AURORA
Descendants of divines.
Is that what we are?
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, stared up at the blank ceiling in our bedroom, and shook my head, a thin layer of sweat covering my lower back. Maybe that was what Elijah thought, but how could I feel those memories if I was just a descendant?
Ares tossed and turned in our bed, brows furrowed and a fearful expression on his sculpted face. I pulled the blankets over his naked body, hoping some kind of warmth and weight would calm him down.
Even Ruffles sat on his chest with her big baby belly, but it didn’t calm him at all.
I didn’t know if I should wake him up or let the nightmares continue. Ares didn’t deserve to have these dreams every night, but if he didn’t sleep, he’d be so tired during the day, and he wouldn’t be at his best. I wanted to get more help for him soon. I needed to invite the therapist to come over again because trying to calm Ares down by myself wasn’t working.
But neither was Denise, especially if Ares didn’t want help.
After blowing out a breath, I decided to let him sleep. Ruffles crawled onto my chest and purred, licking my face with her coarse tongue, as if to say good night. Almost immediately, she fell into a deep cat sleep, as if Ares shifting around in the bed didn’t bother her.
It bothered me, just not as badly as the storm outside.
Wind whipped tree branches against the window, creating grotesque shadows on the bed. Rain pounded against the roof so hard that it sounded like Helios’s horses galloping through the night. Lightning struck through the night sky every couple moments, making Ruffles open one eye because it interrupted her beauty sleep.
“Charolette, please!” Marcel pleaded, his voice drifting through the thin walls. “Please, don’t do this …”
They had been arguing since Ares had fallen asleep. From the bits and pieces I’d heard of their conversation, it sounded like Charolette had just broken the worst news to Marcel, and Marcel wasn’t taking it lightly.
Except, I had never heard Marcel this emotional.
He was usually pissed the fuck off, not voice-wavering sad.
“I can’t,” Charolette said. “I have to do this. Please, just accept my decision.”
I rubbed my hand over my face and prayed to the Moon Goddess that I’d get some sleep tonight. I had so much on my mind, including my conversation with Elijah earlier and meeting Medusa tomorrow evening at the cave. I needed to have a clear head, so I wouldn’t forget to ask her everything that I desired.
We were running out of damn time.
I stared up at the ceiling and rested my hand over my bump, feeling our baby kick. While werewolf pups usually took three months to come to full term, barely a month had passed, and I already felt huge. She was growing faster than typical werewolf pups did, which only confirmed what Elijah had told us earlier … divinity.
Ares turned again, and I placed his hand on my stomach in his sleep. He relaxed slightly, his fingers curling into my bump. Our pup kicked against my stomach, hitting him right in the hand, and I swore he smiled.
My angry alpha freaking smiled at the feel of our pup.
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I bit my lip to hold in my whimpers. I wished Mars were here with us. I loved Ares, but I missed Mars so much in times like these. Mars had wanted pups, had dreamed of putting a pup inside of me and watching her grow.
If he only knew how strong our pup already was …
He would have loved watching her grow in my tummy and kissing my stomach as she kicked.
My entire body tensed as I tried to hold myself from outright trembling next to Ares. All those late nights we’d spent talking with each other, when Mars used to feed me pretzels with that damn hot cheese, sweet little moments that I would never experience again.
It hadn’t really hit me until now.
Mars was gone.
Really gone.
And he would never come back to me.
Tears slid down my cheeks, and I let them flow. I had been so occupied with the hounds, with protecting my pack and my pup that I hadn’t found time to really think about how much I’d lost when he passed on from this world.
Not only had Ares lost half of himself, but I’d lost half of me too.
Mars was my mate, and I … I had fucking lost him for good.
I closed my eyes and remembered when I had seen his ghost the other morning, running through the woods and to the lake where we had first met. For the slightest moment, I’d thought he was still alive, and I’d thought that we could spend the rest of our lives together again.
But death was a bitch.
“Forever yours, Kitten,” he had said to me.
His last fucking words.
Balling the bedsheets in my fists, I ripped my claws right through them. Mars would want me to be strong. For Ares. For our pup. For our pack. So, I wouldn’t give up now. I wouldn’t give in to the pain. I had to make the hard decisions, so we could all live in peace someday.
Nothing would get in my way, not my doubt, not my sorrow, not myself.
And hopefully, when I met Medusa tomorrow at the cave, I would get as much information out of her as I could. I grabbed Ares’s hand on my bump and intertwined our fingers. Ares might’ve been my rock for so long, but now, I needed to be strong for us.