When he pulled his fingers out of me, he stuck them into his mouth and sucked off the juices. His eyes softened, and he grabbed my hand, tugging me off of the bed. “Come on. We have to go.”
After we threw on some decent clothes for the meeting with my mother, Ares took my hand again and led me to the backyard, where thirty of his best warriors were gathered. They were the same group of blood-loving, slaughtering warriors that Ares took on every raid.
Charolette and Marcel stood near the front of the group, glaring at each other and … fighting? Charolette had her arms crossed over her chest and was quietly yelling something at him.
What the hell had happened? Last night, they had been all lovey-dovey, and now …
When Marcel saw us, he walked up to Ares and grabbed his shoulder. “I don’t care what you fucking say. I’m not watching Charolette today. I’m going with you. I’m the best fucking fighter you have. I’m not babysitting.”
Charolette’s cheeks flushed, and she glared harder at him. “I’m not a baby. You’re just too fucking annoying to—”
“You’re staying here with her,” Ares said to Marcel.
“You should stay with Charolette,” Liam said, curling an arm around Charolette’s petite waist and pissing off Marcel even more. “Like you said, you’re the best fighter here. You can protect—”
“Don’t give me that fucking bullshit, Liam. You fucking stay back and protect her then.” Marcel stormed toward the other warriors, his silver locks covering his face. “If you fucking love her so much, you’d do that for your pretty fucking princess.”
Though I was secretly rooting for Marcel and Charolette—even though he was a complete ass sometimes—I glanced between Liam and Charolette. “Liam should stay,” I said. “If things go bad at my mom’s pack, we’ll need Marcel.”
And if Tony somehow escaped from our grip today—which he wouldn’t—I wouldn’t put it past him to try to take Charolette. She needed to stay here, not come with us.
Charolette peeked over at Marcel, who was talking—flirting—with one of the prettier warriors. Charolette pressed her glossy lips together, clenched her jaw, and looked at the ground, pulling her arms even tighter around herself, as if she was guilty of something.
My heart ached for her. I didn’t know what had happened, but I knew she was hurting.
“Liam, stay here. We don’t need you bringing Charolette today, like Marcel usually does. This isn’t a raid. Just”—he glanced at his sister and frowned—“watch her.”
Charolette’s blonde hair blew in the breeze. “You shouldn’t even be going, Ares. How many times do I have to tell you that the stone isn’t going to fix me? Nothing will.”
Ares growled, and Charolette huffed at him and stomped into the pack house, slamming the door behind her. My wolf pulled me toward her, but I held myself back. If I didn’t go with Ares, Tony would taunt him until all hell broke loose.
After Liam exchanged a few words with Ares, he followed Charolette inside the house. Ares addressed the warriors briefly and then watched them run in the direction of my mother’s pack.
Instead of running with them, he led me to one of the pack’s cars out front and told me to get in. “If we’re bringing Tony back, I’m not letting him run with us. We need a car,” he said, but I knew that it was secretly because of my shifting abilities.
And for the first time, I didn’t mind it. I didn’t mind him going out of the way to make sure I was comfortable. Sure, many people in Mom’s pack had done it before I met him … but Ares just … he made me feel like a person and not someone that needed to be taken care of.
It took a good few hours to drive to Mom’s pack. Thick fog lay heavily through the eerie forest. I stared out the window and looked through my text messages to Mom last night about visiting her with Ares today. I had sent three of them, and unlike the other messages I’d sent her, none of these ones had been delivered yet.
My heart ached. She’d blocked me. My own damn mother had blocked me.
Dad hadn’t, but he hadn’t responded.
When the fog cleared slightly, I finally started to recognize Mom’s property. I smiled at all the little hideouts where Jeremy and I used to go after sneaking out at night. But … that was all gone. All the past.
Ares parked the car in front of Mom’s pack house, and I sucked in a breath. His warriors were already scattered throughout the forest in case something went wrong. A handful of Mom’s warriors were in the backyard to the pack house, trying to gather as quickly as possible.
I hopped out of the car, followed Ares to the backyard, and prayed to the Goddess that everything went smoothly. All we wanted to do was talk, and she would’ve known that if she hadn’t blocked my number.
Tony, Mom, and some of her strongest warriors stood, guarded and ready for us.
“What is the meaning of this, Ares?” Mom asked, giving him that goddess-awful glare and refusing to even look at me. “You’ve broken our agreement.”
He stepped forward, his gaze fixed on Tony, who stared at me, not caring for a single moment that Ares was about to pounce on him if he wasn’t careful.
“Agreement is off,” Ares said through clenched teeth.
“Are you bringing her back?” Tony asked, finally looking at him. “Because I’d be happy to take her.”
Face contorted into one of pride, Tony pissed me the fuck off. This was all because of him. He had to be the alpha. He’d had to hide the stone from me. He’d had to talk to hounds behind my pack’s back.
I seized Ares’s wrist, stopping him from leaping at the stupid idiot who I’d once called lover.
Tony smiled at me and held out his hand. “Come on, Aurora. You don’t need to spend another day with an alpha who slaughters people for fun.”
Ares growled
