ARES
As Hades had promised, the road to Tartarus—the place halfway between Hades’s and Erebus’s kingdoms, where Hella and Nyx supposedly resided—was filled with monsters and hounds. After defeating some minotaurs and other bird creatures, the hounds began attacking us from behind.
A hound sprinted toward me, his canines drawn and dripping with blood. I leaped out of the way, my hands curling around Aurora’s waist and pulling her behind me. Aurora might’ve had all the strength in the world, but she was still mine. I would do whatever it took to protect her and keep her alive to see Mars again and our daughter.
The hound sank his claws into my thigh and his teeth into my abdomen, pulling out a huge chunk of my flesh. A loud roar escaped my throat, and I tossed him off of me with my sheer strength. Then, I kneed him in the snout and sent him flying backward into a tree. The tree snapped and smacked against the ground, hitting three more hounds in its wake.
All I wanted was for fucking Fenris to show his face. I wanted to kill him this time.
I need to kill him this time.
Him running away with my mother last night had proven that he was weaker than when he had been in the Sanguine Wilds. If he hadn’t been, then he would’ve fought and killed me too, like he had done with Mars.
But the more hounds I fought, the more I couldn’t find him among the beasts.
From across the battlefield, I spotted a woman with eyes so dark that they haunted my nightmares. Hella stood among the beasts, hurling her magic at my packmates and trying to kill them. Some magic struck Aurora’s newfound friend, sending her down.
I clenched my jaw and growled harshly to capture her attention. As I lunged forward to slaughter more hounds and to kill her, my mind suddenly became fuzzy with memories or … maybe events that were happening now in the Sanguine Wilds.
A young girl, at least six years old, flashed through my mind. She had long dark-brown hair that cascaded past her shoulders. Her eyes were as bright as Aurora’s and filled with so many of dawn’s colors. She lunged forward toward an enemy boy too, mirroring my movements.
Canines drawn, she raced toward the boy and tackled him to the ground. They somersaulted down a slight hill. When they reached the bottom, she pinned him to the ground, her hands around his wrists and her body straddling his waist.
“Finally,” she said breathlessly, chest heaving up and down. “I won.”
“Ares!” Aurora screamed out in the real world, but I couldn’t seem to get myself to come out of the hazy memory of this girl.
No matter how hard I tried, no matter how many hounds tried to pile on top of me, no matter how much blood poured out from my fur, the only thing I could see was that young girl.
The boy grinned at her. “Nuh-uh. I let you win.”
It seemed like the girl didn’t like the way he’d responded to her, so she picked up her knee and thrust it right into his thigh. The boy whimpered underneath her and clutched his thigh, shaking his head and submitting to her. She got off him.
When he did, her eyes grew even brighter. “I told you that I won.”
“Alphas always win,” the boy said, getting off the ground and dusting himself off. “You’re not an alpha. Only I am, and there can only be one alpha per pack.”
Little did he know, that wasn’t true. Both Aurora and I were alphas.
“I can be an alpha too!” the girl said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Legend says that the first female alpha happened only a few years ago. But it still happened. If you can be an alpha because you’re a boy, then I can be an alpha because I’m a girl.” She tossed some hair over her shoulder. “And besides, I am stronger than you.”
The boy furrowed his brows, trying to seem angry, but there was a small smile on his face and almost adoration in his eyes. “Whatever you say,” he said. “If that’s what you want to believe, you can believe that.”
“Well, that’s what I believe,” she said, mirroring his same curious and excited look.
There was something between them, something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
She and the boy stared at each other for a long time. And then, suddenly, the boy stepped forward toward the young girl and kissed her right on the lips. Rage rattled through my body at the mere sight of it. Something inside of me felt so protective. And that same something told me that this just wasn’t any girl.
This girl in my vision was my daughter.
My daughter was getting older and growing taller, experiencing life and love, and neither Aurora nor I were there for her.