ARES
Before the alpha meeting the next morning, I glanced over at Marcel, who now had permanent wrinkles on his forehead from creasing it so much these past few days. Yesterday, Aurora had told me that he would trade his life for Charolette’s, and while I so fucking wanted Charolette to live, sacrificing his life was … almost too much to ask.
Even for a coldhearted, hardheaded brute like me.
If Medusa had given us this option weeks ago, I would’ve fucking forced Marcel to sacrifice his life. But that was the old me. With Mars wandering the underworld and not here, I couldn’t make any more stupid and helpless decisions.
He would be disappointed that I had been strong for him but not the rest of this pack.
“You don’t have to trade your life for hers,” I said to Marcel.
Aurora frowned, tucked some brown hair behind her ear, and placed her hand on my knee. I glanced over at her and smiled, my gaze falling to her belly. I would be strong for her, for me, for this pack, and for our baby.
Never again could I blindly kill people for no good reason at all. I had to survive without my other half and without the man who had nearly always talked me down from senseless decisions over the past decade.
“What the fuck are you even saying?” Marcel asked, jerking me out of my thoughts. “I’m surprised you haven’t forced me to already.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. “Not anymore. Not without Mars.”
At the mention of his alpha’s name, Marcel glanced out the window and clenched his sharp jaw. “We have to change with the fucking times, I guess. Do things for the people we love and for the family that we have always known.”
“What you’re doing is more than I have ever asked of you,” I said.
“Well, you didn’t ask me to do this,” Marcel snapped, his silver hair falling into his face. “I’m doing this because I love your sister. She’s my mate, and I would do anything, so she could live and not just survive. She’s weakening by the day. I just …” He trailed off and glared at the rustling trees outside.
“You just what?” Aurora asked softly.
Marcel pressed his trembling lips together. “I wish that I had more time with her. I want to love her for eternity, and now, we only have a couple more days together. It’s going to be so fucking hard to leave her. She … she’s never going to forgive me for leaving either.”
“You’re not going to tell her why you’re going?” I asked.
“No,” Marcel said, finally turning back to us with that stoic expression painted all over his face. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t either. If she knew … she would never forgive herself for letting me leave.”
Twenty minutes later, alphas from all over the nation piled into the meeting room. I had never seen this many packs represented in one room because shit always started when this many egos decided to talk stuff out.
But this was survival.
If we all wanted to survive, we needed to try.
Elijah stood by the door with his arms crossed over his chest, talking to Adrian. Grabbing Adrian’s collar, Elijah yanked him closer, whispered something inaudible into his ear, and then kissed him. Aurora beamed next to me, smacking my shoulder and nodding so obviously toward them.
“They’re so cute,” she whispered. “So cute!”
When they pulled away, Adrian disappeared down the hallway, and Elijah appeared at Aurora’s side. “Who are we still waiting for?”
“Minerva,” Aurora said, grinning at Elijah and wiggling her brows.
“You’re a creep, Aurora,” Elijah teased, adjusting his glasses and sitting. “Anyone else?”
“Medusa too.”
Knowing that we didn’t have time to waste, I stood and cleared my throat, commanding the attention from every alpha in the room. “While we are waiting for a couple more people, we should strategize. The hounds are becoming more dangerous every day.”
“While everyone goes to the underworld, some alphas should stay here,” one of the alphas suggested. “There needs to be strong alphas to lead, in case the warriors who travel to the underworld don’t come back, similar to how they didn’t during the War of the Lycans.”
“I agree,” Aurora stated. “Some alphas should stay on earth and watch over the men and women and children who aren’t traveling to the underworld—at least until we all return. There is no point in leaving if the people on earth aren’t safe and protected.”
“We need an army down there, Kitten,” I said through the mind link. “Are you sure?”
She glanced over at me. “Yes.”
I nodded and sat. “Who will stay?”
The room broke out into a fit of loud murmurs, but then those whispers ceased immediately when Medusa walked into the room, dressed in a seafoam-green gown and veil, and took a seat beside Aurora.
