I was just Aurora, the nineteen-year-old girl sneaking out of her parents’ pack house to fuck Tony at the lake.
Sanguine Wilds Forest stretched for thousands of miles across this continent. And while Mom only owned about twenty miles in each direction, warriors prowled through the thick brush for miles, looking for rogues. There were more guards in the forest compared to the last few nights, which meant one thing.
Mom expected Alpha Ares to be here soon.
I sighed and took the hidden route to the lake. I shimmied through a deserted cave, climbed down a slight cliff, and walked right off the property without anyone seeing.
Nobody knew about the secret pathway, except me.
After a few moments of surveying the area to make sure nobody was following me, I walked around one of the larger mountains that Jeremy used to always take me to and headed straight toward the lake. The air smelled fresh tonight, a sweet yet unfamiliar scent drifting through the woods.
My fingers brushed against the gnarled tree bark as I walked out from the forest and toward the small opening of the lake. The moon glimmered off the water, lightning bugs floating above it. I frowned. I guessed Tony was late.
I sat down on some rocks and dipped my feet into the water, splashing them around and creating ripples. All I had been craving for the past twenty-four hours was Tony playfully pushing me into the lake with all of my clothes still on, watching me get soaked through the tiny pink tank top that I had worn for him, pulling off his shirt and showing me all that thick muscle underneath.
My breathing hitched, and I closed my eyes, heat gathering in my core. Goddess, I couldn’t wait for him to tug on my nipples. I drew a finger against them, making them hard. To pull my hair. I inhaled the sweet air and pushed my knees together. To thrust into me until I begged him to stop.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and Tony’s name flashed on the screen.
Tony: Sorry. Dad dragged me to the meeting with your parents tonight. Won’t be able to make it until later.
I stared down at my phone, gripping it until my fingertips turned white. Why was he only telling me this now, and why the hell hadn’t I been invited? It was almost as if he’d waited until now because he didn’t want me to know about him attending the meeting without me—the soon-to-be alpha.
I hummed at the thought of Mom inviting Tony to this meeting instead of her own daughter. My phone buzzed again, and I knew it was Mom nagging me about something important. The mind link didn’t work at this distance, and she never contacted me for just anything.
Mom: The Ironmane Pack was spotted ten miles away from our borders. You’d better be at home.
There it was again. The Ironmane Pack. Alpha Ares.
Get back home now, Aurora. You know you can’t fight. They’ll rip you in half, limb by limb. You’ll die, like the way Jeremy did—in the hands of a monster.
I put my phone back into my pocket and stared out at the water. Not many people had ever seen Ares up close, and I couldn’t find any pictures of him when I searched this morning. Legend was that he killed so many and so quickly that people didn’t have a chance to even catch a glimpse of him. But the ones who had survived his brutality said he looked like a god with a back sculpted by the Moon Goddess herself, black tattoos that crawled up his forearms, and thick, tousled brown hair.
But I thought that was bullshit. No alpha ever looked that goo—
A twig snapped close behind me in the woods. I sat up taller and tensed. Someone had found my little hideout in the Sanguine Wilds, and I really didn’t want to deal with whoever it was.
“Tony?” I asked, knowing for damn sure it wasn’t him. I sniffed the air but couldn’t catch any familiar scent anywhere. “I’m not in the mood for one of your games right now. You know I’m here for one thing,” I said, standing up and trying to calm my racing heart.
It definitely wasn’t Tony, but his name was the only damn thing that could calm my nerves right now. He might’ve been the most aggravating man sometimes, but at least he answered me when I called for him.
Almost instinctively, my eyes closed, and I breathed in the most captivating scent that I had ever smelled—hazelnut.
“And what are you here for?” someone asked in my ear, his voice impeccably smooth and deep.
I hopped up, my heart racing in my chest, and gazed at a naked man I had never seen before. The moonlight glistened off his rippling muscles, his hair was a wild mess on his head, and his deep brown eyes were nearly glowing when they gazed into mine.
Mate!
My wolf jumped around inside of me, doing flips in my stomach, acting giddy, like she did under every full moon. But I wasn’t feeling giddy at all. From that small scar running diagonally through his left eyebrow to that captivating stare, I was terrified by how easily he had crept up on me.
“You’re not Tony,” I said, my voice smaller than I wanted it to be.
But of course, he wasn’t Tony. Tony was off at the damn meeting and probably would be all night.
Something about him told me to run and to run fast, but an alpha didn’t run from just anyone, especially when he wasn’t a threat … yet. He eyed me, his eyes flickering between his brown human color and his wolf’s gold, canines lengthening from his mouth and then disappearing almost as quickly. A torn expression crossed his face, but then he clenched his jaw and stepped toward me.
“No, I’m
