My nails lengthened into claws behind my back. Damn her. Was she stupid? Did she not understand that trading me to Ares wouldn’t stop the hounds from attacking our pack? Could she even comprehend that she’d lose another child?
Tony smiled at me, nose grazing against mine. “I won’t let him hurt you, I promise.”
And then as if kissing me would make up for everything, he pressed his lips to mine, grabbing me harshly and pulling me to him. I pushed him away again, harder this time, my mind all over the place.
Just as I was about to sink my claws into his neck and tell him to never touch me like that again, he was ripped from me and thrown against the wall. He hit it with a thud and fell right onto Ruffles. Ruffles hissed and swatted at his face, scratching him across the cheek and immediately drawing blood.
Ares stood in front of me, back muscles rippling against his shirt, staring at the man who had touched his mate. He scooped him up by his neck, thrust him against the wall again, and held him there. This time, he held nothing back. His claws pierced his skin, and blood ran down Tony’s neck and stained his white shirt.
I narrowed my eyes at Tony and watched him squirm in Ares’s death grip, trying so desperately to breathe and to get out of his hold, but he was too weak.
And Mom wanted him as the next alpha.
Pinning him to the wall, Ares stepped closer, his lips next to Tony’s ear. “What did I fucking tell you?” he asked, voice impeccably calm.
Tony didn’t say anything.
“I told you not to touch my fucking mate again, didn’t I?”
Tony grasped his wrists, but Ares just tightened his grip. His biceps flexed hard, and his canines lengthened past his lips.
“Didn’t I?”
When Tony still didn’t say anything, Ares squeezed his neck harder.
I yanked his arm away. “Ares, stop.” But he didn’t. “Ares.”
His eyes were gold. Pure wolfish gold. I didn’t know what to do to get him to calm down. I wanted to punish Tony for touching me, but I didn’t want him to die. He would be the next alpha of our pack whether I liked it or not.
“Mars,” I said, hoping to the Goddess that he’d stop. Ares’s eyes softened at the mention of his name. “Let him go.”
“So you can let him fuck you?” Ares growled.
“No, so I can kick him out of my room,” I said. “Now, stop it.”
Ares glared at Tony, whose cheeks had turned purple. “Pathetic.” He gave him one last shove against the wall. “Next time you think about touching my mate, I will snap your fucking neck.”
Ares stepped back, and Tony fell to the ground again. Ruffles hissed at him, narrowing her eyes and lengthening her claws. She went to smack at him again, but he shuffled out of the room, holding his neck and slamming the door shut.
“I could’ve handled that myself,” I said through clenched teeth. Why did all of the damn men in my life want to be saviors? I swore they all had damn problems, called being an alpha-hole.
“Get your things,” he said through his teeth. “We leave in ten minutes.”
Before he walked out of the room, I grabbed his arm. “You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone in my pack if I went with you.”
He growled lowly, baring his canines at me, his mate. “I also said that I was going to have to take care of Tony, didn’t I?” He stepped closer to me, towering over me and making me feel terrifyingly small. But something about his possessiveness made me weak for him. “I gave him a chance. If he hadn’t come into your room, touched you, flirted with you, kissed you, maybe I wouldn’t have.”
“You’re over the top and out of fucking control.”
“Out of control?” He stepped toward me again, a sinister look in his eye.
I never thought I would see it, but it was there. The look of a god, the look of war, the look of utter chaos. I sucked in a breath, never having been turned on at the sight of such a man.
He snatched my jaw and gently caressed my cheek with his thumb. “Aurora, you have not seen me out of control.” He was deathly calm, and it scared me more than it should have. “If I were out of control, you would be on your knees with my cock down this throat of yours”—he trailed his fingers down the column of my throat—“until you were gasping for breath.”
My wolf purred at the thought, but I didn’t want her to feel anything toward such a violent, savage creature even if he could make us feel so much while barely touching us.
“If you are anything like the man you were earlier when you had Tony’s throat in your hands, I’m sure I’d be highly disappointed. That wasn’t dominance; that was called being fucked u—”
He snatched my throat in his hand, squeezing lightly. “You want to see me out of control, Aurora?” he asked, lips grazing against mine. As his hardness pressed against my stomach, I clenched. “Get on your knees.”
My breath caught in my throat, and I parted my lips to speak. But I couldn’t say a word. Goddess, I wanted this more than anything. He pushed me away slightly, his eyes a mix of gold and brown.
“Knees,” he said. “Before I have to push you down onto them.”
I boldly brushed my fingers against the front of his pants and swore to myself at how big he felt inside of them. All I could picture was him inside of me, thrusting in and out until I could barely stand.
He suddenly lowered his hand, and I stumbled down onto my
