“They call me Mars.”
“Mars, like the planet?” she mumbled.
Something inside of me snapped, and I couldn’t hold back the beast any longer. I possessively brushed my thumb across her jaw. Oh, my Kitten had a lot to learn, but she’d learn quickly.
“Like the god.”
Chapter 3
Aurora
I grumbled to myself and rubbed my eyes, shifting on the grassy patch. The moon reflected off the still lake, and the forest was a jarring kind of silent. No yelling. No howling. No wolves. Mars and his sweet hazelnut scent were gone, leaving me to inhale the foul scent of Tony’s thick navy sweatshirt.
My phone lay next to me, in the place Mars would’ve been, and I snatched it—3:03 a.m..
My eyes widened, and I shot up, some soreness lingering in my core. Mom was going to kill me. I dusted the sand off my back and hurried through the woods, not even bothering to look for him. It was apparent that all he’d wanted to do was fuck. Touch me in places that he shouldn’t have and then leave.
Sure, there were plenty of wolves like that nowadays, but I hadn’t expected my mate to be one. But who was I to talk? I was supposed to have met Tony at the damn lake to get off for the night.
I climbed the small cliff and shimmied back through the cave, sneaked right past Mom’s warriors, and sighed in relief when I crawled through my window and an angry alpha mom wasn’t waiting for me.
Ruffles glared at me when I turned the light on, blinding her. She gave me a hard fuck you meow and stuffed her face back into her paw. After tugging off my clothes and taking a quick shower, I lay in bed with her and stared up at the ceiling.
From my bed, I could hear Mom and Dad whispering in their room, about tonight’s meeting, about Ares, about how they thought he would tear us down one by one, torture us until we gave him all our riches—not that we had much nowadays. And while Ares might be a threat, all I could think about was the man in the woods.
Mars.
I balled the thin purple sheet in my hand and yanked it up my body, so it covered my shoulders. I knew I should’ve stayed away from him. I knew I should’ve run when I had the chance—when he gave me the chance. But I hadn’t wanted to run. My wolf wanted to stay with him.
I guessed he hadn’t wanted to stay with me.
But who was he? Possibly a scout from a nearby pack … but how would that explain all those scars? Maybe he was a warrior from Alpha Ares’s Ironmane Pack. Mom would have my head if he was.
After sulking for a few more moments, I shook the thought away. It didn’t matter anyway. He had left me alone in the middle of the damn woods after giving me the hottest night of my entire life. If he didn’t need me, I sure as hell didn’t need him.
I was soon-to-be alpha of the Darkmoon Pack, and not even my mate would get in my way of trying as hard as I could to be the leader that Jeremy would’ve wanted me to be.
There was some rustling by my bedroom window that I’d left slightly ajar. Ruffles lifted her nose and glanced at it, her eyes narrowed in a leave me alone, I’m trying to fucking sleep expression. A tree branch brushed across the glass, the wind picking up outside and drifting into the room. I inhaled softly and swore I smelled hazelnut. But after a few moments, it was gone.
Just the damn wind taunting me.
I squeezed my eyes shut and growled. Fuck Mars for leaving me. Fuck Mars for touching me. Fuck Mars for being the egotistical asshole that I had known he was.
Moon Goddess, I wanted to fuck Mars.
Chapter 4
Ares
“No killing,” I said through the mind link to my warriors, hopping out of the narrow cave and onto Darkmoon’s property.
One by one, my warriors walked out and stood behind me in their wolf form, eyes trained on the patrol guards in the forest a mile away.
The early morning sun filed in around the monstrous trees, hit the forest floor, and created grotesque shadows. These lush greens would turn into a fucking bloodbath soon because I wasn’t leaving until I found that damn stone.
I’d search for it even if it was the end of me. All these packs in Sanguine Wilds played games, taunted me about it, plotted ways to rid me of something so precious.
But I was done with that shit.
I needed the stone, and I needed it now.
Liam stood next to me with his head held high, saliva dripping from his canines.
I growled to silence all my warriors. “We take the stone and then take Alpha Theia’s daughter.”
Aurora. Her name was Aurora.
But I didn’t want anyone to know her name yet. She was mine. All mine.
She was the goddess with the brown hair and eyes as bright as the dawn. An alpha wolf who would rule by my side—whether she wanted to or not. I had waited to find my mate for years, always wanted her to be a strong warrior who could run with me.
She didn’t know me yet. She only knew Mars. She’d lain with him. She’d touched him. She’d begged for him. Then, she’d disappeared in the middle of the night after I had to head back to camp to deal with pack drama.
I had traced her scent through the entire forest and used—what seemed to be—her own secret little passage until I found her pack house. Part of me wanted to tear right through her home to find her, scold her for not staying, but it was my fault. I’d
