protect Aurora? With the Malavite Stone, Aurora was now stronger than I was. How could her lousy man and mate do anything?
I couldn’t.
I fucking couldn’t.
Some of the alphas mumbled to their betas, and I cut my gaze to them. Fuming.
Why had Aurora stayed back? What did she need to talk to Denise about? Denise might’ve helped Mars, but I didn’t trust her, especially now that Mars was gone. She had always favored him, always treated him differently than she treated me. She talked down to me like she knew more than I ever could.
Balling my hands into fists even harder, I sighed as the blood leaked from my palms and enjoyed the pain a bit too much. But I fucking deserved all the agony in the world for ever letting Mars sacrifice himself, for letting him leave Aurora with me.
Alone, I wasn’t good for her. I’d hurt her. I hurt everyone.
“What are we waiting for?” Alpha Pax asked. He was one of the many alphas who hadn’t come to the last meeting, thinking that I wasn’t trustworthy enough, one who could’ve helped stopped this fucking chaos before it ever started.
But it was too late for that shit.
When the door swung open, Aurora hurried into the room with Ruffles standing by her side. “Sorry I’m late,” Aurora said, her sweet scent drifting in through my nostrils and making me unclench my fists. She sat next to me and smiled at the other alphas. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” I said, letting my palm heal before she could see it.
“Well then, let’s start,” Aurora said, addressing the room. “We have hound problems.”
“They’re tearing up the Sanguine Wilds and getting stronger by the day,” I continued. “And they aren’t hellhounds, like we originally thought. A necromancer from the underworld is turning dead wolves into undead monsters who want to kill us all.”
“And where are these hounds now?” Pax asked, brows raised. Or maybe he just didn’t fucking want to be here. He strived for peace, but peace wasn’t an option when dealing with hounds. “The forest has been silent these past couple weeks.”
“They’re in the underworld, fighting gods,” Aurora said, tucking a strand of her long brown hair behind her ear.
A fire flashed through her eyes, and I growled at the thought of her thinking about Helios—that god who seemed to know and care for her almost too much.
“I think we should bring the fight to them,” Alpha Vulcan said stoically, shaking his head of dark red hair. “I saw the destruction they can do. They kill ruthlessly, and I don’t want any of my people—or any alpha’s people—to be killed.”
“I agree,” Minerva said. “I visited Alpha Ares’s old pack, and everything was destroyed.”
Ruffles placed two paws on the table and looked at me. “Meow,” she said in agreement.
“You suggest we go to the underworld?” Alpha Olen said, skeptical. Like the rest of these assholes, that old man never quite liked me. “How do you suggest we get there? The only path to the underworld as mortals is death, and we can’t fight when we’re dead.”
“I might have an idea,” Aurora said, gnawing on the inside of her lip.
Everyone looked over at her, including Ruffles, who could almost sense what was going to come out of Aurora’s mouth because she growled lowly.
Aurora petted her gray fur to calm her down. “Medusa—”
“Medusa?” Pax said, chuckling. “She’s a myt—”
I grabbed his collar, thrust him against the table, and growled, “Don’t interrupt my mate.”
Everyone tensed, and I let my claws break right through the cloth of his shirt. When Aurora placed her hand on my thigh, I released him and sat back.
“Let her finish,” I said. “She knows more about this than you do.”
Pax sat back and huffed, readjusting himself.
“Medusa isn’t a myth,” Aurora continued. “We’ve met her more than once, and we have seen what she can do. The stories of her turning people to stone are true.” Her voice wavered slightly, as if she didn’t know if the next part of her sentence would come off as crazy. “Those people must go somewhere. They were in the midst of a battle with hounds. What if they went to the underworld when she turned them to stone?”
“You’re saying that Medusa could get us to the underworld alive? That when she turns people to stone, it doesn’t kill them?” Pax asked, tilting his head at Aurora as if he didn’t believe her. “I don’t believe in an unpeaceful witch like her.”
Vulcan cleared his throat. “Aurora is telling the truth.”
“It could work,” Minerva agreed.
Pax laughed lifelessly and stood up, capturing the attention of the other alphas. “Are we seriously going to trust that Medusa would ever help a bunch of werewolves get to the underworld in one piece? Who knows what’s down there? We could get stuck there if we’re not careful.”
I stood to meet his intense stare. “Sounds like you’re fucking scared.”
This guy kept pissing me off. He fucking deserved to be belittled.
“My pack would have wiped out all those hounds by now, Ares,” he said to me, eyes shifting from green to gold.
If he wanted a fight, I would fucking give him one. Right here, right now.
Pax growled, “I’m not afraid of the underworld, but it seems like you are.”
“You would’ve been shitting your pants if you had seen what we did,” Vulcan said to him.
Minerva rolled her brown eyes and leaned closer to Aurora. “What did I tell you? Testosterone will get us all killed one day. Take care of this,” she said, tapping her fingers on the wooden table, “before I have to.”
Pressing her fingertips into the long wooden table until they turned white, Aurora stood. “This is not the time for arguments. We’re fighting for our lives. Those hounds don’t care who you are. They will kill children, pups, elders, anyone. None of us are safe, which is why we need to bring the fight to them.”
There was a fire in her voice, a strength that I had only seen during the hound attack. Aurora had grown so much since the day Mars and I had met her at the lake. She had become more than a woman and much more than a luna. Aurora had become an alpha who inspired.
“I’m not sure if it’ll work,” Aurora continued, glancing from alpha to alpha. “But I will find out what I can from Medusa and get back to everyone.”
Everyone at the table must’ve felt the power radiating off her because even the chattiest of alphas fell silent and became tense. Aurora wasn’t to be questioned this time. Her mother might’ve never believed in her, but these other alphas did.
“Everyone should prepare for war, whether you go to the underworld with us or not.”
Again, a heavy silence fell upon the group of alphas. With so much pride, I stared at my mate, a woman who was able to command an entire room of egotistical assholes, and found myself thinking of how much more she deserved.
This woman had power close to a goddess’s now. Even Helios had recognized it.
After a few long moments of silence, Olen finally nodded. “I plan to go to the underworld with you, Aurora. My warriors are some of the strongest in the Sanguine Wilds. We will destroy anyone who threatens our peace.”
“I’ll go too,” another alpha said. “My ancestors fought in the War of the Lycans. My pack will honor them.”
“Mine too,” another said.
When the room erupted into an argument about which pack would descend into the underworld and which alpha had the strongest warriors, Aurora glanced over at me and smiled, her hand traveling across her bump.
“We’re going to create a better future for our pup,” she said. “We’re not alone anymore.”
“We’re going to fight for a better future, Aurora. Nothing is certain.”
But, hell, I’d try my hardest to make it happen.