“Yes, I do.” I pressed my lips together and glared over at him, trying to suppress the growing urge my wolf had to rip his clothes off right then and there. Moonlight flickered in through the windshield, hitting his perfectly sculpted face, his brown eyes looking hard yet utterly sensual. I swallowed and turned my head away from him, so I wouldn’t stare anymore. “Especially when people make stupid decisions.”
He parked the car, cut the headlights, and stepped out without saying a word. After a few moments of complete silence, he disappeared into the woods. I glanced around at the darkness. We weren’t in Hound Territory anymore, but we were close. So, I followed after him. Definitely not because I was scared at all. I just wanted to give him a piece of my mind.
“You know what else too?” I asked, following his hazelnut scent.
In the near distance, water splashed gently against a shore. We walked into a clearing, and moonlight glimmered against a lake.
Ares peeled off his shirt, throwing me a cheeky look. “What?”
I gulped and tore my gaze away from his muscular back. Last night, I had seen him without his shirt, but I hadn’t known it was Ares. All I could think was how true the rumors were. Ares looked to be sculpted by the Moon Goddess herself, muscles swollen under the light, scars decorating his back.
Don’t think about it, Aurora. He’s a dick. Remember that.
“You’re disgusting.”
He shimmied out of his jeans and underwear. I forced myself to stare at anything but his back, his flexed triceps, and that ass. It all meant nothing if he was always such a dick.
After giving me a hard look, he stepped into the water. “What did I do that disgusted you so much?”
“Wanting that stone.”
“You don’t know what people would do to have that stone, what people have to give up for it.”
He submerged himself all the way in the water, and I cursed myself for even being here with him. I shouldn’t have left the car because my wolf wouldn’t stop going crazy.
While I hadn’t shifted into my wolf in almost two months, she was still as loud and excited as she always had been, maybe even more so now. Since she couldn’t get her energy out in the form of running, she made sure she got it out in other ways, like this.
When he came back up, he shook out his wet hair, letting it fall into his face. Beads of water rolled down his taut chest. And all I could imagine were my hands gliding over his biceps and the way his fingers would dance alongside my hips if I were in the water with him.
“Not everyone is who you think they are, Aurora.” He glanced over at me. “Not even me.”
My wolf purred, just watching him in that water, all alone. She wanted to get in there with him. She wanted him. Now. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t control myself around him.
I dipped my toes into the water. “Then, show me who you are, Alpha.”
Waist deep in the lake, he grazed a hand down his abdomen, and my gaze followed. “Show you who I am?”
Maybe I’d gotten ahead of myself. That was a big statement for someone who was supposed to hate him at that moment, for someone who was supposed to not want anything to do with him at all.
He raked his golden wolfish eyes down my body and smirked. “Take off your clothes and come to me, Kitten. I’ll show you who I really am.”
My heart pounded in my chest. Moon Goddess, help me.
“Don’t make me say it again.”
“And if I want to make you say it again?” I whispered.
He chuckled, beads of water running down that taut chest of his. All I wanted was his hand around my throat, his fingers inside my pussy, his lips devouring mine like I was his to claim.
“Try me,” he said, stalking closer and closer to me, the water rippling around him.
Damn it. What the hell was wrong with me?
I forced myself to turn around. If I looked at him for another second, I would jump right into that lake with him and have no regrets. I would do anything that he told me to without thinking it through. I would forget that I was an alpha, too, and alphas didn’t react so rashly … unless they went by the name of Ares, the god of war.
The water stayed silent behind me, and my heart pounded against my chest.
It was too quiet. Too fucking quiet.
Suddenly, Ares snaked his hand around my neck from behind and pulled me toward him. “Take off your clothes,” he said against my ear, raking his fingers over my breast.
I shivered at his touch, my nipples immediately hardening against my bra.
“Now.”
Fuck acting cautiously.
Turning around, I curled my fingers under the hem of my shirt and tugged it over my head. My wolf stirred inside of me, willing to do anything that her mate asked her to do, betraying me and all my deepest, darkest wishes.
“Good girl.” Ares lightly his lips against my neck. He looped a finger in my bra cup, tugging on it. “Now, this.”
I unclipped my bra from behind me, remembering how his hands had felt on my body last night. He had made us feel better than anyone ever had. My wolf purred, wanting that again. Goddess, she wanted him to devour us like he had promised he would earlier.
Ares tore it off of me and groped my breast firmly in his hand. He ran his palm over my nipple, and I clenched.
Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate. Claim us.
He plunged a hand into my jeans and rubbed my swollen clit through my panties. “You’re always so wet for me, Kitten.”
Sucking my bottom lip between my teeth, I brushed my fingers against his hard cock. “Let me finish what I started before,” I said. I couldn’t take this
