AURORA
“Kairo, when do you think we’ll shift into our wolves?” my daughter said to a boy.
Unlike last time, when I had been able to see her face clearly, this time, it looked fuzzy, almost as how I imagined what the world would be like for someone who needed to wear glasses. But I did notice how soft her dress looked, the dawn colors drifting in the wind.
She and Kairo stood behind some trees and watched the wolves run in the early morning, their fur blowing as they propelled themselves forward, their snouts pointed to the fading moon in the sky, and the scent of the Sanguine Wilds floating heavily through the air.
Goddess, I miss this. I wish that I can be here with her, whoever she has become since I have been gone.
“I’m not sure,” Kairo said. “Dad said maybe when we turn thirteen, but no young wolves have shifted since those people departed into the underworld. At least, that’s what he told me last night.”
“Really?” my daughter asked, eyes wide.
“Yeah,” Kairo said, stuffing his hands into his pockets and staring at the older wolves running through the Sanguine Wilds. “My dad says that I’ll need to start training with them,” he said to her, leaning back against the tree and sliding to the ground. He kicked around some dirt with his bare feet and broke a twig in his small fist. “He said I won’t be able to go out on adventures with you much anymore.”
My daughter crouched in front of him. “What?” she whispered, voice barely audible.
“He said that I need to prepare to become alpha and that the elders said that they will pick a mate for me in a few years, so I need to be strong for her.” He stared at his feet, not glancing up at my daughter once. “The gods and goddesses who left the Sanguine Wilds haven’t come back. Choosing two powerful mates is our best chance at survival.”
“But, Kairo,” she said, voice cracking, “we are supposed to be together.”
As I stood behind a tree and watched them, my heart ached. All I wanted to do was run over to her and scoop her into my arms. They might have been mates, they might’ve not, but this was rejection. And rejection fucking hurt.
“We can’t,” Kairo said. “Dad said that today is the last morning I can spend with you.”
“Kairo, no,” my daughter said, dropping to her bum next to him, wrapping her arms around one of his, and then resting her head on his shoulder. “Please, don’t let him take you away from me. We stay out every morning.”
“He’s the alpha. I have to do what he says.”
“First, it will be mornings. Then, it will be nights. Then … I will never see you.”
Kairo stayed quiet, and I bit back some tears. I had already missed so much of her life. I didn’t know when I would ever get to see her or if I would ever see her again. I just wanted to hold her and tell her that what was meant to be would be. Eventually.
Nothing came easy in the Sanguine Wilds. Not for our family.
“Aurora!” someone called.
And for a moment, I thought it was my daughter. Both she and Kairo were looking in my direction and stopped talking, stopped moving, stopped … breathing.
“Aurora!”
I blinked my eyes open, my dream suddenly gone and so very far away from me. If I could stay in that dream state forever, then I would. I wanted to be with my daughter so badly, wanted to smell her scent and be there when she shifted for the first time.
“You slept in late, Kitten,” Mars said, sitting behind me with his strong arms wrapped around my torso and his fingers gently rubbing circles around my skin. “You seem like you slept well. I’ve been trying to wake you up for the past half hour.”
I rolled onto my stomach, lying flat on the cave floor, and stared up at him. “I dreamed of our daughter. I didn’t want it to end. She’s getting so much older. I want to be there with her. We’re missing a huge chunk of her life.”
Mars suddenly went quiet and nodded. “I know.”
“Do you think we’ll ever be back to see her?”
Instead of reassuring me like he always did, he shoved his hands underneath my armpits, pulled me up, and sat me on his lap. Then, he brushed a few strands of hair off my forehead and behind my ear. “I hope so.”
After running my hands through his messy hair, I frowned. “Me too.”
We sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the early morning sounds of the underworld. People were gathered outside the cave, more gods and goddesses glancing in and smiling at me, as if they remembered me. But I didn’t know who the hell they were.
“Why are there more people?” I asked Mars. “Who are they?”
“People you used to know,” Mars said. “Hades asked them to help us defeat Hella and Nyx once and for all. Apparently, there hasn’t been a war with these many gods since they killed you centuries ago.”
After scrambling out of his lap, I stood to my feet and brushed the dirt off my pants. Then, I reached down, grabbed Mars’s hands, and pulled him up. When he stood, he seized my hand and tugged me along out of the cave to meet the divine beings I couldn’t quite remember.
But it didn’t matter.
We were closer to Hella’s kingdom, closer to finding Ares, closer to ending everything.