Knowing that he was getting Ares angry, Tony smirked and stepped toward me. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you, Kitten.”
Before I could stop him, Ares lunged at Tony, wrapped his entire hand around Tony’s neck, and lifted him off the ground as if he weighed nothing. Tony grabbed his wrist, trying to pull his arm away but not trying as hard as I knew he could. Something about him seemed off. He was acting too arrogant in front of Ares, especially after what Ares had done to him last time.
“Mars,” I said softly, grabbing Ares’s hand. “Think about Mars, Ares. Think about what we talked about. You can’t kill him. We need him.”
Ares’s grip loosened around Tony’s neck, his eyes fading into a lighter shade of gold. When I rubbed my fingers over his back, he tossed Tony to the ground, and I thanked the Goddess that he’d listened to me for once.
“You’ve let him change you, Aurora.” Tony rubbed his neck and shuffled to his feet. “He’s changed you so much. That spark in your eyes is gone. You look … tired even. Tired of keeping up this act of liking a man who could never love you.”
I had spent years trying to understand people, years when Mom wouldn’t let me train with the warriors because of my condition. I should’ve been able to figure out such a simple man … but I couldn’t.
“You should come back,” Tony said. “With your pack.”
“Ares’s pack is my pack,” I said to Tony. “More of a pack than you all ever were.”
“More of a pack …” Tony scoffed, shook his head, and looked around at all of Ares’s warriors surrounding us. Then, he turned to me, and I saw hell itself in his eyes— cruel, dark, and black. “They don’t know, do they?”
I rubbed my neck and swallowed hard, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
He took a threatening step toward me. “You think they’ll treat you the same? You think they’ll still protect you when you can’t even do the same for them? When you can’t even shift into your wolf?”
My heart dropped when he said the words out loud, and murmurs erupted over the thirty warriors behind me. All eyes were on me, and I wanted to deny the fact that I couldn’t shift … but … but it was true, and now, Tony was using it against me.
Ares ripped himself out of my grip and lunged for him again, but I firmly placed both my hands on his chest and pushed him back. My disability couldn’t get in the way anymore.
Tony took another threatening step toward Ares this time. “And you … you know you’re fucking screwing with her head. You’re lying to her too, acting as if nothing is fucking wrong with you, like you won’t crumble when your mother’s secret is out to the world.”
There was a glint of mischief in Tony’s eyes, and I was terrified that he was about to break Ares.
I pleaded with my eyes, begging Tony not to hurt him more. Once the god of war was truly unleashed, I wouldn’t be able to stop him from killing Tony and everyone who tried to talk him down.
“If you keep lying to her, you’re going to drive her fucking insane,” Tony said. “You’re going to find her just like you found your mom. Lying in bed, blood gushing from both of her wrists, sheets stained red.”
Chapter 38
Aurora
Ares growled, the sound rumbling through the forest like thunder on this foggy day. It came out vicious and jarring, but all I heard was the pain and heartbreak behind it. This must’ve been what had stolen that boyish smile from him. His mother must’ve committed suicide, and he must’ve found her.
Before I could settle my racing thoughts, the yard before me turned into a battlefield. Ares’s warriors pounced on Mom’s warriors, all of them clawing at each other’s underbellies, ripping fur from their enemies’ flesh, blood spilling everywhere.
Wolves leaped into the air around me, latching their teeth into each other’s neck. I gazed around at everyone who moved too quickly for me to keep up with and locked eyes with my furious mother. She howled to the dawn sky, her voice cutting through my mind link, like it had done hundreds of times before.
“What have you done?” she asked, shifting into her wolf. “We will die because of you.”
I clenched my jaw. “This isn’t my fault. We came here peacefully.”
She killed one of Ares’s warriors, her canines digging into his flesh. With bloodied teeth, she looked over at me. “You brought him here, knowing he’d kill us.” She turned away from me and ran through the pack, finding other warriors to fight.
But she was wrong.
Since I had been with Ares, he hadn’t killed anyone, except hounds. And I didn’t think he would willingly kill unless provoked so much that his wolf took total control of Ares and Mars.
In the distance, my father howled. Marcel stood over him in his large silver-furred wolf with teeth dripping with blood.
I sprinted as fast as I could and threw my body in front of my father’s, holding out a hand. “No,” I said up at Marcel, feeling his wolf’s thick saliva fall onto my thighs. I pointed at him, hoping to the Moon Goddess that he wouldn’t attack him or me. “Not my father. Anyone but my father.”
Marcel stared at me with rage, and I stared back just as strongly.
“An order from your luna.”
After growling under his breath, he ran back through the crowd.
Dad pushed his head against my forehead. “Aurora, you need to get out of here.”
I shook my head. “You need to get out of here. Find somewhere to hide once this is all over. Get the rest of this pack to
