ARES
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck!
I ripped my claws into a tree and tore a fistful of bark right from it, hurling it into the lake. With a loud thunk, the bark sank into the water and forced the lake to ripple out. Thrusting my claws into the tree again, I hurled another piece.
And another.
And another.
And even another.
Fuck, I fucking hated feeling this helpless. Charolette was stopping treatments and starting hospice next week. Nothing was working. I had tried everything under the sun, every stupid idea my fucked up head could think up. And still, it had come to this.
Pacing in front of the water, I shook my head and ran my hand through my hair. This couldn’t be how it ended for Charolette. I couldn’t watch her shrivel away, bruise every time someone touched her, and then die a slow death.
No.
Rage bubbled inside me, my stomach twisting into tight knots that would never truly disappear. I hadn’t tried hard enough to help Charolette. I couldn’t protect her, too, like Mars had wanted. I’d failed my family.
A failure.
A helpless and hopeless failure.
A bitch of a man.
A fucking brute who couldn’t do shit.
That was all I was.
To Mars. To Charolette. To Aurora. To our unborn baby.
And no matter how hard I tried, that was all I would ever be.