ARES
“Mars is alive,” Aurora whispered.
My stomach dropped, my chest tightening.
All this time, I had been forcing myself not to believe that he could still be alive. I didn’t want to get my, Aurora’s, or our pack’s hopes up for nothing. But now that I knew he was somewhere in the underworld, wandering around aimlessly, I felt relieved somehow.
This nightmare was coming to an end.
Aurora might’ve reassured me that I’d be a good father. But what kind of man would I be if I didn’t try to find Mars for her and for our pup? I needed to get him back. He deserved to see his baby girl one day. He had sacrificed himself for her.
When the hound fell limp in Aurora’s arms, she laid him on the ground and glanced up at me through teary eyes and a wavering smile.
My chest tightened even more, and I drew her up to her feet, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and tugging her close to me. I didn’t know how the hell it was possible though. Denise had assured me over and over again that Mars was just dormant. And while I knew it wasn’t true, how could he completely split from his body?
Was Mars a walking corpse? A body double?
“He’s alive, Ares,” Aurora whispered to me, pulling away and grasping my face in her soft hands. She rested her forehead against mine and let happy tears race down her cheeks, her body trembling back and forth slightly. “Alive.”
“Maybe,” I said. “We don’t know anything for sure until we see him again.”
Unlike every other time I mentioned Mars, Aurora’s smile didn’t falter. “There’s hope.”
“Hope.”
I ran my hand over her belly, freezing when my fingers grazed over her ripped shirt. I pulled away slightly, my eyes wide and my worst fears racing through my fucked up head. Had I not been able to completely stop the hounds from touching Aurora? How had she gotten this?
“Nyx,” she whispered, curling her fingers around the bottom of her shirt and hesitantly lifting it enough to uncover her huge belly. Completely healed claw marks stretched across her stomach, the fresh scars still red.
“How?” I whispered.
She hadn’t been here.
Yet this proved that she must’ve been lurking somewhere.
“She was inside my head,” Aurora said and then pulled down her shirt.
My heart dropped. “What about the baby?”
“I can feel her still,” she whispered, gently grasping my hand. “Don’t worry.”
After letting out a breath of relief, I gulped. “That happened in your mind?”
“I guess so. I don’t know what Nyx’s capable of. Maybe she was here …”
She placed one hand on her belly bump and the other around my forearm. Not wanting her exposed here for much longer, I ushered her into the house, where Denise stared out the window.
I barked at Marcel through the mind link to have the other alphas meet here first thing in the morning.
We couldn’t wait much longer.
“That wolf,” Aurora said once I pulled out a chair for her, “I used to know him. Do you remember that moonflower field we passed through the other day? I used to lie with a pack of rogues in that field. We’d play together and sleep under the stars. They’re now trapped in the underworld.”
Denise hurried over after grabbing Aurora a glass of water. “Here, take this, sweetie. You’re sweating still.”
Aurora quickly drank down the glass. “We need to get down there as soon as possible. People are depending on us, our daughter is depending on us, and the entire world is depending on me. And Mars … he’s depending on us too.”
“Mars?” Denise asked.
Aurora smiled at her. “Mars isn’t gone, nor is he with Ares anymore. He’s in the underworld.”
“How can this be?” Denise asked me with wide eyes. She pushed her glasses up her nose and shook her head, her silver locks falling into her face. “In all my years of practicing, I’ve never seen or heard anything like this. It’s not how it works with DID.”
“Would that change if Ares wasn’t human?” Aurora asked.
“I guess it could,” Denise said, rubbing her wrinkled hands together. “There are significantly less wolves compared to humans and even less wolves with mental illnesses, like DID. I’m assuming things could change … I just didn’t think they could be this drastic.”
“Ares isn’t just a wolf,” she said, squeezing my hand.
“We’re gods,” I said.
“Gods,” Denise repeated with a smile. “Well then, there is a lot that we need to talk about, Ares, but I’m so glad that Mars is still out there somewhere. He isn’t lost inside of you forever. Would you like Aurora to stay for the remainder of our session?”
I nervously glanced over at her and nodded. “Yes.”
I might’ve hated Denise, but knowing Mars wasn’t gone for good made everything a bit better, even with Denise, who loved prying into my head. We would find Mars, keep our pup safe, and save the world.
Talking to her was step one.