Control yourself, Aurora. Don’t give in to him that easily.
I shook my head and stepped away from him. “I hardly know you.” But I wanted to know him.
Ruffles hopped onto the bed and jumped into my suitcase, snuggling in all of my clothes and making sure her fur was on each piece. I opened my drawer and pulled out my more personal items, watching the smirk on Ares’s face widen.
“You can get to know me,” he said, reaching out to brush his fingers against mine. “Fire off the questions, Kitten.”
I arched a brow. Questions, questions, questions. I had so many questions for Ares. But I had one dire inquiry that I needed the answer to now. “What should I call you—Ares, Mars, or Asshole?”
He chuckled. “Anything you’d like when we’re out in public.” He stepped closer to me, mere inches away, pushed a strand of hair behind my ear, and leaned down. “But when we’re alone, you can call me Alpha.”
My breath caught in the back of my throat, and I clenched. Wetness pooled between my legs. His fingers dipped between my thighs, and he rubbed my clit gently. I opened my mouth to speak, to tell him to get away from me, to tell him to fuck off, but I couldn’t form any words.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Ares, we need to talk about our agreement,” Mom said.
I pressed my lips together and growled under my breath at her for ruining the moment and my life.
“We’ll finish this conversation later,” Ares said. He pulled away from me and walked to the door. Before he opened it, he glanced back at me. “Call me what you want, Kitten, but I’d prefer you call me Mars.”
Chapter 7
Aurora
When I turned back to my suitcase, Ruffles had one leg up in the air, her toes stretched out, as she licked her belly. She looked up at me briefly and narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that, Ruffles,” I said, trying to calm myself down. “My wolf can’t help it.”
She meowed and glanced past me, her pupils dilating. Someone cleared their throat. Goddess, why couldn’t I be left alone for one damn moment? All I needed was time to clear my head and to figure out how I would survive living with Ares for the rest of my life.
Tony closed my bedroom door, rubbing the claw marks on his neck. His dirty-blond hair was a disheveled mess with streaks of red blood in it. He cautiously stepped into the room. “Aurora.”
“What, Tony?” I asked, seething.
“Come on, A. Don’t do that.” He took my hand.
His woodsy scent, which used to be so comforting, suddenly made me shiver in disgust and step back.
“Don’t do what?”
He brushed a piece of hair from my face and frowned. “Act all … distant.”
“My mother just sold me out to the alpha that she’s been terrified of for years.” I growled, realization finally setting in. She’d really traded me, really gotten rid of me like I was nothing. “I can be distant if I want to.”
He intertwined my fingers with his, brushing his thumb over my knuckles. “You don’t have to be distant with me.”
“Well, seeing as I’m going to live with Ares, we’re about to be quite distant,” I said, stepping away from him.
“We can still meet at the lake every night to spend time together.”
Tony stepped closer to me, and I pursed my lips.
“You know the only reason she sold me out was so you could lead,” I said.
Tony was beta, second-in-command, the strongest person to lead if there was no successor. There was no other reason and could be no other reason. I was weak in her eyes. So fucking weak.
After brushing a strand of hair out of my face, he frowned. “That’s not true.” He gave me a small, supportive smile. “She’s been shaping you to be alpha since Jeremy died.”
“She didn’t ask me to go to the meeting that you attended with the other alphas. She didn’t wake me when Ares was attacking. She sold me out without a second thought.” My heart ached. What had I done to deserve this?
He tilted his head to the side and lightly seized my hips. I could feel his breath on my lips, could smell the sweet scent of his mint gum. He brushed his nose against mine, and for a moment, I closed my eyes and enjoyed it.
Then, I turned my head away. “I can’t, Tony.”
“Aurora,” he said, lips brushing against my ear. He pushed his hips further against me, letting me feel his hardness pressed against the front of his pants. “Just one last time before you leave me.”
“No, Tony, I—”
He glided a finger across my chin and forced his lips onto mine. Hard.
I shoved him back, adrenaline pumping through me. “I said, no.”
He grabbed my hands and held them to his chest. “Aurora, look at me,” he said.
I clenched my jaw and gazed over at him.
“I’m sorry. What do you want me to say? I can’t make it better. It’s not my decision. I never thought that your mother would ever actually go through with the—”
Before he could continue, he stopped himself. My eyes widened. All I felt was anger and rage, a need to hurt someone because Mom had hurt me long enough.
“This was her … plan, her proposition?”
“No. This was the worst-case scenario.” He glanced over at my closed bedroom door, pulled me closer to him, and lowered his voice. “Let Ares take you. I’ll ascend as alpha. We’ll buy ourselves time to form a plan and an army to destroy him. And when we do, I’ll take you back, and you’ll become my luna.”
Ascend as alpha? Become his luna?
I’d bet this was his stupid fucking plan all along. He wanted my place, and he wanted me to be his little plaything.
“Oh,” I said, nodding as if this all made perfect sense.