Everyone glanced at her, eyes wide, until someone raised their hand. “I’ll stay.”
A couple other alphas, who had always taken a negative stance toward war, volunteered to stay on earth too.
And, to my surprise, Vulcan cleared his throat and nodded along with them. “I’ll stay to watch over your pack. You both are sacrificing so much for us. I don’t want to see it go to waste.”
Aurora smiled at him, her eyes glowing gold. “Thank you.”
“What about Minerva?” someone asked.
“She’ll want to go,” I said, balling my hands into fists. “She’s stubborn as hell.”
Last time I’d tried to force her to stay back, she had run with us all the way to the Syncome Mountains and fought alongside us against the hounds and stone people who attacked so viciously. She wouldn’t pass up an opportunity like this.
When the alphas began arranging plans with each other, Aurora turned to Medusa. “Thank you for coming. This means so much to us.”
“Of course, sweetheart,” Medusa said, setting a hand on her head to still the slithering, restless wolf-like snakes. “Before I forget, has your friend made a decision about Charolette’s death? Is he willing to do it?”
I glanced over at Marcel, who stared emptily at the table.
Aurora nodded at Medusa and swallowed hard. “He told me that he’d do it as long as Charolette never found out about it and only if the cancer will stop while he resides in the underworld and Charolette can live her life out in peace.”
Medusa nodded. “It will stop, but Marcel must carry the burden of Hella’s wrath.”
“He would do anything for Charolette,” Aurora whispered, eyes glazing over with tears.
Marcel and Charolette had grown so much over the past couple months. When I’d first brought Aurora back here, they’d hated each other. And now, Marcel was going to sacrifice his life for my sister.
But I could never tell her that.
She would never know that Marcel loved her more than he loved his arrogant self.
“I will talk to him later about it,” Aurora said. “He will leave when you need him to.”
“Medusa,” I started, wrapping an arm around the back of Aurora’s seat and leaning forward, “I wanted to ask you something. I don’t know if Aurora told you, but I have”—I rolled my eyes—“a thing called dissociative identity disorder—or at least, that’s what Denise calls it.”
“Yes, I know. You have a personality named Mars too.”
“Are you sure you want to talk about this here”—Aurora tensed and glanced at the other alphas—“with everyone?”
After giving her my best smile, I glanced back at Medusa. “During the fight against the hounds, Mars sacrificed himself. Then, a rogue from the underworld—one who told Aurora he had been down there since the War of the Lycans—said that Mars is down there now too. How is that possible?”
I hoped to the fucking gods that Medusa had something because between Denise’s knowledge—or lack thereof—and Elijah’s science, we were stumped. And it was tearing me up on the inside, almost as much as thinking he was dead.
This shouldn’t have been able to happen. Mars didn’t live in another body.
Medusa cleared her throat. “When Mars was fatally stabbed, his personality must’ve separated from your current one. If he’s down in the underworld, he isn’t a physical being, but perhaps a spirit or a ghostlike entity. Spirits can separate from the body, especially if you’re divine, which is how they’re able to be reborn. Spirits wander through the depths of the underworld until they are ready and prepared for another body.”
“Will he ever be whole again?” Aurora whispered. “If we find him down there, I mean?”
Medusa paused for a long damn time. “When Ares meets Mars, they might or might not form as one again. It depends on a variety of factors, including when both his personalities truly formed within his current body. If his split personality formed when he was reborn into this new body and Ares just stayed dormant until something horrendous happened to Mars, then it’s more likely that they’ll form into one again. If Ares just appeared later, then it would be more difficult to fuse.”
“How will we know?” I asked.
“You won’t.”
“So, Mars and Ares might be stuck like this forever?” Aurora whispered.
Medusa just gave a curt nod.
“Were Mars and Ares fused together in their past lives?” Aurora asked.
Again, Medusa became quiet. “Yes.”